[microsound] electronic improv

[Arelar33@xxxxxxx]

With regard to the dialogue concerning improvisation, Id like to add some 
comments about another form of improvisation which is quite close to my heart.
Anyone experienced any of the 'soundwalk' recordings of artists such as 
Hildegaard Westerkamp. Not improvised in the sense that has been referred to 
so far, but surely a conscious and studied series of aesthetic choices are 
being made here with regard to what is recorded and when. To explore a sound 
environment with a recording device, to make selective decisions about what 
is and what isnt part of the focus of the work...this to me is as much an 
improvisation as the decision concerning which fader to move, which direction 
to push the mouse etc when dealing with software improv.
 Similarly, Scanners trawl thru mobile phone communications are an improv 
which responds to an external (and to a large extent, unpredictable) world of 
sound, a world of dial tones and fragments of voices.
I watched Id Battery perform a similar action with miked up rocks..rubbing 
and dragging them against one another. This was in a concert setting though, 
and could be seen to be a performance. 
Westerkamps work is most often represented by a recording of the 
soundwalk/improv (often manipulated very sensitively in the studio 
afterwards). If you doubt the ability of a 'soundwalk' to deal with 
'microsound' tho...check out the sounds of barnacles on 'Kits Beach 
Soundwalk' which is on the CD Transformations (empreintes DIGITALes).
Just adding another perspective to our dialogue here.
Cheers 
Rob

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