Re: PowerBore

[david turgeon <david.t@xxxxxxxx>]

> Last year I was fortunate enough to witness two concerts by one Markus Popp
> (Oval, you'll recall, was a trio). He is one of the most physical and
> gestural laptop performers you could imagine. He 'played' his machines like
> a violinist plays their machine (for want of a better noun). His sense of
> gesture was almost theatrical and proved extremely entertaining. He offered
> the audience a great deal and his music certainly sounded raw.
> While I enjoyed the irony of watching Mr Popp do some crazy moves - anyone
> who's met him will know he's hardly Mr Conversation - I'm not convinced that
> his gesticulations, or lack of, added or subtracted anything to the music
> itself.

yes, i've seen markus popp live also at last year's elektra festival
(montréal).  his antics are of the glenn gould type i would say, i.e.
the strange faces & gestures that sometimes happen when the performer is
very much immersed in their own performance.  a good sign for sure. 
that might be why this seems to have a connection with the music, though
as you say, it doesn't add or substract anything to the music per se.

as for a visual projection of the computer setup...  while i once
thought that may be a good idea, i've witnessed a performance not long
ago which essentially revolved around the idea of putting together a
patch & playing it, while the audience could see the computer screen as
it happened.  well, the music was embarassing & the visual setup
certainly didn't help anything.  (name of performer witheld to protect
the decency of the list...)

my observation is that the topic of "the importance of visuals" only
ever seems to come up when the music is too boring to stand on its own. 
witness last night's visually-challenged show at the casa del popolo
(which most of you must have missed as it was nearly empty!)...  diane
labrosse (sampler) duets with aimé dontigny (computer & trumpet).  now
this was some of the most satisfactory electronic improvisation i've
heard, absolutely compelling & fresh, & nobody was making a funny face
(of course, diane labrosse has MAGICAL POWERS but that's another matter.)

the other time i've heard such breathtaking "microvising" in recent
memory was during an all-women improv performance (at the casa again). 
sometime in the 2nd set you had an unbelievable quatuor of diane
labrosse, crys cole, magali babin & julie rousse, all using some form of
electronics or another.  each of them had a distinct sound & they all
blended gracefully & beautifully.  gone is the homogeneity of the single
laptop!  make room for pluralist feminist electronics!  i bet you can't
write a max patch that does that.

have a nice day
~ david