laptop improv vs. composed performances

[Glenn Bach <gbach@xxxxxxxxx>]

FWIW, for my solo performances I've been working with a composed form: 
four movements of five minutes each.  I work from a score/performance 
notes, and mix numerous elements together to make up the larger whole. 
One of the motifs of my work is a stacked staircase of files pitched 
down in successive thirds from an original sample, all starting at the 
same time and decaying in pitch and phase.  Since my current software 
setup doesn't allow me to launch ten sound files at exactly the same 
time, I prepare certain "meta-files" beforehand.  Sometimes I'm actively 
adjusting gain or lining up files in the queue, and other times I sit 
back and let the sounds do what they do.  So, even though the larger 
20-minute piece is planned out beforehand, I still have to build it on 
the fly.

I have no such structure during group jams, but I still pull 
pre-prepared sound files (field recordings, drones, guitar notes, etc.). 
  (This will probably change when I eventually invest in Ableton Live or 
succeed in getting Audiomulch to work for me).

I use the arrow keys to adjust the faders (right now I use Tunchy, a 
simple four-track mixer), so the audience might see (and hear) me 
tapping a key on the keyboard and hear a corresponding rise or fall in 
volume.  But I'm not really interested in trying to create inauthentic 
gesture for a format that doesn't really need it--nearly all the people 
who have approached me after a performance have commented on the music I 
presented, not the vehicle by which I delivered it.  And I've received 
equally positive feedback when I have declared that a certain piece was 
either composed or improvised--I don't think they would have noticed any 
difference in theatricality from one to the other.  Obviously there were 
those in the audience who didn't care for my stuff, but I would have 
probably received the same indifference had I performed on my old setup 
of mixer and CD-Rs.  And I've yet to perform with my laptop in a club or 
bar with a potentially hostile audience, but I have a choice whether to 
pursue or accept those kind of gigs in the first place (my bias for 
house concerts showing).

So, in my case, I think the use-value of my music comes more from the 
care and effort I've put into composing and planning out the piece, 
rather than any kind of sweat derived from the work of performing 
itself.  And enough people are getting it that I'm inspired to continue 
with this direction.

G.

P.S.  I should add that my recent performances have used more 
phonography than microsound, so maybe the emphasis on 
"real-world"-derived sounds (analog) over the more abstract 
"otherworldly" microsoundish sounds (digital) might have something to do 
with the feedback I've received.

Kim Cascone wrote:
>>I'm curious Kim, how strongly you correlate "laptop music" with
>>improvisation. Does the portability of the tool suggest it? Or would you
>>go so far as to disallow the notion of through-composed "laptop music?"
> 
> - I'd estimate that ~90 percent of the laptop performances I've seen are
> improvised...this is arrived at from watching musicians I share a bill with
> and not the musicians I collab with...
> as for the notion of tools determining the compositional methodology: that
> would take a book or thesis to explore...
> but let's just say that there are two (I'm sure there are more but this is
> all that comes to mind at 7:30AM before driving my son to school) common
> perceptions of this issue:
> 1) laptops and software improvisation are the lazy man's method  of
> composition
> 2) improvisation creates the spectacle/theater of work taking place during a
> performance vs playing a composition which is more akin to 'space-bar music'
> for most audience members i.e., acousmatic presentation format...
> but no I do not disallow the notion of 'composed' laptop performances...I am
> moving more in that direction...but more as one who imposes a fitness
> function on an algorithm and not just hitting the DAC~ start button in
> Max/MSP
> 
> 
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