AMPLIFY 2011: stones

[jon abbey]

nice, Damon. Dave Dove is of course also in line for thanks there, as always.

I hope that discussion of this fest isn't done, I know a lot of people there (including myself) were pretty burnt out by the end, but hopefully more people will share their perspectives, positive or negative.

here are two blog posts about the two 9/11 sets, one from IHM poster crawjo and one from Yuko:

http://otherplanesofthere.blogspot.com/ ... to-me.html
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yukoz/20110928

[billygomberg]

I hope that discussion of this fest isn't done, I know a lot of people there (including myself) were pretty burnt out by the end, but hopefully more people will share their perspectives, positive or negative.

I agree with this sentiment. It was a LOT to take in, by the shows at IPR I was a bit breathless at the scope of the whole thing...in terms of real reflection, I'm not yet sure where to begin....

[Keith Rowe]

Hello
Yes I echo that sentiment, I would hope that the kaleidoscope of impressions
get to see the light of day, contributing to the brilliant curatorial team at
Amplify (Jon and Yuko) and all their efforts and of course the huge contribution
the performers make for it to happen also, they all need our support,
being painfully aware that such music takes place in a generally uncaring world.
Best
Keith

[aek51745]

Keith: As a long time "Fan" of your music I am fascinated by your recent contributions to IHM. This is my first post here, so please be gentle! When I read your "dustbin" of history remarks I was somewhat put off, as though they were anti-audience. Certainly as someone who, living in Florida, has never gotten to see you perform live and only knows your music through recordings. Those comments led me to believe that the Keith Rowe I have known for thirty some odd years was a bit arrogant when it comes to recorded music. After all, records, CDs, etc are all drawn from the dustbin. I realize you later withdrew, or self-edited those comments, but I am wondering what your feelings are in respect to recordings. I am thinking specifically to one of my favorite recordings, and a personal top ten, AMALGAM WIPE OUT. A different universe from another favorite ErstLive 005. And of course AMM, another top ten LAMINAL. Worlds or universes apart, tied by your contribution. Perhaps you might clarify your comments ie recordings/audience/fan-base.

Alan

[jon abbey]

I definitely don't want to speak for Keith, and especially on this topic, but this is probably a good chance for me to note that after his last set in the fest (his 9/11 solo), after the audience applause died down, Keith did something I've never seen him do before, which is thank the audience at length. since I have the recording of this set now, I transcribed what he said:

"I'd just like to say thank you to you, because it quite often gets overlooked that a performance is a collaboration. actually you're more responsible for making the music than you can actually imagine because for us up here it really sets your concentration. (pause) and throughout these ten days,the concentration in the room has been absolutely fantastic, you know I'm hugely affected by that. I'm sure the other performers feel precisely the same way. really exceptional, so I applaud you (he claps a bit)."

[Jesse]

wow, that's fantastic actually-whatever people assume about that crucial interface, it's always powerful, for me, when it is acknowledged by the musician. it's a grace-note following intimacy.

[Keith Rowe]

Dear Alan (aek51745)
Oh! Arrogant ? perhaps? I’m maybe the last person who can access that ?
I think what I’m trying to say, or do, is to pour cold water over the notion that any of us are of much significance (artistically). and placing and putting our work along side the work of the past centuries, convinces me that we need to be aware
of our insignificance. this does not of course stop us from doing our work the best we can, doing everything with the highest integrity, behaving with honour.
I think (and hope!) anyone who has known me will confirm I regard the audience with a huge respect, for me they are superior,
The position I find myself in with regard to artistic and general arrogance comes from encountering colleagues who’s sense of self importance, self worth, bragging about their
performances, how great their compositions or improvisations are, trumpeting how successfully their particular scene is, the constant bombardment of self promoting e-mails. I guess I would wish to introduce (pour) a glass of cold water over those egos, and self serving attitudes. introduce a touch of realism, (given the past centuries achievements.)
Recordings, of course they as Cornelius observed a recording is missing “the view from the window”, but notwithstanding that, they have a role, its how most of us gets to he heard. Hmm. having said that… the view from the window should in within the sound if the totality of the room is observed… but that’s another story ….
I hope to some extent I’ve addressed your points …..
all the best
Keith

[aek51745]

Keith: The very fact that you have taken the time to address my thoughts has renewed my faith in the integrity of your design. It has long been clear to me that the path you have chosen as an artist is a difficult one. Certainly anyone pursuing riches through musical talent would sharply veer from so intense a route. Yours is not easy listening, though due to that aspect it is so much more rewarding in the end than more commercial attempts at free or improvised music. But I must disagree with your assessment that your music is insignificant. Perhaps you don't recognize that each day may be a bit brighter due to bringing yours, or any favorite musician's, music into our lives. By "ours" I am referring to the audience, the fans. If not so, then why preserve musical performances, whether they be live or studio or whatever. A quick listen to an Amalgam CD from 1979, or THE ROOM, or LAMINAL, or BITCHES BREW is significant in ways that are as difficult to explain as reading James Madison Federalist Papers or Pynchon or To Kill A Mockingbird. Somewhere inside each of us is a corner where our significant payload resides. I thank you so much for expressing your views and concerns. I recant "arrogant"!!!

[yonhosago]

nice, Damon. Dave Dove is of course also in line for thanks there, as always.

I hope that discussion of this fest isn't done, I know a lot of people there (including myself) were pretty burnt out by the end, but hopefully more people will share their perspectives, positive or negative.

here are two blog posts about the two 9/11 sets, one from IHM poster crawjo and one from Yuko:

http://otherplanesofthere.blogspot.com/ ... to-me.html
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/yukoz/20110928

I don't want to interrupt this most interesting exchange of thougths (about a Festival I couldn't attend; sadly), but want to give big thanks to crawjo for his writing, very palpable (haptical maybe), and beautifully "heterochronical", crossing from his experience (Namibia, lecturing, NJ, DMG), Sun Ra figure & music, AMM, and mr. Rowe solo set in 9/11 (a date that for me is always happening as "el once de septiembre"). Thanks.

[Jesse]

i am reading philip ball's the music instinct, a book from which rowe lifted and integrated selected passages into one of his amplify performances. came upon this tonight, apropos to some of the remarks on this and like threads:
and just as a journey is not made from trees and rocks and sky, music is not a series of acoustic facts; in fact, it is not acoustic at all. i can't emphasize this enough. it is fine fine to call music "organized sound", so long as we recognize that this organization is not determined solely by the composer or performer: it emerges from a collaboration in which the listener too plays an active part.

ball, "the atoms of music", the music instinct

[Wombatz]

Still regarding the dustbin model (and what way a work may become part of a living tradition), I today read this from Pound (well ...). Describing the force which drove the art movement he promotes here for its lifespan of a week or so:

The vortex is the point of maximum energy. It represents, in mechanics, the greatest efficiency. We use the words “greatest efficiency” in the precise sense—as they would be used in a text book of mechanics. ... All experience rushes into this vortex. All the energized past, all the past that is living and worthy to live ...

[Jesse]

not to heap too many quotes on this thread, but if someone articulates well something that conveys my perspective, what the hell:
Audibility:the moment when sound waves move in space and the air touches the body. The eardrum is the sensory connection between the outside and the inside world; we hear the sound and the composition.

~ jurg frey, liner notes to his string quartets [ewr]

[Damon_Smith]

All critiicsms aside, it seems like some breakthroughs were made in the music, whether they are actual new directions or passing moments it sounds like it at least wasn't business as usual.

[jon abbey]

so the ErstLives that will be coming from this fest are now set, two pairs, the first around late July, the second maybe in October:

EL009: Antoine Beuger-s'approcher s'éloigner s'absenter (Barry Chabala/Dominic Lash/Ben Owen)
EL010: Christian Wolff/Keith Rowe
EL011: Keith Rowe
EL012: Radu Malfatti/Taku Unami

[leroysghost]

nice.

any chance of some of the other of shows seeing the light of day when the ErstDL thing gets up and running?

i'd be interested to hear how the recordings of Nakmura/Unami and "a transparent gate with ten panels" turned out.

[jon abbey]

not sure the Pisaro one was recorded, but maybe on some of the others.

[William Hutson]

gotta say, the english/nakamura set would make a killer dl, assuming the recording turned-out.

[jon abbey]

it was a great set, but I think Joe liked the Oberlin recording from the next night better (?).

[jon abbey]

a cover we are not using for ErstLive 012, Yuko's design, title and idea, based on a soundcheck pic she took, but I thought it was too good not to share:

[jon abbey]

this first pair will be off to the printers this week, out in mid-August: