pure improvisation

[jon abbey]

jesus fuck, I was responding to your statement of "it shouldn't be too much to ask" when clearly it's a huge time commitment to even listen to once. but do you really not think that self-releasing a 24 hour solo release is egocentric in any way? egocentric isn't always a bad thing.

but if it'll stop this inane back and forth, I'll withdraw the comment, since I think it was based on a slight misunderstanding to begin with.

[Wombatz]

(Somehow after reading all this I remembered watching Step Across The Border, the Fred Frith film. I’d label Frith a pure improviser. Improvisation is a form of life for him, he seems (in the fiction offered by the film) to lead an enchanted life, where improvisation is communication, makes everybody a better human being as soon Frith hums a note at them, and all humankind can be healed (in the MJ sense of the term). The music necessary to achieve that state makes me suffer no end. World peace is not an option if I have to listen to consensual ethno doodlings and discover the oh-so-musicality of everyday noises with wide-eyed child-like wonder over and over again. And that’s where the puritans must come in, those that reject easy communication, or any form of (sexual or otherwise) satisfaction from doing a thing that needs to be done purely for itself.)

[Charon]

but do you really not think that self-releasing a 24 hour solo release is egocentric in any way?

In complete honesty, a thousand times no, because it was necessary in order to achieve what I wanted to achieve.

and seriously, egocentric must have a very different meaning where you come from because it's a pretty damn negative word to use.

(Somehow after reading all this I remembered watching Step Across The Border, the Fred Frith film. I’d label Frith a pure improviser. Improvisation is a form of life for him, he seems (in the fiction offered by the film) to lead an enchanted life, where improvisation is communication, makes everybody a better human being as soon Frith hums a note at them, and all humankind can be healed (in the MJ sense of the term). The music necessary to achieve that state makes me suffer no end. World peace is not an option if I have to listen to consensual ethno doodlings and discover the oh-so-musicality of everyday noises with wide-eyed child-like wonder over and over again. And that’s where the puritans must come in, those that reject easy communication, or any form of (sexual or otherwise) satisfaction from doing a thing that needs to be done purely for itself.)

curious what you're thinking of when you say 'the music necessary to achieve that state'? Is there such a music actually in existence where humming a note can heal mankind?

And I can assure you I've nothing whatsoever to do with 'ethno doodlings' or 'musicality of everyday noises'. I'm not particularly interested in musicality in any event.

[mudd]

well this is exactly what i wanted it not to be.

m

[faster]

(Somehow after reading all this I remembered watching Step Across The Border, the Fred Frith film. I’d label Frith a pure improviser. Improvisation is a form of life for him, he seems (in the fiction offered by the film) to lead an enchanted life, where improvisation is communication, makes everybody a better human being as soon Frith hums a note at them, and all humankind can be healed (in the MJ sense of the term). The music necessary to achieve that state makes me suffer no end. World peace is not an option if I have to listen to consensual ethno doodlings and discover the oh-so-musicality of everyday noises with wide-eyed child-like wonder over and over again. And that’s where the puritans must come in, those that reject easy communication, or any form of (sexual or otherwise) satisfaction from doing a thing that needs to be done purely for itself.)

Yes, yes, and yes.

[faster]

(it's also worth noting that before Pynchon wrote GR he'd already written a wonderful short book that was admired by millions and influenced a generation of other writers...not that I'm comparing, of course...)

[FifePsy]

For some reason, reading this thread reminded me of this scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb_qHP7VaZE

[normalioifyp]

pissing contest.

and you showed up almost two years late to the match, so what does tha make you? All the academic assholes are gonna think yr a pussy now.

I like the cut of your jib, sir.

[leroysghost]

pissing contest.

and you showed up almost two years late to the match, so what does tha make you? All the academic assholes are gonna think yr a pussy now.

I like the cut of your jib, sir.

the thread seemed to call for a a peanut gallery. Typically, wombatz and Joe one-upped me however.

[johnson]

There are certainly some unfortunate words that were typed into this thread back in 2009. Does it predate the DLO?

But this:

the focus of the improvisation that I'm interested in is not musical, but improvisational, and so in that sense it is not really music, because it is not mainly trying to be music in any way. How is that strange? Improvisation in sound for the sake of improvising.

- is really interesting. It does seem a rather bizarre perspective, certainly (though in no way "addle-brained").
Now, Massimo, I ask you this:

If the act of improvisation is the important thing, and not the musical results, why your choice of music as the medium?
- and what does it mean to you that I, who have an attitude and approach very different from your own - I employ both composition and improvisation (and chance) in the creation of my own music and as a listener am far more interested in results (SOUND) than in the ideas or processes behind them - find your music to be excellent and eminently enjoyable?

- because I have listened to all 24 hours of Collected Solos and find the thing to be a musical delight.

[Charon]

Travis, I think you're the first one to have made it all the way through! Many thanks for listening, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

If the act of improvisation is the important thing, and not the musical results, why your choice of music as the medium?

as to this, the only answer I can really give is that firstly I wanted some way to be able to share the act with others (therefore there must be a 'transmission medium'), and secondly that I'm far more suited to using sound for this than anything else. I've tried other things, but nothing works for me quite as well as sound.

- and what does it mean to you that I, who have an attitude and approach very different from your own - I employ both composition and improvisation (and chance) in the creation of my own music and as a listener am far more interested in results (SOUND) than in the ideas or processes behind them - find your music to be excellent and eminently enjoyable?

This is a question I'm not entirely sure of the answer to. I can say that, having put the document out there, there's not a lot I can do to control what you get from it, and so there's no sense me even trying. In light of that, I could say that it doesn't really matter what I think about it. If it has reached you in some way, then I'm happy. Maybe I could tell myself that the processes I went through in creating it (the pursuit of improvisation rather than music) have made the sounds such that you can evaluate them as musically enjoyable by your own criteria?