Drift Theory 2

John Power and I performed our proof of concept "multi-player instrument" last Wednesday evening. We started off by framing the context for a specific piece on the Drift Theory series.

The night consisted of a number of video/sound performances. Running about an hour behind schedule, by the time we got to play we were both tired and some what drained, but we managed to pull it off despite a minor technical problem.

Problems are good... that's how we learn.

Here's a few images from the performance, one of two video screens.

Photos: Justina Curtis

Weekend Monolake: Sun 21 Dec

Lunch at Gore Core...

From left to right: Sean (Jeane Poole), Robert, Grant and Mark out by the car, Steve Law and Bunny.

Same, but this time with feeling...

From left to right: Paul Abad and Ross Bencina. It was Paul who helped to get Robert out to Australia.

We leave for the park in Grant's EK. It breaks down. We learn that to get it going we need to "thrash the shifter", a term Robert found amusing so much so we laughed outragously till we arrived at Edinburgh Gardens, Fitzroy.

Alan and co have been known for organising frequent Sunday arvo gatherings with battery powered PA and frisbies. We were due to play this fine afternoon, the rain taunting us all the while.

Grant did a great job getting us about and around Melbourne over the weekend. Safe and sound in the EK. Every driver deserves a beer at the end of a day long arching steers!

Left to right: Myself, Paul Abad and Ross Bencina, author of the infamous AudioMulch.

Left to right: Robert and the rest of what turned to be 5 of us...

The Terminal Quintet! Special guest appearance of the silent, but generous Steve Law.

I think we played at least two or so hours. It rained but no one cared much. The music was great, it was warm and plenty of friendly people :^)

Photos: Justina + Andrew

Weekend Monolake: Sat 20 Dec

The 20th of December saw the arrivel to Melbourne of one Robert Henke (aka. Monolake). He stayed at Gore Core leaving the following Monday for gigs in New Zealand.

No sooner had Grant arrived from the airport that Robert had his laptop out and online. Just earlier he showed me an MAX Patch he had cobbled together to emulate the sound of cicadas.

Intruiged by the Tibetan bowls he had seen and heard at Paul Abad's place in Brisbane, he made perhaps his one and only Melbourne purchase.

We had fun using the floor as a resonator :^) The trip to sound check was a treat to be heard!

Robert Henke with camera at Public Office, West Melbourne. Sound check!

Front row: Andrew, Grant, Robert.
Back row: Ben Dixon and Justine Leara.

Alan Bamford, pretty much the energy and vision behind our Public Office event... Here's Alan having a good old chuckle as Mark Harwood leaps off stage having completed a hiliarious work that included a brief show of fireworks at its end.

Surely not a day goes by in Melbourne when a musician really needs their beer.

Rapidly setting up for my set... I played works from the new album, Son of Science. A semi-autobiographical work spanning some 15 years or more of ideas, unreleased pieces, demo recordings. Planning to have the project completed, ideally, early to mid 2004.

The trimmed down rig: laptop (Ableton Live, AudioMulch), PMA-5 and MIDI controller/keyboard.

Visual accompaniment produced in collaboration with Andrew Thomas. "Rot Emulsion" was originally produced for Tat Fat Size Temple. It will accompany, at least remain as feature visual, all my forthcoming performances.

Down on the last track, Stars & Vermin.

Robert felt very connected to the audience... I think we all did!

Looking back down the venue from the side of the stage. The tall chap striding towards us is Mit who wrote a fine set for the evening. I think we all worked hard on our individual sets.

From the back during Robert's second and evocative set.

Robert and his (working) gear getting an encore... Most fine :^)

Photos: Justina + Andrew

Terminal Quartet V1.0

The Terminal Quartet performing Drift Theory 01, a structured improvisation and collaborative composition by Andrew Garton.

This debut performance was held at the Lambsgo Bar, Fitzroy, Melbourne, 18 December, 2003.

Once we got through the logistcs of space (fitting four laptops and MIDI controllers on a small table) and sound checks we met out the back of the bar to discuss the piece.

The Terminal Quartet V1.0 is Andrew Garton, Paul Abad, Steve Law and Jeremy Yuille (from top-right clockwise to top-left). That's Brains in the DJ booth finishing up his set before we hooked in.

Photos by Justina Curtis.

Friday DAO sessions

Several months back we instituted Friday jam sessions with who ever was keen to make it over to Gore Core (where Justina and I run and rest our lives in). After a spontaneous jam with Andrew Sargeant (Future Eater) at Kent St Cafe (Smith Street, Fitzroy) last Thursday evening, we continued on into Friday, recording several hours of dark ambient operations...

Amidst some fine musical moments Andrew ventured outdoors and got his hands dirty in our garden...

I learnt some fine AudioMulch techniques and we managed to get both our laptops talking MIDI and in doing so discovered inconsistencies that inspired an hour or so of 20 bpm sonic smearing. Most engaging! The Dark Ambient Operators have returned from their two year hiatus!

All good fodder for the the days ahead... this week I debut the Terminal Quartet and a piece I've given a considerable amount of thought to, the structured improvisation Drift Theory 1.

Secession MIDIbox

Ever since it was possible to engage with audio software via external controllers other than a mouse or Wacom, I've been dreaming of the ultimate USB MIDIbox. I purchased an Oxygen8 almost the week it was launched, but had a waited another two months (as is always the case with IT), I would've had many more MIDI controller devices to choose from.

MIDI software controllers have been around a few years now. The most popular of the low cost ones, although out of my price range, was the Phat Boy. Then there were the German range of devices from the home of Doepfer, expensive, elegant and complex tools that I first saw in Ludwig's studio in Vienna.

Last week someone sent through to the Audiomulch list, a link to MIDIbox from where I feel some of my ideas and needs will be satisfied.

MIDIbox hosts a broad selection of DIY software controller surfaces, some which have been designed for specific applications such as Cubase, Ableton Live, Reason and Tracktor.

What I'm looking for is a controller surface that gives me a great deal of flexibility to engage with a selection of applications, primarly Ableton Live, Audiomulch and perhaps Cubase (if I ever get enough money together to upgrade to SX).

And so begins, perhaps with the help of Frank Buechele, who seems enthusastic enough, the Secession MIDIbox project. Frank is a programmer who worked with us on D3. He has a penchant for soldering irons and cobbling together robots in his precious spare time.

Controllers of note from the MIDIbox gallery are:

• MBHP, designed to use with Ableton Live
• MIDIbox64 with faders, pots, buttons and joysticks

Aside from controllers, there's a few other things on the wish list. Well near the top is Dave Smith's Evolver. Mr Smith is the person behind the Prophet-5. I had a deposit on a 2nd hand Prophet in Sydney in 1987-ish.

It was such an emotional period, those last few years of the 80s, by the time I had the money to pay it off, the blokes at Hutchings Keyboards (Bondi Junction, Sydney) were far too attached to the Prophet to let it go and so too the $500 deposit I'd left them with. Curiously, the Evolver costs as much as that deposit... There's always Christmas, people :)

On generative compositions

When I started writing generative music, barely anyone was interested in the concept. One radio interviewer understood the idea and thought I would become a millionare by the end of the last century, but it was only a few months ago that a generative work of mine was actually installed and ran for 4 months in an Australian gallery. Prior to that, the only generative works that I have "performed" in Australia have been via our (Toy Satellite) initiatives, or via the bold and far reaching vision of the ABC's Listening Room, which I believe is being taken off air.

These days there is hardly anyone that doesn't talk about generative art and there are countless more who consider themselves in the vanguard of this genre. It is really quite remarkable!

I wonder now what it is that drives people to create generative works? Is it that they want something fresh to inspire their work by? For me, it is the idea, the concept or the context of the original work that is the driver, not necessarily the process or the software for that matter.

At a recent performance someone looked over my shoulder, before I started playing, and made some stupid remark when they saw Fruity Loops, which was actually FLStudio Pro. If they bothered to listen, rather than judge the work by the software, they may have learnt something of the capability of something like Fruity to assist in the creation of works other than those that are beat driven.

I love using Koan and have done since the first moment I had it running, way back in 95. Suddenly, I was able to actuate ideas that had been sketched back in the 80s, and I was able to "jam" with my computers and create a body of work I would otherwise have only dreamt about.

Although I enjoy "playing" with software, as I did last night with the new version of Mulch, it is generally the idea that is the driver, not necessarily the software, although there have been pieces that have grown out of these playtimes too... and that's great!

Wot makes me tick?

Every so often someone asks me to define one or more aspects of my work. This may take the form of a lecture, proposal notes or a chat over beer at the local.

This morning, a question was put to me regarding the integration of audio and visual material in real time performance. Having, without trumpeting my own horn too much, I believe contributed something towards the evolution of improvised video and sound performance in Melbourne, I felt it opportune to state my case, and in some respects clarify for myself what it is that makes my sonic perception tick. Here goes...

---

The integration of audio and visual components has been integral to my work since the mid-80s. In those days, physical performance in tandem with minimal lighting and projections was central to the surrealist aesthetic I had conceived in largely acoustic based works. From the mid-90s I began a series of collaborations with video artists exploring real-time improvisation of sound and vision, utilising techniques derived from jazz and electroacoutiscs. This resulted in a body of work that saw the integration of motion-control tools, development of context specific visual/sound instruments, large-scale multi-projection performances and more recently, a completely overhauled approach relying more on artistry, aesthetic resonances and intuative skill than reliance on technology. The integration of these two disciplines relies now more on technique, composition and communication than it does on sophisticated and often expensive technologies.