Electroacoustic improvisation

"Lowercase music" redirects here. For sub-genre of ambient music, see Lowercase (music).

Electroacoustic improvisation
Typical instruments	Prepared guitar, laptop
Mainstream popularity	Worldwide

Electroacoustic improvisation is a style of music that incorporates aspects of both electroacoustic music and free improvisation.

Origins

Keith Rowe playing prepared guitar

Electroacoustic improvisation is a form of free improvisation that was originally referred to as live electronics. It has been part of the sound art world since the 1930s with the early works of John Cage. Source magazine documents the activities of a number of American groups in the 1960s, and in Montreal, Canada, there were two live electronic ensembles in the 1970s, MetaMusic and Sonde. This field has expanded rapidly with the use of powerful, inexpensive laptop computers.^{[citation needed]}

It was further influenced by electronic and electroacoustic music, the music of American experimental composers such as John Cage, Morton Feldman and David Tudor. Other influences include musique concrète and the so-called instrumental musique concrète of Helmut Lachenmann.^{[citation needed]} British free improvisation group AMM, particularly their guitarist Keith Rowe, have also played a contributing role in bringing attention to the practice.

A variety of terms have been used to describe music associated with electroacoustic improvisation such as “lowercase” (a term coined by artist and musician Steve Roden for his own work)^{[citation needed]}, “onkyokei” (or Onkyo) (used to describe the Japanese equivalent), “taomud” (meaning “the area of music under discussion”), “New London Silence” and “Berlin reductionism”.^{[citation needed]}

The record labels Erstwhile Records, For 4 Ears, Cut, Durian, Charhizma, Improvised Music from Japan, Fringes Recordings, Mikroton Recordings and Mego have released a number of albums featuring electroacoustic improvisation.^{[citation needed]}

Characteristics

Critic Arie Altena suggests that a defining characteristic of electroacoustic improvisation is its “anti-virtuoso” æsthetic, arguing that conventional instrumental techniques are rarely emphasized in electroacoustic improvisation , and thus there are few occasions when traditional technical virtuosity is considered appropriate. Critics also note that many electroacoustic improvisers studiously avoid traditional sounds and timbres, and that “extended techniques” (unorthodox playing practices) appear to be standard in performance. Some EAI music also includes field recordings.

Electroacoustic improvisation sometimes differs significantly from music associated with the established free improvisation scene. One critic has suggested that a new vocabulary may be required to describe certain aspects of the practice. John Eyles writes,

One of the problems of describing this music is that it requires a new vocabulary and ways of conveying its sound and impact; such vocabulary does not yet exist — how do you describe the subtle differences between different types of controlled feedback? I’ve yet to see anyone do it convincingly - hence the use of words like ‘shape’ and ‘texture’!

Similarly, writing in Stylus magazine, and referring to the "new school of electro-acoustic improvisation," critic Jeff Siegel writes,

In case you are as yet not indoctrinated into this music, there’s no easy road. The closest I know of to a simple explanation comes from the estimable Dominique Leone: “sort of an inverse of noise music.” That sounds about right. If you think of noise as a brick wall, then EAI is like a plaster mold of the cement in-between, an impression, a photo-negative, more silence than sound; it’s a constant hum, the first step up from complete silence; noise stripped down to a single sliver and stretched out, presumably forever.

Instrumentation

A variety of musical instruments can be heard in electroacoustic improvisation, but two are prominent:^{[citation needed]} the laptop computer and the prepared guitar.

Traditional acoustic musical instruments are also used, but they are often played very unconventionally, with heavy use of various extended techniques.

Prepared guitar

Main article: prepared guitar

a prepared guitar

A prepared guitar is a guitar which has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instrument's strings, including other extended techniques. This practice is sometimes called tabletop guitar, as players often place the guitar flat on a table in order to manipulate it.

Pioneered by Keith Rowe in the late 1960s, adopted by Fred Frith and others in the 1970s, prepared guitar has become very prominent in electroacoustic improvisation.

Laptop computer

Main article: laptop computer

While computers have been used in music since the 1950s, the 1990s saw two major innovations: increases in processor speeds and software sophistication, and relatively affordable laptop computers becoming commonplace.

With the development of increasingly sophisticated software applications, designed specifically for music and sound creation, laptops can now be used as real-time, interactive musical instruments. Open source software such as SuperCollider and Pure Data are increasingly used for live improvisation, as they afford sophisticated means for enabling real-time interaction. Musical instruments that include artificial intelligence can therefore be built. An example of such improvisation software are the ixiQuarks made by ixi software.

Computer-using musicians like Fennesz, Pimmon, Peter Rehberg and Ikue Mori have also made notable contributions to improvised music.

EAI musicians

Burkhard Beins Axel Dörner Christian Fennesz Cor Fuhler Will Guthrie Thomas Lehn Jason Lescalleet

Christof Kurzmann Sachiko M Radu Malfatti Mattin Günter Müller Toshimaru Nakamura

Graham Lambkin Pimmon Eddie Prévost Keith Rowe Taku Sugimoto John Tilbury Taku Unami

Mark Wastell Seymour Wright Ami Yoshida Otomo Yoshihide Mitsuhiro Yoshimura

Festivals

In Holland a tri-annual organized Output festival focuses on electroacoustic improvisation. 2004, 2007 and 2010 are the years in which the festival is organized. [1]

See also

• Free improvisation
• Japanoise

Articles

• Bernal, Alberto and João Miguel Pais. “Endphase: Origin and Analysis of an Ongoing Project.” eContact! 10.4 — Temps réel, improvisation et interactivité en électroacoustique / Live-electronics — Improvisation — Interactivity in Electroacoustics (October 2008). Montréal: CEC.
• Lindborg, PerMagnus. “Reflections on Aspects of Music Interactivity in Performance Situations.” eContact! 10.4 — Temps réel, improvisation et interactivité en électroacoustique / Live-electronics — Improvisation — Interactivity in Electroacoustics (October 2008). Montréal: CEC.
• Neal, Adam Scott. “A Continuum of Indeterminacy in Laptop Music.” eContact! 11.4 — Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium 2009 (TES) / Symposium Électroacoustique 2009 de Toronto (December 2009). Montréal: CEC.
• Nowitz, Alex. “Voice and Live-Electronics using Remotes as Gestural Controllers.” eContact! 10.4 — Temps réel, improvisation et interactivité en électroacoustique / Live-electronics — Improvisation — Interactivity in Electroacoustics (October 2008). Montréal: CEC.

Bibliography

• Marley, Brian and Mark Wastell (Eds.). Blocks of Consciousness and the Unbroken Continuum [Book + DVD] Sound 323, 2006. 341 pages. ISBN 978-0-9551541-0-2.

External links

• European Free Improvisation Pages
• ADDLIMB Organization