bruce russel & sakada con-v.org electro-acoustic improviation, live
con-v
is a very very serious label. they're releasing music at the crossroads
of sound-design, ambient textures and field recordings, strictly
limiting themselves to an unique approach to music. it takes some
experience in the wide field of experimental music to judge the quality
of their releases, and might be i'm not the right one to do so. still
this 20 minutes live performance caught my attention.
eddie prevost of british avant-garde
pioneers *AMM* and mattin form the sakada-trio
(usually in concert with rosy parlane of *thela* who's missing
here). drummer prevost
is important for the avant-garde, free jazz and improv-scene since the
late sixties and runs the matchless
records-label. mattin (spain) is the one between prevost and russell,
their “cutting, bowing, scraping” is converted though his computer and
fed back to the mix. this anti-copyright agitator runs the labels w.m.o. and desetexa
and is sort of the digital face of this cooperation. he is working with
computer feedback and self-written algorithms to alter the sound being
produced on stage, a highly intuitive and spontaneous process. usually,
the third man in row bruce russell is featured as a
freeform guitarist, i'm not sure what he's doing here… but i think it
ain't important what he's actually playing, the outcome as an
integration of all contributing components (or musicians) is the
benchmark.
so, what do we get to hear? first of all, feedback and high frequent
sine waves. found-sounds. fragments of percussion. you even might
recognize the sound of the room and the attendant crowd. this is pretty
rough music, indeed. but these guys are always smart enough to catch
your attention with some small tones you can't guess where they come
from, might be just the squeaking sound of a chair, might be the
laptop, might be whatever. this concept of recording ALL sounds
available makes the recording special and noteworthy.