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piste@imed_9105-1
The software for Obeying the Laws of Physics defines an interactive environment consisting of four timbral regions — each representing a different instrumental family. The percussionist explores each region and controls transitions from one to another using cues derived from specific percussion playing techniques.
The computer knows no precomposed score — the performance is completely controlled by the percussionist and requires no intervention on the part of a computer operator.
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Obeying the Laws of Physics was commissioned by Trevor Tureski with support from the Canada Council [for the Arts] and premiered by him in October 1987 at The Banff Centre for the Arts. The present recording was realized at the Luscar Studio of The Banff Centre for the Arts in July 1990.
A Digital Eclogue, created in close collaboration with Claude Schryer, is my earliest software composition designed for interaction with an acoustic instrumentalist. The piece represents an interest in working with the very simplest of musical elements: groupings of pitch, rhythm, and dynamics. This focus helps to illuminate the relationship between performer and computer.
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A Digital Eclogue was composed at The Banff Centre for the Arts where it was premiered in March 1986. The present recording was realized in June 1986, and edited at the Luscar Studio of The Banff Centre for the Arts in October 1990.
Stories Told (Robin Dawes, text) results from an interest in the common experience of listening to storytelling. In an attempt to explore the act of story telling, rather than any one particular story, the text is made up of a computer-generated pseudo-language. It is designed to sound like an intelligible language, but is important to Stories Told as speech that no one can understand. All listeners, regardless of linguistic or cultural background, share the experience of listening to a story told in a foreign tongue.
The text was generated by a program written by Robin Dawes. His software uses a statistical analysis of the Oxford English Dictionary to produce new words which exhibit the same distribution of letter combinations as English. These words have been grouped into specific phoneme classes to create four distinct ‘dialects.’
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Stories Told was commissioned by Catherine Lewis with assistance from the Canada Council [for the Arts]. It was premiered by Catherine Lewis on November 13, 1989, during the CEC Electroacoustic Days, >convergence< at The Banff Centre for the Arts (Alberta, Canada). The present recording was realized at the Luscar Studio of The Banff Centre for the Arts in July 1990.
This recording represents a rather free improvisation between George Lewis, myself, and a program called NORM. The software, which is the most generalized response system used on this disc (Action/Réaction, IMED 9105), is in a state of continuous evolution — growing and shedding skins with each new performance opportunity.
NORM’s role for this piece was to ‘listen’ and produce responses. My role was to coordinate voice changes on the synthesizer and control response parameter changes within NORM. Mr Lewis’ role was to be an inspiration to us all.
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This recording of Norm ’n George was realized at the Luscar Studio of The Banff Centre for the Arts in July 1990.
Squeeze is a second piece using the NORM interactive software. However, a different performer with a different intent yields quite a different result. This careful exploration of pitch reveals the extraordinary timbre of the bass clarinet and evokes the computer’s most focused attention. Squeeze inspects the nature of both instrument and machine.
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The concert premiere of Squeeze was performed by Lori Freedman on February 22, 1991, at the Western Front in Vancouver. This recording was realized at the Luscar Studio of The Banff Centre for the Arts in October 1990.