The Ambassador from Everywhere 4
The Ambassador from Everywhere 4
Presented by Meupe
At Waugh with Gieles
Adam Trainer
Danny Glassby
Brett Murray
Spectrum Project Space
28th October 2008
Review by Kynan Tan
The Ambassador from Everywhere is a night of contemplative electronics, explorations of solo artists and a beacon for the far out and distant music makers of experimental considerations. Each artist on the night presented their own take on making music, through combinations of technologies, inventiveness and musical experimentation. There was the usual smatterings of amplifiers, microphones, synthesizers, musical trinkets and gadgets, but the inventiveness of the methods of utilizing these was what raised the performances to the levels expected of Perth experimental music.
Opening the proceedings was Brett Murray, who explained his work as creating objects for use in theatrical plays that would interact with the actors, producing a live soundtrack generated from the physical actions themselves. The concept is very interesting, to enable the music commentary on a work to be not dependent on taste or interpretation but based on more physically dependent relationships. This involved creating a dresser that had been prepared with electronics inside of it and sensors built in to the structure, which was placed on one side of the stage while Murray placed his computer on the other.
Tonight the piece was adapted to a musical performance and therefore was played in a controlled sense where Murray played melodies on the glockenspiel which were reinterpreted and produced through the dresser. This produced a kind of commentary on what was played, the dresser seeming to dispute or agree with whatever Murray played by reinterpreting the sounds with a different timbre, played at different pitches and sequences. Stephanie Fenlon was recruited as performer, and applied makeup while causing radical changes in the drone like sound of the dresser. Overall it was a very interesting performance, I believe aided by the conceptual understanding. The sounds produced were contemplative, but had a range of dynamics and qualities. I feel that the unusual performance ritual of powering sound through a dresser, or playing an instrument by interacting with an object is one that is a logical step in developing playable instruments to harness electronic sounds.
Next was Danny Glassby who arranged his Nord synthesizer keyboard in the centre of the room and prepared himself before unleashing multitudes of samples upon the mostly unsuspecting audience. The samples themselves were loops of varying lengths, some beat driven, others harmonic and some noise or texture based. Unfortunately with loops being played in a live context that have obviously been crafted and/or hand picked before hand, the sounds themselves have such a high importance placed upon them. They represent all the necessary time to search the suburbs, internet and own creativity to create the most interesting, pleasant or adventurous combinations of vibrations. Too often the sounds didn’t meet this criteria, seemingly sitting comfortably in the criteria of ‘a beat’ or ‘a paddy sound’ and only on occasion created a sound unlike what is common treatment of my ears.
Glassby’s performance technique also left some question marks, twiddling controls on the synth did not seem to relate directly to any aural excitation. While controlling the synth workstation seems to be a matter of mastering a new instrument, it was hard to relate the controls to the sound, and which changes were desirable. The only regular one-to-one audio/visual relationship seemed to be when one sample had reached it’s limit and it was time to abruptly cut it off, and bring in a new sound. Perhaps a development on the MTV fast cut style of rapid information, the music may be the way things are progressing into the 2010’s. I felt that the musicality of Glassby’s performance could have been improved by developing the sounds and layering them, giving some reference point of which to enter a new sound world. As it was the regular cuts of sound did not seem to have any direction as to it’s intent, whether that intent was to be purposefully progressive, or completely indeterminate. At any rate, regular obvious checking of his watch was not enough to prevent Glassby from performing for perhaps 10 minutes too long, a set which ended as abruptly as each micro-organisational part of it already had.
Adam Trainer is known around the circles as a veteran performer, and his performance on this night proved his expertise and control. Beginning with slow swells of a cymbal which gradually moved in rising and fallings waves of sound, his set was a perfectly planned out oceanic voyage. The cymbal was first played with mallets, then a microphone was moved across the surface, changing the timbre and levels of the sound. The sound of a creaking microphone stand was then added to the mix, along with percussive toys, pan flute, and finally vocals. It was the method in which the sounds were processed and layered by Trainer’s delay and loop pedals which made the performance. The loops were long and never repetitive in the sense that you were obviously hearing repeats. The sounds that were played all built up and died down in waves, a structural choice that emphasized the combinations of the instruments and also the space in between sounds. Viewing the piece in retrospect, the rising and falling waves of sounds and gradual but constant alterations gave a free floating feel that presented new and interesting combinations of sounds at each stage of the performance.
At Waugh with Gieles’s performance mirrored Trainer’s performance in the use of instruments and vocals to build layers however this performance was perhaps even more texturally focussed, and while the loops and repeats were more obvious, each layer gradually faded out to allow new sounds to appear, constantly presenting new listening experiences. AWWG began with playing several notes on the guitar in a seemingly illogical sense, which were looped over a period of one long phrase. Further notes were then added and made the original note choice significantly more logical when more harmonic and textural layers appeared. These notes created a sound mass that moved and swayed, every changing and always pleasing to the hear. Eventually AWWG moved on to a microphone and sang notes into delayed reverberant masses, providing another sound timbre and adding further interest. It was at this time that I felt the set should have been divided in some way, whether that be completely stopping for a moment, or at least a quiet section. This though occurred due to the next section comprising of a different set of material, including the demonstrative insertion of a CD into one of his two laptops, while throwing away the case. This bold action was the visual cue for a change in material to sampled sounds, sparse, ambient drums and sampled textures. AWWG rounded off his set by returning to the guitar and vocals, continuing his workman-like ethic of building up samples and layering sounds which were doomed to gradually fade away. Overall a very inspiring set from an artist who has strong control over his sound craft and a very interesting approach to texturing music.
The Ambassador from Everywhere was to me a realisation, that Perth experimental and electronic music is thriving. The variety of music, the creativeness and desire to produce new material is obvious, and the support of one another immense. From the moderate sized crowd there were many more musicians capable of performing equally impressive sets, while very happy to be there to watch friends and collaborators perform. The label Meupe must be credited with their efforts to put on these events, promote and develop experimental music and continue to develop a culture for adventurous and inspiring music.
Review by Kynan Tan
