CatSynth

Here is the first photo of the current Reconnaissance Fly lineup, taken after our performance on KUSF today.

[Photo by Bryan Chandler]

Thanks to our host Bryan Chandler for the photo, and of course for the opportunity to play.

Here is a photo I took at the start of the set.

You can see the score for our opening piece “Small Chinese Gong” laid out behind the keyboard. This is one of the graphical scores that I have mentioned in a previous review. This is also the piece that fell victim to the “rebellious blue cord” that left the performance bass-less. Fortunately we were able to correct that and the rest of the set went quite smoothly.

You can listen to an audio archive of the performance. I thought the later pieces, in particular “Canada”, “Ode to Steengo” and “An Empty Rectangle” came out quite well. We are definitely looking forward to our live performance tonight at Studio 1510.

For those interested in the technological aspects: I was using my trusty Korg mini-Kaos Pad, E-MU Proteus 2000 (with Vintage Pro and Mo’Phatt), and a Voce Electric Piano module. Tim Walters was also performing live custom electronics programmed in Supercollider.

An announcement for upcoming performances with Reconnaissance Fly (consisting of myself, Polly Moller and Tim Walters), as initially reported on Polly’s Journal.

We have six movements from Flower Futures all ready to share with you. We are all spoetry, all the time.

First, we’ll be on the radio, performing live on KUSF starting at 11:00 a.m. (U.S. Pacific Standard Time) on Thursday, February 4th. KUSF streams live on the internet.

Then we will be performing live at Studio 1510 the night of Friday, February 5th at 9ish PM. Studio 1510 can be found at 1510 8th Street, in Oakland, California. It’s conveniently near West Oakland BART.

Here’s our set list:

- Small Chinese Gong
- One Should Never
- The Animal Trade in Canada
- Ode to Steengo
- Emir Scamp Budge
- Seemed to Be Divided in Twain
- An Empty Rectangle

You can actually read more about spoetry and some of our pieces in my review of our show last November.

Our friend Matt Davignon will join us at 8ish PM for an opening set of extended drum machine soundscapes in support of his new album, Living Things.

A nice follow-up to my recent visit to Astoria with Polly Moller and Company.

A track from my CD Aquatic may be played on Coast Community Radio in Astoria this morning (10am to noon, PDT). This a folk program, which should be interesting. It is hosted by Carol Newman, who was very supportive of our visit and also hosts the “Arts: Live and Local” program, where Polly and our host Paul Hoskin had a chance to discuss our music and our show.

Coast Community Radio streams live online, for those who may want to check out this program as well as their other locally produced programs.

UPDATE: My track Open and Shut Case appeared on the program, you can here a clip of it here. There was an interesting segue into Paul Hipp's “I am the Decider”, a great parody of Bush, Cheney et al. based on the Beatles' “I am the Walrus” (Koo-koo-ka-choo). I got a nice mention of the piece and the album, along with reminder of our Polly Moller and Company show and the AVA music series; and “Death and the Maiden” (PM&C) was played as well.

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Aquatic
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It seems like the radio performance went well, and it was a good experience. In addition to my live performance of the Wooden Fish, we played two selections of the CD and I participated in an interview with regular WTUL electronic-music host Conner Richardson and guest-host-for-the-day Kristine Burns. The show actually took place outside in a courtyard, with our audio feed relayed to the studio via internet:

A small number of people from the conference, as well as one or two other curious indviduals, did stop in the courtyard to watch for a bit.

The setup and soundcheck went smoothly, and as can be seen below, the rig was nicely laid out:

Thanks to Kathryn Hobgood of Tulane University Communications for these photos.

Overall, I was fairly happy with the live performance, nothing went particularly wrong, and Conner noted it was quite an unusual piece. The interview, conducted mostly by Kristine Burns, focused on the pieces themselves, both the musical ideas behind them and the technology used to realize them – of course we talked about the CD – also about my musical background, including my having studied with Ruth Schonthal. Because the next participant was a no show, we had more time for both discussion and music.

Hopefully I will get a recording of the event, and if so will make a link available here.

computer music
experimental
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improvisation
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open sound world