Mess Hall
Last night kirstie and I went to Mess Hall to see a performance that is part of the Open Source/Open Ear fest. Last night was something called Improv roulette, there were 3 duets each paired up by chance. We walked in on the middle of the first pair, a clarinet and a guy with telephone pic-ups, cd player, tape recorder. From the part we heard it was an interesting set, sparse melody intermixed with hums, beats, and static. Next was a laptop and a guy with effects, a mixing board, a tumb piano, and a whistle like toy. This was my favorite group of the night, they really seemed to work off each other and created a ever changing wash of sound. Third was one of the more “traditional” pairings guitar (well more like a ukulele) and trumpet. For the most part these 2 did call and response type stuff mixed up with some times where the guitar took a more foundation role while the horn soloed over top. Last small group was trumpet, guy with cd’s/tapes and mixign board, and laptop. This was very interesting but also the loudest set of the night. The tapes/cd’s contained samples of tv/radio comercials, noise, other songs which he could slow down and tweak. The trumpet player craftd some interesting melody lines through the chaos but had to play louder then before to be heard. To close the evening all the performers got together and did a large group improv. This worked really well and kept both kirstie and on edge wondering when it would end. (Not that we wanted it to, but part of the excitement is not noing where its going). While we were sitting there I thinking that improv music like this is similar to a movie seen in a theather, the experience of the image on the big screen is half the fun. With this music, watching it being created and being there while it happens is half the fun. Its all very hectic and exciting.