[NewMusic] keith rowe @ mills last night

[barry threw]

The main thing for me is that I usually like music that suspends time  
for me, and this made me hyper aware of it. I wouldn't say I was  
bored, more like super anxious or something. I couldn't get into it  
because the whole thing of being in an audience, and the ambience of  
the auditorium overpowered the music. It just didn't create any kind  
of enveloping world for me, it was all these frames of me, then the  
auditorium, then the players, then the music, which is the kind of  
thing I like to vanish for me in a concert.

bt


On Nov 9, 2008, at 1:52 PM, Matt Ingalls wrote:

> well i was bored.
>
> i'm definitely not an expert of AMMs music - i know they are  
> supposed to be the forefathers of lowercase/eai or whatever you call  
> it improv, right?  my take on this kind of music is that it is an  
> opportunity to get *inside* the sound - BUT you gotta have  
> interesting sounds! - it doesn't work with just any sounds spaced  
> apart executed with little intent.
>
> i did see AMM's show at beanbenders in in 1996 ( with upstairs dance  
> party ) and my memory of that is more positive but i also remember  
> being bored then too.    i usually don't like monophonic narrow-band  
> pickup/contact mic through guitar amp, but if Rowe had at least  
> shaped his sounds i could have handled it -- it all seemed totally  
> arbitrary and i was really not impressed.
>
> as for the ensemble, i don't want to criticize student players, but  
> the thought did occur to me was that mills now has an IMPROV DEGREE,  
> right?  i would have thought that *at least* the players would have  
> been familiar with the "genre" - seemed to me like there were too  
> many sounds and approaches that didn't fit the convention of  
> lowercase/eai.
>
> -m
>
> ________________________________________
> From: newmusic-bounces at music.mills.edu [newmusic-bounces at music.mills.edu 
> ] On Behalf Of Ron Lettuce [letucepry at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 1:21 PM
> To: Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
> Subject: Re: [NewMusic] keith rowe @ mills last night
>
> Personally, although I really didn't think it was that bad, just not  
> really my cup of tea, I thought daypiece was almost  
> indistinugishable from nightpiece, except that there was almost no  
> vocals in nightpiece. Having been in AMM with Cardew, I just  
> figgured he would have some extra insight on how Cardew wanted these  
> performed, so I just assumed that's about what Cardew wanted.
>
> Not having been through the Mills thing and therefore being a total  
> ignoamus on the academic treatment of EAI pieces, I did have to  
> wonder how do they decide these things, are there rehearsals? a  
> runthrough? What sort of planning goes into an "academic" version of  
> this sort of performance? or is it just a minimalist free-for all  
> while thinking about tigers and trees and Amy ("Bro...Nice use of  
> Space...was that an AMM quote...")...just make sure you play like  
> Keith Rowe.
> Is it any different from the shows that I usually am drawn to, which  
> in many cases are ad hoc improv, which seem to rely almost solely on  
> familiarity of the other artist's work (I know a lot of you do form  
> groups and play together often, in pre-meditated fashion, it just  
> seems like quite a few of the "Pros" are in Stockholm one day  
> playing with X and then in New York the next day, and three days  
> later show up in the Bay Area and immediately play 1 show and  
> leave...).
>
> I did think his solo in the middle was OK.
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Matt Ingalls <ingalls at mills.edu>
> To: "newmusic at music.mills.edu" <newmusic at music.mills.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, November 9, 2008 10:34:28 AM
> Subject: [NewMusic] keith rowe @ mills last night
>
>
> sometimes less is less
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> NewMusic at music.mills.edu
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barry threw
Media Art and Technology

San Francisco, CA
Work: 857-544-3967
Email: bthrew (at) gmail (dot) com
Web: www.barrythrew.com