Ben Bracken plays music that is sometimes electronic and sometimes acoustic, sometimes improvised and sometimes scripted, sometimes loud and sometimes quiet. To do this he uses prepared guitar, laptop, junk, field recordings, contact mics, feedback and silence. He is currently enrolled at Mills College for an MFA of Electronic Music and working on both performance and installation oriented works and is especially interested in the issues of the perception of space as mediated by sound.
Some of the people that Ben has worked and recorded with are Kevin Drumm, Gregg Kowalsky, Luis Maurette, Brent Guetzeit, TV Pow, Le-Quan Ninh, Gino Robair's "I, Norton" project, Eric Cook, Kanoko Nishi as well as pop bands Flashpapr, Saturday Looks Good To Me, His Name Is Alive, most recently Lulacruza, among others. He has also played and/or improvised with Peter Kowald, Chris Cutler, Phil Minton, Fred Van Hove, Stillupsteypa, Greg Davis, Keith Fullerton Whitman, e*rock, Aaron Dilloway, Werner Dafeldecker, Gene Coleman, and more.
Live Index
Four computers communicate, via ethernet and the Open Sound Control protocol (OSC), with a central computer, sending and receiving instructions for how their sounds will move around the room. All of the sounds are generated by the individual players and plugged into the “Index” patch. Written in Max/MSP, the patch keeps track of where the sounds are in the room and who is playing what sound. When sounds “collide” and cross over each other within the quadraphonic spectrum, then an event takes place, determined by the “conductor” at the central computer. The “conductor” also controls density and tempo by sending out instructions to the individual players. More than being a traditional “piece,” “Live Index” is an organizational method for electronic musicians to interact spatially and temporally.
Untitled: a historical echo-relocation
In front of Concert Hall, Music Building, 6-8 p.m.
Interactive installation. Participants are to choose from a selection of pitched bells and ring them in different parts of the garden.