Cape and the Eternity: 48nord - Ulrich Müller (e-guit, laptop, devices) & Sigi Rössert (e-bass, laptop, devices) with Patrick Schimanski (drums, voice, laptop, devices) pic Franz Kimmel

Part 2 – A Long Tradition of Skeptics and Inventors
In which Ulrich describes the technological development of his practice as well as the future of music.

BB: I’m most intrigued by the evolution of your performance set up. I find it interesting that set ups ‘settle down’ after much change and experimentation into something which feels like a complete ‘system’ or instrument. Being that this isn’t the first setup you’ve worked with, what would you regard as the elements crucial to a useful setup?

UM: It was constant change over many years that led me to the point at which I now consider my setup as a complex instrument which I constantly develop.

A journey from guitar and back
It all began when I was a rock musician. This meant heavy amplification, a set of nice guitars and a couple of standard stomp boxes such as phaser, flanger, vibrato, wah wah… and a great sound. Then I stepped into this strange world of experimental music which actually brought me far away from playing guitar for a couple of years. In those days I took lessons in composition, wrote a few pieces for ensembles, some electronic stuff and realized a lot of rather big sound and multimedia installations. Years later playing guitar came back to me (thanks to my 48nord partner Sigi, who encouraged me to return to the instrument).

Honestly I started rather shy after these years of having paused, things taking their time for me to feel again like a halfway serious guitar player. This new approach was very soon accompanied by my first experiments with computer controlled sound processing. This new development reached a first peak around 2004, when 48nord met George Lewis and became part of his project for „Cybernetic Improvisors“: „Sequel“. This was a major step for me towards the world of processing, by using extended reactor patches and already at that time Ableton’s „live“. But there was still a dissatisfaction: The sound.

As a former Rock musician, I was imprinted with the experience of working with great and brilliant sound, and the sound quality I dealt with in the experimental music world of those days wasn’t satisfying at all. It sounded all more or less raspy, no deepness and a lot of unintended crackling because of overloaded cpu’s. So the day came when I decided to change my setup again and to start the rather ambitious project to rebuild my favorite reactor patches with analog devices.

200 pounds
To make it short, it worked. I spent a lot of money, bought tons of high-end devices, such as a couple of „Moogerfoogers“ (especially the unequaled ringmodulator), the Toadworks „Phantasm“ phaser (best phaser ever), and exotic stuff like devices from „Last Gasp Art Laboratories“ or the incredible Ooh LaLa „Synthmangler“ and many, many more. All in all I had two floorboards plus two percussion tables packed with stomp boxes. For the amplification I used the great Engl „Screamer“ combo with an additional 2 x 12“ cabinet. The guitar was a musicman „Axis“.

This was really great, great sound but there was a little blemish: the whole shit had a weight of about 200 pounds.

Impossible to carry, impossible to transport by plane without spending a fortune just for overweight. A dinosaur of a sound that cost me at the end two slipped disks, not to speak about the money. This had absolutely no future for a travelling musician. But the day came when I discovered that the world of digital sound had made a couple of steps towards better sound quality, and now I´m very lucky with my new setup.

Regarding this whole development I actually can’t say what is crucial for a useful sound setup and what not. There is just one thing to consider: one has only two hands and two feet and that´s it for operating your setup. So one should be economical with all these devices in order that they don´t turn into an obstacle for playing one’s instrument (if an instrument is part of your set up that is). Things must be very well balanced with ergonomics an important and serious issue in order to keep control.

BB: Could you describe your current performance set up?

Lots of plug – ins

1.macbook pro + Ableton live 2.Faderfox 3.Novation Launchpad 4.Korg nanoKontrol 5.Keith Mcmillan SoftStep 6.Morley mini volume pedal 7.Moog guitar

UM: I play the Moog guitar with Moog´s unique pickup system.

These pickups create an electromagnetic field (like an e-bow) which makes the strings constantly vibrate with adjustable intensity. But not only a single string. It works with all six strings and with the amazing option to „drive“ through the harmonic spectrum of the notes by using the obligatory expression pedal. This creates very rich sounds and the ‘endless’ sustain opens up fantastic possibilities for all kinds of drones. The inbuilt moog lowpass filter is also great and makes even weird wah wah effects possible.

Next my laptop – a macbook pro. For performances I use „Ableton live“ as the main program and lots of plug-ins. As audio interface I use the „Duet“ by Apogee which has very good sounding a-d-a-converters. I don’t use a guitar amp any more as I now instead need full range amplification and speakers for the processed sounds especially when they are combined with samples. So instead I improve the „naked“ guitar sound by processing it with the Line 6 „Pod farm Platinum“ plug-in and Native Instruments „Guitar Rig“. This is the very first level of processing.

For more sophisticated experimental processing I use Max/MSP and Reactor plug-ins, stuff like Sugarbites „Turnado“, and the amazing „Izotope Spectron“ filter. For live adjustment of Ableton’s main functions and processing tools I use three controllers: the „Faderfox“, the Korg „nanoKontrol“ and Keith Mcmillan’s masterpiece: the „SoftStep“ footcontroller, an incredibly versatile tool. As I mentioned I work also with samples and with Ableton’s great functionalities as a sample player. These samples are mainly made out of processed guitar sounds and some noisy synthesizer stuff. I launch them with the Novation „Launchpad“ which allows me also to access Ableton’s „Simpler“ – an easy to use sampler plug-in.

I sometimes record my guitar playing during improvisations, then put the recording into the „Simpler“ sample player, and play it back at different pitches using the „Launchpad“, riding through the recorded sound wave with the „Faderfox“ midi x/y-controller. Very nice tool. Lastly a Morley mini volume pedal and a mxr smart gate are the two analog components of my setup.

BB: With the many of tools available to the experimental performer (software and hardware), as well as the openness to working method, do you ever wake up in the morning and think “Today I’d just like to play guitar”. Are the many options ever a hindrance?

The world of unexpected sounds
UM: No, they were never a hindrance apart from the normal obstacles while learning to operate these setups. It was always fun, once I had reached a certain mastery by handling them.

There is of course from time to time this dream popping up, where I just take a nice guitar (maybe from a caliber like the Gibson ES 175) and a small, handy amp with great tube sound (like the Mesa Boogie „Transatlantic“) and that´s it. A dream of purity and simplicity.

But then I wake up and become aware that even though I started with classical guitar when I was a child and took from time to time lessons in jazz guitar (to get deeper into the incredibly sophisticated world of jazz’s harmonic and scale orientated thinking and feeling) I´m neither a classical nor a jazz player.

Deep in my heart I’m still a rock player. And since being influenced by Jimi Hendrix when I was a child and making my first steps as a guitar player, sound is still the center of my musical cosmos. It was to work with sound, which led me to the world of experimental music. And to create and listen to unheard and unexpected sounds is still the ultimate adventure in my life.

BB: Finally. Over your career you’ve surely seen much change. Could you make any predictions for the evolution of experimental music, or any music for that matter? Are there any major paradigm shifts over the horizon? Will the music being made in 10 years time even vaguely resemble what we recognise as music today?

A long tradition of skeptics and inventors
UM: I don’t think that we have to be alert to major changes in the music. In ten years there will still be the same 20 people who are enthused by experimental music while the rest of the world is listening to mainstream.

But I´m in no way resigned. I even think that there is a generation of young musicians growing, which is again much more interested in content than their direct predecessors.

But presentation and publishing of experimental and therefore difficult art, relies on subsidies and in these days of ongoing financial crisis nothing speaks for a sudden increase of the budgets for experimental music. Which means that in ten years we will stay more or less in the same corners in which we were before. But we will still have fun with what we do.

I also don´t think that there are major paradigm shifts to be expected. My mentor and teacher Josef Anton Riedl is now more than 80 years old. In the fifties of the 20st century he was one of the pioneers of experimental electroacoustic music (running the „Siemens-Studio for Electronic Music“ which was a milestone in the history of electroacoustic music). And when we talk about musical production in those days and today I cannot see any bigger difference but the size of the gear and the speed of processing data.

The basic questions are still the same: how to create great sound and convincing musical structures which are adequate for the media and meanings we use. How to deal with composition, with improvisation, closed and open forms and comprovisation. In order to gain results which update all these aesthetic considerations, and questions in a way appropriate to our present.

So far we are part of quite a long tradition of skeptics and inventors and this gives me against all odds a rather good feeling for the future.

Cape and the Eternity: 48nord: Ulrich Müller (e-guit, laptop, devices) & Sigi Rössert (e-bass, laptop, devices) with Patrick Schimanski (drums, voice, laptop, devices) pic Manuel Heyer

(My apologies in advance for the following incident report)

A Man and a Man and a Double Bass

Left a narrator
Right a bassist
(known to each other)

Bassist partially hidden by music
(playing not hidden)

Narrator with acutely bent music stand

Scattered music on floor
(played and to be played)

Noises mesh despite

***************************

Well this time here for a holiday with his partner Tanja, we managed to work in some very enjoyable jam time and also time to talk, which led to an interview. Here follows part 1 of the interview (part 2 to be posted shortly)….

Ulrich Müller

Part 1 – A Wonderful Contradiction.
In which Ulrich speaks about his musical interventions in Munich and his performance and composition philosophy.

BB: Reading your bio I see you’ve been involved with an extraordinary range of interactions through new media and performance. I’m particularly interested in your 10 years of work with the “t-u-b-e” sound gallery – the length of the project sounding like something of record to a South African used to an experimental music scene characterised by one night stands. Are there any highlights that best describe the activities during that period?

The t-u-b-e
UM: My curator-colleague Jörg Stelkens and I actually had a lot of what I would call highlights at the t-u-b-e. All of them were very individual and I can hardly find a common denominator. So I’ll first try to give you a more general approach to our work at the t-u-b-e and then at least a few hints using concrete examples.

Basically it’s important to know that the t-u-b-e was exclusively dedicated to experimental electroacoustic music. Thanks to the former head of music of Munich’s department of culture, Christoph Hoefig, the t-u-b-e had a rather good financial frame which made a regularly program possible. This demonstrates an important aspect of sustainability for any cultural work – regularity and therefore responsibility is the only reliable way to create, establish and develop both a strong artistic scene and an audience.

Another but not less important aspect was the beautiful space we had. It was a former storage cellar of a brewery. An old barrel vault, whose shape was actually one aspect when we were choosing the name t-u-b-e for the venue. It was equipped with a flexible set of platforms which we could arrange in many different ways in the space – and comfortable pillows to sit or even lie on the pedestals. A nice lighting system allowed us to create a great, comfortable and concentrated atmosphere in the space.

The „main piece“ or heart of the t-u-b-e was our 8.1 surround sound system for which Jörg programmed a spatialisation program, that allowed us to move sounds through the space even in different directions at the same time. Additionally we had a rather good 5.1 recording set, which made spatial recordings possible. All t-u-b-e performances were recorded in this way and a few of them are already published on a dvd. This all together created the very special identity of the t-u-b-e. The artists could make use of any technical feature we offered.

Beyond the regular program we had what we called „productions“. At times we invited artists for a week or two to work in the space and create a new work, assisted by Jörg and me. And we also offered a couple of 3 to 4 day workshops among which, the „circuit bending“ workshop of Nic Collins was my personal highlight. It was a great weekend with a fantastic, creative group of participants and the final concert under Nic´s „conducting“ was pure fun.

The end of pure laptop music
What turned out aesthetically during those ten years, is that the era of pure laptop music is history. No one wants to see somebody staring into a screen anymore and creating sound out of nothing, just referring to a more or less abstract computer program without any physical or visible reference to what he is doing. So a visual reference using video is an important aspect of the presentation of electronic music (see Phil Niblock, Ludger Brümmer).

In a more structural sense, which touches on the texture and shape of the music there were three main paths of development which I can see:

One was the combination of laptop with acoustic instruments including all possibilities of sound processing by artists like Matthew Ostrowski and George Cremaschi, John Bishoff and Kenneth Atchley and Phill Niblock (for whose performance at the t-u-b-e I had the unique pleasure to play guitar with Gunnar Geisse). And people like Matthias Mainz, Go Guitars and Jason Kahn, Hans Tammen, Werner Cee and Eivind Aarset…..and many, many more.

Next was the use and development of new interfaces such as data gloves (Matthew Ostrowski), sensors (Tomomi Adachi), software like STEIM´s junXion, which turns acoustic instruments into interfaces (Gunnar Geisse) and self build interfaces/instruments (dj sniff/computer interacting turntable).

Third was the whole field of hardware hacking, respectively circuit bending (Nic Collins, Joker Nies) and self build instruments (Tomomi Adachi, BMB.con) and many more.

And there were many, many combinations of all of these approaches, like the awesome Trio Hans Tammen, Mario de Vega and Joker Nies which played the very last show we had at the t-u-b-e. Which was actually a worthy end to these great ten years which ended on December 31^st 2010.

The personal and the music
BB: I know this is a tricky area, but I’d like to know your thoughts on a definition of the music that you make. Perhaps let me frame it this way: What are your intentions when you make music, or more broadly, sound? For yourself, your audience….?

UM: I believe every artist works first for himself. Personal approaches, imprintings, education, social environment, more or less neurotic dispositions, physical abilities etc….etc…., all define the field of one´s preferences and antipathies. So in the world of art.

But the more aware someone becomes of what he is actually doing, the more another aspect comes across: The métier [the occupation]. It´s the thing itself, the music with all its implications, with which one is concerned now on a more objective level: Theory, history, technology, sociology etc. I feel that the process of my musical work is kind of an ongoing oscillating between these two edges – the personal and the field of music.

It´s always some kind of a creative struggling between the effort to express myself in a spontaneous and kind of naive way and on the other hand, of objectifying what I want to say about a wider range of criteria which experimental music of the present might (or should) consist of.

But I would be a liar if I would deny that the audience also plays a certain role. I don´t want to shock or hurt the people who are listening to my music. So I try of course to do my best to set up the best possible conditions for the presentation of my work. Beginning with being in maximum possible control of my setup (technology, devices and instrument), sound quality, aspects of visible presentation such as traceable (as much as possible) relations between (visible) action and sound, stage setting, light etc. Many things which can help the people to step in and to follow what I’m doing.

Working with large groups – the Munich Instant Orchestra
BB: Listening to your demo cd ‘emergesound’, I was drawn to your works composed for the Munich Instant Orchestra (a mostly acoustic ensemble?). I especially enjoyed the large scale setting which sounds like it was recorded in a concert hall. What kind of instruction did the performers have, and was your approach different from working within a solo or small group context?

UM: I founded the Munich Instant Orchestra in 2006 together with my 48nord colleague Sigi Rössert and trumpet player Rich Laughlin, again under the aegis of the awesome Christoph Hoefig [of Munich's department of culture]. It was conceptualised as a bigger ensemble of at least 16 people from Munich together with friends from the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra.

Site specific music in ‚difficult’ spaces
The idea was to bring aspects of improvisation and composition (what I call comprovisation), and a combination of acoustic instruments and live electronics together with a rather radical approach to spatialisation – site specific music. This involved making music for acoustically ‘interesting’ (in the sense of complex and therefore difficult) spaces such as empty museums, shell constructions of public buildings etc, where the musicians are spread over the whole building, and sometimes even have to move in the space. This means that a main parameter of the actual composition is the architecture itself. So the presentation becomes a mixture of sound installation and concert – why we called them „installation – concerts“.

I love the various processes of work with this group. The one big line which follows the more traditional relationship between composer and instrumentalist but allows a certain improvisational freedom for the musicians to express themselves as individuals. The piece „Krisis“ is a good example of this aspect of work.

The other and even more interesting approach was the experiment of a collective comprovisation (the „munich instant IV“ piece), which was developed in a one week workshop, where I had the role of a moderator, bringing all the different ideas coming from the musicians together to a point were we could actually set up a very refined framework for a one hour piece.

And of course this is a very different (and much more exhausting) process of work than the work with a smaller ensemble. Unfortunately it is extremely difficult to bring all these great musicians together for longer working periods which are paid properly. So up to now we have had only a few times the pleasure to work together, but we still hope that in the future we will find possibilities to continue this exciting work.

Free Improvisation and freedom, a wonderful contradiction
BB: I’d hazard that, despite the implied ‘non – definition’ of the name, Free Improvisation does have some distinctive traits, its primary signature being an agreed (amongst the performers) tendency towards constant change. In particular, if I would compare it to African modes of improvisation, I’d say that means no distinctive and sustained rhythm. Is this a valid observation?

Jeff Parker ("Tortoise" guitar player) and Ulrich Müller - rehearsals for George Lewis´project "Sequel", Gulbenkian foundation, Lisbon 2009.

UM: In a very pure sense, definitely yes. For what it’s worth, to be called a really free improvisation, any distinctive rhythm, as well as any melodic and/or harmonic framework, is an obstacle. It kind of absorbs the energy of the free evolution of a musical stream. The stream that emerges from permanent and complex processes… of momentary interactions between musicians or man-machine interactions. Or more simply – the free stream of musical thoughts.

But there is a serious concern I have to mention. The freedom I spoke about doesn’t exist in such a pure way. As long as we speak about people in the sense of individuals with their own histories, imprintings, musical approaches etc ….. in the sense of what I said before – there is no improvisation without a lot of suppositions.

And today I believe that it is necessary to clarify these suppositions by creating parameters which provide benchmarks, or reference points, for one´s musical acting during an improvisation. Or to say it with the famous words of Italian improvisor and composer Giancarlo Schiaffini: „You can´t improvise improvisation“.

Let´s begin with basic considerations: One of the most principal things is the instrument one chooses. Is it a piano, a guitar, a trombone, a laptop or – as in your case – a self built instrument (combined with laptop and devices)? Each of them creates a sound world of its own and in the case of the laptop the many possibilities of creating and processing sound are hardly possible to overview.

Next is ones ability to play the instrument. The more one masters it, the more it is possible that one can express oneself in a spontaneous yet complex way. But where is the edge, where the benchmark to refer to? And isn’t there a ‘virtuosity – trap’, where virtuosity turns into a mental obstacle? And what of one´s preferences and antipathies? Which style or genre of music does one like, which not? More noise, less harmony or the other way around?

A working framework
The range of possibilities of unconscious suppositions seems to be too wide to only be dominated by the avoidance of becoming a victim of the force of one´s habits. Better to set up some framework, constructive things we can struggle with in a more conscious way. And this brings me in a rather paradoxical way back to traditional qualities of musical structuring like rhythm, harmony, melody, sound etc.. but even these structures with their narrow borders shouldn’t stop one from constantly sharpening your ability of musical perception.

What I aim for is to make possible what is called emergence. Meaning that a system of a certain complexity can spontaneously develop qualities which were not recognizable as inherent parts of the system itself. These qualities are really actually new ones and a proof that the whole thing is not only more than its parts – it is actually something deeply different. Emergence can also happen in music. A complex process but when it happens it might become an improvisor’s heaven – at least for moments. That´s why I called my demo cd and also my new website (still under construction) „emergesound“.

A wonderful contradiction
So back to your question. My actual answer is: Definitely yes – and definitely not. Improvisation as an act of creating the unforeseen is a contradiction in itself but a wonderful one. Therefore it is of course good to refer to this set of traits you mentioned, like the idea of constant change, including all the dangers I spoke about.

And at the moment I actually tend more and more to what I called comprovisation, in the sense of creating a set of parameters at least as a kind of Ariadne string, like a guideline that leads one out of the labyrinth of a permanent unpredictability to which an un-reflected and therefore mislead spontaneity can lead.

But at the same time one should neither deny the idea of unpredictability nor spontaneity as the main sources which supply improvisation. Actually I´m thinking about a way to bring the brilliant idea of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s „Formelkomposotion“ (formula composition) together with improvisation. Let´s see to what it will lead me…

[part 2 of the interview will follow shortly]

This year I’ve been experimenting with using disposable bottles to make simple plucked harps based on Congolese harps. Recently I discovered that they sound great when played by the wind and listened to whilst being held like  an 80′s radio cassette boom box

Jessica listening to and jamming on a portable boombox harp

These harps sing with a high pitched and ethereal voice. And if you feel inspired you can add rhythms by plucking as well. (I’ll soon be posting DIY instructions on how to make one of these).

Justin at the helm with (from left), Trevor, Jessica and myself.

We also made a long string harp. Read on for pics, diy instructions and a recording….I learnt how to make a long string harp via the very knowledgeable and helpful Didier Ferment. He has very clear instructions on his site, but here are the basic ingredients:

- 30 to 60 meters of +/- 1mm diameter nylon line (sold as fishing line or builder’s line).
- Attach one end to something solid (in my case, usually the tow hitch of my car) and the other to a grip (e.g. short length of broomstick). Attach a harness to the grip (e.g. old dog leash).
- Find or purchase a resonator of some kind e.g. an empty container (bucket, drum, plastic yoghurt container) or in this case, a small frame drum.
- Attach the resonator to the grip end of the string. First pierce a centre hole in the bottom of container or skin of the drum. Thread a short piece of line through and attach something to the line to stop it pulling through e.g. a small piece of wood or a cable tie.  Attach it to the long harp string. If the resonator is light you’ll want to attach some means of holding it steady in the wind – I use two short bamboo lengths.
- Put the harness on, hold the grip and lean into the wind.

Align the long string so that the wind is blowing across it. If the wind is steady enough you should soon hear a sonorous buzzing sound. At that point all chat/jokes/small talk stops and everyone starts listening in awe.

You too can listen in awe to our sunday session (thanks to Trevor for the recording!).

We’ll be having more sessions this year, so if you’d like to join us please contact me.

Stereo boom box

The brief she gave me proved to be a great opportunity to explore Woodstock, the neighbourhood Masha and I had just moved into, as well as a useful challenge for my compositional techniques.

This is the final soundtrack:

Woodstock  is today primarily a Moslem community with a growing immigrant population from other parts of Africa, but up until the 1940′s it was a Jewish neighbourhood of Lithuanian decent. Renee explained that the show would touch on specific and tangential references to this context, especially as the exhibition was to take place in the old Woodstock Salt River Synagogue complex – the Hebrew Community Hall having been converted into the new gallery premises.

A detail from a work on the show 'A Novel In Parts'

[See more images from the show here.]

She also explained that the soundtrack would need to have a clear link to the current context but also in some way evoke the past – and use sound to achieve this.  The starting point would be the location of the exhibition – the Synagogue complex, which had been de-consecrated in the late 1950′s, and had seen a number of other occupants, including a bicycle repair shop and a furniture manufacturer. But the broader landscape also needed be explored; its current nature – a noisy semi industrial and commuter artery, and the past – the arrival of immigrants from Lithuania. And importantly, the knowledge that a large part of the new neighbourhood has been built on reclaimed land,  the old beach front now an industrial zone.

All of these factors suggested a dense and layered timescape, where the crowded present would need to be distilled, and the past reconstructed from memory. They also pointed to a need for a considered compositional approach which would lend clarity to the soundscape but also encourage more complex readings.

Former Hebrew Community Hall (corner Argyle and Albert streets) showing facade

Compositional technique

Renee first became aware of my work through the soundtrack I created for Monument, where I used the floor tile pattern of a long corridor in the older part of Cape Town’s central station as a structural reference (the patterns determined the onset time of each section of the composition). For this reason she suggested as a starting point to use the silhouette of the building’s facade. I explored this possibility and arrived at a way of using the facade to determine the length of the composition.

Another idea she suggested was the use of a distinctive Jewish musical mode (or scale) to represent the Jewish time period – the Ahava Rabbah (meaning ‘Abounding Love’ in Hebrew); used as part of the daily Jewish morning service. This mode is also used as the backbone of Klezmer music where it is known as the Freygish mode. I explored this genre on my mandolin, and with the constraints of seven notes in mind, corresponding to seven points on the facade, came up with a few useful melodic ideas.

I then suggested that I find an ‘opposite’ or mirror to this mode to reflect the current Islamic nature of the neighbourhood, however after some research I soon realised that the overlaps and similarities between Arabic Maqams (scales) and Jewish modes made this idea redundant. In fact the Hijaz Maqam is identical to the Ahava Rabbah. So instead I created a melody with two parts – one an approximate ‘inversion’ of the other- which I used for the second ‘present day’ half of the composition.
[For those who are interested, the notes of the Freygish/Hijaz modes are (starting on D): D Eb F# G A Bb C D]

The seven note motif turned out to be very useful as it not only suggested a useful melodic motif for use throughout the composition but also a means of determining the overall length, becoming a unifying structural element for the whole work. I ended up using it to ‘pace’ the entire work by spreading it out over the entire length at a very slow tempo (the cello like sound) as well as using it in variation form at a higher tempo throughout the piece (using it on a ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ level – like the relationship between a stitch and a visable pattern).

Instrumentation and Other Sounds

My mandolin was used as the vehicle for all of these explorations and discoveries and it became the primary instrument used. Its versatility in a range of genres including Arabic music (where it is sometimes used), Klezmer music, where it is a familiar voice, and even Cape based Malay choir music made it an appropriate choice.

I recorded my playing with a range of microphone options (including contact microphone) to give me a wide variety of tone colours. And I made liberal use of pitch shifting to achieve base lines and ethereal music box like sounds.

The only other instrument used was a bowed instrument I had made based on a Segankuru – a Zulu one string fiddle. I played and recorded the Ahava Rabbah/Hijaz mode, edited it and played it back using a software sample player. The sound ended up sounding quite cello like, but with a pleasing roughness of quality.

For the penultimate urban section of the composition, I spent time recording in the Woodstock train station and on the Woodstock part of Main Road. Those familiar with Cape Town’s (and South Africa’s) public transport will recognise the taxi gaatjies (share taxi doormen).

And I also made use of third party field recordings (see acknowledgements at page bottom).

The Exhibition (brief observations)

The exhibition centres on an intriguing installation – two almost identical rooms, typical of a Woodstock Victorian home. Installed back to back  I felt the urge to repeatedly move between them, each teasing me to spot the differences. Two cups of coffee,  two chess boards with game in progress, two open suitcases each containing a personal collection of cherished memorabilia. Is it possible to hold two almost identical images in your mind’s eye?

A sense of “what happened here?”. Carbon paper drawings of a ‘ghost’ sailing ship in common Woodstock surroundings, framed classified adverts in local papers referring to ship sightings reinforce this notion. Disparate scenarios encouraging me to construct my own interpretation.

At the exhibition walkabout Renee quotes Wittgenstein “A picture is a fact”. But the sense of quiet, of past and present overlapping, of the familiar stripped of sound seems to defy this.

Soundtrack  acknowledgements

Samples

The Freesound Project

Sea on beach: www.digifishmusic.com
Shofar Ram’s Horn:  Jpors
Spinning Bicycle wheel: Faruku

Research

Paul Whelan – for generous access to his klezmer knowledge and cd collection

The Mandolin Cafe’ Community and Comando list – for plentiful and useful advice about Klezmer music

So after many late nights and bumping into tin cans (intentionally and unintentionally), Baba Yaga Theatre and Brendon Bussy are proud to present the new, fully enhanced, deliciously noisy and sensory adventure:

Land of the Underneath!

Suitable for 3 years to 100

Jori's crown is played in Land of the Underneath

In ´Land of the Underneath’ a girl wakes up in a land where nothing is as it appears to be. In this land the not quite ordinary Noise Maker plays his instruments made of what we call ‘trash’, but for him they are magical objects. Together they discover a room full of delicious imagination where stories are born through objects and sounds come alive through playful movement. An interactive play inviting children of all ages to join the two characters on a journey of discovery.

Performance details
11am Tuesday Oct 4
2pm Wednesday Oct 5
2pm Thursday Oct 6
11am Friday Oct 7
12pm Saturday Oct 8

Venue: Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Corner of Milton Road and Wesley Streets, Observatory, Cape Town
Price: R20
Enquiries & Bookings: 021 4473683

For those of you who don’t already know Jori of Baba Yaga Theatre:
Jori Snell’s playful performances transform her versatile training in physical theatre, dance, martial arts, mime and butoh-related work into a very personal language, often inspired by a weird, humorous, and grotesque universe. Her company Baba Yaga Theatre combines physical theatre with fairytales, myth, poetry, special props and the creation of magical visual pictures. Her focus in her teaching is the unique expression in each individual, be it through theatre, dance, singing, or storytelling.

We’re very grateful to Caroline Colburn for crucial help with direction. A bit about her:
Currently running the Theatre Arts Admin Collective, a theatre centre in Observatory, Cape Town.  She’s part of an international team of artists that began Project Phakama back in 1996, that focused on creating site-specific theatre with large groups of young people and artists in communities at a local and international level.  At the same time she created the small theatre company Iindiza, the Mielie Stalks Theatre company with 5 other theatre makers that worked for 5 years creating new work which performed both locally and abroad.  Prior to that she taught at UCT in the Drama Department.

Antjie Donder - One of Masha's Strange Neighbours

Masha will dip into her new short story collection “Strange Neighbours”, bringing its menagerie of unexpected Capetonians to life. These include trolls with a taste for pepper spray, mermaids and mysterious roast chicken eating backyard dwellers. Brendon will provide the live soundtrack using his perishable and astoni…shing instrument inventions – Gourmet Harps and other noise makers made from the bits we normally throw away.

There’ll also be tales from other parts of the world, including the beautiful world of Inuit (Eskimo) legend. But beware: these are grown up stories. Dark secrets will be revealed in these stories with and without words.
Here are the details:

Venue: 6, Lower Trill Road, Observatory (http://bit.ly/aG3q7v)
Date : Sunday, 25th September, 2011
Time : Doors open at 4pm and performance begins at 5pm.
Gate : A minimum Donation of R30 (for the performers).
Feel free to donate more

Also
• Please bring extra cash for the delicious food and drinks which will be available before, during and after the show served on a first come first served basis. We’ll let you know a menu closer to the time.
• Please note that the hosts will ask you to remove your shoes at the door out of respect for the performance, so please make sure you have thick socks to keep your feet warm, and a cushion and blanket might also be useful…

I created original music and sound design using a table lamp amongst things, for Ubom! Theater’s Door and sound design for Kim Kerfoot’s hilariously dark Guillotine – part of Iqonga, Handspring Puppet Company’s experimental platform at the festival.

And I also found ample opportunity to test drive one of my new instruments, a perishable harp made from a 5 litre bottle and bamboo rod. Nicknamed ‘the Stick Insect’ I played it at the festival launch and garnered some favourable astonished responses (“What’s That?”). Then I used it as part of a performance workshop which Jori Snell and I ran called ‘Land of the Underneath‘.  Here’s a dramatic picture:

Playing the Stick Insect

And here’s a close up:

Stick Insect - up close

It has three principle strings and a very long, very slack bass string which main function is to make its (sardine can) bridge buzz and rattle, something like a sitar’s bridge, but not nearly as refined. The new innovation however is the crank, you can see it behind me, made from a small milk bottle. I turn it and its chopstick stylus rubs against the screw top lid of the main resonator making a very satisfying and loud creaking noise.

Land of the Underneath will be running soon as a full length production in October, but I’ll post more later.

I also ran another workshop for a small but amply enthusiastic group.  How To Create Noise Makers with Personality was a full day workshop during which we made a variety of harps resulting in much wilful deconstruction of yoghurt and bottled water containers. There was also a lot of playing, something which really gladdens my heart as workshops often have too much making and very little testing and jamming.

Here’s a great pic of Marko playing his cuervo harp. In the background primo fan of junk instruments, Tammy is jamming out on another of Marko’s harps.

Marko & Tammy jamming (pic Toni Olivier)

So all in all a noisy festival.

And finally a few kudo’s to self – after attending the awards ceremony, I realised that this is the second year that a production I’ve worked on has been nominated for a festival award. Last year I created an interactive staircase for Kai Losgott’s Alive And Dying (nominated Best Newcomer) and this year I created a soundtrack for Ubom! Theatre’s Door  nominated for Best Visual Theatre (directed by Jori Snell, who also won the category for her remarkable solo performance Inua).
Not nominations for my sound work directly, but I’m happy to steal a small part of the glory.

I’ve realised the challenge of children’s theatre – how do you keep a highly energetic and perceptive audience enthralled for the duration?

I saw The Sand Boy, a simple story – a boy on a beach fashions a boy out of sand who then comes to life, has many adventures (including an epic fight with a lobster), then falls for a mermaid. It sounds light and it was, however the story was a vehicle for a sensual feast utilising complex lighting, a dramatic and detailed instrumental score, not to speak of the smoke and bubbles (!). I was really impressed at Omar Alvarez’s skilful control of all aspects of the production, including of course, the puppet manipulation, an impressive demonstration of an Argentinian tradition of puppet theatre where the manipulator does everything on stage.

The Sand Boy with his Mermaid

Another highlight was Bye Moon presented by the Belgium based Pantalone company. At only 10mins long, many avoided it thinking it wouldn’t be worth the ticket fee. However it turned out to be an immersive and thoughtfully staged experience despite the short format.
Two vertically orientated flat screen tv’s were each used to tell a different part of the story of a small boy looking for the moon.  Intentionally (I assume) the screens were widely spaced, just wide enough for the viewer not to be able to see both at the same time, providing a more complex experience and encouraging reviewing (see neuroscientist David Eagleman on time lapse when we swivel our heads). A surround sound system provided ambient sounds (notably a frog) and played a plaintive string based soundtrack (you can listen to the entire soundtrack here). And a live violinist provided a grounding presence.

Bye Moon

I had a good chat with the presenter (who I believe was the soundtrack’s composer Filip Bral) and the violinist (Katrien De Bièvre) – they told me that the work was created about five years back.  I was impressed by the realisation that electronic media could be used to create a production with such a long life, when we are so inundated with new media.  The key in this case, a careful consideration towards staging which encourages multiple viewings.

Other notable experiences included The Ogreling (director Yvette Hardie) which featured a large adult actor playing a charming gap toothed ogre in a school uniform, the sporty Parisian Ubla Dubla Trubla street clowns playing with ice water on a chilly day on the Observatory common and Isangqa/Sirkelpad which presented a complex retelling of an old Afrikaans story – the only Afrikaans production I saw, the use of the language making me feel fondly proud (as director Ilka Louw was happy to be told).

Thembani Luzipho & Nonceba Constance Didi in The Ogreling

And a lot else that I sadly missed, or only caught glimpses of at the festival launch which included seeing world music musician Pedro Espi Sanchis in The Mermaid from Zanzibar (written by Lisa Espi) and Marvelous Mixtures, a retelling of Roald Dahl’s “George’s Marvellous Medicine” which featured two seriously sick hip hop chickens.

So, how to keep your junior audience happy? Well first get their parents there (they’ll bring their kids) and then ENTHRALL!

I’ll be presenting two workshops, one with Jori Snell – which explores sound and movement (read more about it here). And one solo which focuses on the nitty gritty of building and playing unusual string instruments, or more broadly speaking, ‘noise makers’ for use in theatre and life.  See below for the detailed info.  And if you need to know more, you can contact me directly.

Water Bottle & Sardine Can Segankuru (Zulu fiddle)

How to Create Noise Makers with Personality
Date: Sunday 11 September
Time: 10h00 to 16h00 (6 hours)
Venue: Cape Town, venue to be confirmed
Price: R250

This workshop focuses on making and using unique and quirky musical instruments. Suitable for anyone interested in exploring the possibilities of hands on sound making as well as developing new techniques for object based theater.

Unlike modern musical instruments which tend to be lean and efficient machines, traditional world music instruments aren’t as hampered by the standardisation of the modern world.

Taking this as inspiration, workshop participants will learn basic techniques and then elaborate on them to create their own instrument inventions.

Using found objects and materials available from any hardware store, instruments will be created with unique musical and visual character traits – shrill, kind, bossy, comforting or even flirtatious.

And as an integral part of the design and building of their instruments, participants will explore the sonic and musical possibilities of their creations though hands on improvisation.