Monday, September 14, 2009

Live Improvised Electronic Sound Performance - Brigadier JC and EndFinDead in the Spiritstore

Thanks to all the additional contributors to this blog for adding their voice and perspective...earlier we promised more on Brigadier JC and EndFinDead in the SpiritStore, here's a few lines from John Lillis...

Improvisation is always a muckier affair than your average polished, rehearsed event. Gone are the structured ideas and practised frameworks, replaced with Sun Ra's simple yet ingenious mantra of “make a mistake and do something right”. Perhaps one of the more intriguing aspects of improvised performances is the fact that the future is unwritten – any chord, squeal, pop or static can send the proceedings in a completely new trajectory. Its also a movement without sonic expectations or limitations, where sounds are explored equally for their consonance and dissonance.
Watching the performance by Brigadier JC and EndFinDead in the Spiritstore, one key theme that is evident in the way both musicians interact with the sound is the idea of reaction. Harnessing existing equipment but challenging it work in new ways, the two begin to construct their cacophony of bedlam, using everything from a standard guitar, a mobile phone, a rewired circuit board and a voluminous amount of effects peddles. Noisecore.
Both musicians are respectful towards the sounds the other person is creating, like the hesitancy between two strangers when they first begin a conversation. The process of watching them find a sonic common ground in real time is of course one of the most engaging aspects of this type of noise experimentation, and soon both artists are pushing and driving their conversing sounds to create a dense wall of piercing feedback and throbbing low end frequencies. Its refreshing to see how something so instantaneous and unplanned can be moulded and tweaked into a definite noise sculpture, but also that the noisicians involved understand the importance of momentum – allowing it all to melt away to nothing when the suitable time arrives.
John Lillis

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