Interactive Music Laxed by Brendan Cardiff, Kezia Hilkiah and Remington Raymond Laxed bridges disparate musical styles, from jazz and ambient to indie-pop, to create a fluid and evolving performance that utilises digital and hardware technologies in an emancipation of these contrasting musical idioms. One could sight the silky atmospheric mannerisms of late night jazz bars, the lo-fi, moody vocalisations of ((( O ))) and the funky psychedelia of Ocean Alley as reference points for the group’s sonic modulations. The ambient sound, performed by Brendan, is controlled by various hardware electronic apparatuses, as well as performatively staged through the gestural capacities of the electric guitar. The exploration of these two performance paradigms (gestural movement and tactile, haptic motion), provides a method for sonic exploration that is not delimited to traditional instrumentation and performance habits. Grounding the performance in a rich bed of harmonic content is Remington Raymond, whose love of jazz piano really comes to the fore. Remi makes use of the Novation Launchkey to utilise the capacities of the keyboard paradigm, whilst allowing for further sonic investigation through the use of various effects within Ableton Live. Kezia’s love of singing disparate musical styles, from intimate jazzy mood pieces, to ecstatic, bright pop tunes is allowed to shine within the context of the group’s stylistically fluid performance. As well as this, Kezia makes use of the Ableton Push 2 to provide the percussive foundation of the song through live programming and performance. Never lingering on one musical idiom, Laxed offers an emotionally and stylistically evolving performance that reflects each of the group members’ disparate musical gravitations.
Equilibrium by Jack Meimaris, Ainsley Shiri, Oscar Tooms Equilibrium is a three-part performance which is the result of three contrasting artists collaborating to generate what we consider an equally composed original performance. In three parts, we delve into vastly different areas of live electronic music. Part I comes from Oscar Tooms, an electronica artist who has a special place in his heart for distorted bass. When the beat drops, we truly understand his talent for producing heavy EDM music. With Jack directing using the Ableton Push, Ainsley on the bass, and Oscars unique water drums, Part I proves to be a fun, upbeat electronic based event. Ainsley Shiri comes from a predominantly hip-hop/ RnB background and brings elements from those genres into the performance. Ainsley is heavily involved in all live percussive elements and he is solely responsible for the creative direction of Part II. In this part, we delve into a hip-hop based sample which is developed using Ainsley’s stylistic drum rack, a solo by Oscar on his analogue synthesiser, and rounded out by Jack’s bass playing. Part III by Jack Meimaris - an Irish musician turned digital – is inspired by his fondness for catchy riffs present in any good Irish tune. With Jack on the synth, Oscar on the drums, and Ainsley on the bass, the piece reaches a dramatic finale that sprinkles motifs from other sections before slowly dispersing. Present throughout the performance, you might notice a magic wand that may or may not have accidently thrown at your TV when playing tennis. Instead of breaking the TV, this remote manipulates reality itself. So, get up off your chair, and get ready for some boomin’ bass, mad beats, and heavy synths.
Check It by Madison Hardy and Taine McDonald Check it is an original composition, created for the purpose of an experimental performance, designed to be performed using interactive elements of technology. Within this performance, there are a wide range of loops, recorded in Ableton, a program designed to allow connections to a range of interactive technologies. These loops
were recorded individually, then layered together to create the performance being showcased tonight. The most important part of this performance, is to show the use of different technologies, able to create musical sounds, in interesting and creative ways. The two devices being used to showcase this, are a Wii remote and an Ableton Push pad. These two devices, enable us to create a range of sound effects and perform these changes to the sounds, live for the audience. Our main inspiration when it comes to our composition, is an artist called Kaytranada, who is known for producing genres including Electronic, hip hop, R&B, dance, funk and house. He has been an active, well known artist since 2010 who is still producing music today, and has won multiple awards, including a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album “BUBBU”. For those who do not know of kaytranada’s music, he uses a range of instrumental sounds, which together create both an ambient, as well a hip-hop style. We aimed for this style, using ambient sounds, harmonies, chord progressions and drum tracks, designed to flow with the harmonics throughout the performance. These sounds will progress throughout the performance, coming to a climax of all loops composed, then gradually coming back down to earth and completing the song with a slow fade out, similar to the way to performance commenced. As performers, we will be working together to use both devices, in order to introduce our own individual elements into the overall compsition. Though, as a co-performing and co-producing pair, we strive to create an enjoyable as well as intriguing performance for viewers and listeners. Hoping to also achieve a clean and exciting performance together.
Focus by Tom Jackson, Jirra Bell and Jack Bolton Focus is a modern sounding genre blurring composition that brings ambient pop sounds to the forefront. The instrumental draws sonic inspiration from the 1975 and Flume with all tracks being played and looped live through Ableton. The aim of this piece is to showcase both our own styles of music and how they can mesh with the utilisation of different technologies through Ableton as focused on throughout the unit. The drum programming is being looped live by Jirra through an Ableton push giving the composition an electronic flume ‘like’ element due to the samples created and being used. Jack is taking focus on tracking keys and synth with the Novation Launchkey and creating the general track ambience that creates the sonic space the performance needs. Finally, Bass and Guitar is being looped live by Tom, creating the feel and emotion the track needs. It also features Tom soloing live on his guitar as well as using a phone that interacts with our session filtering varying elements. The use of these various hardware’s allows us to layer and manipulate an abundance of sounds and timbres that are stimulating to your ears. As performers and a group, we will be working closely with one another working off each other’s strengths and weaknesses to create harmonically rich and intricate chords/harmonies as well as interactions between the music we are creating. The result is to create an upbeat and emotional composition that strives to captivate and intrigue an audience.
Utopia by Angus Hall, Cameron Bryer and James Engwirda Utopia is an original experimental electronic piece with inspirations stemming from jazz and blues music. This performance showcases live looping of acoustic instruments, the virtual control of a Wii remote, an Ableton Push controller and multiple other Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) controllers. These MIDI controllers enabled us to manipulate musical elements to further enhance and control the performance. We drew on conventional musical foundations and concepts with the intent of combining them with new and innovative performance techniques to create an engaging performance. One of the most crucial components of the performance is the use of looper to record live clips within Ableton. This strategy is used to record guitar, bass, piano and the Ableton Push as a way to interact live with the audience. It was important to us that we include both acoustic and digital elements in the performance as to combine our strengths with our ambitions. The digital
component provided a gateway into performing with new and different technologies that lead to new ideas and possibilities. We found Inspiration for this from artists such as Elise Trouw, Mostly Robot and Tash Sultana who specialise in live looping and the digital dimension. The use of MIDI controllers allowed us to manipulate various timbres that wouldn’t have otherwise been possible. This includes transforming the sonic space with delay time, reverb, distortion and randomizers as well as texturally dense sounds played on the MPE Roli Block controller. These sounds from the Roli Block will be sent out and controlled via the Wii remote, opening the door to development of sound and a unique performance. As the performance progresses we aim to build a dense harmonic texture with evolving elements to define and redefine each section through timbre, drawing to a satisfying conclusion.
Electrified by Imanuele Concengco, Isabella Oxenford and Eli Badger Electrified is an original composition incorporating a laid back electro funk and experimental jazz style that has been fused together with interactive music technologies. Some inspiration for this composition included ‘Daf Punk’ for the electro funk aspects and ‘FKJ’ for his use of jazz style and live looping. This piece is founded on the idea of combining conventional live instruments with digital technology, manipulating their musical timbre and texture to create a unique sound. Using live instruments ensured there was a human feel and groove throughout the piece. The structure of the piece consists of the introduction in which the key ideas of the piece are created and looped. This song then moves to a new section with a different chord progression and beat. The piece then returns to the main chorus idea in which Imanuele plays a more rhythmic keyboard part. We then interact with the piece we have created using technology such as the Wii remote and MIDI controllers. The song features Imanuele soloing over the top of the piece as it’s being manipulated. Some of the equipment utilised in this performance include the Novation Launch Key, Ableton Push, a Wii Remote, Electric Bass and an Egg Shaker. All the looping and manipulative effects are achieved through the use of Ableton Live sofware. These effects include grain delay, white noise, lowpass filters, flanger and tremolo. Skills needed for this performance included learning the benefits and limitations of the technology, group collaboration, competence in a range of musical instruments and familiarity with different musical genres. The group prioritised a sense of play and musical enjoyment.
The Good Lookin’ Fellas by Liam Brown, Jasper Hodgson and Michael Webb This work is a balanced blend of three wildly different musical traditions. The performance takes the syncopated rhythms of Afro-Caribbean drumming, the archaic sound of the Kazakh dombra, and the danceable drum beat & hard synth sounds of modern electronic music and blends them into a kind of ethno-house fusion. At the Ableton Push controller is Mikey, acting as the backbone of the song. Triggering & manipulating sounds to bring the performance to life. These sounds are then going to be sent into outer space by Liam brown who will be controlling filters and effects using a Wii remote. Jasper Hodgson will start off by playing the dombra, and then will lay down some drums on the Roland HandSonic. The Good Lookin’ Fellas aim to push the boundaries of popular music by incorporating unusual elements into their music and exposing their audience to sounds they may have never heard before. This production is the result of three different people with three different musical tastes coming together to form one sound. Liam, a future bass producer and musical experimentalist, has helped to bring the song some of its catchy melodies and is exploring with the use of unorthodox performance equipment. Progressive house/melodic techno producer Mikey is the mastermind behind the overall sound of the song and its hard-hitting bass and synth sounds. Jasper, who's specialty lies in reggae and Central-Asian ethnic music has provided the song with its more natural elements.