>>>> Reviews about MAY 15th

MAY 15th
by giuseppe ielasi, renato rinaldi, gino robair, domenico sciajno
Fringesrecordings 01, 1998

Anomalous Records, 1999 Bruce Carnevale

If it's not " Music" it is, however, a sound world not entirely foreign. The resultant noises from hitting, rubbin & and scraping
wood are simple sounds most know or have even made. The quartet, however, puts them in a sophisticated context.
Instrument builder Rinaldi comes from the world of theater, where sounds are used to create atmospheres. He's
doing the same thing here oor, but it is bizarrely organic and mechanistic atmosphere he creates - the music breathes
and grows, resembIinIg- for example, crickets or a slowly pulsing machine. Imagine director David Lynch's minutiae and
industrialism with the humor of guitarist Eugene Chadbourne.
Recorded on may 15th in Ielasi's living room, the album is extraordinarily intimate. The listener is a fly on the wall hearing
Sciajno's electronics echoing around the other musicians' dry, scraping textures. It is also well recorded, high fidelity free
improv.

Jazziz, nov 1999, Sam Prestianni

1) Acoustic guitar, other strings; 2) harmoniurn, strings, amplified objects; 3) double bass, live electronics; 4) skin,
wood, metal, plastic, hair. Aside from guitar, bass, and harmonium, this sounds more like a list of materials used to make
instruments than to make music. This recording, by Italians Ielasi (1), Rinaldi (2), Sciajno (3), and American Robair (4)
presents something quite unlike "music" in any conventional definition. The instrumentation here is primitive but applied
in an extraordinarily refined manner.
May 15th shares characteristics with the Italian quartet A.I.R.S.'s recording "... I Am Surprised While It Actually Happens
..."(Leo Lab). Ielasi and Sciajno are in A.I.R.S., and like its predecessor, May15th is free improvised, but it's more atmospheric,
more an understated cacophony. It's also wildly impressive.

Revue et corrigŽe, dec 1998, Jerome Noetinger

Gino ROBAIR traite les peaux, bois, mŽtaux et plastiques (lÕimage de la batterie en prend un coup au passage)
et ses trois acolytes italiens, Giuseppe IELASI, Renato RINALDI et Domenico SCIAJNO s'occupent des cordes, qu'elles
proviennent de guitare acoustique, de contrebasse ou d'instruments faits-maison. Pour fausser encore plus les sources
de-lˆ. Ces quatre musiciens improvisent, crŽent leur musique en toute libertŽ loin des sentiers battus et du dŽjˆ-vu.

Skug, nov 1999, Impro-Lounge

Selten sind improvisierende Vokalgruppen. ESE, der Name rŸhrt von den Vonamen der norwegischen Stimmextremisten
Eldbjorg Raknes, Sidsel Endresen und Elin Rosseland, sind am besten, wenn jegliche Songstruktur au§en vor gelassen
wird und die Vokalisten wie Instrumentalisten klingen. A-cappella-Gesang geht Ÿber in freie Vokalimprovisationen, die
teils mit elektronischen Effekten unterlegt werden. ÒGack!Ó, eigentlich eine Konzertperformance, hat wiederum Bugge
Wesseltoft fŸr das JazzIand-Sublabel Kemistri produziert. Der šsterreichische Posaunist Radu Malfatti wurde aus
Polwechsel ausgeschlossen, weil er sein momentanes Konzept, die Grenzen der Hšrbarkeit auszuloten, zu sehr auf
dieses Quartett zugeschnitten hatte. Deshalb: Fenster und TŸren schlie§en. Regler weit nach oben ziehen. Erst bei einer
LautstŠrke-Einstellung, wo einem ansonsten die Nachbarn aus Protest die TŸre einrennen, eršffnet sich ein Mikrokosmos
aus extrem leisen, reduzierten KlŠngen. ÒBeinhaltungÓ, toller Name fŸr Trio und Album, 1996/97 eingespielt von RADU
MALFATTI, THOMAS LEHN (analogsynth) und PHIL DURRANT (vi), durchzieht bei unorthodoxem Instrumentengebrauch
konstant Spannung. lhr konzentriert-subtiles Interplay bricht mit Konventionen: Bruzzelnde, schabende, schleifende
GerŠusche oder Dronesounds lenken die volle Aufmerksamkeit gerade wegen ihres latenten Beinahe-nicht-
Vorhandenseins auf sich. Bei normalem GerŠuschpegel entwickelt das Quartett um GIUSEPPE IELASI (ac-g & other
strings) und DOMENICO SCIAJNO, die auch die HŠIfte von A.I.R.S. (DebŸt CD auf LEO-LAB) bilden, eine Vorliebe fŸr
abstruse, leicht metallisch tšnende Saiten. MuItiinstrumentalist RENATO RINALDI (strings, harmonium, amplified objects)
und GINO ROBAIR (perc), der bereits mit Anthony Braxton und John Butcher auftrat, helfen mit, die nach den
Aufnahmedaten betitelte Fringes-CD 01 Ÿppig ausfallen zu lassen. ÒMay 15thÓ offeriert 51 phantasievolle, Šu§erst
kurzweilige Minuten lmprovisationsmusik. Von beiden, wunderschšn in eine 13x18 cm-Pappkarton verpackten CDs
existieren nur 400 StŸck. Rasch bestetten: Fringes (D-Vertrieb www.platelunch.com), c/o Giuseppe lelasi. Via A. Volta 6.
1-2052 Monza. ltalien. E-Mail: giielasi@tin.it

Blow up, 1999, Etero Genio

A breve distanza dall'ottimo "... I Am Surprised While It Is Actually Happening..." uscito per la Leo Records, il monzese
Giuseppe lelasi confezione cartonata e stampato in sole 400 copie, May 15h contiene un'improvvisazione 'casalinga' registrata in
quel giorno dei 1998 approfittando della discesa in Italia di Gino Robair, percussionista che ha al suo attivo collaborazioni
con Anthony Braxton e John Butcher. Legni, pelli, metalli, oggetti percossi, harmonium, un po' di elettronica e
corde varie vengono lavorati con dovizia di particolari. Meno cameristico (seppur registrato neila Iiving room' di Ielasi),
nostra anima. (7/8)

Improjazz

Le cd May 15 th a ŽtŽ enregistrŽ ˆ la maison, chez Giuseppe Ielasi : il s'agit du premier enregistrement pour le label
Domenico Sciajno (ˆ lacontrebasse et aux live-electronics), Renato Rinaldi (ˆ l'harmonium, corde, objets amplifiŽs) et l'extraordinaire percussioniste
amŽricain Gino Robair, (bois, mŽtal, plastique, peaux...). La musique est diffŽrente par rapport au cd Leo, car
elle est le fruit d'une rencontre unique et occasionnelle : donc plus que la cohŽsion du son global, on peut apprŽcier
plut™t l'interaction rŽciproque, du tac au tac, entre les quatre individualitŽs, avec un Žchange instantanŽ des rŽparties.
Les formes sont plus dŽstructurŽes et discontinues ; l'hŽtŽrodoxie ne se limite pas aux techniques sur l'instrument, mais
et ˆ l'expŽrimentation sur le timbre ; le tout dans la meilleure tradition de la musique improvisŽe.
 

  >>>> REVIEWS about "...I Am Surprised While It Is Actually Happetting.. ."

"...I Am Surprised While It Is Actually Happetting.. ."
by Alati/lelasi/Radaele/Sciajno
(Leo Lab 038) 1997


DOWN BEAT - JOHN CORBETT - May 1998
Alati/lelasi/Radaele/Sciajno: I Am Surprised While It Is Actually Happetting.. (Leo Lab 038; 64:21: ****) This free improvising foursome from Italy-two electric guitars (Christian Alati, Giuseppe Ielasi), bass (Dornenico Sciajno) and percussion (Ruggero Radaele)-creates a gorgeous 12-part suite of texturat studie. Noteworthy for its patience and maturity, sornetimes deploving the gradual development and oscillating stuff in strings guitar approach of AMM, sometimes more scratchv and interactive, this is very highlevel, organically procured, noisefriendly spontaneous music. The guitars, work mthout fancy-dancy effects, just inventiveness and scrappy attitude. Sciajno's gritty bass work is particularly impressive in a cut-loose duet with drummer Radaele ("Part 7").

CADENCE - DAVID DUPONT - May 1998
Unlike most sessions in this hard-core free vein, this session by a quarlet of Italians has an immediate appeal. Though they always seem open to responding to the sonic exigencies of the instant, they are just as dedicated to responding as an ensemble. The listener is never sure where they are going, but is always confident that they're going there together. The group commands an arsenal of textural tricks. They have a way of settling, or seeming to settle, into a groove, which for them means a free-time collection of rumbling tattoo, scratches and squeals. But no sooner is a pattern evident then another element, a whistle, is added, and the tattoo shifts and the scratch drops out.
The structure of the date focuses attention on what each individual brings to the ensemble - the "titles" are actually just codes indicating who's on what track. "AS." for example, is a duet between Alati and Sciajno, Together they command a range of expression from lelasi and Sciaino's delicate duet to the blowout that culminates track six, the third quartet piece on the date. Even here the buildup to the pyrotechnics is so careful, it never lapses into the gratuitous. Indeed, it ends too abruptly; I would have liked to follow along for a few more minutes. The sound quality of the recording greatly enhances the session. Recorded in a church, each element has it own space, just as each musician brings his own sound and musical reflexes to the proceedings.
Recommended for those who enjoy the textural subtlety in a free setting.

PULSE - ART LANGE- Feb 1998
Guitar mavens looking for something completely different should hear I am surprised while it is actually happening (Leo Lab, ****) by Alati, lelasi, Radaele & Sciajno.
Unknown in the States, these Italian free improvisers luxuriate in minutiae and clutter-the two guitars, acoustic bass and drums cast slivers of electricity, echoey metallic chords, dark shadowy thuds and biting percussive noises into an ambiguous, unpredictable, non-tonal environment. Each of the 12 pieces is an edgy etude of crisp, clangy spontaneous composition.

JAZZIZ - SAM PRESTIANNI - May 1998
Italy's Alati-lelasi-Radaele-Sciajno quartet approaches the freedom of improvisation from another vantage point on ... I Am Surpriscd While It's Actually Happcning... (Leo Lab).
Using two electric guitars, double bass, and a junkyard of percussion, this group of voung experimentalists aggressively, seeks out new and unusual sound combinations centered primarily around issues of rhythm and timbre. The quartet's metallic clanging, underworld drones, trippy six-string effects, and expressionistic bass playing create,-, a self-contained universe of sculpted cacophony, one that calls to mind the more brazen efforts of Chris Cutler and Fred Frith. But the alburn's not relentless bv any means. A handful of duo Configurations realigns the group's instrumental hierarchy and compels the players to relate to one another on more intimate levels. There are also quite a few spacious, almost hushed parts, but even these burn with a subterranean edge characteristic of the entire disc. Fans of the Frith and of the Derek Bailey schools of dcconstructed guitar will find much to appreciate here. (Available through NorthCountry.)


SILENZIO NEWS - GIOVANNI ANTOGNOZZI - Jan 1998
“I am surprised while it is actually happening” Finalmente la musica improvvisata italiana comincia ad uscire allo scoperto anche con dei nomi nuovi e, sorprendentemente (o forse non tanto) su etichette straniere. In aftesa del primo CD dei romani Ossatura per la ReR (.. a breve), ecco la prima prova, sulla inglese Leo Lab, di un quartefto di giovanissimi. dedito ad una improvvisazione estrernamente aperta , ma nel contempo "riflessiva", piu' portata ad una sentita introspezione. Le chitarre piu' lacerate che 'laceranti" di Alati e lelasi (già autori di una notevole opera prima in cassetta sotto il nome Duo-Lo -vedi catalogo), il contrabasso estremamente 'contemporaneo" (specie nell'uso dell'archetto) di Sciajno (già collaboratore di Alvin Curran, Luc Houtkarnp ecc.) e le percussioni . sottese' di Radaele creano una amalgama estremarnente ben riuscita. Una musica spesso rarefatta, mai urlata, che ci ha molto colpito proprio per la sua discrezione ed intelligenza. Ottima prova d'esordio.


I MENDICANTI- ADRIANO ACCATTINO - Feb 1998
L'improvvisazione infatti semnbra shocciare dopo una persistente costrizione: vi si accede non dalla porta della faciloneria, ma da quella dello studio che un bel momento si libra su di un ventoso, festoso altopiano.
Su una tale strada di ricerca e di rigore si porgono quattro musicisti, Christian Alati, Giuseppe lelasi, Ruggero Radaele e Domenico Sciajno, che hanno recenLemente inciso un cidi a Londra, presso Leo Records Laboratory. Il lavoro è tutto pervaso dallo stupore fresco di ciò chesi va componendo nel momento stesso in cui accade: un'idea piuttosto interessante di attualita che carica di senso spazioso e prolungato la pratica stessa dell'improvvisazione. I dodici pezzi che compongono il disco si riferiscono sin dai titoti alle iniziali dei cognomi dei musicisti (AIRS), ma contemporaneamente al termine AIRS=ARIE, di cui in successione propongono alcune varianti, anche letterali (AIRS-ASAIR-R-IS). Si tratta dichiarataincrite di pezzi assai nobili, che si raccolgono e si disperdono senza nessun altra necessita che li determini se non quella dell'accaclere o dell'apparire destando sorpresa in primo luogo negli stessi esecutori.


Il Manifesto (Alias), sep. 1998, Luigi Onori
La musica che rompe - cd emblematici e folli sperimentatori
Battesimo inglese di un collettivo (chitarre, contrabbasso, percussioni) destrutturante. Brani autoreferenziali che rifiutano
titoli, sostituiti dalle iniziali dei musicisti.
Le chitarre (strappi, sfregamenti, scoppi) si ispirano a Derek Bailey, la batteria a Tony Oxley mentre emerge la personalitˆ
di Sciajno. Colpiscono i suoni ma la musica non esce da un'ossessiva aleatorietˆ.

Blow Up, 1998 Dario Adamic
Conflittuale il quartetto, tutto italiano, AIRS. Due chitarre, batteria e contrabbasso per un jazz-ambient da camera suggestivo
e personale. I quattro, giocando anche carte non nuove come ricerca timbrica e puntillismo, riescono a
tessere una dozzina di tele varie e originali. Assicurata da un coinvolgimento scaglionato dei vari strumenti (i titoli del quartetto (Alati Ielasi Radaele Sciajn
esoterica: ne risultano cos“ una volontˆ di comunicazione e un andamento narrativo estremamente esili, una tale interiorizzazione
del procedimento musicale da rendere arduo l'approccio da parte dell'ascoltatore.

VARIOS - PEDRO LOPEZ
Este experimento manual realizado en Abril de 1997 reune en una exploracion sonora las cuerdas con la percussion.
Cuatro Musicos Italianos Christian Alati: Guitarra. flauta de Juguete. Giuseppe lelasi: guitarra, percussion. Ruggero Radaele: batena y percussion y Domenico SciaJno: ContrabaJo crean un entorno basado en la percussion altamente estimulante.
Las iniciativas se mezclan en un lenguaJe grupal del que espor-Adicamente surgen los timbres de los instrumentos de cuerda originates reasurniendo su papel de construccion melodica pero son de nuevo absorbidos por los muy especiales planteamientos percusivos.
Los excelentes plantearnientos del arco en la guitarra junto al contrabajo proveen de un alternativa deslizante a ese fluir de encuentros percusivos.
Nada de compulsiones. Una Jugosa densidad deja paso a otra escena en la que los timbres pueden estirarse y mostramos su resonancia en un relativo silencio. Todo ello banado con la frescura de la improvisacion que los mantiene a eUos y at oyente atento a cuaJquier insinuacion. a cualquier cambio..

Get musinc .com, Steve Loewy
AMG EXPERT REVIEW: This recording documents unusual collaborative efforts of these four talented Italians as they map
out a provocative twelve-part suite. Heavy on the strings, the group successfully explores a range of possibilities with
seemingly unlimited palettes. Alati and Ielasi offer swirls of guitar, with Alati also chiming in on toy flute. Ielasi doubles
on percussion, complementing the drumming of Radaele, while Sciajno displays monstrous technique on the string
bass. The results stimulate as much as they aggravate, as the colors move from atmospheric balloons to thrashing
strings. Snippets of melodic invention intervene, but this is mostly an adventurous improvisational gig. Emotions rise and
fall, as the group navigates a consistently interesting sonic landscape. While the pings, pops, and scratches are everywhere,
there is plenty of variety to reward the serious listener.

Improjazz

musiciens qui se vouent aussi ˆ l'organisation de concerts dans le Nord de l'Italie et ˆ la crŽation du label "Fringes",
gŽrŽ par Giuseppe Ielasi. Christian Alati et Giuseppe Ielasi (guitares), Ruggero Radaele (batterie) et Domenico Sciajno
(contrebasse) sont aussi impliquŽs -ˆ titre individuel aussi bien que collectif- dans la collaboration avec des musiciens
parmi lesquels Alvin Curran, Michel Doneda, Hans Koch, Martin Schutz, John Butcher, Gino Robair... ce qui leur permet
de dŽvelopper leur propre langage " improvisatif " (voir ˆ ce propos l'interview publiŽe dans le n. d'avril 1999
d'Improjazz). Dans leur premier cd, publiŽ par Leo Records, les quatre musiciens se combinent dans de diffŽrentes formations
c™tŽ, entre le jeu interindividuel dÕaction-rŽaction, impulsion-rŽponse et, de l'autre c™tŽ, l'unitŽ du son global dans
des techniques hŽtŽrodoxes sur l'instrument, dont l'utilisation crŽe non seulement des moments anguleux et ‰pres, mais
aussi des mŽditations lyriques ˆ peine susurrŽes, parfois repliŽes dans un silence introverti : le duo entre Ielasi et Sciajno
(n.5) est exemplaire ˆ ce propos. Il y a un sens de l'espace et une recherche sur le timbre remarquables, qui contribuent
ˆ donner un son original et frais, gr‰ce aussi, sans aucun doute, au jeune ‰ge de ces musiciens et ˆ la multiplicitŽ
de leurs expŽriences et influences



Mit “I am surprised while it is actually happening”. (LEO LAB CD 038) versucht Leo Feigin mit den fuBbalibegeisterten Italienern Christian ALATI, Giuseppe IELASI, Ruggero RADAELE und Domenico SCIAJNO vier neue Namen ins Spiel zu bringen. In vier halblangen Quartetten neben kOrzeren Trio- und Duobegegnungen und einem Solo pflegen zwei Gitarristen zusammen mit Schlagzeug und Kontrabass die edle Kunst des Gerauschemachons a I~ Incus. Mit Delikatesse wird gezupft, geplinkt, geplonkt, gestrichen, gerappelt und getickelt, so daB die vier Mannen doch allerlei Kurzweil miteinander zu gonieBen scheinen. Leider spielt sich das Geplankel ausschlieB[ichim Mittelfeld ab, ein Drang zurn Tor ist mit blo6em Auge nicht feststelibar. (ch konnte mich genausogut vor ein Aquarium setzen und mich als Katze f0h1en. Irgendwie muB man ja den Kreislauf in Schwung halten.
 

  >>>> Reviews about VARIOUS EVENTS

CD INTRIO

Fabio Martini: Intrio
Fabio Martini (clarinets), Tito Mangialajo Rantzer (bass, first half only), Domenico Sciajno (bass, electronics, second half only), Carlo Virzi (percussion, first half only), Ruggero Radaele (percussion, second half only)
(Takla : TAKLA3)



Two separate trio sets from one of Italy's best-kept secrets, reed player Fabio Martini. His Circadiana Clangori of last year proved him to be an interesting composer for a medium-sized ensemble of improvisors; here we find him in a much more intimate, and more exposed, setting.

Martini is a lugubrious player with a slow, deliberate sense of development. He seems to enjoy letting his notes swell and grow. Unlike so many free reedsmen, he doesn't feel the need to play fast and furious; his concern seems to be to keep the larger-scale musical movement underway, using long, langorous phrases. Not that his partners spend too much time filling in the details on either of these sessions; again, the emphasis is on thoughtful playing, not wild abandon.

Rantzer plays mostly with the bow, and his solo on "Effrazione" shows him to have a sinuous sound which is low on the rosiny squeak of so many bass players and high on -- again -- evolution and development. When he switches to pizzicato, it's to provide a solid anchor in this mostly unpulsed music, landing squarely on the accents every time with a diamond-hard touch. Virzi's contribution is so restrained as to seem almost odd at first. He seems to play individual beats, not riffs or fills; the result seems disjointed, and certainly isn't articulated in any conventional way, but it works in this setting. Like moss growing in your driveway, this trio has an inevitable, organic working-out which seems possible exactly because it happens at such a careful pace.

The second trio has, of course, some things in common with the first; at least inasmuch as Martini is the leader, and his approach hasn't changed a great deal. Radaele is, however, a much more ebullient percussionist than Virzi -- not loud, just busy, making a noisy-but-subdued backdrop to Martini's playing. Sciajno's electronics help him out, too. This pair's favoured method isn't the single, isolated sound but the continuous scratch and rattle, out of which important things occasionally emerge.

The difference in approach is clear from the opening. Sciajno has more of a basis in extended techniques than Rantzer displays on the foregoing session, and the overall feel has more in common with other rhythm sections on the cusp of free improv and free jazz. Sciajno takes some very nice solos (on "The Red Tent", especially) in which he really seems to revel in the bass's bottom register. It's not extremely hectic playing, but it's distinctly more hectic that the first half of the disc, and the most obvious example is the wild (and short) "Popgun", which sounds distinctly like a Parker/Lytton/Guy piece.

This is certainly a game of two halves, but there's enough continuity of expression between the two to let them flow together as well as marking a join (there's something Deleuzian in this) so as to prevent it from merely being broken-backed. Fifty seven minutes is nowhere near long enough to get tired of Martini's ever-intelligent, almost discursive clarinet. The two rhythm sections give the disc an added degree of variety (and the device gives Takla a chance to show off more of its talent to us non-Italians) but either of these trios could have carried it off alone. More, please.

'Trouw' 12-12-1994 by Kees Polling (extract, english translation, originally in dutch)

about 'young improvisers Festival' 1994, korzo teather, den haag, holland.
improvisers wild humor - I appreciated the serene and sofisticated doublebass playing by the italian Domenico Sciajno,
the dry and valuable accordeon and guitar playing by the american Jim O'Rourke and the piano playing of the english
Pat Thomas.

'The Volkskrant' 20-3-1995 (extract, english translation, originally in dutch)

about 'mey festival' 1994, konijnklijke conservatorium, den haag, holland.
genres melting in the 'the hague school' pressure cooker - The different genres create a real crash in the audaciuos
ÒTerraÓ by Domenico Sciajno. Electronics, teather, video and recalls to popular culture gathering in pressure cooker.

King Cycle - audio visula performance on italian futurism, 1995 Prima Fila, dic 1997

King Cycle - ideazione, regia e musica di Domenico Sciajno
Questo il titolo dell'interessante performance audiovisiva presentata ad Amsterdam nel 1995 in occasione del CIM
(Comtemporary Improvised Music) e che ora ha debuttato in prima rappresentazione italiana al Teatro Juvarra di
Torino. Il compositore e contrabbassista Domenico Sciajno - impegnato da diversi anni nella ricerca di espressioni contemporanee
altre, ha fornito, attraverso un'operazione iconoclasta, le basi per la nascita di un nuovo modo di vivere e pensare
l'arte: il Futurismo.
Di questa lezione, per tanti anni oscurata dalla contro-reazione del fascismo, Sciajno compie un "riciclo" (da qui il titolo
la cui traduzione dall'inglese, "re ciclo", si presta al gioco di parole), inteso come recupero delle potenzialitˆ delle innovazioni
futuriste. Da queste sono stati estrapolati e attualizzati in particolar modo il tema del Modernismo (attraverso la musica sullo stimolo delle teorizzazioni di Russolo e per la recitazione attraverso la manipolazione di testi futuristi e materiale d'epoca sul modello marinettiano delle parole in libertˆ.
Cinque i musicisti impegnati nel corso delle quattordici tappe che costituiscono lo spettacolo, attraverso le quali si
assiste all'evoluzione avutasi negli anni di temi come il Modernismo, la Velocitˆ, il Dinamismo, fino alla critica considerazione
sull'influenza che questi hanno attualmente. Sono impiegate proiezioni diapo e video (mezzi espressivi sempre
stato anch'esso risolto in chiave moderna, attraverso l'ideazione di un sistema a "ragnatela" che ha permesso di fornire
gli spettatori di pulsanti collegati a un computer programmato per l'elaborazione casuale di immagini e suoni. A ogni
replica, cos“, la parte destinata al caso si determina a seconda degli imput forniti dagli stessi spettatori. In questa operazione
Sciajno ha permesso al pubblico (che ha risposto positivamente alla proposta) di godere di uno spettacoloevento,
difficile da incontrare nei consueti clrcuiti teatrali.

TOTODONAUESCHINGEN Alvin Curran
computer realization: Nicola Bernardini, Domenico Sciajno

When Beethoven calls, it's always a big event - he hardly ever uses the telephone: "Alvin, my email has been down for
48 hours and I wanted to tell you how elated I am - you won't believe it, I've just received the Siemens Prize, the Tokyo
Prize and the MacArthur genius award, all in one week. Breitkopf and Bertelsmann have a lot to be happy about, no?
And even beat Cage 7 times at chess. Anyway, what about you, how's it going for Donaueschingen??? all you composers
running around in that twisted wreckage you call music. "It's all Arnold's fault," I blurted. "Arnold who?... oh, that
sullen guy who sits painting his own portrait all day long...? he thinks all the tones are equal, even Socrates was smarter
than that." "well that's what I was just writing in my program notes...I'll read you a bit:
The "Hyde" in me writes meticulously honed musical structures, simple and direct, lyrical or disruptive, informed by the
Blues, Berg and Birds. Meanwhile, the "Jeckyl" in me writes for the sounds of an entire seacoast, or radiophonic geographies
for millions of human voices coming out of loudspeakers buried in the earth. Musics where order and chaos
are indifferently fused, as in a large building seen before and after a devastating earthquake; moments and musics
where accident, chance and fate render form and content irrelevant. Music as a permanent state of emergency,
where David Tudor's musical vision could make the word
"experimental" sound as acceptable as any airport transit lounge and just as disconcerting.
TOTODONAUESCHINGEN is Jeckyl is experimental is defiant, affectionate, collective, nonintentional, global, unknowable.
Men women and children in pitched battle with machines and archival memories. Systems of communications
made out of potato and corn chips. Laparoscopic interventions to reduce the size of the sonic malignancies to their
atomic weights. Fasting and binging on a constant meal of solid equal temperments. Invisibly moving pieces of music
like Maradona moves the football, like Satie moves furniture, like astronauts move their bowels in space.... Ludwig, are
you there? have you understood what I'm talking
about? "Not a word." Then you've understood everything.
Everything surrounding the origins and circumstances of TDE exudes an air of impossibility. The very idea to take the
entire recorded Archive of the Donaueschingen Festival and use that as a compositional source is as unadvisable as
trying make music with the active fuel rods of a nuclear reactor. Using merely two computers, and necessarily with
two different operating systems and two very different languages (MAX-MSP and C-Sound) and trying to make them
communicate efficiently at their maximum levels has been an arduous struggle. On the other hand, working collectively
with the brilliant minds of Nicola Bernardini and Domenico Scianjo made what would have otherwise been an impossible
musical event possible. And finally the improbable idea - enthusiastically pursued by Armin Koehler and kindly
agreed to by the Furst and Furstin von Furstenburg - to use the facade of
the Schloss as a theater of sonic architecture by fitting hidden loudspeakers into many of the windows became impossible
'per motivi tecnici.'
Central to everything is the decision to transform and re-represent an unthinkable quantity of known music - which itself
represents over a half century of a most extraordinary musical body in evolution - a body which people embraced
with passionate commitment or fled from in horror. A body of music which is rock solid, yet invisible; produced in nearly
every corner of this planet yet sadly inaudible but to a few people; and a decidedly grand economic luxury, if not a
near economic disaster. So let's say that TDE is for me a personal homage to this great music, its authors and one of its
principal centers of production.
While this act of meditated appropriation is carried out with the utmost respect for the authors and their works, its
essence is to pour all of these organized sounds frequencies and vibrations into a global well from which samples are
drawn continuously and indifferently taking care not to favor individuals or compositions or demonstrate the origins of
the samples (though this can happen occasionally). Far from the modernist idea of collage or modish post-modern
ironies, the roots of this work can be found in Ives, Cage, Cecil Taylor, David Tudor and my own ongoing research in
areas of high musical danger and consequent search for musical forms in the broadest sense of that word.
Technically this is what happens in a nutshell: 30 seconds of music are selected from the beginning, middle and end of
each of a large and diverse selected number of musical works commissioned by the Festival over the past 70+ years.
All of these musical fragments are made available in the form of 8 simultaneous digital streams. Computer number
one (a PC with Linux OS
and running CSound) chooses a subset of1-8 of these streams to elaborate, in cycles (Time Blocks) ranging from every
15 seconds to every 7 minutes. It then applies to each chosen stream one of ten processing types all based on
extreme transformative typologies. The transformed streams are then passed on to the second computer (a MAC G3
running MAX /MSP) which in turn
processes the material of machine one with 1-10 other transformations. All of these selections and multiple processes
are governed by a complex system of random and weighted probabilities which exploit and enhance the "unknowable"
and illogical character of the system's behavior - which at times can appear to be attentive to conventional
musical wisdom and at others acts like a disturbed child with no consideration for "good musical behavior" whatsoever.
The machines, of course, have no knowledge of or
sensibility toward the source musics. They simply do as they are told, and take what is fed to them as if it were the
same life sustaining air,water, and music so indispensable for our own human survival.... "Ludwig - are you still there???"
"Ja. Ja. but I have to run off to an improvisation contest with Scelsi, like a duel- we're only allowed one note each.
Schoen, nicht?? - send you an email soon. Bis bald."