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Okefenokee 2002 |
Last Updated:
18th May 2002
Text from the Jodrell Bank '96 Program
by Graham GettyGG What did you think of EMMA#3 and your performance there?
AB EMMA#3 was our first gig in front of an audience. it was nerve racking, but I remember not feeling as bad as anticipated. The performance seemed to go quite well and we got a very enthusiastic reception after our 45 minutes. Many people were very positive about what we were doing and I suppose the fact we sold so many CDs on the day speaks for itself. However, we did not tape the performance so we will never know what it was like for the audience! (if anyone has got a recording, we'd be interested to hear it )
JC As a festival, EMMA#3 seemed fine with a good variety of acts. Our set has sort of blurred with time. We still haven't found anyone who taped it and we were so hyped up, the chances of remembering any of the music are minimal.
PR It was all a bit of a blur really. I arrived just in time to set up my gear, get changed, grab a drink and go on stage (in fact I think we all did!) Consequently, I didn't have much time to get scared although the minute or two just before going on stage was the worst. Funnily though, after a minute or two on stage it felt just like another practice session and things really started to click. It was a little disconcerting to think that people did not believe that we improvised the whole thing and they thought we were using the PCs to load sequences and music, but on the other hand it must also mean it was good if they thought we would need to do that! We didn't get to see all of the bands we really wanted to see during the rest of the festival, but from what we heard it seemed to go pretty well.
GG Have you performed any gigs since?
JC No. It will come as no surprise to anyone that it's hard to find places to play this kind of music. It's a bit frustrating because we'd like to be able to play frequently enough for people to be able to experience totally different sets, maybe even on consecutive nights. Playing improvised concerts 6 months apart is lacking something!
AB We have done 3 sessions though. These sessions provided the material for the new CD 'Attrition System'.
GG What do you think of the reaction to 'impossible Geometries'?
AB I think we have all been overwhelmed. We liked it ourselves, but it is very difficult to know quite how other people will react. So it came as a bit of a shock to realise that there was an audience out there which had been waiting for this type of music to return.
JC Every now and then I am stopped dead in my tracks by the realisation that this whole thing is real. The response has been so positive we find it hard to believe. We have sold hundreds of copies almost exclusively through word of mouth.
PR Stunned, especially when you get unsolicited mail (both land and electronic) saying how much they like the album and can we send them some tapes of other stuff we have done!
GG Tell us about your new album 'Attrition System'.
AB After EMMA#3, we did a couple of sessions and sent the tapes to various people as usual. They were liked very much, so Dave Law suggested that we make a CD using these session tapes. The CD contains 8 (yes 8!) tracks taken from the October 95, November 95 and March 96 sessions. This CD is quite different from 'Impossible Geometries' which contained 2 long and 1 short track. I think the music on 'Attrition System' is much more immediate and melodic. We have had to edit down a number of the tracks to fit onto the CD and also to remove some of the not so good bits! However, apart from cutting to length, the music is exactly as played. What I like about this album is that it gives people a good idea of what they could hear if they come and see us live. The next album will be different again, but you will have to wait a bit longer for that!
PR I think this album contains some of the best stuff we have done so far and it's also a reflection of how we are progressing both as a group and in our style. This really is AirSculpture "live and unleashed". The first album we had a bit more control over - this one just happened, and quite frankly I'm a lot happier with this one than the last. There are some superb improvised sequences which I just don't think would have come out in a studio situation because you spend too much time getting it right.
GG 1 believe the track Amazonian Lepidoptera theorise on Chaos was named via a competition?
AB Yes, Ashley Franklin of BBC Radio Derby ran a competition for a couple of weeks. He played the track and asked for title a suggestions in return for £50 of CD vouchers and a one-off CD-R which we compiled. It was a bit of fun and helped to let people know the album was way.
PR We're a bit naughty though that we changed the album after the competition was announced, so people were trying to think of names perhaps associated with 'Shades', the first name, rather than 'Attrition System'. However, the response was brilliant and the names covered things other than just 'Shades' so we had a good few to choose from.
GG is there any friendly rivalry between yourselves and RMI?
JC Yes, who can drink the most beer! We get on pretty well. I think both RMI and ourselves would be happy for the other band to be the second most successful EM act around.
AB I suppose there is, but as you say, it is friendly. We obviously have a great deal in common and we have attended a gig of theirs recently. In fact John and I acted as witness to their CD contract! However, the music is different. RMI are making music which is closer to the 70s TD sound. They are also working differently, sharing their equipment and using Gary on guitar. We are using some sounds which are classic TD, but tend to favour a much broader set including digital textures. We are also using PCs for sequencing. This gives us an extra variable to the improvisation, which can have an enormous effect on the direction of a piece. The reason RMI are playing first at Jodrell Bank is not that we are headlining, but because we all felt it would be better to go from their early/mid 70s sound to our late 70slearly 80s sound. It should help to give the whole evening a more coherent feel.
PR I think I disagree with Adrian on this one. We are too far apart in style to be rivals. We both provide different things but with a similar aim and a similar philosophy behind how and why we do them. We may well be trying to get to the same audience but I think that audience is so starved of "real" Electronic Music that they will like both of us and hopefully buy both albums.
GG "Retro, Improvisation, Organic and Analogue' seem to have replaced "Workstation and Multimedia" as the buzzwords of the moment? To what do you attribute the interest In "Retro" and do you think It will lost?
JC We've always preferred the older style of EM. While there was a lot of good stuff being done, the things that made EM special had got lost along the way. This is why we started playing music that captured some of that spirit again. The reaction that we've seen shows that plenty of other people also feel the same way.
PR Well, from a musician's point of view, the reason analogue and retro stuff has come back is quite simple; it's immediate, it's tactile and it just sounds bloody marvellous! I have yet to own a synth like the DX7 which can only be programmed via a keyhole (although the MicroWave came close to this until recently) and once you get the sound you dare not touch it, just in case you have to go through the pain of trying to get it back because you've made a mistake! Having said that, I don't actually own much in the way of true analogue or historic gear. The closest you can get is the OSCar. What I've gone for is a blend of digital technology but with analogue control. I've just recently bought the access programmer for the MicroWave and it's just completely changed the way I look at the synth. A real instrument has to respond to the player, the player needs to be able to control it and make it sound theirs. This has always been a problem with electronic gear until very recently with the new batch of virtual synths which have just appeared. The closest thing that used to be available was what is now termed 'analogue' gear and the odd exception in the digital world like the JD800 and Waldorf Wave. One of the really great things about the Korg Prophecy is not just it's flexibility from a programming point of view, but the number of controllers and parameter knobs which allow you to really put a signature onto it. It's a good mix of old and new, but I think it' s just the start. I find the Korg Trinity rather odd in that there are fewer physical controls even though there is more space. The touch screen is a nice idea but it doesn't really provide the feedback. I think that people are now starting to realise that you just can't beat analogue filters and analogue control. Consequently the two technologies will fuse. So, yes I think retro is here to stay but it'll not be as prominent as it is now, it will provide a difference to synths like there is a difference between an upright and a grand piano. Both use the same technology as its base but the components differ in a way which effectively provide two completely different instruments. Needless to say I see digital as the upright and digital & analogue as the grand!
GG Have you heard any EM lately which particularly impressed you?
AB No, but I have not heard much new material at all. I must say that the lack of support for this type of music makes it very difficult to find new interesting music. However, those who live in the Derby area are fortunate to have the Soundscapes program.
PR Very little, although I really like the latest Orbital single 'The Box'. It's great to see an instrumental in the charts again and something a little out of the ordinary too! No, we've been very busy putting the album together so most new music listening has been for that.
GG What plans do you have for the next album?
AB We plan to record the next album in the studio. It may be a double with one disc from the studio and the second from live performances. We will have to see....
JC We have two ideas (which contradict each other, of course). 'Impossible Geometries' suffered a bit from being rushed (we only had 2 full days in the studio to do everything) and it would be nice to do a more careful album. Of course we'd still make improvisation the compositional core, but maybe have more time for editing, mixing and just producing enough material to have a wide choice of what to use. Even overdubs aren't absolutely evil we used a couple on IG. You do what's necessary to produce something that will stand repeated listening. The second idea is to do a live album. This is dependant on getting enough live material together, good enough in terms of both recording and content to use. This is less of a priority though, as 'Attrition System' is effectively a live album except that there is no audience.
PR Plans? What are they? The closest we have to a plan is we're going to do another album! I guess we've pretty much decided it's going to be a double, but apart from that who knows!
GG Any recent or planned additions on the equipment front?
AB Yes! I have recently acquired two additions. The first is rather boring, a hard disk for my sampler. However, this allows me to load up a sample in 10 seconds rather than 1 1/2 minutes. It also means I don't have to grope around in the dark for floppy disks and try to play at the same time.
In fact, it was proving quite difficult to deal with the sampler live. Having to know what to load a few minutes ahead of using it doesn't really fit in with our improvisational approach. So, boring as it may be, it has already proved its worth in the making of 'Attrition System'. The second addition is a Korg Prophecy. When I got a demo around Christmas I was very impressed. I had been looking for something to replace my Casio CZ101, which I use mainly for lead lines, and was thinking of an ARP Omni or Syrinx. However, they are difficult to find and although I am an electronic engineer, I didn't really want to have to repair or maintain one. The Prophecy has a sound which is every bit as powerful as a MiniMoog, can do the more delicate and weird sounds of an ARP, and excels at sound effects. I have created a wonderful VCS3 simulation , using the real time controllers you can fiddle for hours. I must say, however, it does have a few very annoying failings. It does not provide the standard MiniMoog style envelope mode. If you release a key and then press a new one, all the envelopes reset to their start levels. So you cannot play staccato notes and by adjusting the time notes are held, ramp the envelopes up and down. I find this omission un-believable, given that the MiniMoog was one of the instruments they intended to emulate. The other failing is the performance editors. I had assumed that they would have chosen incremental type controls rather than pots. However, they went for pots. This means that when changing patches you have to adjust the pot to the right position before it grabs the value and starts to change it. On something like a JD-800, I can understand the economics, but there are only 5 performance controls on the Prophecy...
JC I've not bought anything for ages (apart from a house, which might explain the lack of interesting stuff!). I'd like to get a new keyboard to replace the VZ1, which is a bit bulky given that I don't use its sounds. The MicroWave has been on my shopping list for years, and the Prophecy is the perfect AirSculpture instrument. And of course it is a mortal sin that I own a MiniMoog and am not using it ... so maybe getting that serviced should be next!
PR Well, I've just bought the access programmer for the MicroWave which I must admit has really opened up the programming side of what is possibly the best synth in the world. I can't believe I've survived so long without it! I've also bought the Vintage expansion board for the JD990 which is just an absolutely superb source of sounds. I must also admit to wanting a Prophecy - it's one of the few synths I think all of us could buy and we'd not he intruding on each others sounds.
GG How is lmprovision developing?
JC Sadly, not very much has happened since Christmas. All the work I have done is to do with preparing for a move to Windows 95, which means no new features. I seem to go through phases where I do lots of work on it, others where nothing happens and this is a dry period. There are excuses, I've started working a bit further from home and arrive knackered and the fast thing I want to do is to pick
up another computer, but I'm sure that I'll hit another productive phase sooner or later. I've got some time off in June, maybe then.
PR It hasn't really changed that much since I started using it, which in some ways is good but I am starting to hit some restrictions now and again. Most of its development happened quite some time ago and we now have something which is more than adequate for what we need. I still make suggestions to John for new features and changes in usability, but it's not as imperative to get them done now.
GG What do you think of JS as a venue?
AB I think its great. It seems to be the perfect place for Space Music! It could be getting a bit common place these days, what with the recent London Planetarium gigs. However, I like the idea of playing somewhere unusual and I hope we can continue to find interesting places.
JC Amazing. We're really looking forward to playing under the stars without freezing our nuts off! It's also nice that it such an intimate venue. It should give people more of a chance to see how we actually do things.
PR It's going to be cosy! I think it's a great place to play and the audience will really be a part of the performance. It's going to be a tot better than the big planetarium gigs for the same reasons that some people prefer small clubs to stadiums.
GG Have any of you a particular interest in Space or Astronomy?
JC I've always had a fascination with astronomy, but it's an interest I never really followed up.
PR Not since I was at school, although I do like to hear about it and I watch a lot of sci-fi! I can name a few of the constellations but I don't stand in the garden with a pair of binoculars any more. I do, however, feel rather sad that the space programme has slowed to a snails pace. I always wanted to go into space but I doubt I'll get the chance now, not unless we get the chance to do what Jarre wanted to do on Rendezvous - now that really would be a cool place to play!
GG Have you pre-planned anything for this concert?
AB Obviously not, I am surprised at you Graham. Well there will have been some work done to create new patches and samples, but we tend to do that on our own. So the first time the music is heard will be tonight, and depending how close you are to the speakers, you may be hearing it before us; let us know what you think!
PR Well, I'm going to use sequence 3b followed by sequence 5j together with patch 34 on the JD... Of course NOT! And no, I don't name my sequences, most times I don't even save them after a session! The only thing I've pre-planned is that I'm going to wear some clothes... but then again...
GG Have you any more concerts planned, perhaps in strange venues?
JC We're playing at a free open air concert in the Market Square, Derby on Sunday June 23rd. The only 'strangeness' is that people other than the usual EM audience might actually be there!
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