Electronic Music Studies Network Conference (with Alok Nayak)

Milapfest and Liverpool Hope University presented a major outcome of their partnership work last week in an important conference presented by the Electronic Music Studies (EMS) Network at Lisbon, Portugal - See more at: http://www.milapfest.com/news/milapfest-and-liverpool-hope-university-at-the-ems-conference-lisbon/#sthash.s7W8hZ6p.dpuf

Dr Manuella Blackburn (Lecturer, Hope University) and Alok Nayak (Director of Development, Milapfest) gave  a co-authored conference paper entitled ‘Performer as sound source: Interactions and Mediations in the studio and in the field.’ - See more at: http://www.milapfest.com/news/milapfest-and-liverpool-hope-university-at-the-ems-conference-lisbon/#sthash.s7W8hZ6p.dpuf

Milapfest and Liverpool Hope University presented a major outcome of their partnership work last week in an important conference presented by the Electronic Music Studies (EMS) Network at Lisbon, Portugal - See more at: http://www.milapfest.com/news/milapfest-and-liverpool-hope-university-at-the-ems-conference-lisbon/#sthash.s7W8hZ6p.dpuf

Dr Manuella Blackburn (Lecturer, Hope University) and Alok Nayak (Director of Development, Milapfest) gave  a co-authored conference paper entitled ‘Performer as sound source: Interactions and Mediations in the studio and in the field.’ - See more at: http://www.milapfest.com/news/milapfest-and-liverpool-hope-university-at-the-ems-conference-lisbon/#sthash.s7W8hZ6p.dpuf

On 19th June I presented a paper at the Electronic Music Studies Network Conference about the AHRC collaborative project with Milapfest. Alok Nayak (director of development) joined me in Lisbon at Culturegest to deliver the research developments.

The paper focused on issues of sound collection from Indian musical instruments and how these materials are used creatively in compositional work. The paper presented several research questions: what are the optimum conditions for a successful recording session? How prescriptive should one be as a composer when dealing with a performer, and how does one navigate the same situation cross-culturally with foreign instruments where unfamiliar performance traditions and language barries exist?

Milapfest and Liverpool Hope University presented a major outcome of their partnership work last week in an important conference presented by the Electronic Music Studies (EMS) Network at Lisbon, Portugal.
Dr Manuella Blackburn (Lecturer, Hope University) and Alok Nayak (Director of Development, Milapfest) gave  a co-authored conference paper entitled ‘Performer as sound source: Interactions and Mediations in the studio and in the field.’
The paper focused on the issues of sound collection from Indian musical instruments, and how these materials are used creatively in new compositions. The paper presented several research questions: what are the optimum conditions for a successful recording session? How prescriptive one should be as a composer? And how does one navigate the same situation cross-culturally with foreign and ethnic instruments where unfamiliar performance practice traditions and language barriers may exist?
- See more at: http://www.milapfest.com/news/milapfest-and-liverpool-hope-university-at-the-ems-conference-lisbon/#sthash.s7W8hZ6p.dpuf

Milapfest and Liverpool Hope University presented a major outcome of their partnership work last week in an important conference presented by the Electronic Music Studies (EMS) Network at Lisbon, Portugal.
Dr Manuella Blackburn (Lecturer, Hope University) and Alok Nayak (Director of Development, Milapfest) gave  a co-authored conference paper entitled ‘Performer as sound source: Interactions and Mediations in the studio and in the field.’
The paper focused on the issues of sound collection from Indian musical instruments, and how these materials are used creatively in new compositions. The paper presented several research questions: what are the optimum conditions for a successful recording session? How prescriptive one should be as a composer? And how does one navigate the same situation cross-culturally with foreign and ethnic instruments where unfamiliar performance practice traditions and language barriers may exist?
- See more at: http://www.milapfest.com/news/milapfest-and-liverpool-hope-university-at-the-ems-conference-lisbon/#sthash.s7W8hZ6p.dpuf

 

 

Performance of New shruti for Sarod and electronics at the Capstone Theatre, Liverpool

Manuella Blackburn & Rajeeb Chakraborty

Rajeeb Chakraborty: sarod

New piece for Sarod and tape

New mixed piece for Sarod and tape - New Shruti

In two parts:
http://www.manuella.co.uk/Sarod_part1.mp3

http://www.manuella.co.uk/Sarod_part2.mp3

The work will be premiered on Saturday 27th April at the Capstone Theatre, Liverpool Hope University as part of Milapfest's Music for the Mind and Soul concert (starting at 1pm), in a post-concert presentation event from 3pm.

Interview with Rajeeb Chakraborty

Interview with Dr Rajeeb Chakraborty  (performer for my mixed work for sarod and tape)

1.    Can you talk about your approach to learning the piece?

It was quite interesting. Actually what happened when I heard the first bit I wasn’t getting the entire idea. I listened to your previous CD and your approach was quite different from that one, because there you were using mostly ambient sounds. I have worked with ambient sounds before, but this one was very special because you used different instruments and their tones and you did some processing of those, and actually whatever was being playing by different ethnic instruments and on top of that the challenge was to fix the scale. Then when I kept listening to it time and again I could start relating to it a much better way with my sarod with your track. The other challenging part was that there was no constant rhythm.  To develop it when you are playing ad lib kind of thing like alaps (long notes) it was not only that as there were climatic points so I had to be very careful with those when I come exactly at the same point with you at those points. It was quite a learning process actually playing for this.

2.    Is this a completely new experience?

Absolutely! This was a new experience because what I was saying – previously I have worked with ambient sounds but not sounds which have been created with different kinds of musical instruments or those that have been processed.  So this is a new experience certainly.

3.    Now that you have heard and played the piece, can you comment on the process of initially recording you (back in January)? Can you comment on how the recording stage has influenced the resulting work?

It helped you in structuring the music. But what I found that because it was bits and pieces taken from different areas [of the recording session] I would have been happy to do it again or re-record it, as sometimes we don’t play one solid note eg. Re Ga – not like that. I wanted to give some kind of Indian embellishments along with your track – it would give it another dimension to it [an added musicality]. Playing it in an Indian way.

4.    Can you hear how your sound material has been re-worked into this new composition?

Yes – these are like the spices and ingredients – but you did the cooking. I didn’t know why you were recording me [in January] to be frank because I didn’t hear any of your music [previously] I didn’t know what kind of complementing I would be doing on my instrument to your track. Once it was done I kept listening to it from yesterday and it made more sense, and that’s why I wanted to change a couple of things and also keep some things which I thought had been intelligently done. You had a little bit of ingredients; you didn’t have a lot of material, like 3-4 hours of sarod playing, then you could have just made it like you wanted. Now I have more clues about it – it is a new experience. We were totally unknown to each other – I didn’t know much about your music.

5.    I see the project with you as a collaborative process. Was it clear what your contribution would be in the recording stage and in the forthcoming performing stage?

In the performance the easy part about Indian musicians, or what is difficult for other musicians, is if there is a fixed part they can play it exactly, but here there is a problem as there is no particular tempo or rhythm. There is just a guideline [waveform] and no one is conducting. To remember something of 13 minutes is next to impossible because every time we play maybe its the same thing but in a different way. So the theme is the same, topic is the same, but content and stylization is different every time, so once it is formulated it is best to stick to how you are progressing with the music so I can come as close as possible so it will make more sense then we are talking in the same line.

6.    Has the process of collaboration been revelatory? Have you learnt anything from this project?

Certainly! The approach of the music is so very different – you keep learning. As we were discussing, every day doing the same mundane thing for creative people they become a bit sad about that. It is always challenging but at the same time you discover yourself in a new light, in a new idiom of music and you grow with that and grow a taste for it. Later on it tells you what to do. It has been a learning curve. Getting exposed to a completely new style and genre – I love it. You keep an impression of this in your mind.

7.    Can you comment on the aspect of working with technology in this piece?

I am a tech savvy person. As a composer I need to know a little bit as often it is not possible to hire a recordist or in a quite a few sessions we record by ourselves. I have got to know a new approach here.

8.    I view the accompaniment part of this composition as a sort of ‘tampura’ or ‘shruti box’. The role of the drone accompaniment is so central to Indian Classical music and this is something I aimed to transfer to my piece. Although a constant pitch centre is not maintained throughout, do you feel the accompaniment supports your playing style and content?

Certainly. It is taking a role of drone instrument but like the drone keeps us grounded in a scale, but here you are doing more than that. You are instigating me you are giving me clues ‘do this, do that’. So it is not only a drone, it is teasing me to come up with some musical challenges, so I wont confine it only to a drone, it is more than that. It is compelling me us to come and fight with something and initiating activity. You have to come and complement it or compete with it. It is an attractive thing in many places. Especially going out of your comfort zone. Then it becomes more challenging. Music has no barriers and we are quite open – wanting to coming to a podium where we are in a hand-shaking experience. So it is something more than a drone. When you created that a lot of in built flexibility was there.

Paper accepted to EMS conference, Lisbon (June 2013)

My paper describing the methodologies of working with the Milapfest musicians has been accepted for presentation at this years Electronic Music Studies Network Conference (June 2013, Lisbon)

Performer as sound source: interactions and mediations in the recording studio and in the field

Abstract

In this paper, the author takes particular interest in the collection of sound material from musical instruments (for use in both acousmatic and mixed works) and how the composer manages creative intent and concepts while collaborating with a performer. Interactions at this stage ultimately impact upon the sound material collected as well as the final composition. The frontier for exchange during these composer/performer encounters enables collaborative work to flourish – but what are the optimum conditions for a successful recording session? Is there a requisite limit or a bare minimum on how prescriptive one should be as a composer when directing the performer in order to avoid confining the creative possibilities of one’s own imagination or the performer’s own input? And how does one navigate the same situation cross-culturally with foreign and ethnic instruments where unfamiliar performance practice traditions and language barriers may exist?

It is common to interact with object sound sources (eg. keys, coins, slinky etc…) in an exploratory fashion, prizing out unusual gestures and textures while always on the look out for those happy accidents that might lend themselves well to the transformation process in the studio. With instrumental sound sources, where a performer is involved, the same exploratory activity may not be immediately possible and we must therefore effectively communicate to the performer our request for specific experimentation with sound types and timbres. Approaches to this activity differ from composer to composer and modes of collaboration between composer and performer subsequently change as a result. How we, as composers, conduct this sound capturing process is led ultimately by what we want to work with in the studio. With the use of composer interviews, existing repertoire and previous noteworthy collaborations I am aim to propose, and distinguish between, the following modes of collaboration:

q      Instructive/directional: The composer is prescriptive in outlining how and what the performer is to play.

q      Explorative/interactive: Details of material remain somewhat unspecified. Some loose ideas and concepts may be discussed beforehand. Contributions from both sides allow a creative exchange to flow.

q      Unstructured: An open session where the performer is given free reign/carte blanche to decide what to play. A typical example of this is when a performer demonstrates extended techniques specific to their instrument – the composer acts as a listener and thus learns directly from this process as to what the available sound possibilities are.

Two further distinctive situations are worthy of discussion:

q      The composer becomes the performer. The composer experiments with an instrument that they have no formal training on as a means of generating sounds. This also applies to situations where the composer performs or plays with objects (not instruments as such) often in unconventional ways.

q      Adapting to source. The composer adapts to a sound source or performer. On-the-fly field recordings (eg. recording environmental sounds, street performers etc…) where the composer cannot intrude upon or affect the sounding outcome. All adaptations here refer to technical considerations eg. Position, microphone handling and volume control on field recorder).

This paper examines the authority and instructive role of the composer in the recording studio along with how one might take ownership of these captured sound materials in future creative work.  Finding oneself within the material generated by others (sounds, notes, phrases, motifs and even melody lines), especially from unfamiliar cultures and contexts can be challenging. This part of the paper draws upon first hand accounts of collaborating with Milapfest (UK, Indian arts development trust) in building an online sound archive of Indian musical instruments as part of an ongoing educational outreach program at Liverpool Hope University. The sound archive material came to exist as a bi-product of collecting sound material for my own creative work (two new electroacoustic music works exploring the use of culturally significant sound material). A significant proportion of this research project (supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK) involves individual recording sessions with approximately 25 - 30 instrumentalists from this highly specialised performance tradition. This raises important issues regarding cross-cultural exchange and what, as an electroacoustic music composer, I might achieve sonically from exploring their practice, along with the question of how and what the performers take away from these encounters. Within the ‘give and take’ of a cross-cultural collaboration, I am posing the question of how possible it is to exert one’s creative and personal compositional voice when considering each different mode of collaboration. As creative projects evolve, take shape and are eventually performed, how is the performer’s reception of the final work informed by the early stage collaboration between composer and performer? The collection of both idiomatic and unconventional sound materials provides a discussion point within this discourse, which will be supported by personal perspectives and those from performers involved in this collaborative process.

Sarod and electronics work-in-progress

I've been working on some of the gamakas (pitch bends) collected from Rajeeb Chakraborty (sarod). This is section from my new piece, which will be performed at the end of April in Liverpool.

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