Milieu

I visited the Netaudio London festival this weekend, took part in the coffee table discussions and caught a few performances. Judging by the turnout and interest from the participants, the event was a success, and I really look forward to future events.

All of the coffee discussions were informal, relaxed and well supplied with coffee, tea and beer (thanks to the gracious hosts!) The upshot of this was that many visitors were forced to speak to each other, instead of hanging out in their own groups, which created a good vibe that lasted on to the evening.

I sat in on the “free culture” discussion, hosted by Andrea Rota and Jonas Andersson. The topic of free culture is of particular interest to me, so I found the discussion productive in terms of understanding why I contribute to netlabels how free culture is important outside of music. Andrea and Jonas kept participants on topic and interesting, and managed to underline the issues of free culture beyond music (even though we kept bringing music back into the foreground.)

The Hyperlanguage live installation was a surprise to wander into. The lighting, layout and resulting atmosphere somehow encouraged the audience to explore what the performers were doing, so as I walked around I naturally checked out their laptop screens to see what they were doing. What made it interesting was the interaction between the performers — it was obvious they were working together, producing abstract and sometimes challenging music, but it was hard to see how. They reveal a little part of the technical process here:: Live processing layout explained. Here’s a little more background from their weblog:

Man/Machine Osmosis – it is now generally considered that human intelligence is being transformed into a “cognitive ecology” consisting of minds fused with networks, computer terminals, telephone systems, and other methods of high speed communication. We live in a world where old structures of representation and knowledge are fading away, and are being replaced by new, yet still barely formed theories of knowledge, imagination and social construct. We live and survive now not in one place, but in hundreds of places, physically separate, yet intimately connected. We inhabit not only this or that small physical territory, but also the immense, undefined realms borne of virtual technologies.

Paul Wilson, one of the musicians from the installation, told me:

It’s very much about integrating the audience into what’s maybe not
necessarily a ‘performance’ and attempting to address or challenge
aspects of live digital music where the visual is either non-existant
or potentially overpowering. rather, having no - or very little -
visual accompaniment (some lighting and an occasional single strobe)
was a deliberate strategy to put the onus on the sound.

During the day there were also performances downstairs, in the Candid Arts Centre. One which stuck in my mind was Gagarin’s set. He was relatively unique as he played his set 99% removed from a laptop using a drum pad (with his hands). Most of the other sets featured visuals in some form, generally reminiscent of rave and acid house videos, yet Gagarin didn’t have visuals. The speed and accuracy of his live rhythm and melodic programming through the drum pad inherently required no visual accompaniment, and musicians in the venue flocked to see what he was doing.

The evening’s event was a club night, where laptop sets were played live within the Electrowerkz venue, replete with faux-militerary stylings and yet more visuals. During the start of the night a few technical glitches didn’t prevent the musicians from rocking out, and the atmosphere was no different from a typical (albeit underground) club night.

I’m going to Netaudio ‘06, on behalf of Furthernoise. If you read my blog, want to meet up for a drink during the festivities, let me know via my contact form. Especially if you’re a netlabel/creative commons musician who wants something reviewed!

There’s a lot going on at the festival, which runs from Friday 15th September to Saturday 16th, with music in the daytime and evening, as well as various discussions and events. Of particular note are the Pure Data workshops.

Here’s am email from Andi Studer, project co-ordinator of Netaudio’06:

Netaudio’06: London’s first festival dedicated to free Internet music hosts a divers education and exchange programme. It informs about emerging Internet and Music software technologies as well it explores their cultural impact in Music production and consumption.
http://www.netaudiolondon.cc/news/110/education-and-exchange

The Knowledge Fair allows the visitor to learn more about Internet based distribution and music production technologies. It is the Netaudio ad-hoc workshop event where visitors can follow their own schedule and get information on individual basis.
15th September, open from 4pm to 8pm @ Candid
http://www.netaudiolondon.cc/programme-info/106/knowledge-fair

The Coffee Table Discussion round will explore the cultural impact
of Internet distributed music. It is the Netaudio’06 alternative to a
podium discussion. Speakers are hosting a small discussion group
each,offering you direct and in depth exchange.
16th September, 4pm, duration 2hrs approx. @ Candid
http://www.netaudiolondon.cc/programme-info/108/discussion

Two special workshops are dedicated to Pure Data. Pure Data is a free and Open Source real-time graphical programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing. The workshops are scheduled in 2 parts, for beginners and advanced users. The Pure Data workshops hold only 12 participants – RSVP.
16th September, 2pm (Beginners) resp 4pm (advanced), duration 1hr @
The Hub above Candid.
http://www.netaudiolondon.cc/pure-data-workshops

The central Music Server allows visitors to access netaudio and contribute their own productions. All visitors are encouraged to bring their laptops iPods or any other digital storage device along.
15th &16th September, open from noon to 10pm @ Candid

Entry to the Netaudio’06: Education and Exchange programme is free.

Venue Details: Candid Arts Centre, 3 Torrens St, London EC1V 1NQ

Last night I visited The Charterhouse in Farringdon to see FM3, Gavin Starks and Iris Garrelfs. My girlfriend managed to introduce herself to Gavin, and we had a chat about the techniques he used to produce his music. He said he was using a Korg Kaos pad, and his own software (I think this was related to his piece inspired by the discovery of the first double-pulsar system). I commented that a lot of similar music lacks emotional impact, and that we enjoyed his performance because of the emotional quality of his works, and he strongly agreed with this.

Iris Garrelfs’ performance was also interesting. She kept using simple rhythms (I noticed her nodding to these intently from behind her ibook), which seemed to have the effect of coalescing her sometimes chaotic sounds.

Another thing, I noticed Gavin Starks works for Consolidated Independent, which I’d read about recently in Sound on Sound:

We have definitions within our platform of all these different services, and their file and metadata requirements, their packaging format and their delivery method,” explains Paul Sanders, co-founder and director of state51 and Consolidated Independent. “We’ve done the engineering and built all the intelligence into our platform, so we can simplify the process hugely from a management point of view. We haven’t yet encountered two on-line services that have the same metadata requirements …

I read about this in The Wire, and noticed that Paolo Angeli is playing:

THIS WEEKEND: our 13th Annual Festival, 5th, 6th and 7th November 2004 at 7pm, at the Museum of Garden History, Lambeth Palace Road, just south of Waterloo Station.

This year the Festival is devoted to guitar soloists: the featured performers are Susan Alcorn, Paolo Angeli, Tom Besley, John Bisset, Peter Cusack, Janet Feder, Alfredo Genovesi, Billy Jenkins, Simon King, Annette Krebs, Alan Licht, Paul Mumford, Keith Rowe, Elliott Sharp and Dave Tucker. £10/£5 concs (£1 under-18s). Season tickets: £24/£12 concs. Real ale bar. Disabled access. Product stall - includes exclusive Keith Rowe designed LMC t-shirt. Free sampler CD of the featured guitar soloists with every ticket (and the tickets are specially designed plectrums!).

More details on the LMC’s site.

I just saw this on the Sound 323 list:

sunday 7th november 2pm - 6pm
eddie prevost/mark wastell, angharad davies, graham halliwell/matt davis, nathaniel catchpole/joe williamson,

john white/john lely, andrew greaves/brian marley, clive bell/sylvia hallett,

david reid - video screening of performances by keith rowe, eddie prevost, john tilbury, +minus, bob cobbing, jerome noetinger, broken consort, ami yoshida, furt, tetuzi akiyama, birdyak, philip thomas ao.

sound 323 record stall + refreshments

doors open 1.30pm
entrance £6/£5 cons. children under 16 free

THE RED HEDGEHOG
257 Archway Road
London
N6 5BS