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Monstrous
is proud to announce that
Entranced 1.1 is now available in the Apple iTunes store!

There are two modes of performance with Jazari; I call them "performer" and "conductor." In conductor mode, I control high level parameters, such as loudness, phase-shifting, degree of syncopation, and M-Operation. (Doc 02, I'd say that live control over the latter parameters *is* new). In the video, I don't use this mode at all. I do trigger the loops in the cabasa, cowbell, and clave, but that is the only pre-sequenced material.
The rest of the notes-99% of everything played by the Djembe and bongos-are produced in performer mode. In this mode, I control the choice of individual notes-just like a traditional musician. To Feral, I agree with you about the drawbacks of track-based musicians; that's why I improvised almost all of what you heard on a note-to-note basis (I also agree about temporal quantization; a model of expressive timing is on the to-do-list; velocity is already variable).
I'm able to improvise these fast, complex passages because my software interprets holding down a button as a decision to repeat the previous note. That doesn't make playing these things easy exactly-they present their own challenges-but I was able to get to this level with no percussion training and six months of regular practice.
In this project, I trade-off a degree of expressive subtlety for improvisational power (I'm playing two instruments at once throughout). Beyond juggling multiple instruments, the new kinds of idiomatic playing opened up by the controller interface and the possibilities of self-refracting man-machine interaction make the trade-off more than worthwhile.

if you are in or around the Seattle area in April, this is something you will not want to miss!
Northwest Film Forum, Seattle presents a special Series
(almost all on film) -
Visual Music: Sensory Cinema 1920s-70APRIL 9-15, 2010Programs include 3 from CVM, plus others curated by NWFF.Optical Poetry: Oskar Fischinger RetrospectiveSeeing Sound: The Films of Mary Ellen ButeJordan Belson: Films Sacred and ProfaneSeattle PsychedelicsSixties Synaesthetics

From Berkeley, Cal Dept of Music:Open Sound West presents:An Evening of Interactive Electronic Music for guitar and electric guitar, performed by Seth Josel, Feb 16Seth Josel has become one of the leading instrumental pioneers of his generation. After acquiring his Bachelor of Music degree at the Manhattan School of Music Seth Josel enrolled at Yale University and earned the Master of Music, the Master of Musical Arts and the Doctor of Musical Art degrees. His teachers included Manuel Barrueco and Eliot Fisk. He is recipient of numerous awards and prizes including a Fulbright-Hays grant from the United States government and the Artists Stipend from the Akademie Schloß Solitude, Stuttgart. As ensemble player and soloist he has been involved in the first performances of more than one hundred works. He has collaborated and consulted closely with such composers as Mauricio Kagel, Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail, Phill Niblock and James Tenney. In addition, he has been highly committed to working with several of the leading young composers of our time, including Peter Ablinger, Richard Barrett, Sidney Corbett, Chaya Czernowin, Keeril Makan and Manfred Stahnke, all of whom have written works featuring his talents.

quote:
For Belson fans in San Francisco, his film Mandala (1953) will screen once on Feb. 25 in an Art in Cinema related screening at SF Museum of Modern Art. Scott MacDonald has curated 3 programs at SFMoMA for a mini-series. This is a rarely seen print from CVM's archive, and yes, we're aware this film didn't actually screen at Art in Cinema!
Also in this series, a 35mm print of Fischinger's Komposition in Blau will screen February 11. (Mandala is not listed online but will be by next week).