Category Archives: Music

Generative, Animated, Graphic Scores for Parking Ramp Project

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This video is one of the six generative, animated, graphic scores that I have composed for Parking Ramp Project. The music was performed live and recorded while the screen was being captured. This piece is called Connected. Colored circles are generated on the screen with connecting lines. One of the three colors is randomly selected to change the color of circles with which it collides. Once all the circles are the same color they fade away and a new set is generated with a different color as the changer. This continues for seven minutes.

Musicians respond to this score by producing a sound event when circles of their assigned color collide with another circle or the boundaries of the screen. This process produces phrases with arbitrary yet continuous rhythmic patterns. The dimensions, velocity, x-axis, and y-axis of each circle serve as parameters that can be interpreted and applied to the frequency, timbre, dynamics and/or duration of the sound event. This interpretation is left up to the discretion of the musicians.

Purple = Peter Hennig (Drums)
Grey = Cody McKinney (Bass / Electronics)
Green / Cyan = John C.S. Keston (Rhodes / Synths)

Bloodline will be performing the music live for the piece, directed by Aniccha Arts choreographer Pramila Vasudevan, with nearly fifty dancers at a parking ramp near the Mall of America, September 29th and 30th, 2018. Learn more about Parking Ramp Project below: Continue reading →

VIDEO: Full Sets from Studio Z Nada Showcase

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I performed this version of Vocalise Sintetica at on Friday, June 8, 2018 at Studio Z for the Nada showcase. The recording was captured by Mike Hodnick. In addition to the improvised elements, what makes this different from previous versions of the piece is that Studio Z is close to home, so I was able to bring my favorite instrument, the Moog Sub 37 for lead lines, melodies, drones, and arps. All the sound heard in this piece was generated by the AVGM (Audiovisual Grain Machine) controlled by an iPad, a Novation Circuit with custom samples and patches, a Minifooger Delay, and the Moog Sub 37.

This was an amazing evening of performances. The sets from Michael Flora, Mike Hodnick (Kindohm), and Spednar were all excellent. Mike also shared video of his own set of “tightly coupled audio and visuals” that he premiered at the event, which is definitely worth checking out:

Read on for the the official press release:

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Sound / Simulacra: Lucas Melchior

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This Wednesday, May 23rd, 2018 is Sound / Simulacra at Jazz Central Studios featuring Lucas Melchior. Lucas and I have worked together in many capacities over the last 6 or more years. Last summer at Northern Spark Lucas was an integral part of Un:heard Resonance along with Mike Hodnick, Chris LeBlanc, and myself. It will be a pleasure to host Lucas at Sound / Simulacra. This is a monthly series in collaboration with Cody McKinney which explores musical improvisation as a “faithful and intentionally distorted” representational process. Sound / Simulacra brings together some of the Twin Cities most unique voices to “recreate, distort, and create the hyperreal.”

Since 2006 MKR has been writing and performing electronic music in the Twin Cities. Winner of the Minnesota Emerging Composer Award in 2012, his music exists at the intersection of dance music and more ambient and experimental styles. Oscillating between extremes, lush downtempo break beats evolve and yield to breakneck rhythms, melodies, and bass. At times warm, simple, and human and at others cold, digital, and impenetrable the music of MKR revels in its influences and exposes a broad spectrum of timbres and moods.

Set 1: Lucas Melchior (electronics)
Set 2: Lucas Melchior (electronics) + Cody McKinney (bass, voice, electronics), John C.S. Keston (Rhodes, piano, synthesizers, electronics)

http://bit.ly/soundsimulacra