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Miya Masaoka, George Lewis, Marina Rosenfeld, Ikue Mori at The Stone. 11/7/06
this was a brilliant set. I don't have a camera right now so these scribbles will function as my visual aid.


Things that I heard and thought about during this concert:
1. Water
2. Sediment
3. sand+water=beach
4. gaps
5. bells
6. max/msp pitch roller coaster sound=I think i don't like any more.
7. So much of taste in terms of non-representational or identifiable electronic sound
has to do with the sound's
a) mystery
b) humor
c) relationship the sounds YOU use
d)
e)what you can figure out about the sound
f) etc.
8. Marina's turntable seemed so locomotive. While everyone's else's sounds were in a kind of atmospheric or dream realm she was doing the work of the turbine or the wheel. I've never thought of a turntable as a vehicle but it truly seemed that way during the set.
9. George lewis played:computer/trombone Marina Rosenfeld: turntable Ikue Mori: Computer/footpedal, and Miya Masaoka: Koto/computer.
10. No one seemed like they were trying to prove anything which was nice
11. there was a lot of granular going on. see #7
12. The second and 3rd pieces were much more playful.
13. something so important in jazz and some realms of improvised music is the voice of the performer. Where as here because everyone is going through the same mixer the premium seems to be on merging your voice completely with others. Marina's voice was identifiable almost always because of the crackle of her dub plates and her visible manipulation of the records, as was Miya's when she played koto. If you wanted to know what Ikue Mori was doing you had to watch her foot, which only gave you a tiny clue. And George's sound was largely a mystery except the handful of times he picked up the trombone, and when he put on a sample of a lady singing and everyone looked at him.
14. brilliant.
15. maybe all the sediment was underlined by the record crackle. I got the feeling much of the granulized water was coming from Ikue Mori and every one was using string sounds to cushion the koto.
16. how do you write about music like this?

Miya Masaoka is Curating the Stone in November