Pandemonium Quintet play Drone & Drama Versions

Miguel Ortiz, Barry Cullen, and Paul Stapleton

Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression

• Year: 2023
• Location: Mexico City, Mexico
• Article Number: 1389
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.11194736 (Link to paper)
• PDF link
• Supplementary File 1: nime23_concert_3.pdf

Abstract:

Our performance research quintet has been set up to explore multiple instantiations of DIY electronic musical instruments (EMI) through improvisation. Our group consists of five highly experienced music improvisers, visual artists and instrument makers with a shared connection to the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s University Belfast. Performer-makers in this group have multiple decades of experience producing work in academic and professional contexts in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East [websites anonymised, but available upon request]. We are particularly interested in exploiting irregularities in the qualities of circuit components (e.g. imprecise tolerances/values), and how this allows for the development of stylistic differences across multiple instrument-performer configurations. We are also interested in how skill, style and performance techniques are developed in different ways on similar devices over extended periods of time, and how our existing musical practices are reconfigured through such collaborative exchanges. For this musical performance each performer will use DIY EMI featuring function generators and wide band noise. The instruments are ‘bent by design’ (Hordijk 2009) and use ‘withered technologies’(Ott 2020) at their core. These musical instruments have been selected to promote productive instability whilst building a timbral playground. The DIY instrument ethos includes the publication of the designs and ‘how to’ instructions to assist other makers in the creation of their own EMI, especially those who have to adopt a frugal approach to resources. The aesthetic of our performance is informed by noise and free improvised musics, and is offered as continuation of ‘thinkering’ (Huhtamo 2011) practice as part of the history of electronic music experimentation.

Citation:

BibTeX Entry:

  @article{nime23-music-1389,
 abstract = {Our performance research quintet has been set up to explore multiple instantiations of DIY electronic musical instruments (EMI) through improvisation. Our group consists of five highly experienced music improvisers, visual artists and instrument makers with a shared connection to the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s University Belfast.   Performer-makers in this group have multiple decades of experience producing work in academic and professional contexts in Europe, the Americas and the Middle East [websites anonymised, but available upon request].  We are particularly interested in exploiting irregularities in the qualities of circuit components (e.g. imprecise tolerances/values), and how this allows for the development of stylistic differences across multiple instrument-performer configurations. We are also interested in how skill, style and performance techniques are developed in different ways on similar devices over extended periods of time, and how our existing musical practices are reconfigured through such collaborative exchanges.   For this musical performance each performer will use DIY EMI featuring function generators and wide band noise. The instruments are ‘bent by design’ (Hordijk 2009) and use ‘withered technologies’(Ott 2020) at their core. These musical instruments have been selected to promote productive instability whilst building a timbral playground.   The DIY instrument ethos includes the publication of the designs and ‘how to’ instructions to assist other makers in the creation of their own EMI, especially those who have to adopt a frugal approach to resources.  The aesthetic of our performance is informed by noise and free improvised musics, and is offered as continuation of ‘thinkering’ (Huhtamo 2011) practice as part of the history of electronic music experimentation.},
 address = {Mexico City, Mexico},
 articleno = {1389},
 author = {Miguel Ortiz and Barry Cullen and Paul Stapleton},
 booktitle = {Music Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression},
 doi = {10.5281/zenodo.11194736},
 editor = {Rob Hamilton},
 month = {May},
 note = {Live Concert 3, Thursday June 1, Centro de Cultura Digital},
 title = {Pandemonium Quintet play Drone \& Drama Versions},
 url = {https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime2023_music_1389.pdf},
 urlsuppl1 = {https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2023/nime23_concert_3.pdf},
 year = {2023}
}