Travels through the Electronic Music Timescape
(2018)- Abstract
- Walking into Ftarri Records, I was surprised to find myself not in the
present, but the past. The owner opened a box of AMM CDs from 1997,
exclaiming gleefully, “Wow, these are really old. No-one will buy these –
cool!”. Yet Toshimaru Nakamura played with an Eventide harmonizer pedal
that evening – something unimaginable in the starkly minimalist days the
shop strove to emulate.
In the 1990s, Boston Noise is forming. with it's mix of experimentalism and
technical prowess, as self-taught iconoclasts coalesce around the Red Room
in Baltimore. Across the ocean, Fylkingen and EMS orbit ‘round the cusp
of outsider experimentalists and institutional researchers. The circling constellation of tradition and... (More) - Walking into Ftarri Records, I was surprised to find myself not in the
present, but the past. The owner opened a box of AMM CDs from 1997,
exclaiming gleefully, “Wow, these are really old. No-one will buy these –
cool!”. Yet Toshimaru Nakamura played with an Eventide harmonizer pedal
that evening – something unimaginable in the starkly minimalist days the
shop strove to emulate.
In the 1990s, Boston Noise is forming. with it's mix of experimentalism and
technical prowess, as self-taught iconoclasts coalesce around the Red Room
in Baltimore. Across the ocean, Fylkingen and EMS orbit ‘round the cusp
of outsider experimentalists and institutional researchers. The circling constellation of tradition and innovation is ever-unfolding. Did the
musicians in these scenes fall to one side of the tilt-a-whirl, or ride it into
new territory? And can broadening our map of musicians experimenting
with sound lead us to a wider world of new territories?
Geographies of Experimentation
Experimental music communities are “localized” by geographies of place,
or by geographies of aesthetics. At the same time Pierre Schaeffer was at
work, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was also running, where composers
like Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson also worked with
tape and concrete sounds. Some of it was purely experimental, but they also
refined techniques from those experiments to make work for broadcast
soundtracks. The parallel tales of scenes in Boston, Baltimore and
Stockholm illustrate the outward rings of activity that spanned from these
early institutions to the rest of the world, carrying ever new definitions of
experimentalism. The plethora of electronic music scenes in different cities
form criss-crossing, aesthetic locale, while. virtual geographies take form
online. There are geographies of method and practice, where sub-genres
and movements are floating points on ephemeral maps of sonic pursuit.
Traditions and Trajectories
There is no maturation point for technique that can force experimentalism
back. Modular synthesis displays this in the progression from high-end
broadcast equipment to experimentally built synthesizers that again became
high-end. In 2016, Morton Subotnick toured with a live performance of
Silver Apples of the Moon, wondering to the audience at the sheer
possibility of doing so within his lifetime. His live set-up was a fantastic
conflagration of tools from every decade, dove-tailing with his remarks at
the opening of Stockholm’s Audiorama in 2010: “There is no longer any
context in our time.”
There is a limit to experimentation as a sole musical practice, because it is
through technique that that something discovered can be torn apart, taken
up as detritus and inquired of again. It is in the ever-spinning still-point in-
between that sparks fly and wonders are forged. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/89174a8e-79cc-49d9-afb2-5a870b58af13
- author
- Hernandez, Katt LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018-06-22
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- electroacoustic music, sound art, electronic music, improvised music
- host publication
- Proceedings of the Electronic Music Studies Network Conference, Florence, 2018
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 89174a8e-79cc-49d9-afb2-5a870b58af13
- alternative location
- http://www.ems-network.org/IMG/pdf_HERNANDEZ_Katt_EMS18.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2023-01-03 23:51:13
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 14:46:32
@inproceedings{89174a8e-79cc-49d9-afb2-5a870b58af13,
abstract = {{Walking into Ftarri Records, I was surprised to find myself not in the<br/>present, but the past. The owner opened a box of AMM CDs from 1997,<br/>exclaiming gleefully, “Wow, these are really old. No-one will buy these –<br/>cool!”. Yet Toshimaru Nakamura played with an Eventide harmonizer pedal<br/>that evening – something unimaginable in the starkly minimalist days the<br/>shop strove to emulate.<br/><br/>In the 1990s, Boston Noise is forming. with it's mix of experimentalism and<br/>technical prowess, as self-taught iconoclasts coalesce around the Red Room<br/>in Baltimore. Across the ocean, Fylkingen and EMS orbit ‘round the cusp<br/>of outsider experimentalists and institutional researchers. The circling constellation of tradition and innovation is ever-unfolding. Did the<br/>musicians in these scenes fall to one side of the tilt-a-whirl, or ride it into<br/>new territory? And can broadening our map of musicians experimenting<br/>with sound lead us to a wider world of new territories?<br/><br/>Geographies of Experimentation<br/><br/>Experimental music communities are “localized” by geographies of place,<br/>or by geographies of aesthetics. At the same time Pierre Schaeffer was at<br/>work, the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was also running, where composers<br/>like Daphne Oram, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson also worked with<br/>tape and concrete sounds. Some of it was purely experimental, but they also<br/>refined techniques from those experiments to make work for broadcast<br/>soundtracks. The parallel tales of scenes in Boston, Baltimore and<br/>Stockholm illustrate the outward rings of activity that spanned from these<br/>early institutions to the rest of the world, carrying ever new definitions of<br/>experimentalism. The plethora of electronic music scenes in different cities<br/>form criss-crossing, aesthetic locale, while. virtual geographies take form<br/>online. There are geographies of method and practice, where sub-genres<br/>and movements are floating points on ephemeral maps of sonic pursuit.<br/><br/>Traditions and Trajectories<br/><br/>There is no maturation point for technique that can force experimentalism<br/>back. Modular synthesis displays this in the progression from high-end<br/>broadcast equipment to experimentally built synthesizers that again became<br/>high-end. In 2016, Morton Subotnick toured with a live performance of<br/>Silver Apples of the Moon, wondering to the audience at the sheer<br/>possibility of doing so within his lifetime. His live set-up was a fantastic<br/>conflagration of tools from every decade, dove-tailing with his remarks at<br/>the opening of Stockholm’s Audiorama in 2010: “There is no longer any<br/>context in our time.”<br/><br/>There is a limit to experimentation as a sole musical practice, because it is<br/>through technique that that something discovered can be torn apart, taken<br/>up as detritus and inquired of again. It is in the ever-spinning still-point in-<br/>between that sparks fly and wonders are forged.}},
author = {{Hernandez, Katt}},
booktitle = {{Proceedings of the Electronic Music Studies Network Conference, Florence, 2018}},
keywords = {{electroacoustic music; sound art; electronic music; improvised music}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{06}},
title = {{Travels through the Electronic Music Timescape}},
url = {{http://www.ems-network.org/IMG/pdf_HERNANDEZ_Katt_EMS18.pdf}},
year = {{2018}},
}