Glen Hall and So NU - Collage

Live at Studio 105, London, Ontario, Collage is dedicated to Dadaist artist Kurt Schwitters. Collage No. 1 is a freely improvised piece combining piccolo, samples controlled by MIDI, electroacoustic filtered sound and purely electronic sounds triggered by EVI.

Collage begins with rhythmic groupings of sampled vocal sounds (phonemes) MIDI-triggered by Glen Hall on Kyma. Eugene Martynec and Bruce Cassidy add pieces to the collage by incorporating mostly electronically synthesized shreds of sounds, across the sound spectrum, top to bottom. Bruce 'humanizes' some of his sounds by expressively bending their pitches.

So NU is a trio of improvising composers—Glen Hall, Bruce Cassidy and Eugene Martynec—connecting and creating free jazz, free improvisation and electroacoustic music in real time. The group uses a dazzling palette of sonic colors from an EVI (electronic valve instrument), MIDIax (software using personally recorded, selected and edited acoustic instrument and synthesized samples), a WWII wind controller and Kyma, a graphical language for live, interactive sound generation and manipulation. Their knowledge of composition shapes improvisations' structures, textures and thematic/conceptual development. The group's name comes from a Yiddish expression that roughly translated means "What's happening with you now?" Their music tells exactly those stories in Technicolor sonic detail.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Glen Hall
• Bruce Cassidy
• Eugene Martynec
• Kyma
• EVI
• electronic valve instrument
• MIDIax
• MIDI
• electroacoustic
• improvisation
• free jazz
• free improv
• electronic music
• Musique Actuelle
• instant composition
• real-time
• STEIM
• Electronic Music Foundation
• EMF
• woodwinds
• reeds
• multi-instrumentalist
• saxophone
• bass flute