Last Wednesday Erik and I presented our arrangement of Stockhausen’s Tierkreis. The performance went extremely well and I think we were both very pleased with the outcome. In many ways it was a new experience for me when I place it in the continuum of my musical career and trajectory thus far. For one, it was definitely the most collaborative project we’d undertaken as Hybrid Groove Project. Erik composed the beats and I composed the saxophone parts that were extra-curricular to Stockhausen’s melodies. The actual arrangement process was a completely collaborative effort. We even kept a massive Google Doc so we could share ideas and update existing structures instantly.
This was also the first time that I performed with an involved electronics setup. I used Ableton Live 8, which I controlled with an Akai APC40, Behringer FCB1010 foot controller, and M-Audio Axiom 25. What’s funny is that I thought I’d hold off on getting the APC40 until after this show, since I thought it might be a little overkill and that I could just control everything with the FCB1010, but I’m glad that I decided to take the plunge before the show (Guitar Center giving me the Xmas sale price after Xmas also helped). Having multiple ways to control, manipulate, and perform the software was absolutely invaluable for this performance.
I have to say that working with Ableton and the various controllers named above was and is an awesome experience. I was prepared for it to be a nightmare, having worked peripherally with electronics over the last 10 years. However, nothing about it was hard. Everything worked right out of the box, which was shocking (to me), but extremely welcome! What I was not prepared for was the extra dimension this added to the act of performing.
Suddenly, not only did I have to play the saxophone, but I also had to learn new coordinations, whether it was playing an involved line on the sax while simultaneously launching clips and/or activating effects via the foot controller or simply having to ingrain the order of events and what sequence to launch various things with via various devices. A majority of this came from the fact that this was an hour long project, making the scope of everything just a bit larger. But it certainly engaged me in a new kind of problem solving that directly impacted the performance and execution of the music. I had to actually spend equal, if not more, time practicing the sequence of events and execution of the electronics than I spent on practicing the instrumental parts (did I mention that I also played synth, toy piano, and a variety of percussion instruments for the project as well?).
Our performance of Zodiacrobatic on Mobtown Modern won’t be the last time we play the work. It was conceived as a concept that we could tote around to different places. It is also a living thing that will continue to evolve over time. Though we spent a great deal of time planning the dramatic arc of the piece and structuring each melody, we also left ourselves latitude and flexibility within certain movements to allow for improvisation and recomposition as the mood strikes us. I imagine that as we continue to perform Zodiacrobatic we’ll become more comfortable and free in performance. That’s what I’m looking forward to.
As a coda to these reflections, we received wonderful coverage of the event, thanks in no small measure to the extreme professionalism of Mike Fila and the team at Himmelrich PR. A day prior to the performance Erik and I appeared on WYPR’s Maryland Morning, where we got to talk with Tom Hall about the project. And we also garnered some very nice reviews from Charles T. Downey of the Washington Post and Tim Smith of the Baltimore Sun.
Unlike the rest of the melodies in the Zodiac project, Erik and I aren’t adding any sort of beat-based material to Gemini. The overall feeling will be very rubato as the fragments of the melody are passed back and forth between Erik on melodica and yours truly on soprano sax. Gemini comes right after Taurus, which in our heavy metal setting will conclude with guitar smashing and feedback (okay, just feedback). Emerging out of the feedback, Erik will set up a feedback-y loop on melodica based on pitches from the Gemini melody and I’ll add the following synth part based on pitches from the accompaniment to further augment the texture:
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For the Aries melody (i.e. “The Ram,” though not to be confused with this Ram) Erik wanted me to produce some ram’s horn, or shofar, sounds. So I watched this video to learn the four traditional shofar calls—Tekiah, Shevarim, Teruah, and Tekiah Gedolah—and then learned how to make those sounds on the alto saxophone by playing without the mouthpiece. Witness the fruits of my labor:
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No, this isn’t a post about how absolutely sick I am of riding the trainer in my basement; the title of that post would be way more explicit. Erik and I spent a good bit of time last rehearsal working out the Cancer melody. One neat thing is that the accompaniment is the melody played backwards. The movement will start with me playing the melody on alto sax. That melody will be looped in reverse as I continue to play it live. Next, I’ll add a layer of toy piano playing the melody and finally an obligato part (pictured above). This will form the first half of the Cancer movement. During the “exposition,” Erik will be triggering samples of triangles and other tinkly things that appear later in the beat layer. Below is a mock up with two loops of the melody: the first iteration is alto sax, reverse alto sax, and toy piano; the second adds the harmonized obligato line.
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I must admit that I’m getting too much enjoyment out of making up fun sounds.
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One of the challenges of the Zodiacrobatic project is to find ways to make the melodies more interesting than simply repeating them over and over and over again. I spent some time on Virgo today and came up with this little opening bit. Erik will actually begin Virgo by playing the doumbek, then I’ll add the background ostinato, and finally the framework of the accompaniment.
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Yesterday I put the finishing touches on my looping cadenza that will connect the “Aqaurius” and “Pisces” melodies in Zodiacrobatic. It took me a little longer to create than I had planned, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.
The cadenza will begin towards the end of “Aqaurius” when Erik starts introducing samples of soprano lines I pre-recorded. Using those licks as a jumping off point, I’ll create a frantic, swirling improvisation that begins kind of pointillistically and gets much denser, approaching the perpetual motion figure that will serve as the foundation for the melody. During the improvisation, two multiphonics will be played and subsequently triggered in Live to create a richer texture and the scale will change from the “Aquarius” scale to the scale I use for the “Pisces” melody. (Should I have made a Pisces/scale pun?)
I’ll end the improvisational section with a lick that kicks off the perpetual motion. It’s a 16th-note figure that I record and trigger immediately in Live, adding a second harmony figure on top of it. This forms the loop. With the loop established, I’ll continue to create variations of the material live with the soprano and also by triggering variations within Ableton. It all sounds very oceanic. Once I get bored of doing this, I’ll add a couple of grain delays that sweep the pitch up and trigger the drone that will support the melody:
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After the first time through the melody, I’ll trigger a pre-recorded sample of the accompaniment line, Erik will drop the beat, and we’ll be off. Here’s what the Live set looks like:
Erik and I got together last night for our first in a series of many rehearsals leading up to the premiere of Zodiacrobatic, our new arrangement of Stockhausen’s Tierkreis. Aside from working a little on what I’d come up with so far for my looping cadenza before Pisces, we mainly focused on the big picture—making a few changes here and there to the master plan we’d drawn up. Things are in great shape and now it’s kind of all in the details.
Some months ago, when Erik and I were sketching out a basic framework for Zodiacrobatic we kind of drew a blank on what exactly we wanted to do with the Virgo melody and how we wanted the track to sound. Last month, though, Erik hit the nail on the head with this beat layer. Though we had a basic idea for the instrumentation of each melody, when I heard Erik’s beat I immediately thought that a languid, straight-tone, upper register tenor sax would fit perfectly. Here are a couple repetitions of the vibe I imagined:
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Preparations for Zodiacrobatic have kicked into high gear recently. Erik and I have been communicating and collaborating via email, text, phone, Twitter, and Dropbox to make sure that we made good progress on the project while I’ve been away on tour. The results have been pretty cool. We’ve got a glut of new posts up on the Zodiacrobatic page chronicling the piece’s development. The goal is to have all of the beat-based tracks roughed out before I get back from tour so we can spend the rest of the time working on the live arrangements and playing with our computers. I’m really excited about this project. Plus, it’s pretty much an instant album and touring show.
