On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 9:34 PM, Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@...> wrote:

Hi all,

I'm looking for participants in the "Pmocatat Ensemble", at the Luggage Store on March 12th. This one has some strict rules, so please read the description below before you sign up.

To sign up, send me an email letting me know...
--which form your media will be in (cd's, tapes, ipod, lp)
--which instruments will be featured on your media (acoustic guitar, piano, drums, etc...)

I'll keep a running tally of who's participating and what they're doing at: www.bayimproviser.com/luggagestore


The Pmocatat (prerecorded music onto cds and tapes and things) Ensemble

The rules:

Instead of bringing your instrument, bring recordings of yourself playing one or more "real" acoustic instruments. The recordings can be on record, tape, cd, or a portable device like Ipod (no laptops). We will then improvise the best we can, using only the recordings of our instruments.

The recordings should be mostly simple musical gestures, recorded with the intention of being mixed with the sounds of other instruments at the live show. You should be the performer of the instruments heard, but it doesn't have to be an instrument you're known for playing. You're also welcome to bring recordings of more than one instrument, but within each "song" at the set, you'll be sticking to one instrument.

At the performance, you're encouraged to play your recorded media with the level of attention that you'd pay to a "real" instrument. You'll be using the play and pause buttons, fiddling with the volume, skipping ahead to certain sections of tracks, scratching the records, etc. We're NOT going to simply let the recordings play by themselves or on shuffle play. Regarding effects, they should be minimal - no samplers, loopers or laptops. I'd say just volume pedal, reverb and pitch bender allowed, and most frequently going "au natural". There may be one song where we use distortion.

Once I know who's participating and what instruments you're bringing recordings of, I'll probably split the show up between different instrument combinations, such as all acoustic guitars for one song, woodwinds for another, and sax/bass/drums for another.

Advice: CD and tape will probably be the easiest and most fun instruments. The better cd players have cue and reverse buttons that are separate from the "previous/next track" buttons. Multi-speed cassette recorders can be found at radio shack, best buy and a number of stores. Ipod sounds easy, but will probably be the least flexible instrument. (That is, unless iphones have some snazzy track manipulation software I don't know about.) CD-DJ players and such.

Before you ask: No, you can't bring recordings on your laptop and play your laptop. You also can't use the "ipiano" or other fake instruments on the iphone, unless they're modifying your instrumental source material. An LP must have your own solo instrumental material. Yes, I know that probably means nobody will be bringing LP.


Matt Davignon
www.ribosomemusic.com