PMP 46

During the first week of April 2006, PMP took two “runout” trips to innovative music events. Both events focused on the rising in-fl uence of electronics in concert music. The fi rst, on Tuesday, April 4, was the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, cleverly nicknamed PLOrk. The second, on Thursday, April 6, was “New Strategies with DJ Spooky,” an evening of di-verse, mostly solo acts, curated by the young deejay.

PLOrk was founded by two Princeton pro-fessors, Dan Trueman and Perry Cook, both of whose work treads the line between compo-sition and computer science. Trueman builds electronic instruments and participated in PMP’s “New Frontiers in Music: New Instru-ments” event in March. During this concert, which took place in Princeton’s Richardson Auditorium in Alexander Hall, about 15 stu-dents sat on cushions onstage with Apple iBooks on their laps connected to specially-designed hemispherical speakers. Pieces on the program were contributed by Trueman, Cook, Paul Lansky, Brad Garton, Curtis Bahn

PMP enjoyed its third runout trip of 2006 on Friday, June 9th. As part of its efforts to expose local artistic leadership to interdisciplinary projects, the group attended a performance of the “Mandance Project” by Ballet Tech, a tuition-free public ballet school founded by choreographer Eliot Feld. The program featured special guests So Percussion and was held at the Joyce Theater in New York. The program featured fi ve works, all cho-reographed by Mr. Feld: Op. Boing, Pursuing Odette, Sacred Steel, Proverb, and A Stair Dance.

Op. Boing was danced in three parts by fi ve dancers. The percussion quartet performed only in this fi rst piece, playing Iannis Xenakis’ Rebonds and Okho. The choreography paired the fi ve dancers with a trampoline. In some sections of the piece, the trampoline was set up as a wall to climb or lunge into; in other sections, it was set up as the traditional horizon-tal plane, magnifying the effects of the dancers’ movements.

Pursuing Odette was performed by a solo female dancer, Ha-Chi Yu, to the fourth movement of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5. Ms. Yu summoned an arresting and lyrical performance, conjuring romantic imagery of a wounded swan. She put her capacity for grace and extraordinary fl exibility to use in con-veying longing, stretching up and then out along the fl oor.

Sacred Steel made another dramatic change in tone. Danced to three sacred steel guitar spirituals (Jesus Will Fix It For You,

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by Sonny Treadway, God is a Good God, by the Campbell Broth-ers, and Don’t Let the Devil Ride, by Oris Mays), this piece was another solo work, this time for Wu-Kang Chen. Mr. Chen performed a concentrated dance on top of a dias, in a tense contrast to the free, ebullient energy of the accompanying music.

The fourth dance on the program, Proverb, featured Chris-topher Vo and was accompanied by an ethereal choral work by Steve Reich, also called Proverb. Vo performed with small lights attached to his palms on an otherwise dark stage. He fl ipped his hands to reveal, alternately, himself in silhouette and fragmented detail.

A Stair Dance, the evening’s fi nal piece, was a playful fi ve-member dance dedicated to Gregory Hines, “a great dancer and the avatar of cool.” Accompanied by a recorded So Percus-sion performing Steve Reich’s Tokyo/Vermont Counterpoint, the dancers bounced up and down several short sets of stairs. Reminiscent of a step routine with more fl ow and complex timing, the quick, rhythmic patterns of ascent and descent shared many qualities with Reich’s work and made them a sensible match.

and Tomie Hahn, Scott Smallwood, Seth Cluett, and Ge Wang. The program also featured three well-known guest artists, com-

poser and electronic musician Pauline Oliveros, So Percussion, and tabla master Zakir Hussain. In Oliveros’s work, her accordion’s sounds were transmitted to and processed by the PLOrk ensemble. So Percus-sion and Hussain performed in the fi nal piece of the concert, a partial improvisation that also featured Trueman on violin. The percussion quartet, whose members include Douglas Perkins, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Lawson White, were limited to pushing buttons on keypads to process Hussain’s playing, who was free to display his drumming virtuosity and wowed the audience.

Two days later, Symphony Space, at 95th and Broadway in New York, hosted “New Strategies with DJ Spooky.” Spooky, whose given name is Paul Miller, hosted several of his musical friends and col-leagues for an evening of performance that he likened to a mix-tape.

Matthew Shipp, a promising jazz pianist, opened the program. After his set, Vijay Iyer took the stage. Iyer is also a pianist, but he comple-ments the traditional instrument with electronic music, playing piano and laptop simultaneously. Guillermo E. Brown, a percussionist and electronic musician, sang and performed on a heavily modifi ed guitar and additional tech equipment, a “solo performance system” he has called the Explorer.

Pamela Z sang and performed with body-based technology, so that her gestures and movements determined the sounds she created, inte-grating elements of spoken word poetry. A club deejay, Rob Swift, spun a hiphop set and displayed his skill on the turntables, joking that the audience was quiet. “Feel free to make noise,” he encouraged us.

DJ Spooky performed with Ben Neill, a composer and inventor of the Mutantrumpet. Spooky offered a multimedia piece also meant for the club; projections of juxtaposed footage of Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, and Outkast. The fi nal performer was Suphala, a young tabla player who has studied with the same Zakir Hussain PMP saw per-form that Tuesday. She played solo on the drums and then layered her performance with a composition she played from her iPod. A group improvisation didn’t quite get off the ground, and DJ Spooky invited the audience to an after party.

PMP’s trip participants had mixed reactions to both events. Both concerts presented experimental technologies and performance techniques, and the integration of pop and deejay culture can still appear forced or uneven. However, whatever succeeds out of these experiments will no doubt pave new paths for future musicians and their relationships to technology.

April Runouts:

were transmitted to and processed by the PLOrk ensemble. So Percus-

Runouts: were transmitted to and processed by the PLOrk ensemble. So Percus-sion and Hussain performed in the fi nal piece of the concert, a partial Runouts: sion and Hussain performed in the fi nal piece of the concert, a partial improvisation that also featured Trueman on violin. The percussion Runouts: improvisation that also featured Trueman on violin. The percussion quartet, whose members include Douglas Perkins, Adam Sliwinski, Runouts: quartet, whose members include Douglas Perkins, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Lawson White, were limited to pushing buttons Runouts: Jason Treuting, and Lawson White, were limited to pushing buttons

April Runouts: April

the Princeton Laptop Orchestra

and New Strategies with DJ Spooky

PMP 47

Left: DJ Spooky

Right: PLOrk