UP1:
Conference
Conference; con-fero (carrying together),
a musical cross-pollination incorporating a wide range of South
African artists. Musician and sculptor Niklas Zimmer initiated
this innovative creative process, co-creating each of the 12
tracks of this CD with one other collaborator.
The CD brings together: Ben
Amato (Colourfields), DJ Nick Birkby (Mofunk, The Fez), Brydon
Bolton (Benguela, ELX), Bood Carver (Mood Phase 5ive), Derek
Gripper (guitarist, violist), Adam Lieber (DJ Bonanza), Mark
Odonovan (Odd Enjinears), Deborah Poynton (painter), Thain Torres
(actor, writer, "Involving Eternity", "Waterbreek"),
Julia Raynham (Honeymoon Suites, The Mothertongue Project),
Waldemar van Wyk (Bomvu) and James Webb (sound artist).
The problem of authorship and
subjectivity has featured strongly in the 20th century western
aesthetic. Asserting the importance of individual expression,
artists have challenged the restrictions of various authorities
such as church, court and state, finally confronting the internal
autocracy of personal subjectivity. 'Conference' challenges
individual authorship through a novel creative process. The "carrying
together" was long-distance: CD- Roms were posted back
and forth between co-creators until both agreed on a finished
piece. In an attempt to reduce the intrusion of inter-personal
considerations and to focus the participants on the compositional
task no verbal communication was allowed until the piece was
completed.
'Conference' uses a raw material of recorded instruments and non-musical
sounds. These are treated in the tradition of the found sounds of Musique
Concrète. This movement (circa 1948) introduced everday environmental
sounds into the composer's musical language. 'Conference' expands this
tradition by reintroducing musical instruments themselves as found sounds.
The fact that musical communication is achieved through recorded sound
fragments is reminiscent of the Concrète genre in that each artist
is encouraged to treat the material as a found artifact, since it is recieved
by the partner without any explanantion or justification. There is also
a ‘Jazz’ element of improvisation in the response of the recipient,
and strong elements of 'classical' composition in the carefully planned
answer.
The use of such raw material
potentially liberates sounds and people from the limits of convention.
While recent technological developments make such enterprises
less physically arduous than the splicing of tape required in
1948, the technological facility of this process is deceptive.
In many ways the burden of excessive choice is more painful
than the burden of limitation as the limits of our imaginations
- now ominously in reach - are held under new scrutiny.
Conference is a collection of
varied and beautiful pieces of contemporary South African music.
"This year-long
project was an attempt to work with as wide a variety of interesting
individuals as possible. The process was to be pared down, simple
and workable. The aim was to focus entirely on one piece of
music in intense, non-verbal, spaceless and unpreposessed unity
with one other artist, be they musicians, sculptors, actors...
The final release is this collection of sonic essays by some of the most
authentically open-minded personalities populating the South African creative
scene." (Niklas Zimmer)
The hand made, sandblasted jewelcase conceived by nurse!designs contains
the 'rules of play' - the collaboration contract on the basis of which
these works of music were created.
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