Recording
Field, HRecording
Field, H"Recording Field, H" features several firsts: the first recording bringing together Pauline Oliveros and Interface; the first video documentation of interface and their unusual instruments; the first video documentation of the sonic character pieces Streams and Pikapika; the first duo connecting shakuhachi and the bowed-sensor-speaker-array; finally, the first DVD released by Deep Listening Publications.
The odd-numbered tracks are electronic improvisations, created spontaneously
with custom-made instruments. The even-numbered tracks feature Tomie Hahn as
two radically contrasting sonic characters; in "Streams" each gesture
of the dreamlike apparition recalls bodies of water, technology, a flow of information,
transmission, and liquid states; as Pikapika, Tomie embodies a spunky character
influenced by anime, Japanese dance, and bunraku. In both pieces Tomie wears
a sensing device developed by Curtis Bahn. This interface enables Tomie to negotiate
full control of all aspects of the virtual soundscape structure with her movements.
Pauline Oliveros - accordion and Expanded Instrument System (EIS)
Curtis Bahn - sensor bass
Tomie Hahn - interactive dance system and shakuhachi
Dan Trueman - sensor violin and bowed sensor/speaker array
Interactive computer music improvisation duo "interface" creates sonic textures ranging from delicate imperceptible noise to a high energy wall of sound. They have extended, surrounded, and obscured their electric stringed instruments with a variety of technologies, creating an organic, gesturally powerful computer music. Curtis plays the SBass, a 5-string "vertical bass" (like an acoustic bass with no body) fitted with electrical pickups, motion, touch and pressure sensors which allow him to "drive" his computer during performance. Dan plays a 6-string electric violin and an electric bow of his own design; the RBow is a normal violin bow covered with motion and pressure sensors that send performance information to Dan's computer performance system.
Their instruments are dynamic, changing constantly from performance to performance and within performances. Recently, they have begun to integrate spherical speaker arrays, which radiate sound in all directions, into their performance set-up. Interface has a commitment to free-improvisation and electronic music composition. They create real-time sonic environments in performance which combine pre-composed electronic sounds with real-time digital signal processing, synthesis, algorithmic composition, and sampling.
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