Peter, Thanks for putting this so clearly, this is pretty much my own experience of improvised music over the last few decades.
In Brighton there is a similar group known as SAFEHOUSE collective. We meet monthly for the open session, open to both members and non-members. Ensuring a steady flow of newcomers to the group. Some stay some flow through. It is indeed the discipline, if you like, of listening and reacting and being reacted to, by the other players and the audience, that is challenging and rewarding. It is safe to experiment and try new ways of playing and relating to the other sounds. There is always at least a small audience, and not just players. I notice and enjoy the fact that there is always a tension between what is performed and not performed, or what could be termed performance. What is permitted. Can you try to speak to the other players - in your normal speaking voice - in a performed voice, speak to the audience. Can you suddenly move about and forget about your instrument. Dance. Draw something. It’s great. It’s a big clot of people who come together, in the same room, and sometimes it might sound dull, other times you sweat with the sheer greatness of it. But there is no bar that you must rise up to. It seems to be social. Sometimes you fall back on the old tricks, you know, the licks, but if you notice you can soon put a stop to that and add to the beauty of the sound by shutting the fuck up, and so become very much a part of the whole shebang in your very absence. Simon On 31 Mar 2015, at 14:19, Peter Gomes <[email protected]> wrote: > Notes on "The Gathering" 30/03/2015 > > Lats night I attended ‘The Gathering’ in London. Starting in 1989 stemming > from people from London Musicians Collective Maggie Nichols describes it ;“It > started with improvising musicians but quickly expanded to include anyone who > wanted to explore and experiment in a welcoming environment. It's a place > where experienced musicians use their skills to encourage rather than exclude > others.” It is now a loose group of players who meet weekly in London and > also in Wales. > > > What struck me yesterday after my post to Net Behaviour was ‘The Gathering’ > and its relationship as a way of working and communicating. There was a > complete absence of judgement or ego among the attendees. In fact, there was > no discussion as to the value of the output itself, the musicianship or > anything produced. The real value appeared to be in the interaction, the > actual process of communication in the midst of a collective creative act, > and the ability for players to connect to each other beyond language or > structure. > > > What was evident is this process of listening and response, was a subtle > dialogue of maybe mimicry, repetition, and awareness of the other players and > silence. It functioned like a network of individuals responding to feedback > physical, sonic, aural. A system. > > > It is a real social network of musicians and makers. Tea, playing, talking in > between. When we played, yes it was improvisation. Technically you might call > this ‘Free Improvisation’. We worked without structure or planning, key, > rhythm or style. People used speech, percussion, drums, violin, flutes, > guitar, voice, and vocal sounds. The atmosphere there was a genuine creative > freedom, where you tried new things because you knew there were no > consequences for right or for wrong. Risk did not really exist because > creative fear was simply not present. > > > Each participant is autonomous but in an act of collective co creation. A > creative network of individuals working towards an unknown creative emergent > output. > > > If there are any doubts about the precision of this ensemble these are > dispelled at the point where the pieces conclude. There is an innate sense of > knowing when playing comes to an end, an acute awareness of each individual, > their role and the connection between each player, and collective sense of > exactly when to stop. > > > > -- > @gomespete > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
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