Last night was EMU’s end of year concert Earpoke. It was a fine evening’s music – for the first time undergraduate students were distanced from individualistic tendencies and presented works as groups/ensembles. This group dynamic worked really well in a couple of cases – the playful noise making group led by Daniel Pittman was fantastic and another groups set dedicated to Nancy Sinatra was genuinely moving. The other groups, however, reminded me a little too much of a late 90s-era high school formal.
Undergrad group with Sanad (far right) on the Juno 6
The playful and noisy antics of another undergrad group featuring Daniel Pittman (far left)
There were a couple of significant highlights. The opening set by Poppi Doser and Seb Tomczak, who performed a couple of tracks from an upcoming colab release. The mish-mash of Seb’s chip music and Poppi’s vocals, which sounds great on record, translated really well to a live context. The other highlight was the double whammy from MC Stephen Whittington who treated us to a candid laser harp improvisation followed by some proto-philosophical-rapping.
Poppi Doser and Seb Tomczak perform
Stephen Whittington navigates the laser harp
...and presents us with some highly original proto-rap
Finally, I closed the evenings proceedings with a new piece called ‘Little Atoms’ which will be included on a new red_robin release in January 2010. It consisted of ‘playing’ a live audio cable and processing the impulse via Ableton using a couple granular delays and resonators. To enhance the performance, at the last minute I decided to incorporate some colourful finger LEDs that entranced the audience whilst I performed in near darkness. I was quite happy with the performance. Seb/Lauren shot some video of the performance so it should surface soon.
Me performing with cable and LEDs
Avec luminaire!
Overall a great night. Many thanks to Luke Harrald and the Wheatsheaf Hotel for facilitating the event.
