Mimeo/John Tilbury - The Hands of Caravaggio
(Erstwhile)
A lone Powerbook, sampler, analog synthesizer, or prepared guitar/FX rig
can drum up one heck of a racket, as solo sets by Gert-Jan Prins, Pita,
and Thomas Lehn will attest. The Music in Movement Electronic Orchestra
(Mimeo), a collective comprising a dozen of Europe's electronic-improv
luminaries, has struggled with the challenge of bringing together many
performers without devolving into formless, murky clamor. While unique
Quadrophonic stage setups and extended durations (Mimeo staged a 24-hour
performance in Vand'ouevre, France in May of 2000) have addressed this
problem in the live arena, Mimeo has been less successful in reproducing
its essence on record. Queue, the initial CD-R offering, was at
best a crude, unsatisfying memento compiled from concert excerpts.
Though much more listenable, Electric Chair + Table (Grob, 2000)
lost too much of Mimeo's definition and power in postproduction
tinkering by ensemble members Rafael Toral and Marcus Schmickler, each
of whom constructed one disc of concentrated Mimeo from in-concert
recordings. Such tactics have failed to capture Mimeo for those not
fortunate enough to have experienced the ensemble live.
With The Hands of Caravaggio, project director Keith Rowe
approached familiar obstacles from a fresh perspective. Recognizing that
a conventional recording would never suffice in approximating the total
Mimeo experience, Rowe instead altered the actual performance
parameters. For this very special concert presented in Bologna, Italy at
the May 2000 Angelica festival, the ensemble was joined by pianist John
Tilbury. In addition to introducing an acoustic focal point in Tilbury's
instrument, Hands also adopted a thematic focus—the brilliant
chiaroscuro and drama of Caravaggio's "The Taking of Christ."
Furthermore, Mimeo member Cor Fuhler bypassed electronics for
inside-piano play that provided percussive shoring for Tilbury. Rowe
instructed the Mimeo musicians to direct their electronics to emphasize
either Tilbury or Fuhler at all times. The dominant instrumental voice
is therefore that of the paired pianos, lending unprecedented clarity
and perspective to the tempest of massed electronics.
Years of playing alongside Rowe in AMM have tuned Tilbury to the
inexhaustible grainy subtleties of Rowe's tabletop guitar technique and
electro-acoustic shadings, and so Mimeo's surging, seething conflation
of extemporized electronic sound is less a cacophonous challenge than an
even grander sonic setting for his singular pianistic prowess. He's
comfortably within his element here, though perhaps even more to the
forefront than he has ever been before. Tilbury tackles this star turn
with consummate skill, drawing the most desirable devices from jazz,
Erik Satie, and especially his own profound appreciation of Morton Feldman. His
responsive shifts in tone—from airy to adamant, from truculent to
tender—match Mimeo's occasionally abrasive tactics gesture for
white-knuckled gesture, unfailingly attaining euphonious accord through
turbulence and tranquility alike.
Mimeo is in equally fine form throughout the concert. Rowe, Kevin Drumm
(the Chicagoan sat in for absent ensemble regular Christian Fennesz),
Phil Durrant, Thomas Lehn, Kaffe Matthews, Jérôme Noetinger, Gert-Jan
Prins, Peter Rehberg, Marcus Schmickler, Rafael Toral, and Markus
Wettstein improvise as a single entity, their variegated electronic and
electro-acoustic sonorities entirely egoless yet glowing with
unmistakable identity even in such complete convergence. Inspired by the
richness of emotion suffusing Caravaggio's colors, Mimeo summons a
palette as sensuous as that of any conventional symphony, yet heightened
even beyond the shimmering orchestral clusters of Penderecki or Ligeti
by the thorough commingling of all digital, analog, electro-acoustic,
and acoustic voices. Such robustness befits the multiple classical forms
evoked by Rowe's revisionary staging of the orchestra/soloist archetype
amid a phalanx of laptop computers and electronic devices, and sets
The Hands of Caravaggio far apart from the staid and
monochromatic tenor of so many comparable electro-acoustic encounters.
Meticulous recording and presentation have thankfully preserved the
vibrance of the performance. Consensus among Mimeo members and attendees
has it that the CD actually surpasses the live experience, making
Hands the most successful attempt to date at capturing the marvel
that is Mimeo for private enjoyment.
|
