Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Shawn Rudiman doesn't check his email on stage

When I thought of outstanding acts for Techno performance I immediately thought of Shawn Rudiman. He mixes live PA all-hardware techno live, every bit of music generated on the spot. No laptop. The particular thing of interest in relation to what we are doing is how he transitions between different "songs" (which are actually live-composed music). Seeing as this is what we are going to do, transition between performed compositions live, I just wanted to highlight a few ways he cuts between motifs that he is generating live... with no headphone mix.

9:10 A big thing he does is cut non-percussion motifs while he re-develops them. Then he subtly fades back in his new melody.

At 11:17 he cut out the groove for one measure before he "dropped it" and it was pretty exciting and he just stood really still for a moment and people seemed to get re-engaged.

at 26:36 he cuts down the resonance on the cymbals to function as quick swelling hi-hat type sounds. I think that cymbal resonance is an important dynamic to play with in live performance. Sometimes a resonant off-beat cymbal that rises right until the bass drum hits again can signify a "big" sound where as a short off-beat cymbal might feel more like a "tight" sound. Transitioning between the two can be a dynamic of progression that we could toy with.

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