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experimentalism vs. song
Got together and played with Chris last night, as usual for a Tuesday night.
We improvised a fair number of pieces, but few felt satisfying. At some point we shifted into a discussion of what kind of music we'd like to make, and tried to identify why we weren't getting there.
We batted around some questions which are key for my understanding of music in general: is there a way to fruitfully balance experimental music and song? What is the ideal ratio of structured playing to unstructured playing?
We've enjoyed our attempts to play with pure improvisation (experimental / unstructured) and song (non-experimental / structured), but I think that our interest falls most squarely on the sector where experimentalism and structure overlap. This may be why both Chris and I have such a high level of interest in drone music and minimalism — they are musics that are built around structures but which do not rely on the familiar song-based ones.
I don't think we will eliminate the song and improv elements entirely from our playing, but I think we are leaning towards integrating those elements into experimental metastructures.
Further reading: I wonder how this twenty-five hour collective improvisational drone went. We thought about going, but Duluth is not exactly two towns over. Labels: creative_process, number_none |
