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improvisation and intimacy
A few nights ago I went out to see Toshimaru Nakamura, a musician who has pioneered the use of feedback as an instrument: he creates a closed loop by connecting the mixing board's output to its input, and he controls and manipulates the resultant tone through the use of pedals and graphic equalizers. Accompanying him was no less a figure than AMM's Keith Rowe, who improv followers will know as the person who essentially single-handedly invented the basic techniques of prepared tabletop guitar.
Together, they played a truly lovely set, the closest thing that I've had to a religious experience in quite some time. Both of them brought a musician's talent, patience and timing to the performance, proving that even "unmusical" sounds can be played with startling virtuosity. (I'm now thinking strongly about picking up Weather Sky, the album they recorded together.)
The performance was aided immeasurably by the fact that Rowe and Nakamura were listening so closely, so attentively to one another. I have long thought that musical improvisation is a form of intimacy, and I believe that it is indeed intimacy that was on display at this performance.
Today I've been thinking a lot about intimacy, and I wrote this, which I think sums up my best thinking on the matter:
"Intimacy can take various forms. Sex can be intimate. Conversations can be intimate. Humor can be intimate. Musical or other creative collaboration can be intimate. Just spending time running an errand with someone can be intimate. Intimacy does not reside naturally within any of these things; it is a quality of how you come at another person. I can best understand it as a process of making yourself vulnerable to another person in some fashion, trusting that they will not harm you, and the experience that results when the other person honors that trust and responds in kind."
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Wednesday, February 05, 2003
4:30 PM
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