Multimodal Performance Approaches in Electronic Music

Within this portfolio are three pieces which explore the use of video, improvisation and noise in the performance and production of electronic music. The pieces are presented as both fixed media and videos of performances. Also included is preliminary research in the form of two smaller research projects. Video has been used in various forms either as a stimulus to improvisation and composition, as an input for sound control, or more traditionally, as an accompaniment to a composition. The use of improvisation both in the composition and performance of the pieces was also investigated. Noise was used in the composition of the pieces, recorded from field recordings, performed by live instrumentalists or generated by synthesisers. Noise is an important theme in the work and is used to bind sounds together, to create tension and release and to provide a contrast to the more traditional melodic and rhythmic structures. This research endeavors to expand the idea of electronic music performance and explore different approaches to presenting electronic music in a live context. The aim being to break out of the paradigm of the laptop musician staring at a screen and doing little else whilst performing. For each piece I have explored a different mode of performance. For example in the piece Aberfan (2013) the traditional three piece band line up of guitar, percussion and bass, was mutated, creating instruments from springs, heavily distorting conventional instruments such as double bass and using improvising musicians to accompany a film.