Layering Buddha Live
multichannel surround sound performance [2007]
Layering Buddha Live takes the concept of the Layering Buddha album one logical step further by bringing back the spatial component inherent in the original sound sources.
It all began with my first encounter with the FM3 Buddha Machine: A cheap loop playing device, filled with nine musical loops, created by Christiaan Virant + Zhang Jian, presented at the MUTEK Festival in Montreal, 2004.I realised that the fun starts when more than one unit is playing at the same time: They all sound slightly different and complex and rich sonic structures in space appear.
For the album, I did layer and process the sounds of the original looping device. More details about it are on the Layering Buddha album page. What the album is missing is the spatial component:
It is simply stereo.
The performance version brings back the original magic of distributed loops and timbres in space: Layering Buddha Live is performed with a ring of six or eight speakers around the audience.
The musical layers and building blocks of the album are processed in real time, applying small pitch variations or microscopic changes to loop lengths, all different for each speaker. As a result a complex spatial evolving and mutating texture emerges, under control of the performer.
During the concert, slow interpolations and fades between material are performed, and the playback of each part is manipulated to alter the spectrum, dynamics and density of events. The overall shape and structure of the performance is not defined, it is improvised.
The necessary consistency comes from the strong characteristics of the source materials, giving each piece its individual timbre and the overall performance a sonic 'signature'.
Layering Buddha Live has been performed at Club Transmediale in Berlin, at MUTEK in Canada, at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sophia in Madrid, at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney, the Dispatch festival in Belgrade, and several other events.
The recordings here are 'historical documents: The first is from the premiere, January 31 2007 at club 'Maria am Ufer' during the CTM festival in Berlin, and the second one from November 22 2008, in Poznan, Poland.
( around 60 minutes each )