[-empyre-] intersections and practice

[gbach@csulb.edu (Glenn Bach)]

Keith Obadike wrote:
>
>>I wonder if the guest could talk a bit about their
>>participation in different but perhaps intersecting
>>sound making communities and how these intersections
>>affect their practice.

I'm on webmail here at home, and I lost the last half-hour of typing. 
Do'h.  So, let's try it again, with my apologies of being far less eloquent
then I was an hour ago . . .

My first experience as a practitioner/manipulator of sounds was as an
ambient/experimental DJ coming in at the tail end of one of the first big
rave scenes in Southern California in the early 1990s.	The scene was
imploding: promoters were only hiring DJs they knew well, no one really
supported "chill-out" rooms, and even then the crowd was way too young for
me: E-popping and nitrous-sniffing Cat in the Hat teenyboppers (way before
Candy Ravers).	I had better luck spinning at coffeehouses and art
openings, but even then, most situations involved serving as a backdrop,
spinning background ambient atmospherics, and there was little or no sense
of community--no support for experimentation or discussion.  So, at that
time my work involved straightforward collage/montage, isolating
interesting moments on a record, back-spinning-sampling, non-synchronous
"mashups." 

Sold my gear, got back into writing, then in 1996 moved to New York City
and rediscovered sound.  Got Deck II for my Mac Performa and really started
to explore the possibilities of working within strict technical boundaries
(going back to the limits of two turntables), composing modest experimental
sound pieces within the confines of the few tracks and effects available on
Deck.  Got a DJ gig at WBAR at Barnard College, spun trip hop and downtempo
and D&B, and even managed to get a couple of DJ gigs on borrowed equipment,
but in the year-and-a-half I lived in NYC, I failed to find or break into
any scenes (although I knew they were there).  (Subsequently lost most of
the digital experimentation I did there.)

Moved back to So Cal, dropped some serious cash on a PA and mixer and other
gear in order to join a friend?s pop band (Massive Attack meets Garbage),
which failed, but my friendship with the guitarist continued.  We jammed as
a duo, then with another guitarist friend, which led me to compose a piece
for ensemble consisting of loose structures upon which the musicians could
improvise longer meditations. 

At the same time I discovered the Ambient and IDM discussion lists, which
led me to microsound. 

Got another radio gig, this time at KUCI 88.9 FM in Irvine, really got
turned on to a deeper involvement in free jazz, avant-classical, IDM,
post-rock, and noise.  Ran a weekly experimental night at a local
coffeehouse.  Futzed around with SoundForge and started making little
digital pieces.

Microsound led to lowercase and phonography. 

So, with all of these differing, sometimes overlapping, communities I was
able to discover and explore new possibilities in my own work.	Most of my
relationships to those communities, however, were on the periphery, so I
never really identified with a single "ism."  And the thread that continues
to run through my work, uninterrupted from the DJ days, was the concept of
working within very limited parameters: use only the stereo channel in
SoundForge; use only freeware; compose a 20-minute piece using only  a
single word spoken into SayIt; use only a 3-second sample of a dry signal
from a Fender Strat and amp.

And now that I?m reinvesting myself in a visual arts community, it will be
interesting to see how this non-sound community will influence my work,
both visual and aural.	

Hope this addressed the question (yikes).

Best,

G.


P.S.  One example of a direct connection is John Kannenberg.  His support
of my work has been very inspiring, with one project in particular, his
Palimpsest Project, directly influencing my current art-making practice. 
My work would not be the same, not as rich or as interesting, without his
support as a curator and friend.  That's just one example.  Kim Cascone,
Aaron Ximm, Trace Reddell, et al, have all had an influence either on my
work or research or both.