Tomlin|Fergus
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Ferguson, John
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Abstract
Research Background: The aim is to expose commonality in seemingly disparate musical disciplines. The activities of a percussionist and an electronic musician may often appear dissimilar, but although each deploy radically different materials, their individual approach to improvisation and sonic exploration is remarkably similar. This can be mapped onto John Bowers’ notion of ‘performance ecology’, a term used to describe the arena for activity created by a musician within their immediate surroundings, also foregrounding the importance of proximity and layout, and the value of openness towards a variety of instruments/technologies. Research Contribution: Tomlinson is inspired by intricate physical mechanisms and the sounding properties of resonant objects; Ferguson is obsessed with the ambiguity of digital technologies and the unpredictability of analogue electronics. Each deploys a varied ecology of instruments, the layout and arrangement dictates creative possibilities and impacts decision making. The music that this duo produce radiates from pre-composed situations and instrumental ecologies, the performance of and in which it is improvised. A variety of creative catalysts and strategies towards the real-time generation of convincing musical form are explored. However, embodied physical gesture, an open and curious ear, and a commitment to fully exploring the sonic possibilities of the materials at hand is always at the foreground. Research Significance: The authors have collaboratively developed a variety of approaches to improvisation through five public concerts. Capturing this is an important undercurrent of the project, therefore high quality and close-up audio-visual documentation is prioritised, this will form the basis for further scholarly activity. The project culminated in a collaboration with Erik Griswold at the opening performance of Ecoacoustics Congress 2018, a four day peer-reviewed conference organised by the International Society of Ecoacoustics.
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Performance using electronic/digital music equipment. Audience of 400
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Music Performance
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Tomlinson, V; Ferguson, J, Tomlin|Fergus, Sonic Dreams, 2018