(Topics: Eli Keszler, Mouse on Mars Dimensional People Ensemble, Jan St.Werner, Moritz Simon Geist, Rashad Becker, Greg Fox, Sensory Percussions, Squarepusher+Z Machine-Music For Robots, Bram Stadhouders, Actress+Young Paint)
It was during a music festival that I met Siddhi, who was working on her PhD researching sensory technology for artificial limbs. We were both foreigners staying at the same guest house, similar in age and both music lovers we naturally became friends. She was passionate for music and also a sax player herself, but a telling of hard wired scientist showed, thru normal small talks such as, ‘So what’d ya do?’. She told me about her field, which began by explaining countless unfamiliar technologies that are already invented and utilized, and that her lab specifically, was inventing ‘Artificial skin that have senses’. …3D printing a sensor onto bio artificially grown skin??? I had no idea, that robotic limbs were already invented, let alone the force to move it with your mind… Yes, ‘The Force’ is an applied science now. Isn’t that a dream come true. SF is just S.
“So, you think about it, and it moves? Impossible.”
“Yes, do you know about the ‘phantom limb’? When the body loses a limb, the feeling of the body part being there remains.”
“That’s like urban myth, but, Yes! I’ve read or seen somewhere.”
“Well, It’s because we have nerves, and the means to connect nerves to robotic hands are already invented. (Wow.) But that’s not enough, because we need feedback to sense what’s going on when we touch something to be able to control it. You can squish something soft so easily with a robotic hand. If you touch something hot and don’t realize it you can easily damage your precious arm (or carry something too hot to your mouth). So, we need the feedback to feel something whether it’s hard or soft (pressure), or the temperature. Not until that part of the technology is realized, robotic limbs aren’t actually practical. So that’s what I do! Research.”
The thought of artificial or biologically grown skin with sensory feedbacks connected to the brain, made my head dizzy. “You’re at the verge of latest science, but you still have time (and a head) to enjoy playing the sax, that’s really cool,” I told her. She replied that most of her science colleagues actually play an instrument or two, especially jazz. Maybe it’s a thing, smart people are nimble.
I did not further cogitate over the relationship of music and science at that point of time….
Recently in Berlin, at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of cultures of the world), Mouse on Mars performed with their newest project, The Dimensional People Ensemble. This project is a big band ensemble, a collaboration of over 50 musicians including sonic robots, and at the same time, the title of MoM’s 11th album. Techno, hip hop, jazz, ambient, pop, rock… the numerous cross overs of sound in this album is ear opening. A scent of liberalism lingers from this inclusiveness of different sounds, and naturally so, this ensemble was birthed through the PEOPLE project in 2016.
The People project known to most Berliners as a mysterious festival held in the summer of 2018, without any pre announced programs or timetables, posters and stickers pledged the unofficial walls throughout the city, the unique strategies made the festival hyped and mysterious. The only thing announced were the names of 160 musicians to be part of the project, and the ticket price (which was sadly not so liberal. Thanks funkhaus!). Read about People Festival and Dimensional People Ensemble here.
To put together such a diverse ensemble, a scope of work was in need, to employ so many different musicians on a level plane.
“We had two rules,” Mr. St. Werner said. “We wanted to stick to 145 beats per minute, so basically we had a rhythmic scheme. And we had a specific key. So we could record whatever we wanted, with whomever we wanted, and we could always move things around. It would always make sense. It would always fit.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/12/arts/music/mouse-on-mars-dimensional-people-mit.html
I was very curious what this would all add up to. To get more of a picture, I decided to attend a gig by one half of Mouse on Mars scheduled a few days prior to the HKW concert. Jan St.Werner was to play a solo with with Rashad Becker and drummer Eli Keszler, at one of the more underground and smaller venues in Berlin called ACUD Macht Neu. After 3 electronic solo sets by David Luciani, Jan St.Werner, Rashad Becker respectively each providing a solo set, Eli Keszler on drums and electronics would conclude the night. When I arrived shortly before the announced starting time of 20:00, the ACUD club was fully packed with a guesstimate 200 people in the audience.
Irrelavant, but whilst Jan St.Werner performed his comical and crazy music with a computer, I noticed a man standing next to me in the audience, let out a chuckle. It was Andi Toma. When I mentioned this to Andi after the concert, he told me that the electronic sound at one point sounded like a dog barking, and he found it amusing. I thought for sure it was a dog barking and asked Andi, “Wasn’t it a field recording?” But he told me it’s all emulated sounds. “I don’t have a clue from start till beginning what Jan was doing on computers”, I confessed, and Andi laughed, “You will never know!” But I felt that the common perception to this performance, could actually be described with the word ‘funny’.
Rashad Becker’s performance utilizing the Continuum Fingerboard among other things followed. An abstract meditative and microtonal music. Continuum for Space continuum. This instrument has no separate keys, and instead an interface which allows the player to control a 3 dimensional axis of space, sort of similar to a Theremin. When I saw him perform earlier this year in the summer, he had this gear, and told me that he recently started experimenting with it. I thought it fitted Rashad’s music perfectly.
From the beginning of the night, in the background of performers playing electronic solos, the drum set was set up and prepared on the stage, ready to be played. Personally, I’m a huge lover of the sound of acoustic drums, and was eager to hear the night’s drummer. At the end of the night Eli Keszler appeared on the stage, quietly sat down, and meditatively started to play. Black cloths covered the drum head to silence the sound a bit, and small quiet cymbals were also laid on the snare. With a traditional grip (common to jazz drummers whose left hand grips the stick like a pencil and tends to allow more control rather than loudness), he started to delicately improvise quiet, intricate patterns. The magic of improvisation, generally speaking, is that it swallows in the entirety of the time and space. It is an art form relying on simultaneous time. The acoustic of the room, ambient sounds of the environment like outside noise or sounds from the audience, the particular mood of the day, can all be a part of the music. Naturally, if there are other members the sound of these other parts, too, every single coincidental aspect will be a part of the music. The music talks to and with all these other influences, and turns it into a piece. As if making sense of the chaotic world using sound, it is magical. It is a happening. Eli played delicately and allowing every stroke he played to build the simultaneous time art, he used one more form of magic. It was a layer of electronic sounds that seemed to magically come from the acoustic drum set itself.
If words could explain, it sounded like this: Various electronic emulated tones and melodies which ring completely simultaneously with Eli’s free jazz style drumming. The reason it’s so simultaneous, is because Eli’s drums are actually triggering the emulated sounds. But it’s not just a simple mic/vibration detecting trigger. This newest kind of drum trigger which Eli uses, is a latest tech invention. It can recognize not only rim shots and the volume of the strokes, but even which part on the drum head was hit, the kind of stroke, cross sticking techniques, even how the strokes would be different when the skin on the drum head was stretched. All by ‘training’ the sensor to learn the different variation of vibrations that the drummer plays, and playing back the assigned computer sound for each kind of stroke. In the entirety of the performance, he never touched the computer which was set up by the drums.
This is actually a fairly new technology and trend in music and sensory technology, expanding the possibility of the acoustic drums. It’s a new project which gained funding through kickstarter and finally came out on the market in 2016, called Sensory Percussion.
I had first experienced this sensory percussion concert in late 2017 by drummer Greg Fox, who had been behind the scenes in the development of the program as a friend of the inventor, Tlacael Esparza (founder of Sunhouse). Readers in Japan might have experienced Greg Fox’s sounds during his Japan tour. What I can remember from what Greg told me when I talked to him after the show in Madeira Portugal, went something like this.
“My drum teacher was a one of a kind guy, gave me some interesting lessons. I went to his bassment studio expecting to sit in front of a drum set, and play. It didn’t go like that. He put a mic on my chest, and let me hear the sound of my amplified heart beat. From this experiment, of magnifying and stretching out just the sound of the heartbeat, my teacher would demonstrate that all the beats in the world are already in this sound. I heard all the rhythms in the world I have ever heard. Everything.” (‘Are you sure you’re not sick? The heart beat doing a trip-hop beat sounds, well, unhealthy,’ I laughed.) “No, no. I have a normal heart beat. From this experiment, it taught me, that every single person who listens to or plays music, has a heart already, so everyone can understand rhythm. Any one can be a drummer. It’s already inside you from the moment of existence.” “And also, if you want to practice the drums I have this tip you can try. I practice like this too. Think of On Time and Time-less-ness. And then think of Mind-ful-ness, and Mind-less-ness. When you think of these two factors as the X and Y axis on a piece of paper, 4 different spaces of concepts will appear. I practice each and all 4 of these concepts indiscriminately. So, it’s On time and mindful, Time-less and mindful, Mindless but on time, and then Time-less and Mind-less.”
This chat with Greg was super interesting. As well as his explanation of the Sensory Percussion program. He was very enthusiastic about how this new technology of sensory hardware and innovative software allowed his drumming performances to evolve and expand. Through his words I understood that this was an exciting new technology, that didn’t exist before (excepting the e-drums but that’s a whole different instrument). The e-drums will never take the place of acoustic drums, and drummers know that the best. But the hype around Sensory Percussion, is solid among drummers. (You can see clips of drummers playing with Sensory Percussion on instagram feeds). Here is a Youtube video of drummer from Son Lux (also NY based band) play. Cool stuff. To know more about the technicality, see this kickstarter page by Sunhouse.
To sum it up, keywords from the night at ACUD: Sensory, Learning software programs, Expansion of the body (and heart beat) through electronic amplification and modulation!
2 days after the night at ACUD Macht Neu, Mouse on Mars – Dimensional People Ensemble at HKW took place. The concert was organized as a part of Technosphärenklänge (Technologic Sphere of Sound), which seems to be an on going concert series dealing with the relationship between latest technology and music. The first half of the night showed a contemporary dance piece, including dancers, sensors, and a kinetic robot. After a short break and set change, the concert took place. I waited for the concert to start, sitting in the cozy seat of the HKW hall reading the pamphlet.
A sign in the lobby read some thing like this. (Photo below.) Soon the lights dimmed and the concert was just about to start. As I reached for my phone to activate the ‘flight mode’, my Siri went off and started reading the screen in her robotic voice, I fumbled to turn it off just in time. Living with technology these days…
The entire hall was pitch black, and in the middle of the empty stage, a kinetic sonic robot started to drum out a rhythm accompanied by strobe lights. One by one, the human members of the ensemble appeared on the stage and joined in the sound. Trombones and Trumpets came first, then, a Percussionist, Guitars, Andi & Jan of MoM, lastly Andrea Belfi the ‘human’ Drummer came into play. Moritz Simon Geist controlling the robotics, and Matthias Singer controlling the lights was also on stage behind their gear. Excepting Swamp Dogg who briefly came up on stage to sing, these 8 were the human members of the ensemble that performed for the Berlin audience. Other members of this ensemble, were the small sonic robots scattered through out the stage. Some of them made a clicking or tapping sound, others were prepared on a snare drum, others set up next to hanging cymbals, and some awaiting near a gong. These sonic robots had no face or expressions, but each had a strobe light that flashed to the sound each made, giving them a stage presence. To get a sense of the performance, just listen to the album. Zach Condon on trumpets and Dodo NKishi on percussions and Guitar, Andi Toma of MoM also sang sometimes, in respectively different styles. The music was a mix of different styles and elements, and hard to say what. The blend of human voices, brass instruments, guitar, percussion, strings, effects and sampling. The incorporation of sonic robots. A liberal jam of diverse people and robots. It sounded pop and jamming, experimental and electronic, but warm and vivid sounds in general.
Something inspiring, was the way that the sonic robot drumming out the most iconic patterns, was playing right in front of the ‘human drummer’ Belfi, which emphasized the contrast of Man vs the Machine. And then again the composer and mastermind, Mr. Jan St.Werner’s very nerd wired electronic role, which I will never know what… Noting that the Cello player credited on the pamphlet was not present, Mr.St.Werner also played the strings. I had never seen someone play the strings while keeping the other hand on the computer. Below is a photo of the 9 members receiving a massive applause.
I feel terrible that the mic is hiding Andi Toma. Another thing I’m feeling terrible about, is since at that time I did not know that the man I spoke to at ACUD was Andi Toma himself, I said to him in the HKW lobby before the concert, ‘oh, we meet again! Are you staff tonight??’ Terrible, but Toma was nice enough to laugh about it.
So, to conclude, through these two concert experiences in the same week, one could experience through ears, that the acoustic drums now have a sensory feedback system and the ability to learn the drummer’s strokes (2018 was the 100th anniversary of the invention of Drum sets. In a 100 years, they’ve come this far! Hail to Acoustic Drum Sets), and that humans are beginning to jam and play music with robots!!
Robotics and music are surely starting to blend in the current music scene, noticeable in projects such as Square Pusher / Z Machine‘s ‘Music For Robots’. But Robots playing music is nothing new. Reason: Music Boxes. Okay, the Z Machine is far more complicated robotics, but more than 100 years ago, the Dance Organ was already invented, an automated band of instruments which played complex songs. Machines have been entertaining people since early 1900s. Bram Stadhouders is a guitarist and Improvisor from the Netherlands who reinvented the historical Dance Organ to trigger it with his electric guitar through MIDI signals, wowing today’s jazz festival crowds through out Europe. His Dance Organ is portable and can also be hooked up with multiple improvisor’s instruments. When I was fortunate enough to run into his performance at the Moers Festival, Key-tar player Matt Mottel from Talibam! was gleefully blasting the Dance Organ along Bram, with his signature style on the Key-tar (combination of keys and guitar, and kind of a joke as an instrument already but Matt insists on playing this), controlling funny drum sounds as well. Yes the Organ has drums. It was gleeful to watch.
But one might argue, that all these topics above about robots playing music, it’s just humans controlling the robots. What about robots actually performing music? To those of you keeping up to date, would now come to mind, the project by Actress and Young Paint. Young Paint is an AI program that has been learning the musicality and production techniques of it’s master Actress over the past 10 years. There’s not much written or revealed about this new project, and I must wait until the CTM festival 2019 to get a picture of what this all means, but the album itself sounds pretty great. Pondering over what Siddhi the scientist told me, the day might soon come when robots can feel and sense the warmth of human touch. But the meaning and feelings triggered by this sense of warmth, can only be understood by robots through learning and programming. Or, will Actress’s artificial intelligence Young Paint, evolve to be more than that?
Music and Technology will keep evolving and expanding as far as the human mind can imagine. But the question is, why do we pursue all this technology, a robotic limb? The answer might be, that we want to be whole, we want to be Perfect… While I was struggling to write this post this entire week, I ran into an incredible performance by another drummer, who played a solo improv in the most simple low-tech analogue setup, which made me want to cry, “You are already perfect!” Next story, I think I would like to write about this.
Text by yours truly, and photos of Eli Keszler at ACUD Macht Neu were provided courtesy of Photographer Marcellina Wellmer. Check out more of her photos here; marcelinawellmer.com or Follow on Instagram
