Visual Music at UC Berkeley

A while ago, composer Benjamin Irwin asked me to create a silent movie to be used as visual argument for a concert of improvised music.

We were already involved with the preparation of another concert, this time with music composed by Ben from/for/to my silent images, a concert I will announce at a later date, so I gladly accepted.

For the evening of improvised music, I decided to create a piece by working with music I enjoy, but had never visited/listened to "with my eyes."

I picked the 2nd, 3rd and 4th movements of Steve Reich's "The Four Sections," thinking that I would use that powerful music as a temporary temporal structure, and go at it sketching loosely.

I was wrong!

That music is much too potent to be dealt with lightly, so it grabbed my attention and would not let go until I had served it this way.

I sent the video to Ben, convinced it would be deemed much too complicated to be used for a live performance (thinking I would be asked to "simplify" it), but again, I was wrong.

Ben and his colleagues took a look at it, practiced with it a few times, and decided to give it a go.

UC Berkeley Graduate Composers and Improvisers Ensemble
Ritwik Banerjee, saxophone
Andres Cremisini, drums
Tom Ferguson, bass and electronics
Ben Irwin, clarinet
Mateo Lugo, electric guitar
David Michel-Ruddy, piano
Ian Saxton, percussion
Myra Melford, director

There will also be other improvisations with dancer Brett Jarrett, and with a film by Simon Valencia