12 October 2004

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Artist statement

“I think the destructive element is too much neglected in art.”

– Piet Mondrian
from “The Dada Painters And Poets: An Anthology, Second Edition,” (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: 1981), edited by Robert Motherwell, pg. xviii.

 

Sitting in Klub Gromka in Ljubljana while Paul Lytton and Phil Waschmann are at a radio interview. Tonight is the 5th concert on our tour, tomorrow we have a 17 hour trip on an overnight train to France for our last show. The music has developed very quickly, a first meeting in Nickelsdorf for the trio and Phil and I working together. The only other violinist I’ve played with is Mat Maneri and that was a couple of years ago. Phil’s work is quite different than Mat’s, and the combination of that and my unfamiliarity with the violin’s characteristics have made this set of concerts quite a revelation. Plus, playing with Paul is always fantastic.

I wish that there was some way I could have documented the sets of conversations I’ve had this year with Joe Morris in February; Peter Brotzmann, Mats Gustafsson, and Amos Scattergood in September; now Paul Lytton and Phil Waschmann on this tour- so many cheap kamagra soft different and complimentary ideas about music, art, and politics! Each day I get on the train with the plan of getting to some e-mail, etc., and it’s just not possible- the conversations with Paul and Phil are just too interesting to pull myself away from them. The hours slip by and we’re at the next city or town almost before I realize it. I believe this is how all the real information about improvised music has been exchanged, by musicians who work together in casual conversation. Histories, ideas and aesthetics get discussed, then that information gets channeled through the next sets of meetings with other players. It would be great to get some of it down while it runs naturally- something that’s next to impossible at a workshop, seminar or panel discussion.

I’ll head to Oslo after this tour ends, jumping from free improvised music to the compositionally based work of FME- a nice leap to some other challenges and some similar considerations. The focus on dynamics and timbre with Lytton and Waschmann has been very informative, my intent is to take these discoveries and place them in the directions for FME.