DAN BIGNA The devotional hymns to the Holy Spirit screaming from Albert Ayler’s tenor saxophone in the early ‘60s represented the logical next step in the progression of jazz, with the aftershocks still felt at Canberra’s annual SOUNDOUT 2013 festival of improvised music to be held at Theatre 3. If jazz is the focus, improvisation has always been the guiding principle, and although the be-boppers of the early ‘40s made some radical moves, little could have prepared music devotees for a headlong dive into the uncharted waters of free improvisation which commenced with Ornette Coleman’s harmolodic theory in the late ‘50s, and was taken to infinity and beyond by the likes of Ayler, pianist Cecil Taylor and late period Coltrane. But this story isn’t solely about jazz. Departure from convention can be a pretty striking move in anyone’s books and the free improvisers made the break while tossing all conventions out the window. This has made a huge impact on artists of all persuasions as seen at SoundOut, now in its fourth year. The festival will feature a broad mix of improvising electronic and acoustic artists, both local and international, who will uphold and transform the liberating notion of spontaneous creativity so confidently articulated by Ornette Coleman all those years ago.
One performer of note is the currently Canberra-based electronics artist Michael Norris, who in previous performances at SoundOut has ranged across the tonal spectrum by extracting slight insectlike wisps at one moment and sheet metal blasts at others. Norris travelled from Brisbane to Canberra five years ago and immersed himself in a small yet dedicated local scene of improvising artists, including guitarist/electronics musician Reuben Ingalls, also performing at SoundOut 2013, with whom he hosts the exploratory electronic music 2XX program Subsequence on Wednesday evenings. ‘The Canberra scene is held together by a small number of people and so long as those people are active and doing stuff then things happen,’ Norris observes. ‘People come to Canberra with their own backgrounds and I think that puts its own character on what happens here.’
It’s where the music becomes an organism on its own terms. It just flows along and both the audience and the musicians on the stage are a part of that
Funding issues threatened the ongoing viability of the festival last year but common sense finally prevailed; a grant from ArtsACT has assisted festival organiser Richard Johnson to once again showcase great talent from around the world in the year of Canberra’s centenary. ‘I want things that are democratic in the sense that the musician has an input in free improvisation, where it becomes something more than merely easily recognisable forms of jazz or classical or contemporary music,’ Johnson says. ‘It’s where the music becomes an organism on its own terms. It just flows along and both the audience and the musicians on the stage are a part of that.’ The free exchange of ideas between audience and performer involves confounding listener expectations by exploring musical combinations beyond established traditions. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that free improvisation is the proverbial unmoored ship. In guitarist Joe Morris’s recent book Perpetual Frontier: The Properties of Free Music he points out that ‘attempting to perform a random improvisation is, in fact, a formal technique. It is always done with a degree of preparation.’ And so it goes for SoundOut 2013, which will feature refinement of techniques from combinations of dedicated and experienced musicians, including percussionist for The Necks and committed free music performer, Tony Buck, alongside Canberra performer Alison Plevey, who works in sound manipulation and dance, and Brazilian free improvising collective ABAETETUBA.
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Norris has been a significant part of that character in recent years. A soon-to-happen relocation to Queensland represents a loss to the local scene, considering that Norris is fully attuned to a core principle of improvised music and the creative freedom this represents. ‘Improvised music is all about listening before anything else,’ he explains. ‘Improvised music is an exercise in listening more so than making sounds.’ I have seen this happen in previous SoundOut performances where Norris becomes absorbed in the act of spontaneous creation, but allows enough space for his fellow musicians to engage in meaningful dialogue. ‘I try to have as broad a palate as I can,’ he says. ‘And then don’t think about it until I’m actually sitting there and the first sound happens.’ Norris describes his chosen instrumentation as ‘a synth through a midi controller with a few gadgets – mostly contact mics attached to various bits of metal and whatever that go into a mixer. And from there into a clavia nord synth, which I can program to do whatever I want it to do.’ The coming together of almost primitive and futuristic possibilities engenders a freedom to create that Norris is fully engaged with. He is currently involved in a sound installation piece with Canberra artist Blaide Lallemand and SoundOut 2013 is an event that has a particular resonance for his chosen medium. ‘The festival is a way to connect with really experienced improvisers because you are put on stage with people you’ve never met before but have had huge experience in improvising. You don’t know what’s going to happen but somehow it always works. You always manage to have a conversation and reach an end point and that experience is not really like anything else.’ SoundOut 2013 is on at Theatre 3, Acton, from Sat Feb 2-Sun Feb 3, running 1-5pm and 7-11:30pm both days. Tickets are $25 concession, $35 adults, available from canberrarep.org.au.