background. September 2000.
-
a
combination of factors have finally collided to produce this undeniable idea.
-
this feeling
that the time is ripe for digital musicians to emerge from their solitary
working chambers and look for other people to play with. not more of the ad-hoc
ensembles brought together by festivals and labels, but to set up bands, to
make some commitments and get down to working together. and it’s not just me. even London suddenley has folk with
laptops knocking at the studio door wanting to play, not just wanting to play
in the jam together kind of way. no. these players want to interact; and yes are into wiring laptops
together too to play and process
each others sounds as well as their own.
with all the collaborations i have made in the last 10 years, my sonic explorations have been largely
solo, and it has only been in the last year with a duo (guitarist andy moor) and the 12 piece electronics
orchestra mimeo, that i have
decided that to establish a group that would really explore playing together is
something I really need to do now. it seems that it has got to a point where us
digital players worldwide have grappled with our machines enough to have
developed a certain amount of fluency , musicality, and ability to
produce works ranging from the tiniest hair to the most spectacular din, with a sonic variety in texture and wit and emotion and
colour that could fling the most brilliant orchestra into a shadowy corner on its best day. now i speak of looking to
make a different kind of music, and another way of making it. for the fact is
we’ve been doing all this, are doing this, largely as individuals, as solo artists.
where are the groups of digital players working on playing
together ?
what kinds of musics could result if a group of digital soloists
came together and worked as a group?
had time to explore how they could interact? e.g. via sound,
spatialization, midi and other digital connections….
what would happen as we real time played and controlled each
others sounds, questioned ownership of sound, democratised ideas?
the lappetites was spawned from an evening I curated at
Tonic, New York April 2001 where o-blaat, Ikue Mori, Zeena Parkins, Marina Rosenfeld and
myself played a 45 minute set. all electronics players, not only did we have this ridiculously
new situation of improvising with a bunch of just girls, but the potential that evening inspired
made it obvious that this format could be the start of this live electronics
band idea. and so the lappetites
came into being.
with
other commitments, distance, travel costs and schedules, it was soon realised,
that the lappetites would be a forum within which to explore these ways of
playing, and that members would come and go over time.