mimeo - movement in music electronic orchestra
what the hell is mimeo?
Q: Could you offer a few "official" words on Mimeo and history?
A: The idea of an "official" view for Mimeo is almost contradictory, in the sense that the performers have such varied backgrounds. As for history, I guess Mimeo reflects the doubt laden transition from the world of scarcity (analogue spectrum) to the one of plenty (digital). Within the orchestra this transition is represented by the group primitive and the powerbook quartet, a kind of "post techno Duchampianism", a music worked around choice and juxtaposition.
Mimeo takes two features of twentieth century music into the twenty-first, improvisation and electronics. It consults/ runs/operates through a kind of internet e-mail democracy. The question however remains: "Will the powerbook quartet be able to contain the low tech onslaught of the primitives and avoid the out-flanking manoeuvres by the dysfunctional garbage collectors, or will the romantics hold the day with their instruments rooted in history".
mimeo is,
Phil Durrant (GB) violin, electronics
Christian Fennesz (A) computer
Cor Fuhler (NL) electronics, piano, organ
Thomas Lehn (D) analogue synthesizer
Kaffe Matthews (GB) computer
Jerome Noetinger (F) electroacoustique devices
Gert-Jan Prins (NL) electronics, radio, tv, percussion
Peter Rehberg (A) computer
Keith Rowe (GB/F) tableguitar
Marcus Schmickler (D) computer, synthesizer
Rafael Toral (P) guitar, electronics
Markus Wettstein (CH) metal garbage
. London . Vienna . Amsterdam . Cologne . Grenoble . Nantes . Zurich . Lisbon .
Mimeo reviews
The Wire, may 2002, issue 219.
MIMEO AND JOHN TILBURY.
THE HANDS OF CARAVAGGIO.
Erstwhile 021 CD.
Keith Rowe, founder member of mimeo, couches his description of the groupís dynamic in terms of fasctional struggle, or what he calls ì the doubt laden transition from the world of scarcity (represented by the ìgroup primitive members of the ensemble) to the ìone of plenty" (represented by the Powerbook trio). Of course, Rowe rightly sees this as healthy but inherantly tactical. The disciplines of improvisation and electronics are brought head to head in a battle for supremacy or, at least, containment of ìinstruments rooted in history" by the forces of C21 technology. It is a fascinating strategy and The Hands of Caravvagio represents its latest theatre of engagement. ..( )
.... Furthermore, this work is described as a concerto which, in Latin, can be construed as ëto contend, to disputeí or in its Italianate form as ëto arrange, to agreeí. That this performacne not only manages to resolve all its tactical, artistic and linguistic issues but also creates in the process a landmark work of great significance, beauty and integrity is nothing short of a miracle. by John Cratchley.
MIMEO PLAY 24HOURS AT MUSIQUE DíACTION , NANCY, FRANCE. JUNE 2000.
One might think that a 24 hour long performance by an all-star ensemble such as the Keith Rowe-led Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra would tread slightly into the realm of self-indulgence. But this was--in Rowe's wordsó "an installation or a happening, not a concert", and that more relaxed feel permeated the day's proceedings.
The musicians were seated at four tables in the shape of a square, three on the outer side of each table (although since Rafael Toral was a regrettable no-show, Pita and JÈrÙme Noetinger had one side to themselves). A common complaint about many electronic improvisers is the lack of obvious action on stage, the "they might as well be reading their e-mail up there" line of criticism. One thing that was great about this setup is that it allowed the spectators to wander around the room, and to sit right behind the musicians, watching, for instance, Thomas Lehn's hands dance on his synthesizer, or Rowe's meticulous worrying of subtleties out of his guitar. The four musicians using laptops were evenly spaced out around the tables, in order to more easily be distinguished from each other. The acoustics were ideal: four large speakers, one in each corner of the room, with the musicians closest to each speaker mixed the loudest.
A few of the musicians remained awake for the full 24 hours, although many took at least short naps. Even when they were asleep, though, some were making contributions: Noetinger recorded Christian Fennesz's snoring backstage, and later worked it into the music. The crowd was surprisingly sparse, given the star power of the musicians and the entertainment value (40 FF for all 24 hours). There were as few as ten people awake and watching during some stretches, although there were close to 100 there at the end and in the evening of the first day.
The element of sheer duration may have qualified this as a happening, but it wasn't simply a round-the-clock filibuster: structure saved the day. The show seemed much shorter than it actually was because it was broken into well-conceived and entirely discrete parts. Some of the more memorable stretches:
-from 5:20-6 PM, after performing 70 pages of Cardew's Treatise, most of the band got up and went backstage, leaving just the trio of Marcus Schmickler, Phil Durrant and Fennesz, which was superb, great waves of Mego-style noise crashing down for the first half, then simmering down to a smattering of soft pulses for the second half.
-at 10 PM, the full ensemble performed a piece they called "4 in 5", in which each of the 11 musicians was allowed to play one four second burst over the course of five minutes. this resulted in a Malfatti-esque piece, with long stretches of total silence, and forced both the audience and the musicians to refocus their attention. This version was riveting; when they tried it again around 9 AM the next morning, there was some barely suppressed laughter amongst the musicians, who seemed to think that there was something a bit silly about playing a piece like this after having been onstage for the last 18 hours.
-from midnight-1 AM, the band played a tribute to Rothko, specifically the density of color in his paintings. This became a massively loud drone, but went on much too long, and was one of the very few stretches which I didn't connect with, even if the first half was a welcome ear-flushing break.
- from 3-4 AM, the "almost danceable" section, complete with beats. A local couple moved aside a section of chairs, and spent the full hour dancing, loose-limbed and abstractly, with remarkable energy that seemed to inspire the musicians. Another memorable moment was Pita's Mac crashing in the middle and the beats suddenly replaced briefly by an unmistakable reboot "bong".
-from 6-6:30 AM, the previous hour, the band had used no PA and no internal speakers, severely limiting their options. This stretch was a bit on the silly side, with the laptops making "eep!" error messages, and Schmickler crunching a bag of potato chips. But when this ended, it coalesced into a sparse, focused trio section by Rowe, Schmickler and Noetinger, with other musicians gradually joining them until the band revved up to full strength once more.
As the crowd slowly filed out of the Salle Des FÍtes, few seemed to realize that they had witnessed at least part of a historic show. There aren't that many improvisers who can command a crowd's rapt attention for an hour, let alone for 24 consecutive, but this band did it so easily, I was left with the feeling that they could do it once a week if they were so inclined.
--JON ABBEY ---- The Wire
(...) But the new live electronic music doesn't just look back. If the sluggishness of hard drives and the rigidity of music software formerly made live performance on computers a tortuous and tiresome affair, the hyperspeed and portability of Mac G3s and the real-time fluidity of programs like MAX, LiSa, and Super Collider have put live electronics into the hands of Powerbook powerhouses such as Christian Fennesz and Peter 'Pita' Rehberg. In truth, there is little distance between electronic tinkerers like Durrant and data crunchers like Rehberg. Indeed, the two join forces in the spectacular new live electronic orchestra MIMEO, whose astonishing debut has just been released by Chicago's Perdition Plastics label. A 12 piece led by AMM's Keith Rowe, MIMEO brings together generations of electronic experimentalists to battle it out on radios, tapes, samplers, analogue synthesizers, Powerbooks and other electronic paraphernalia. Chalk it up to the mysterious and unpredictable life of the electronic signal, which, released from its source, reappears transformed in strange and beautiful new guises.
Christoph Cox. The Wire, October 1999
the Wire:
"but the pedigree is less important than the execution: if the idea of a free improv computer music is old, with quite a few striving to realise it of late, it's surely never been achieved with such deranged, addictive verve. Echoes, to be sure, of the rustle and screech of AMMMusic 1966 and Henry Cow Concerts , of the thud and blare of Kontakte and Throbbing Gristles Second Annual Report , of the process dance of Alvin Lucier and George Lewis, but with an unbelated fearlessness and a cross-border learning and care which are very rarely found in one place at one time. This is a remarkable and an important record, not least because magnificent tracks like ''Nickelsdorf 3'' take us so smartly back to the drawing board when it comes to drawing up aesthetic battlelines: modernist versus postmodern, avant garde verses experimental, composed versus improvised; these promojargon shortcuts continue to cut the cheese at moments determined only by long superseded fashion waves."
MIMEO - ELECTRIC CHAIR (2CD by Grob)
Mimeo stands for Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra and is an improv big band featuring all your lovers boys from traditional improv to the laptop generation: Phil Durrant, Fennesz, Cor Fuhler, Thomas Lehn, Kaffe Matthews, Jerome Noetinger, Gert-Jan Prins, Peter Rehberg, Keith Rowe,Marcus Schmickler, Rafael Toral and Markus Wettstein.
The two CD's here contain again live recordings, but rather then the best cuts from a concert, the recordings have been edited in the studio. 'Chair' by Marcus Schmickler and 'Table' by Rafael Toral. Toral mixed the parts he liked best into one 69 minute piece, and dwells more into an organic flow which shifts nicely along softer and noisier paths. Schmickler seems to have cut an entire part out of the whole thing for the specific quality it had. His five selections can be classified as 'soft', 'noisy' or 'open'. Now particulary this last classification is a difficult one. With such a large group of troublemakers, the sound is at times anything but open. Blurred elements cover up the beauty some sounds have. This could have been avoided if one would multi-track the whole thing and make a mixdown (no doubt this would lead to logistic problems). Have a look at the pictures of the mess these boys make of their toys, and you see the problems of doing a multi-track session. I preferred the Schmickler selection over the Toral selection, but nevertheless it's an overall document. Hopefully there will be a likewise document of the 24 hour concert Mimeo held a while back... can't wait to hear that. (FdW) Address: grobcologne@hotmail.com
MUSIC IN MOVEMENT ELECTRONIC ORCHESTRA (CD-R by GROB)
This release reads like a who's who of current hip people: Peter Rehberg, Justin Bennett, Christian Fennesz, Keith Rowe, Jerome Noetinger, Gert-Jan Prins and others from the field of electronica, improvisation, noise etc. They have played around Europe in various combinations together, and moments of those concerts are captured on this CDR. Like with many improvisational music this has good parts and parts in which the group finds a good flow. It's hard to tell how a complete concert sounded, but the elements captured here sound pretty much o.k. At many times noisy, with many overlaying events going on at the same time, and at other times introvert, like in the opening sequence. Elements of individual musicians might be reognized, such as the powerbook frenzy of Peter Rehberg. In general a worthwhile experience of new improvised music. And of course the format of CD-R is excellent for capturing events like this.
Frans de Waard, VITAL WEEKLY