Improvised composition project – Ensemble Resilience

Ensemble Resilience and London-based composer Rubens Askenar are excited to present a pioneering project that will offer a fresh perspective on the compositional process and the interaction between interpreters and composers. We explore how the intersection of spaces of illegible notations, cryptic narratives and non-linear graphics, converge with forms of traditional notation generated in real time, opening the field to other sound discourses assembled as a puzzle of brittle memories, emphasising the use of intuition as a critical tool for artistic orientation and performative force. Through the use of a purpose-built interface which allows one or more composers to manipulate prepared musical material in real time, the musicians of Ensemble Resilience read and interpret visual images used as “score input”, which combine A.I. generated graphics with traditional musical parameters improvised by the composers. The process is very much a dialogue of creative intentions: the musician translate the visual input into sound; the composers instantly react to the music and decide how to modify the visual input to alter the narrative of the musical event. Multiple routes of interactions can be explored in different instances: each composer can be responsible for the entire material fed to a single instrument or for a single parameter (e.g. pitch, texture, dynamics) of the whole composition. Doing so, the composers are forced to respect each other’s artistic decisions and adapt to those. Can we still talk about the ownership of an idea? Is music composition exclusively something personal and indisputable? Such process creates unique pieces that are tailored to the emotional state of the interpreters and the atmosphere of the venue, as well as the response of the audience.

FUTURE WORKSHOPS

Ultimately, this project wants to prove that there is a chance to rethink the social role of the artistic process. Technology can make it accessible to any speck of society. We want to make this a tool for amateur musicians and young aspiring composers (of any age) to approach musical creation through an intuitive new method of composition that respects the collective nature of human beings. The interface is adaptable to any level of complexity, allowing this process to be experimented in workshops organised for students and amateur musicians.