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Mouthpiece
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In 1973, John Stevens was performing regularly at the Little Theatre Club in central London with the then duo Spontaneous Music Ensemble, and with a larger free improvising group called Free Space. He was also directing weekly workshops in both east London (Bethnal Green) and west London (Ealing). He asked the workshop members to come to the Theatre Club as well, and all these elements combined to become the Spontaneous Music Orchestra.
As I remember, there were usually about twenty to thirty people involved. However, the first piece on this CD seems to be by a smaller number, while the last seems to involve more. Unfortunately, I did not keep a record of who was involved; some participants have continued to perform in the London improvisation scene, whilst others ‘vanished’ without trace. Rather than name some certainties and guess at others, it seems best to leave the musicians anonymous - this is, after all, ensemble music. (It should be pointed out that Stevens himself is heard on cornet; he does not play percussion on any of these pieces.)
Stevens had been experimenting with large improvisation ensembles for several years, and always found different ways to organise them. His concepts were often more interesting than the end results, but what I have chosen here are performances that I, as a listener, find both interesting and enjoyable.
The first piece came out of silence and returned there, with Stevens asking the musicians to continuously relate to the silence. The music is a good example of the SME approach to improvising, with everyone relating to each other while leaving enough space for everyone else.
One of the most basic devices used was the Sustained Piece, in which everyone sustains a note for as long as they can breathe out, pauses to breathe in, and then sustains again, etc. Two examples are heard here, one instrumental and one vocal. On the first attempt that evening (not heard here) everyone played loudly. Stevens soon terminated this, since he pointed out that not everyone could be heard when everyone played loudly. Everyone can be heard on the two subsequent slowly-evolving drones included here.
One-Two is the piece on this CD that sounds most like a workshop exercise. This is actually similar to the duo piece Flower, which was the mainstay of SME performances around that time, based on a fixed beat. Alternating beats are designated ‘one’ and ‘two’. Performers can choose to play on one or the other. They can decide to stop playing on ‘their’ beat and start on the other, or they can drop out of this sequence for a while and play sustained notes. Each beat is thus played by an unpredictable combination of instruments, giving it a decidedly surprising aspect.
The instructions for Mouthpiece were for everyone to start with non-vocal mouth sounds, then to migrate in their own time to vocal sounds, and finally to instruments. The opening minutes feature some remarkable textures from the large group. The ensuing instrumental section becomes an all-out blast for a while (the only one on this CD), but then calms down to produce some more wonderful textures, before the opening sequence is loosely reversed to produce an unexpected ending.
This CD captures more of the many and varied aspects of the late John Stevens’ legacy, with his remarkable and fruitful conception of group improvisation.
MARTIN DAVIDSON (2000) |
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ARTISTS
Spontaneous Music Orchestra |
TRACKS
1. In Relationship To Silence
2. Sustained Piece (Instrumental)
3. Sustained Piece (vocal)
4. One-Two
5. Mouthpiece
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