Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-03T20:34:37.995Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Live 4 Life: A spatial performance tool to play the ephemeral and improvise with space and playback speeds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2021

Christophe Lengelé
Christophe Lengelé*
Affiliation:
Faculté de Musique, Université de Montréal, Canada
*
Email: christophe.lengele@umontreal.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article describes my own way to improvise with space using a computer-based tool implemented in SuperCollider. The objective of this spatial performance tool is to have an ergonomic spatio-temporal and spectral control over numerous sound objects in real time, in order to alternate between spatialised polyrhythms and textures. After a brief review of spatial audio context, the spatial performance tool is summarised and detailed here by focusing on one of the core parameters: the playback speeds, which can act both on rhythm and space and enable among others the spatio-temporal articulation of the performance. As well as discussing the word ‘comprovisation’ and my conception of human–computer improvisation, the possibilities and approach of the tool in terms of improvisation and controllerism are illustrated through the use and combination of different controllers (computer keyboard, tactile interfaces, force touch sensors). Whereas some controllers are more dedicated to the selection and triggering of streams of spatialised sound events, others have their own mappings and ways of acting on some parameters (depending on the temporality of the sounds: playing or future events).

Type
Article
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 26 , Issue 1: The Sonic and the Electronic in Improvisation , April 2021 , pp. 89 - 99
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bhagwati, S. 2018. Navigating the Uncomfortable. Paper presented at conference Improvisation: Philosophical Re-Scriptions. Berlin, Germany, 12–13 July.Google Scholar
Boesch, R. 1998. Composition/diffusion in Electroacoustic Music. In Barrière, F. and Bennett, G. (eds.) Proceedings Vol. III of the International Academy of Electroacoustic Music. Bourges, France: Editions Mnémosyne, 221–5.Google Scholar
Bolles, M. 2019. Special Topic: Audio Production for Fulldome. Dome Tour. www.thedometour.com/single-post/2019/02/28/Special-Topic-Audio-Production-for-Fulldome (accessed 30 September 2020).Google Scholar
Bonardi, A. and Guillot, P. 2015. Concevoir des traitements sonores ambisoniques en 2d et en 3d – l’exemple de Pianotronics 2. Proceedings of Journées d’Informatique Musicale, Montréal, Canada.Google Scholar
Boren, B. and Musick, M. 2018. Spatial Organization in Musical Form. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. Daegu, South Korea: ICMA.Google Scholar
Chadabe, J. 1997. Electric Sound: The Past and Promise of Electronic Music. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Dilger, T. 2013. GASPR Graphical Audio Spatialization Program with Real Time Interaction. Proceedings of Journées d’Informatique Musicale, Paris, France.10.1007/978-3-319-03892-6_16CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dudas, R. 2010. ‘Comprovisation’: The Various Facets of Composed Improvisation within Interactive Performance Systems. Leonardo Music Journal, 20: 29–31.10.1162/LMJ_a_00009CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gagnon, V. 2018. Utiliser la théorie musicale pour faire du design sonore et créer une unité dans un jeu vidéo. Conference in Akousma Festival of the audio director at Ubisoft-Montréal, Montréal, Canada.Google Scholar
Goudard, V. 2019. Ephemeral Instruments. Proceedings of the Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Porto Alegre, Brazil.Google Scholar
Lefevre, A. 2017. Les N-lecteurs du GRM Player. Proceedings of Journées d’Informatique Musicale, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Lengelé, C. 2017. La création en temps réel de polyrythmies spatialisées via l’outil de performance spatiale: Live 4 life. Proceedings of Journées d’Informatique Musicale, Paris, France.Google Scholar
Lengelé, C. 2018. Live 4 Life – A Spatial Performance Tool Focused on Rhythm and Parameter Loops. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. Daegu, South Korea: ICMA.Google Scholar
Lengelé, C. 2021. The Story and the Insides of a Spatial Performance Tool: Live 4 Life. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conferenc. Santiago, Chili: ICMA.Google Scholar
Lewis, G. 2018. Why Do We Want Our Computers to Improvise? In Dean, R. T. and McLean, A. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 123–30.Google Scholar
Llera Blanes, G. D. 2017. Controllers as Musical Instruments, Controllerism as Musical Practice – Practices of a New 21st Century Musical Culture. PhD thesis, Universidade Nova De Lisboa.Google Scholar
McLean, A. 2020. Algorithmic Pattern. Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, Birmingham, UK.Google Scholar
Negrao, M. C. 2014. Immlib – A New Library for Immersive Spatial Composition. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. Athens, Greece: ICMA.Google Scholar
Nyström, E. 2018. Topographic Synthesis: Parameter Distribution in Spatial Texture. Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference. Daegu, South Korea: ICMA.Google Scholar
Ott, J., Tutescu, A.-S., Wienboker, N., Rosenbauer, J. and Gorne, T. 2019. Spatial Audio Production for Immersive Fulldome Projections. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Spatial Audio, Ilmenau, Germany.Google Scholar
Penha, R. and Oliveira, J. P. 2013. Spatium – Tools for Sound Spatialization. Proceedings of the Sound and Music Computing Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.Google Scholar
Roads, C. 2005. The Art of Articulation: The Electroacoustic Music of Horacio Vaggione. Contemporary Music Review 24(4–5): 295–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohrhuber, J. 2018. Algorithmic Music and the Philosophy of Time. In Dean, R. T. and McLean, A. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Algorithmic Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 17–40.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, P. 1966. Traité des objects musicaux. Paris: Editions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Sédes, A. 2015. Approche musicale de la décorrélation microtemporelle dans la bibliotheque HOA. Proceedings of Journées d’Informatique Musicale, Montréal, Canada.Google Scholar
Sonami, L. 2014. And Now We Leave Gloves and Other Wearables to (Small) Dictators. Proceedings of the Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, London, UK.Google Scholar
Sonami, L. 2017. Your Presence is Required – Performance, Control, and Magnetism. Workshop and Distinguished Lecture at CIRMMT, Montréal, Canada.Google Scholar
Stewart, J. 2013. ‘Comprovisation or imposition?’: An Improvised Composition on a Life of Improvisation. Critical Studies in Improvisation 9(2). www.criticalimprov.com/index.php/csieci/article/view/2904.10.21083/csieci.v9i2.2904CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vaggione, H. 2001. Composing Musical Spaces by Means of Decorrelation of Audio Signals. Addendum of the COST G–6 Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFX–01), Limerick, Ireland.Google Scholar
Vande Gorne, A. 2017. Traité d’écriture sur support. Lien: Musiques et recherches.Google Scholar

Lengelé supplementary movie 1

Video Example 1: Parmegiani meets SuperCollider (first improvisation) – 16′10″

Download Lengelé supplementary movie 1(Video)
Video 238 MB

Lengelé supplementary movie 2

Video Example 2: Free parties will survive (fourth improvisation at JIM 2019) – 13′43″

Download Lengelé supplementary movie 2(Video)
Video 84.7 MB

Lengelé supplementary movie 3

Video Example 3: Free parties will survive (first improvisation) – 18′56″

Download Lengelé supplementary movie 3(Video)
Video 319.4 MB