On Friday, February 17th I attended at the Museum for Human Achievement a free improvisation concert that had some widespread diversity in the performances.
The basic premise behind the music (many people would call it noise or sounds and not actually music as melody was not very prominent in any of the pieces I heard). The idea of "No Idea" or spontaneity I guess is the premise behind free improvisation and I have been practicing it since about 1978 when I was a member of the Oxford Free Music Ensemble, based in Oxford, CT a suburban of New Haven, CT and was at a time I was driving from Wharton on a Thursday evening to New Haven (about a five hour drive) to spend time with Michael Pollack, Nan Helm, Michael Gittleman and assorted other musicians including some classically trained personnel.
The first piece by Aaron Russell and Kurt Newman I found pretty hard to listen to and was not a great example of free improvisation (sorry guys...)
Next up a trio of trumpet, trombone and percussion was much more together even though they were playing their instruments in non-traditional ways. Le Quan Ninh, Jacob Wick and Steve Parker
Next there was a film of free improvisation by two Austin musicians The Finger'd Remove that included a bamboo stick and some other sound generating implements.
#4 was a duo with oscillators and tv screens by Norwegian Kjell Bjorgeengen and Festival founder Chris Cogburn. Though quite cerebral, this was far and away the best of the four pieces I experienced.
I missed Human Figure: Virginity a performance piece as after 3.5 hours of sitting I went home before the proverbial "last act."
So, there is an active downtown Austin avant garde music scene here in Austin and I am glad of that fact.
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