Saturday, December 31, 2022

Recording: Double Group Continuous Improvisation

Artist: styrofoamNosebleedPrincess/Mira Martin-Gray/David Parker/Andrew Finlay Stewart + Del Stephen/Patrick O'Reilly/James Bailey/Tyson Headon

Songs: [two excerpts]

Recorded at The Tranzac's Southern Cross Lounge (Audiopollination 10th Anniversary Bash: Double Group Continuous Improvisation), December 4, 2022.

styrofoamNosebleedPrincess/Mira Martin-Gray/David Parker/Andrew Finlay Stewart - [first group excerpt]

Del Stephen/Patrick O'Reilly/James Bailey/Tyson Headon - [second group excerpt]

A round number anniversary is always worth celebrating, and more so for this labour of love devoted to creative expression and community building. Kudos to Mike Lynn for putting in the work to keep Audiopollination going for a decade — definitely worth celebrating with a slice of pie and a crowded room in the Southern Cross.

After the "regular" Audiopollination sets, Lynn turned the remainder of the afternoon over to collaborators exploring parallel paths in community cacophony. This portion brought back a concept that Del Stephen has been deploying [del-ploying?] and tweaking for a while now, under a couple different names: basically inviting a large group of musicians, and then making a random draw to sort them into small ensembles — in this case, eight musicians playing as two quartets. The "continuous" element came in the transition when the players picked their moments one-by-one to depart/enter the stage at the halfway mark. The first group here (styrofoamNosebleedPrincess, amplified objects; Mira Martin-Gray, guitar; David Parker, guitar; Andrew Finlay Stewart, violin) explored some aggressive jangling while the second (Del Stephen, octapad; Patrick O'Reilly, Game Boy and pedals; James Bailey, trumpet and crutch; Tyson Headon, bass) casually backed into a sort of bitcrushed Bitches Brew vibe.

You can check out some footage from this set over on the Audiopollination youtube channel:

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