Live electronic music defined
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_electronic_music)
Live electronic music (also known as live electronics) is a form of music that can include traditional electronic sound-generating devices, modified electric musical instruments, hacked sound generating technologies, and computers... The timbres of various sounds may be transformed extensively using devices such as amplifiers, filters, ring modulators and other forms of circuitry.[1] Real-time generation and manipulation of audio using live coding is now commonplace.
The Purpose, Stages and Dimensions of Improvisation
The main goal of improvisation in music, including electronic, is to produce new work. After all, improvisation is a form of composition. However, music has many dimensions, such as melody, harmony, structure (form) and timbre. The last is foregrounded in studies of electronic music, because electronic instruments allowed expansion in the variety of available sounds and because electronic artists, arguably more than their acoustic predecessors, became interested in individual sounds rather than their connections (Kaiser 37)
What to learn to improvise in electronic music
- how to transform sound using analogue and digital techniques.
- how to create sound structures and organise them in a DAW enviroment to compose a piece of music.
- how to use improvisation in both the context of live performance and composition.
Things to avoid
I’ve been in far too many musical situations where it’s been about technically out-doing each other, showing off, taking up space, etc. I find it incredibly boring and I’ve generally removed myself from these situations.
Challenges
https://www.jstor.org.remotexs.ntu.edu.sg/stable/40926369?seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents
Many performers of new music do not come from an improvising tradition, and the addition of live electronics to works written for these performers may be intimidating due to their inexperience with improvising and/or working with technology. Although inexperience may be a problem, it can be overcome.
One example method of improvising electronic music
(http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2010/improvising-electronica/)
Brian Eno has all kinds of different systems for imposing order on his in-studio improvising. For us the system was to use the presets in Barbara’s groovebox. The generic techno grooves programmed into the box establish a key and a vibe, so you just set the tempo and you’re off to the races. In a perfect world we would have programmed everything ourselves from scratch, but there was something wonderfully effortless and expedient about just dialing through the presets at random.
The needs of the audience
Those of you who have once witnessed a performance of an under experienced free jazz combo might know how hard it can be to empathize with musicians. If you don’t connect with your audience, they cannot connect with your music. In our case the contact to the people on the dancefloor is established via the ear. In most places an audience is not a silent bunch of people. They dance, they enjoy themselves, they have fun and they like to be entertained.
Entertainment is the cure for boredom, and music that is highly repetitive has a certain tendency to bore people, especially when it is presented in a careless way. When you play something that people have waited for and enjoy very much, they will make noise. When they anticipate the four-to-the-floor feeling they will make a different noise. Our experience with that gets us to the point where the audience actually joins the show by giving us constant feedback on how entertaining we are, and this has direct effects on what we will play the next moment. If the crowd wants an extended build-up, we will play one. And this build-up was not part of our live set - there are no such. It rather manifests in the moment when it is most craved for.
Live Sound Processing
https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/live-sound-processing-and-improvisation/
To perform with live sound processing is to alter and affect the sounds of acoustic instruments, live, in performance (usually without the aid of pre-recorded audio), and in this way create new sounds, which in turn become independent and unique voices in a musical performance.
Techno legend Jeff Mills talks about improvisation
https://www.musicradar.com/news/jeff-mills-interview
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