I can't wait to talk about the new
ambient/experimental/free improv trio I'm playing in now. It is with two
women that I met, and who played at the Boise Experimental Music festival, both
music students/graduates. The instrumentation is me on guitar, Gretchen on
Koto (a really cool sounding Japanese instrument - http://home.san.rr.com/koto/instru.htm), and Jesse on cello. We had our first rehearsal last
week and our first gig is on October 8.
The instrumentation and
contrast of the different instruments is really interesting, and I was wondering
if anyone else on the list had played with a koto player - because I'd like to
hear what has been done to leverage some ideas. I found one reference to
such a trio, with Henry Kaiser (guitar), Miya Masaoka (koto), and Danielle
DeGruttola (cello), and the CD is called Seance by Vex Records...but I can't
find the thing for sale anywere. Any clues? Gretchen lived in
Japan for 10 years and knows a fair amount about the music and instrument.
At our first jam session, I didn't do any looping, because I wanted to just
focus on the sound of my guitar and how it worked with the cello and koto.
I used my nylon string, but surprisingly, both of them requested that I play my
jazz electric next time, because they think the contrast of acoustic instruments
with my electric will be more unique.
Our basic approach for
playing is that Gretchen can tune the Koto to any scale....we start with a
traditional Japanese harmonic structure (D Eb G A Bb D) and play with that...and
then after that point, she tunes it to various modes (mixolydian, lydian,
pentatonic, etc), and we play modally over a tonal center, which is great for me
with my jazz background. You can do some great things with the koto, such
as scraping the plectra over the strings, bending the strings for other tones,
etc. The fun one is where she tunes the koto to the chromatic scale and we play
atonally...the three of us end up sounding like we're playing a 12 tone piece,
though there are no rows or permutations involved.
Next rehearsal I'll be
bringing my notebook system and looping. My plan is to loop some ambient
textures of basic melodic motifs based on the tuning of the koto..and then we'll
improvise over that...afterwhich I'll continue manipulating the loops to evolve
with the performance. It should be fun. I hope to record the Oct. 8
performance.
Kris
**************************************************************************
Krispen
Hartung / Improvisational Looping Guitar
www.krispenhartung.com /
www.myspace.com/krispenhartung
My Tribe:
http://people.tribe.net/krispen-hartung
info@krispenhartung.com /
1.208.724.5603
Discography -
http://www.krispenhartung.com/catalogue.htm
CD Baby Discography (CDs for only
$5): http://cdbaby.com/all/khartung
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