CNMAT
1750 Arch Street Berkeley
Click for Venue page

Linda Bouchard with Kyle Bruckmann and Jacob Felix Heule

Live Structure #3: Murmuration/Murmure

Linda Bouchard with Kyle Bruckmann (Oboe/English horn) and Jacob Felix Heule (percussion)

One composer. Two improvisers. The players face in opposite directions, each one viewing a projection of a unique graphical score generated in response to the other’s playing. Each performer reacts to the images in the score and decodes the other’s performance, which has been processed in real-time by the composer using a series of presets and filters to create a “Live Structure” – a composition which unfolds as a collaborative improvisation and committed interpretation of a musical code.

Murmuration/Murmure is the third Live Structure piece completed by composer Linda Bouchard in an investigation of performance, collaboration, notation and composition being developed as part of a research and composition grant awarded to Bouchard by the Canada Council for the Arts. Referred to broadly as “Live Structures,” this project explores different ways to interpret data, transforming it into graphic notation and compositions. Ocular Scores™, the application Bouchard is developing with her collaborators at Concordia University in Montreal – Joseph Browne of matralab under the supervision of composer, theater director, media artist and matralab director Sandeep Bhagwati – interprets data from the analysis of complex sounds, rendering the information as real-time imagery and visual musical notation, or codes, which can be captured, presented, shared, and remixed.

Murmuration/Murmure will be performed by Bouchard’s longtime collaborators: Kyle Bruckmann and Jacob Felix Heule. Bouchard will also demonstrate the Ocular Score™ Tool and its many applications.

Bouchard is a Canadian composer living in the Bay Area since 1997. Her compositions are defined by the importance of color and textures. She has composed over one hundred works for traditional concert setting and several other works for documentaries and contemporary dance companies. In the last ten years she has conceived intermedia works (Murderous Little World, Identity Theft, All Caps No Space) which involved deep collaborations with performers (musicians, actors and dancers). Her current work with local Bay Area improvisers focuses on using the systems and protocols in Live Structures to document collaborations and the compositional design process with the goal of repeated performances. Learn more at www.livestructures.com and www.lindabouchard.com

Audio samples in which musicians at this event play:

Videos featuring musicians playing at this event