Alpha Live at the Alibi Live Recording.

JO THOMAS: ALPHA LIVE AT THE ALIBI

Monday 9th of August.

Release Information

This is a freely downloadable live recording from the jothomas.me site. The live recording is being released as uncompressed AIFF and 320 VBR MP3. Recording by Joe Caramelo. To download the files please view the release page.

Alpha Live

This recording of ‘Alpha’ was performed on the 5th of May at the E82 Entr’acte record release event. The recording is a 21-minute performance made with digital sound files from the original electronic work Alpha E82. The artists Lee Gamble, John Wall, Oliver Fay, Piers Martin, Sheikh Ahmed and Filter Feeder all participated in the event.

Alpha Live to Digital Release

The original work Alpha was composed around metaphors of transformation and the ether. Based on the work of Donna Harrway’s Cyborg Manifesto Alpha strives to create a meta-body in digital sound. To release this live recording through the Internet seemed a natural musical and media progression. These files are available in uncompressed pure audio. This ensures all sonic and spatial qualities are kept extremely close to the original performance. The files are also available for people to share and edit.

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Construction

This performance is an improvisation which works intuitively with the spectral shape of the sounds. It is based on an open form, it’s dynamic range, density and occurrence of gesture has similarities to the original electronic work on the LP. The openness of form allowed me work with the concept of absolute time , changing source material swiftly with no obvious connection to resonances of the past and using silence as a sound event in it’s own right. Real time sound transformations were paramount in this performance as regards to pitch centre’s, noise ratios, grain capturing a sense of a live performance.

The diffusion of the music should be warm and full enabling audio clarity to delicate passages of high spectral material and bass morphologies.