Video: T-Stick@SAT

I spent part of the day editing the video I was enthusing about earlier, and here it is!

Lancement de Le Vivier

I just got back from the “Ralliement festif de la rentrée” (re-launching party) for Montréal-based contemporary music superorganism Le Vivier. The event was held at the SAT, launching a new season of concerts featuring some of its 22 member ensembles.

There were seven billed performances, though two were actually short promo films; the last performance (representing Codes d’accés) was Andrew playing his new piece Tout le monde à la puissance un on a DMI I built: the soprano T-Stick.

In a previous blog entry, I mentioned Andrew’s continuing development of his fourth major mapping for the T-Stick, which he has dubbed the “sonar jo.” Judging by tonight’s performance, all his hard work is paying off – the performance rocked and the audience loved it! I shot some video using Andrew’s camera which I’ll try to post soon – hopefully we’ll be able to get a copy of the SAT’s video too, since they had audio feeds from the mixing desk and a steadycam for closeups.

The only downside to the night’s festivities was that I’m not mentioned in any of the programs or press info, despite the fact that a digital musical instrument I designed and built was featured in their event. This is not Andrew’s fault – he sent them a proper press blurb – sometimes these things just happen. We’ll just have to follow up with an even more high-profile gig and I’ll take all the credit 😉

FYI, here’s the proper press blurb:

The T-Stick is a digital musical instrument developed and built in the IDMIL by Joseph Malloch, in collaboration with composer D. Andrew Stewart and performers Fernando Rocha and Xenia Pestova. The physical input device can sense where and how much of its surface is touched by the performer, as well as tilting, shaking, squeezing and twisting gestures. Unlike most digital musical instruments, the T-Sticks exist as a family, with soprano, alto, tenor, and bass members. The T-Stick is intended to be an “expert” musical interface: engaging to new users, allowing virtuosic playing, and “worth practicing” in that practice time results in increased skill. The T-Stick has been performed and demonstrated many times in Canada, Brazil, Italy, and the USA.

The sonar jo could have a slightly different description, since it is really a combination of the T-Stick hardware and gesture extraction with mapping and synthesis designed by Andrew using Sculpture from Apple’s Logic Pro.