West Sumatra

For my project I created an experimental performance environment within max. I combined pre-picked audio and video samples with live performance and live manipulation.

This project was largely inspired by the culture and musicality of Javanese musicians. All of the audio samples I used were field recordings from around West Sumatra. The demo I made begins with an Islamic prayer modulated by an FFT Delay, and moves towards ritualistic dance music with freqmod paramaters all the way to cowherding and rice-planting music on a multi-band delay.

The music I performed live on top of it (in this demo at least) was meant to enhance the experience and not really stand out too much. It kind of felt like I was just jamming with the Javanese people when I did it. I performed on a vibraphone which is pretty noticeable in a lot of parts, a djembe, a tambourine, and a gourd with a hole in it that sounds pretty awesome. The live looper I made for this part of the project was a big endeavor.

Originally I had planned on doing live DMX light manipulation, but I decided on a video sample of Indonesian people jamming somewhere in the fields of West Sumatra instead. I equipped it with a kaleidoscope and color manipulation parameters to make it more interesting, the parts of the video that you can make out are really the most beautiful ones. I have been messing around with the color parameters in my run-throughs of the piece but the video I’ve been recording keeps corrupting. I have included the patch below so anyone can have a go with it and see it first hand.

here is the most recent demo performance:

 

google drive folder with all the samples and files: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BzJ8e5y3EPeuX1VLTnlYalFDVmc?usp=sharing

here is the code for the patcher: