Rashomon Effect - July 19th 2002
The Rotunda, Philadelphia, PA
A monthly event hosted by the Rotunda and the Philadelphia
Ambient Consortium,
July's show featured live performances from noted locals Charles
Cohen, Dev79,
Mutation
Vector and guest musician Rumored.
Taking inspiration from Kurosawa's cinematic tale, the event adopts a unique
round-robin approach, giving each participant fifteen minutes to tell his sonic
narrative before handing over the reins to the next performer, and all over again
for three cycles. For a few minutes in between sets, musicians work in a brief,
magic collaboration, rolling together unexpected emotions and flavors. This is
where the Rashomon Effect really takes over, setting this show apart from more
conventional arrangements.
Appropriately enough, Philadelphia-area native Charles Cohen opened the show
with a rhythmic set of analog bleeps, tied into maddening knots of pulsing feedback,
loosened again to explore different possibilities and then tied yet tighter.
Having performed at venues such as NYC's Knitting Factory and Tonic and Baltimore's
Red Room, Mr. Cohen places significance in the value of improvisation, reaction
and collaboration. His work has never been recorded, as he prefers instead that
it stand on its own, in front of a live audience. His instrument of choice is
a Buchla Music Easel, a modular analog synth from the early 70s. Patch cards
and cables are deftly swapped as the piece is carried in different directions,
analog delays and filters providing Mr. Cohen a way to build structure and variation.
Wordless beauty hides in the knowing intersection of experience and intuition,
feeling out sound as it grows and dies, grabbing onto the vibe of his fellow
musicians and the listening audience like human patch cables, feeding it all
into the mix.
Forming the core of the night's performances, even more beautiful was the interaction
of Mr. Cohen's sometimes-playful, sometimes-darkly pulsating work with the illbient,
breakcore-distorted rumblings of Dev79, the performance name of Gair Marking,
and with Rumored, the Virginia-based performer Andrew Cauthen, a skateboarder
who makes IDM-flavored electronic music in his spare time.
An unexpected highlight of the event, Rumored's own three sets ventured often
into lovely, ethereal, Aphex-y goodness, sometimes mixing in tight, tense rhythms
and at other times just letting sounds flow. His closing set ended Rashomon with
an effortless arrangement of falling chords, echoes of sweet warmth and sadness.
This fellow is most definitely one to look out for in the future. Mr. Cauthen's
style seems most closely aligned with the work on labels like Warp, Neo Ouija
or Hydrogen Jukebox, and hopefully you will be fortunate enough to hear his work
in wide distribution in the future.
As Mutation Vector, James Lacey and Greg Waltzer were the odd men out, hiding
behind tall columns of keyboards and effects processors. Perhaps because of their
style it was difficult for Dev79 and Rumored to fold them in and out of their
sets -- heavy riffs explored exquisite, intricately programmed Middle Eastern-flavored
melodies, but perhaps a little too much structure might have made it difficult
for them to get comfortable in folding into the other musician's sounds.
Heavy rains bore down on the West Philadelphia venue, flooding city streets and
unfortunately keeping many away from what turned out to be a night of radiant,
emotional power from accomplished musicians. As the Rashomon Effect shows, Philadelphia's
electronic music scene may be quiet but clearly does not suffer for any lack
of creativity or strength from its artists.
last
updated
May 18, 2004
