Los Angeles

The Ensemble was approached by the University Art Museum to perform at their “UAM@Nite” concert. This event was to celebrate the closing of their exhibit “Call and Response.” In staying with the theme, the Laptop Ensemble decided to draw inspiration from one of the works in the museum. We were all drawn to Kim Abeles’ “Los Angeles to Del Mar as Seen from Moving Train (A Mile a Minute), 1986.” The work depicts a line drawing of the horizon as seen from a moving train. The wild lines and staff-like nature of the drawing lead us to want to interpret the picture as the score of the piece. The patch is made up of 2 synths, one synth using granulation of the first voice and the audio sample to develop its timbre. Finally, the piece contains an audio sample that Tobias and I recorded on an actual metro train in Los Angeles.

During the performance at UAM, dance students and faculty were invited by the Museum to respond to the various performances by improvising throughout the night. Being very moved by the dance and loving what they added to the performance, we decided to invite them to this performance of the piece.

Laptop Ensemble and String Bass

April 2019

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