I reserve the right to be wrong.
Music 23 February 2004
I got this jazz saxophonist’s album Rites years ago, so I was glad to finally see him perform with his group. Some say his playing is evocative of vast snow-covered plains, but I think they just say that because he comes from Norway.
Most of their pieces were build from soundscapes made by the four players, with a healthy dose of the extended solos you’d expect from a jazz group. Frequently, during a solo, the other players would chat to each other or wander offstage for a few minutes. But always the flow of the piece remained unbroken.
The percussionist, Marilyn Mazur really stood out - her rack of instruments looked like a huge version of one of those baby’s toys strung across a playpen, and she did seem to have a lot of fun. She was the only one of the four to smile much, and she definitely had more zip, vim and vigour than the other three all put together.
Eberhard Weber, on his customised six-string fretless bass, was also impressive. His bass was wired up with effects and samplers so that he was able to play several bass parts simultaneously. I think he had a lot of the audience wondering, “how did he do that?” Amazing stuff - I would happily listen to two hours of just him playing.
I liked the variety of the music too. Some pieces were pretty dreamy, and some were stompin’, showing the African influence in a lot of their music. And so good to be able to see them making the music as well as hear it.
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Guitar Rig 2
12 October 2005
12:53 am
[...] Native Instruments have unveiled Guitar Rig 2, the latest version of their package for guitar and bass production. It’s a hardware/software combination that includes a foot controller with two inputs and six switches, and an audio software package that simulates several different amps, speakers and microphones and includes 40 effects. There’s also a fascinating module called the Loop Machine for creating and playing back loops on the fly: “Layer different leads, riffs and rhythms on top of one another and gradually build up entire guitar sections. Tools such as the Crossover and Split offer unique potential while the Modifiers’ ability to modulate any of the parameters in real-time far exceed the realms of conventional set-ups.” I saw a fantastic bass player called Eberhard Weber do something like this last year at a Jan Garbarek gig. I don’t know what he was using but the effect was amazing. [...]
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