I can't say no to free stuff. So when I found out an improvisational guitarist was playing a free show at the Institute of Modern Art, of course I had to go along. And when I got there, I found free art to look at and free booze! What a great start.
Eventually about 50 of us squeezed into the IMA projection room for microMONO9, to listen to some guitar music. First up was Melbourne's UR Duo, playing their first show together. UR Duo consisted of a nylon string acoustic guitar paired with a resonator guitar, which together worked quite well. The musician on the resonator started by slapping the strings to bring up a nice crescendo with the finger picking of the nylon guitar creating beautiful melodies over the top.
Their sounds went from loud, noise-rock inspired all the way to quiet, having-to-strain-your-ears to hear what was going on. The resonator guitar provided a lot of the noisy moments, with the player beating the living hell out of the strings instead of strumming them. He even used his slide as almost a hammer on the strings. Together they played for about 30 minutes in one big song, creating melodies from what sometimes seemed to be absolute randomness.
The curator of microMONO seemed to be a little bit of a fanboy of Tetuzi, gushing out praises as the scarecrow looking man took the stage. But it didn't take long to see why (I apologize for having no pictures, the whole room was backlit by a single lamp and it was very dark).
Tetuzi played a song he called Risk and Responsibility, which he claimed is exactly what improvisational music is all about. He started by striking an open note on his acoustic guitar and somehow causing it to feedback through the microphone, manipulating the sound to be as loud or as quiet as he wanted, and somehow adding new levels by barely moving his hands.
Eventually it quieted down to Tetuzi exploring the fretboard. Being completely improvisational, a lot of thought was put into each note or chord selection. You could see him think once or twice before placing his fingers and playing the sound. Some of the notes did not seem to fit in, while some of them created beautiful melodies. But never once was the music ugly.
On a chair next to him he had a plethora of implements to assist in his playing. At one stage he picked up a plastic hairbrush and started scratching the surface of the guitar, causing the notes to resonate and ring out. It was interesting and I was amazed at some of the sounds he produced from it, at one point it even sounded like a didgeridoo. Following the plastic hairbrush he grabbed what appeared to be a short piece of wooden dowel. Rubbing this not just on the surface of the guitar, but sliding it up and down the strings and over the nut of the guitar, he produced even more sounds, some of which sounded like a crescendo of violins. Eventually he finished the song by creating an open note feedback into the microphone again.
For his encore he brought a local friend on to stage, a man playing an electric hollow-body guitar (which was beautiful in itself). Tetuzi played more of a melodic role in this song, which they titled Sex in the Country. The other guitarist was truly a sight to see though. He was crazy and energetic all over the fretboard. Playing hammer on harmonics with his fingers seemingly flailing like mad, using the back of his hand to play notes, changing the volume, tone and tuning of his guitar mid-note, it was just absolute madness. But madness that created music. At some points, much to my surprise, both of the guitarists hit the same sequence of notes at the same time. I recorded the first half of Sex in the Country. Although the video is very dark, you can still hear the music and occassionally see the madness of the second guitarist.
All in all, my first experience with pure improvisational music (not just jam rock, I've seen a bit of that) was wonderous. I'm now inspired to pick up my guitars and see what random noises I can get out of them.
