WNMF 2: Lisa Pegher: A.I. Rhythm Evolution

Taking a timely thematic turn, WNMF follows guest percussionist Lisa Pegher to the StudioLab xR, where she presents a program that explores the relationship between music, creativity, and technology.

Crafted in collaboration with New York City-based composer collective ICEBERG New Music, A.I.RE integrates instrumental performance, electronics, multimedia elements, and generative artificial intelligence into a musical narrative that is at once conceptually fascinating and viscerally impactful.

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PROGRAM NOTES

Jessica Mays – B A O B A B

This composition evolved to be improvisational and atmospheric. It evokes the origins of percussion and the relationship it holds to human expression in different cultures. A baobab is a type of tree and, in this context, it represents the roots of percussion.

Max Grafe – The Roots of Rhythm Remain

His piece evokes early percussion compositions. The roots of rhythm ethnic drumming and percussion remain in place, but are becoming more distant and synthesizing with other types of percussion. It’s performed on a standard multi-percussion setup with moments of improvisational drumming.

Drake Andersen – Exchange

Exchange i s an interactive electronic work that serves as a transition throughout the program. It is generated from a bank of resonating filters that gradually takes on the musical qualities of whatever lisa is playing. After collecting enough material, a machine learning algorithm leads the piece beyond what has been played, suggesting new paths and confluences between human and machine.

Lisa Pegher – Fate Amenable to Grace

The title of this introspective piece is a play on words inspired by elon musk’s use of author iain bank’s ship names from his culture series novels. Most notably, “of course | still love you” in naming some of his spacex rocket landing sites.

This particular ship’s name was “fate amenable to change” and i renamed i t “fate amenable to grace.” while both are fitting creatively, I like to think that the higher power’s grace is a constant, always there to support me through the uncharted change and growth that ultimately leads to our fate. The work is dedicated to someone with whom i crossed paths for only a brief time, but whose presence resulted in my overcoming of a major creative block i had been experiencing. This piece is the result of that overcoming.

Stephanie Ann Boyd – Sloane

Stephanie wrote this piece during the beginning of lockdown in 2020, and with it i got a soundtrack for a summer spent in a very empty Manhattan. It’s a piece meant to be enjoyed and grooved to. A piece to throw all cares away to. (this work sits in a space of pop music where drums are beginning to become integrated with backing tracks, and is a fun part of the evolution that we still live in).

Magenta-Z – Out of Time

Time is a concept i often contemplate, and have a different stance on than our modern-day society. We’ve created a world where everyone feels like they’re constantly running out of time. But in reality, time is unlimited, and nothing can be created nor destroyed. Yet we seek adhere to a confined structure that humans have essentially made up.

Magenta-z is an alter ego, meant to portray the creative world where there are no set names, rules or concepts. Many artists have different stage names, and I’ve often struggled with the idea of being confined to a single name or mission in life. Einstein once said “imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” this piece represents a reinvention and evolution in the program, from acoustic drums to electronic drums, and an evolution in myself as well.

Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis – Therein Lies the Enemy

This piece, for drum set and electronics, utilizes an excerpt from Stephen fry’s 7 deadly sins podcast (season 2, episode 1, 1:19-7:50). The work explores political elements online, and how social media, computers, and the internet have influenced our daily lives. By excerpting a controversial podcast and setting it to a ballistic prog rock electronic backtrack. Stafylakis forces the listener to contemplate some of the ways computers have helped – and hurt – our society, and how that has been projected onto our governmental systems as well.

Victor Baez – Kýklos Zoís [Life Cycles]

This piece is for a percussion soloist and electronics. The entire content of the piece is generated live by the performers). The electronics component consists of a patch comprising a two-tape delay and a harmonizer. The percussionist starts without electronics, and the piece is built as the execution of the score unfolds, with the electronics operator reacting and adjusting to their partner’s actions.

Alex Burtzos – Re-//Signed

His work utilizes sound excerpts from the commentary which accompanied Garry Kasparov’s chess match against the IBM supercomputer deep blue in 1996. The score is prefaced by a quote: “the real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do” – b.f. skinner (1904-90)

During the work I represent the human portion of the match, improvising based on a graphic score and “battling” the electronics. The groovy, trap-inspired music changes based on my choices during the performance.

Derek Cooper – IAM/AI

IAM/AI is a call and response between the performer and computer, where my choices as the human are listened to by the computer and the output varies based on what the computer hears. My choices also determine, to some extent, how the computer responds. This piece has complex MAX MXP mappings and is one of the more interactive computer to human compositions in the program.

Yu-Chun Chien – Through the Night

His work explores computers’ ability to detect movements and is largely driven by expressive motions from the performer. The audience and see and feel the music becoming more hybrid and mostly captured within the computer in the live visuals.