Secret History of MAQ
In 2004 by a total fluke of fate I was given a few hours teaching music, at the time I had been working in performance art; The work I was producing at the time was service based art, what I mean is that I had a list of services that art galleries could choose from and then I would create these service for them- ( for example I would clean their gallery as a work of art ) I won't bore you with this here but if you wish to see some of this work I suggest you check the following site www.thefineartserviceindustry.com ) It soon dawned on me that I could incorporate sound into my service works. Thus began The Modern Art Quartet; in the beginning the basic concept was to create music and ambient sounds for the opening night of art exhibitions and other arts related events. The music was especially created to complement, happy banter, networking opportunities, and the chink of the wine glass…
The first performance of MAQ took place in August 05 at The Arena Gallery Liverpool, though the reception was good, I felt the music lacked direction; as I remember I played a lot of bad cocktail jazz. In early December of the same year I performed at The Artists Space Birmingham, I realised at the time that what I was producing musically was overburdened with irony; which I felt I really needed to off load and get away from.
However of the interesting concepts of these early shows was the attempt at direct interaction with the audience, at the second of these gigs there were four chairs with various instruments, so if the audience wished they could become part of the quartet.
Around this time I became heavily influenced by German music of the early seventies; It seemed to me listening to this so called krautrock now is like hearing today's music being played on yesterdays equipment, but where a lot of today's music is made safe by the computer program- the music here as no safety net, and therefore to my mind it was more daring, dangerous and exiting. Through out 2006 this music became the domineering factor
I decided MAQ would take a dogmatic approach. I would be open to performing in unconventional venues, the music I produced live would be dependent on location, it would be my intention to complement the venue and what ever was happening at that given time with sound. This means the music as the capacity to range from pastoral sound scapes to rocking hard. I would never play the same set list twice.
I would be open to improvisation, If the venue and the situation was suitable MAQ would on occasion, be a four piece group, made up of members of the audience. On other occasions it would be just myself performing The idea was to create circumstances that would enable the sounds I create be to some degree at the mercy of the moment. 2006 was mainly a year of experimentation, and trying to find ways to make this work. The only music I played live that was at Salem Chapel in Hay on Wye, where I created five improvisations over eight hours to accompany a performance / installation One of the influences of The Salem Chapel event was to create an going project called A Tour of Unconventional Venues, In these works it is my intention to create live interaction through sound in places In many ways this follows on from the concepts of muzak and Brian Eno's greatly influential Music for Airports where the artist developed the concept of creating an original sound response for a particular space
Through out 07 I begin performing with vengeance. Some of the more interesting dates have included a performances in a college in Hong Kong with a direct interaction with audience through improvisation. In March MAQ performed in local pub in Stoke, for this show, it's the four piece group set up, and includes a number of indiividuals in their eighties.. April perform at Birmingham library, May; perform at Coventry Literary Festival backing poet readings. June; perform at an Infants School in Leicester where children draw pictures that complement soundscapes. The four piece MAQ perform at two art openings Blank Media Manchester and Birmingham International Festival of Performance and Timebased Art, the second of which turns out to be the most radical performance yet. and one of the most interesting, it feels live telepathic communication with strangers, the whole performance is based on the will of the people involved to make it work, September Birmingham Art Gallery.
In 2008 further gigs followed including a performance in a launderette, however by now now the dogmatic stance of before began to give way to a more open approach, since then drum machines and synthesizers have been incorporated into the set, it is pleasing to feel that a new chapter is beginning, In early 2009 I was invited to work at Russell's Hall Hospital Dudley West Midlands, to produce a CD called Dreamcatcher- in this work patients and staff talked about their dreams these discussions were recorded and weaved into a layered soundscape of effects and sound.
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