Live Concerts


'Alvin Curran Alvin Curran

"CANTI ILLUMINATI" (First Performance)
for Voice, Synthesizers, digital electronics and tape

The essence of this version of CANTI ILLUMINATI is the projection of a single tone sung indefinitely by a complex use of digital delay (about 4 seconds) and feedback. By continually adding unison tones to the original (somewhat like the circular breathing effect of wind players) microtonal imperfections begin to assert themselves and suggest new vocal inflections, rhythms, and with the build-up of harmonics, even melodies. So while the unison always remains, the system becomes unpredictably unstable and allows me to "improvise" instinctively with it, on it, over it and in it,—in short, the acoustics of the space, the harmonic peculiarities of the electronics including the speaker dome itself, and my voice, mix together to become both the system and the music at the same time. In addition to this basic structure, I will feature the use of the SERGE MODULAR synthesizer used as a complex pitch to voltage converter along with recorded tapes of the spectacular "singing" of the Brooklyn Bridge and a mix including nearly 200 lyric operas heard simultaneously.