the benchmark consort is a performance for an infinite number of volunteers with laptops (Mac or PC), playing unamplified. It consists of the pieces more&more for a laptop-orchestra of volunteer participants and a soloist, playing the piece bandoneonbook on a Titanium PowerBook.

more&more is a piece about failing even the fastest computer. In failing, the machines produce sounds that are impossible to obtain with mere software. Each participant has the same program installed on their machine, which progressively overloads it: new windows are created in random positions and colors, each representing a simple FM synthesizer. After a while, the computers start choking, dropping and/or distorting sound, the window creation stumbles.

Out of these "digital ashes", bandoneonbook emerges as a solo for a Titanium PowerBook's built-in microphone and speaker, controlling the feedback between the two with a keyboard-operated filter and by opening and closing the lid.

The piece terminates by all participants purposely crashing the software after it has faded into silence. the benchmark consort is part of my ongoing research about computers as musical instruments. Its goal is to explore the physical properties of (laptop) computers and find ways to exploit these for musical purposes.