Inventor Live brings improvisers together

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      Designed to push boundaries but often staying within specific musical traditions, improvisation is something of a contradiction. Typically the domain of eccentric jazz musicians, hippie drum circles, and ’70s-era space rock, the technique relies on innovation but is often limited to following conventional formats—think, for instance, of the blues scale, or the circle of fifths.

      Sami Majadla of local events company Inventor Live, however, disagrees. “I started wondering why only certain instruments are typically involved in improv, and why electronic music was so underrepresented as a medium for jamming,” Majadla, the company’s founder, tells the Straight over a coffee. “There are all kinds of synths and drum machines that allow people to play that genre live, and manipulate sounds in really bizarre and creative ways, but it’s rarely done.”

      The organizer had a radical vision. Creating Inventor Live to bring together musicians from all traditions, Majadla has produced a series of events that handpicks a number of trios per night, and blends unique combinations of instruments—picture, for example, a harpist, dubstep producer, and rock drummer.

      Despite having run niche nights in the past like the Cypher—an evening that focused on vocal and rap ad-libbing—and an event that featured a set created entirely from sounds made by a 1980s Game Boy, Majadla has narrowed his field even further for his latest showcase. Concentrating on how to massage life into cold, industrial noises, the organizer is primed to offer an electronic-only jamming night dubbed the Techno CollaboJamaRama.

      “There are 18 people on the lineup,” Majadla says. “Before each event, I send out a questionnaire asking what instrument people are bringing, which performers they would prefer to play with, their set time, and whether they want to play more experimental or dance music. I match people together in a way that I think will make something exciting.

      “The evening has a certain flow to it,” he continues. “It will have five chapters over the course of six hours, and the mood of each section is described by a phrase. It starts with ‘What is sound?’, which is all about exploring sound texture and experimenting with noise and drone. The next is ‘curiosity and harmony’, which moves from that atonal place to discover different keys. The story arc will continue until it reaches more conventional dance music. No one section is long enough that people start to get bored, and no one moment is long enough that people can’t anticipate the next change.”

      As well as its inventive music, the Techno CollaboJamaRama will feature interactive visuals from eight local artists that modulate in sync with the improvised sound, as well as five workshops from experts drawn from fields such as synth development and professional composition: a move that Majadla hopes will bring together different creators in the community and offer a forum to budding improvisers.

      “There’s such a big talent pool of people who play live electronic music and don’t have a performance outlet,” he says. “The typical nights that exist, both in the underground and mainstream, generally just book DJs. There are two reasons for that—first off, it’s actually pretty difficult to have a live setup in a small DJ booth at a club. Plus the people that tend to do live electronic stuff are often much nerdier, and tend to focus more on the music than branding and promotion, so they’re harder to book. This series really helps those artists.”

      The Techno CollaboJamaRama is a member event at VIVO Media Arts Centre on Saturday (May 27).

      Follow Kate Wilson on Twitter @KateWilsonSays

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