./swank by interface

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Experimental | Soundscapes

8 tracks | 64 minutes

Released May 2005
on c74

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sample "DOWNLOAD" 08:31 spogo BUY MP3 08:31 spogo "GIFT MP3" 08:31 spogo

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sample "DOWNLOAD" 08:15 sdoo BUY MP3 08:15 sdoo "GIFT MP3" 08:15 sdoo

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Interface - a duo composed of violinist Dan Trueman and bassist Curtis Bahn - combines the territory of free improvisation with a powerful set of extended instruments; the duo's 5-string vertical bass and a 6-string electric violin are transformed

Editorial review

The music of Interface is original, exciting, and quite confusing. Curtis Bahn and Dan Trueman use string instruments (a five-string electric upright bass and a six-string electric violin) that have been enhanced with numerous sensor devices and a MIDI interface. Accelerometers, movement sensors, and various buttons, including a mouse in the back of the bass fretboard, allow the musicians to send a dizzying number of parameters to computers running Max/MSP software. What you hear rarely has anything to do with string instruments, although a few notes are recognizable, especially in the case of the violin; its major electronic input comes from the bow -- speed, pressure -- leaving the actual notes untouched. It sounds like off-the-wall electro-acoustic music with a twist of experimental electronica and a large portion of free improvisation. Bahn and Trueman tend to overdo things -- the music gets so crowded one can't make much out of it -- but at certain moments it really shines (in "Spogo," the title track, and what sounds like a violin solo in "Sedan"). For "Sdoo," the duo is joined by Perry Cook on DigitalDoo, a didgeridoo equipped with a sensor interface. It's all high-tech (the musicians also use spherical speaker arrays to diffuse their sound), but the music and creativity prevail. In the end, ./swank is a satisfying hybrid, more lively (and exhausting) than Bahn's 2000 CD, R!g. ~ Fran?ois Couture, All Music Guide

Bio / Background

Interactive computer music improvisation duo "interface" creates sonic textures ranging from delicate imperceptible noise to a high energy wall of sound. They have extended, surrounded, and obscured their electric stringed instruments with a variety of technologies, creating an organic, gesturally powerful computer music. Curtis plays the SBass, a 5-string "vertical bass" (like an acoustic bass with no body) fitted with electrical pickups, motion, touch and pressure sensors which allow him to "drive" his computer during performance. Dan plays a 6-string electric violin and an electric bow of his own design; the RBow is a normal violin bow covered with motion and pressure sensors that send performance information to Dan's computer performance system.