The path to abstraction: a practice led investigation into the emergence of an abstract improvisation language

Abstract

This practice led research examines the emergence of abstract musical concepts within my recent free improvisation practice. To contextualize the work I align my professional performance career and creative practice with Attali’s first three codes of production. I then examine the development of an autonomous abstract improvisation language within a specific project, the Expose Project, and view the work in the light of Attali’s Composing code of production.

My journey along the path to abstraction began four years ago when two unconventional professional collaborations, Crossing Roper Bar and Heretics Brew, challenged me to look beyond the conventional contemporary jazz vernacular in search of more contextually appropriate improvisation vocabularies. A range of atonal, microtonal and extended techniques began to emerge that expanded my musical conceptions and woodwind facility. Later, within the abstract electronic sound environment of the Expose Project, conventional musical vocabularies were deconstructed and instruments came to be viewed as generators of sound and texture rather than melody. I discuss amplification and recording techniques that facilitated the integration of a range of extraneous mechanical noises and sound field manipulations into the work. Instrument selection within the project is examined in relation to the evolution of these new vocabularies, and further insights gained through a deeper examination of evolving abstract expressions on the three instruments most commonly played in the project. Audio recordings illustrate this developmental process.

As the vehicle for the final stage of the journey to abstraction, the Expose Project facilitated the development of this new abstract improvisation language and an experiential understanding of Attali’s Composing code, whereby making music becomes a private process of relationship through sounding, situated outside of the commerce-driven networks of the previous codes.