preparations for 19 aug

Attempting to come up with a structure for my improvised or semi-improvised pieces prior to performance usually doesn't work, irrespective of whether I rehearse in the run-up to performing. So with only 10 days from agreeing on Sunday to perform at the next The Other Room until the performance itself on Wednesday next week it would seem like a terrible idea to try and come up with a structure.

But come up with a structure is exactly what I intended to do right from the off. As I said when I agreed to perform, and in my blog announcing I'd be performing, I plan to perform a semi-improvised piece called Icarus.

To that end, over the last couple of days I've been recording vocal sounds and thoughts, and written/drawn seven pages of notes trying to give a shape to the piece. A major influence on what I intend to do is Meredith Monk's Dolmen Music. I've tried not to imitate the sound too much, but to use it as a structural and thematic guide.

Fulfilling the same function are my walk around the M60, the so far untitled long poem arising from that - especially the Icarus sections*, and my song of a couple of years back, Did The Morning?

I've also tonight recorded five separate sections of vocal sound, which sound pretty good in isolation. I'm going to roughly edit those together** and spend a lot of tomorrow playing them back and making notes about what works, what doesn't, what could be shorter, what needs more time, what can be placed elsewhere, and so forth.

In the evening I plan to use those notes and perhaps a further, more refined edit, to guide me in a few practise run-throughs of the piece. I'll record at least one of those to give me a cleaner guide version. The aim isn't to have a precise composition, nor to memorise exact timings or sounds, but to create a broad shape to follow and extemporise within.

Now if everything runs to schedule that means I can rehearse that broad shape from Thursday giving me around 6 days to get to grips with the piece. There's likely to be some slippage though, perhaps only getting to record a satisfactory guide version on Thursday evening.

And then there's the fact that I simply may not get the broad outline and the palette of sounds memorised, leaving me to flounder, and end up having to improvise something wholly unsatisfactory on the night.

But it's a risk that interests me. I want to try something a little more ambitious and challenging that normal, I want to try and use a slightly different set of sounds and a slightly different approach that I have lately.

Find out how it goes Wednesday next week, 19 August 2015 at The Castle. Meantime, here's what it looks like in words at the present moment:

*One of those Icarus sections can currently be seen as part of Total Recall at Bury Art Museum, a pop-up show on the ring balcony from 1 August - 3 October marking 10 years of the Text Festival and 20 years of Tony Trehy being at Bury, featuring over 30 artists.  It's a good show, you should totally go and see it.

**So far I'm still on target, I've slapped together the sections into a rough mp3 and downloaded it to my phone, so I can start to familiarise myself with it tomorrow. Now for some sleep.