The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 -5
The art of
improvisation
grew up with a recording
studio in the guest room,
complete with a hi-fi ADAT
8-track recorder, an audio mixing
table covered in color-coded knobs,
a synthesizer that came with over
300 sound options and a $1,000
'microphone my
uncle kept in a
varnished maple
box. It was state-
of-the art for the
'90s. I was six
years old.
I lived in the
room next door WHITNEY
to the makeshift POW
studio and in
the evenings my mother, a music
composition major and an accom-
plished songwriter, would write
and record songs. I could hear the
muffled sounds of the piano coming
through the walls as I fell asleep,
my mother singing along with the
music, stopping every few seconds
to jot down the newly-written
notes into her book of blank sheet
music.
My uncle worked for a recording
studio and sometimes came to visit
us. When he arrived, the music
production in our house would'sud-
denly begin to move quickly - my
uncle would be over for several
weeks, and they had to get the
recording done in a short amount
of time. I remember waking up at
night, opening my eyes in my dark
room and hearing the two of them
harmonizing in the small storage
closet they had emptied out and
begun to use as a singing studio.
My mom and her brother impro-
vised and made use of the space
and materials available to them:
I remember my uncle using a set
of pantyhose stretched over an
embroidery hoop to serve as a spit
screen for the microphone. And
many, many hours later, they ended
up with several polished, finalized
songs.
Their improvised recording
studio included an unexpected
sound engineer: me. They'd call me
in sometimes when they needed
another hand to turn the volume
knob at just the right time to fade-
in and fade-out the microphones
when they were busy with the
vocals and piano. I would stand*
there, clutching my teddy bear and
feeling terrified, because when I
turned it too slowly or too quickly,
they looked at me, wide-eyed, and
told me to do it again. And again
And again, until I would run scared
back to my room after a satisfac-
tory job, and my mom and uncle
continued their work.
Improvisation is important
when it comes to creating art.
Not just in the sense of off-the-
cuff solos in jazz (Miles Davis),
or in the "random" assortment of
objects or paint strokes in graphic
art (Jean-Michel Basquiat), but as
a way of thinking. Improvisation
is less about thoughtlessness and
randomness than about know-
ing the rules and possibilities and
stretching them. It's about creat-
ing something out of the materials
on hand, be it the circle of fifths
and a brass trumpet or a storage
closet and a good microphone. It's
about not letting structure or the
possession of the "ideal" recording
space, musical instrument or art
materials keep you from making
the art you want to make. Impro-
visation, in short, is about free-
thinking.
A pioneering force of the 20th-
century music movement was this
urge to break the rules, to re-define
the idea of music and what's pleas-
ing to the ear. Take composer John
Cage and his infamous piano piece
"4'33," which consists of four min-
utes and 33 seconds of complete
silence as Cage sat there, doing
nothing at the ivories. The live
audio recording of the piece con-
tains complete silence that quietly
bleeds into the sniffling, coughing
and siieezing of the audience mem-
bers as they become increasingly
restless when they realize they're
not getting any audible tunes until
Cage finished performing his silent
piece.
John Cage was also a progres-
sive art theorist who used music
to dabble in conceptual art. My
mother attended one of Cage's
concerts when she was in gradu-
ate school. At the concert, she and
a large group of people sat on the
floor in a quiet, dark room. Then
Cage gave the introduction (this is
a paraphrase): "If you listen care-
fully and adjust your ears to listen-
ing toa certain frequency, you'll be
able to hear my composition ... that
is being played ina building several
blocks away from the building you
are now sitting in."
My mother said that she and
everyone else sat there in silence,
straining to hear the sounds that
were most likely not getting to
their ears (I don't believe they got
to my mother's). She said some peo-
ple left the performance transfixed
and changed, praising the sounds
they "heard"; others muttered
about how ridiculous the event was
and criticized the music they just
pretended to listen to.
Either way, Cage was innovative
in his subversion of musical expec-
tation and his stretching of musical
boundaries. Other pieces of his
include "Inlets (Improvisation I),"
which consists of several people
playing water-filled conch shells
for 10 minutes; and "Address,"
which is a performance where five
people with audio tape players play
Free thinking
plants the seed
of musical
experimentation.
recordings of music and speeches
simultaneously for 45 minutes.
Cage never lacked ideas or material
because he didn't let traditional
thinking inhibit him - music was
whatever he wanted to compose,
and it could be played by any
instruments (or sound machines)
he had on hand and had the imagi-
nation to use.
In the same way, improvisation
can be done on a much smaller
scale. Experimentation seems to
be the key to this concept: Play
with what you have; make the best
out of it. My mother improvised
her recording studio and used our
guest room as a space to create
music. The recording studio has
now been moved to the basement,
but every so often when I'm home
I can hear the sounds of the piano
drifting up the stairs and I'm six
years old again, turning the knobs
of the mixing board, an improvised
sound engineer for a day.
Pow left four paragraphs out
of this column to emulate Cage.
E-mail her at poww@umich.edu.
"Hey, is that Whitney Pow?
'Bolt'not so supe Ir
Like its namesake, new Disney film doesn't quite fly
By Emily Boudreau I Daily Arts Writer
Talking dogs and hamsters aren't
supposed to appeal
to people over the*
age of 10. Somehow, "Bolt"
does.
Bolt (voiced by John
Travolta, "Pulp Fiction") AtQualityl6l
believes he has special and Showcase
powers. The titular canine Disney
star of a fictional TV show,
Bolt operates under the
misguided belief that his TV super pow-
ers exist outside of a Hollywood sound-
stage. Believing his human owner Penny
(Miley Cyrus, "Hannah Montana") has
been kidnapped, Bolt escapes from the
studio to find he'r, but is accidentally
shipped to New York in the process. He
then discovers that his super powers no
longer work and must come to terms with
the fact that he's just an ordinary dog.
All the same, he is determined to return
home to Penny. Along his trip back to
Hollywood, he encounters an amusing
group of characters: a declawed, cynical
cat named Mittens (Susie Essman, "Curb'
Your Enthusiasm"); Rhino (Mark Walton,
"Chicken Little") the overly enthusiastic
hamster; and a cast of pigeons.
"Bolt" isn't a nail biter. It's a G-rated
animated movie, so there isn't a lot here
that will move someone to the edge of her
seat. It does have a wholesome charm, but
it never quite achieves the charisma of
other successful family films like "Find-
ing Nemo." The story is fairly predictable
and a happy ending is guaranteed from
the start. The plot doesn't take any unex-
pected twists, and yes, the hamster does
get a bit annoying. Yet the movie is gener-
ally funny and well written. It's not some-
thing to be taken too seriously. "Bolt" is a
major step up from some of Disney's less
impressive animation efforts like "Chick-
en Little."
The voices of each character fit per-
fectly. Even though Miley Cyrus has a
part in the movie, there's no trace of Han-
nah Montana in Penny's character. The
human characters, especially, are wittily
crafted and manage to make the audience
laugh even before saying anything. Both
the woman in the trailer park with mil-
lions of hamsters and the animal control
officers are fairly true to their stereo-
types, but they seem to add more humor
than insult to the film.
The movie does have an appeal for all
ages, probably to the credit of the hilari-
ous pigeon characters. They're fairly slow
in an endearing sort of way and definitely
deliver some of the best lines accompa-
nied by some funny twists of animation.
one of the most memorable scenes is
when Bolt comes across some Californian
pigeons that only eat whole grain bread
crumbs, not whole wheat bread crumbs.
The pigeons make the movie.
Then again, maybe its appeal stems
from the fact that this is a Walt Disney
production and most people have got-
ten used to being happily swept away by
brightly colored, eerily realistic animated
worlds with talking animals. No one can
ever get too- old for that.
Once'Glow' fades, band bores
By DAVID RIVA
For the Daily
Anathallo has to be one of the most appro-
priately named bands of all time. The name
is Greek in origin, but in English, its transla-
tion is "to renew, refresh or
bloom again," and the band's
music is a perfect embodi-
ment of this sentiment.
Canopy Glow, Anathallo's AnathallO
second full-length record CanopyGlow
since its formation in 2000, Anticon
features telling songs like
"Northern Lights," "The
River" and "Noni's Field," which all paint
strong images of nature presented in a liber-
ating fashion. More relevant to the renewing
and refreshing feeling is the sound itself. Gen-
tle piano and delicate acoustic guitar parts
combine with violin and cello arrangements
to create an open and airy sound.
After the initial awe of the natural-sound-
ing songs wears off, the music conveys an
unmistakable familiarity. Anathallo sounds
remarkably similar to indie-pop hero and fel-
low Michigan native Sufjan Stevens. Unfor-
tunately, Canopy Glow is difficult to listen
to without qualifying it as a sub-par Sufjan
knockoff.
Frequent harmonies, an abundance of aux-
iliary percussion and the baroque pop-meets-
high-school-marching-band feel are all traits
thatthetwoartistshaveincommon.Butwhere
Stevens sounds effortless and breathtaking,
Anathallo sounds forced and unoriginal, and
the group overworks songs that should thrive
on their simplicity and free-flowing nature.
Despite all this, there are a couple of
redeeming tracks on the album. The afore-
mentioned "The River" flexes its chamber-
pop muscles with a well-crafted musical
arrangement that includes clever usage of the
mandolin and vibraphone to create a whimsi-
cal ambiance. Lyrics like "Rolled like a felled
tree / With arms as useless as such / Death's
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panic came, a calmness stayed /You couldn't
do much," complement the mood. The song is
focused and doesn't force its musical ambition.
"Italo" also masters a complex but uncompli-
cated sound, as it commands in a cheerful and
invigorating manner to "Put your hands up- /
organic melodies
fail to bloom.
Pick yourself up / And you pull yourself up /
Underneath the dugout cubby enclave of the
sidewalk overhang."
But not all the tra'cks have this sort wonder-
ment. "Cafetorium" is an unbearably obscure
narrative that connects the religious ritual of
baptism to everyday objects like Cool Whip
and drinking fountains. Lines like "I was still
unborn / But I have heard the first hand ...
and the hearts thereof can be baptized in the
heads of their own sweat / Salt rings like the
outlined shroud on the tomb of your skin,"
severely complicate the matter. In addition to
this lyrical ambiguity, there are random and
unnecessary trombone and trumpet interjec-
tions. "John J. Audubon" tries so hard to make
beautiful harmonies, but the odd rhythm and
abrasive drums take away from the effort.
With 2008 coming to a close, looking for a
good "sleeper" album is a customary task for
music fans. Canopy Glow is a sleeper in the
most literal sense of the word: Heavy eyelids
and uncontrollable yawning might be side
effects of these light and vapid tunes.
i