It's
a rare opportunity to be present at the birth of
a new process of music. Brian shared with the
audience new tools to create generative music.
What is the meaning of
life?
At the Exploratorium
in San Francisco, 1978, Brian discovered John
Conway's cellular automata game, Life.
Life has three rules that governs the growth and
decline of the population of dots on the screen.
The interaction of the rules can lead to very
complex results. Complexity arising from
simplicity. Using an overhead projector and moire pattern
cards, Eno demonstrated the varying changes of
the patterns by manipulating the cards. Eno also
found screensavers
as a worthy software item. Meanwhile, back in the
UK, Koan© Software
was being developed to create generative music.
When sent a sample, Eno
commented the music was similar to his own, maybe
a bit better. This was the audio equivalent to
the life Eno had been contemplating. A dream come
true. The Seyo software was more complex than the
earlier lifeform. It is the expression of about
150 different parameters that one can control and
their interactions. It can be applied to varying
musical tastes, and the most important message is
that you can do it yourself.
ALIENS STOLE MY HAIR!
Projecting a series of
black ovals on a white background screen, Eno
commented this was the fleet of aliens which had
previously abducted him. He pointed out the
mother ship, where they had stolen his hair. (It
was actually a diagram of the track 1/2 from
"Music for Airports.") When "Music
for Airports was released in the UK, the critics
thought it rather dull, Brian commented that in
America it was accepted more. This may have been
where the seed was planted for generative music.
We listened to Steve Reich using tape loops in
"It's Gonna Rain. Gradually through
repetition there is change. At one point, to me,
it sounded like the shower scene in Psycho,
more about that later.
Using the overhead he set
off with some shadow puppet play, ("I
thought he was going to play the
synthesizer!") Eno's amusing stage side
manner cushioned the blow of those who learned he
thought CDs were Victorian
and he just may not put out another. At least not
in the sense that it would repeat the same music
over and over again.
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