An album of audio re-mixes of GIO Zoom Sessions commissioned for TUSK Editions #6.
https://tuskeditions.bandcamp.com/album/tusk-editions-6
TUSK Editions #6 lands with almost 4 hours of exclusive new music. Plus Joe Murray's extensive BUFMS/Seymour Glass interview, Dominic Smith on his Exploded Lunch project, our report from GIOFest XIV and much more.
The lead album in this issue is Ross Birrell's Zumwelt, a beautiful and occasionally serrated collection of pieces constructed from online improvisation sessions by the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra. Also a long piece by AMAYA, the duo of Supriya Nagarajan and Duncan Chapman, an exclusive label mix from Bongo Joe and much more.
Zumwelt is Birrell's coinage form the words Zoom and Uexkull's 'umwelt' (environment) to reflect that Zoom had become the dominant environment synonymous with global lockdowns during the pandemic. The approach of GIO to improvisation over Zoom was to embrace the 'glitches' associated with the software (a process also employed in the video recording and editing of related projects such as Altera in Zurich) which reflect an attunement to the digital environment of production. The audio tracks sample the improvisations to produce new noise music which combines elements of glitch and groove in the production of new re-mix tracks which have very different sonic identity from the original improvisation recording sessions.
The approach to the (post)production of the album has prompted critical reflection upon considering online improvisation as 'a dialectic of glitch and groove' informed by readings of Betancourt, Russell, Roholt.
The more recent films and now album work marks a new phase in the 'flattening the curve' project towards more re-mixing and post-production (echoing Bourriaud's description of contemporary artists as DJs) as we begin to move out of lockdowns in a post-pandemic world.
The related GIO films and Zumwelt album will form the basis of a livestream and solo edition launch event with TUSK in early May.
