Across the Transom, Feb 2022

Ephemera of an Experimental Musician

Gahlord Dewald :: 2/22/22 :: Mānoa, Hawai‘i

Feb 25, 2022 Great phone call with a colleague in the New Music/Community Building sphere. I need to remember to connect more often to others who are doing this work too. It’s good for my soul.

Did beach dinner from Ala Moana park with some local classical musicians.

Began seeking out Ukrainian improvisors, experimental musicians, composers/performers for my next Experimental Music Playlist.

Ghost of Kyiv. Though the ace-in-a-day star is probably a myth, the story of Ukrainian people continuing to hold off the Russian advance is not a myth. Also the people in Russia protesting the war being waged in their name is not a myth.

Feb 24, 2022 Went to an indoor small-venue showElastic Limit at Bās BookshopElastic Limit performing at Bās Bookshop, Honolulu. for the first time since 2019. A series at Bās Bookshop in Honolulu that is featuring sound design and electronic music. It was great to see a show. Vaccination check at the door, everyone wearing a mask properly the whole time, and that the venue wasn’t a food/booze thing helped me feel safe.

Fuck you, Russian Warship. Ukraine continues to defend itself from further invasion. I begin planning next playlist to include some music by Ukraine artists.

Feb 23, 2022 Hanging out with another bassist who has an instrument made by the man who was, for many years, the primary luthier for my bass. Good times. Also the executive director of a vibrant contemporary music ensemble. They were passing through on a tour and it was great to be able to meet them and hang out some here in Hawai’i.

A friend asked me a question about live performance headset microphones for vocal performance. For live performance I’m very much a user of the DPA Core series microphones. Most of my live double bass + electronics performances are made using the DPA because it does a great job and I can run it into mixers and interfaces.

When finding a live performance microphone there are a few considerations:

If you get a mic for live performance make sure to spend some time learning how it works, where to position it to achieve a sound you like, how it is. to move with all those cables everywhere. Getting comfortable with this kind of setup takes time and can feel really clumsy until you settle in.

You and I in a little toy shop, buy a bag of balloons with the money we've got. I’ve spent the past few weeks hitting refresh on the feeds, following the Russian war. Tonight Putin began this latest phase of it while the UN Security Council was meeting. Music and life and all that but these are real lives being cut short that didn’t need to be.

Feb 22, 2022 Writer Dalanie Harris posted a thread on the role of Director of Humanities in an orchestra.

The Director of Humanities’ job is to expand on the thematic work of the music being presented in a way that can exist in conjunction with the music or on its own, using the musical programming as more of a jumping off point than a direct set of parameters to adhere to. (7/15)

—Dalanie Harris

Part of what makes this interesting is that It’s more of a curatorial role and not under the education department. This role helps build context around themes related and adjacent to the music. Seems a really smart way to both build audience (by bringing in people with adjacent interests) and deepen understanding of the material being presented.

A post on Lines about making a matrix mixer out of 4 mixers and mult cables has me jonesing to add an 8hp matrix mixer to one of my systems. Resisting the urge but it sure is tempting. We’ll see how long I can hold out.

Configuring documentation plan (i.e. this website) to include some ephemeral elements: Transom (this page, daily-ish by month), Reading (monthly, what I used to post as text on Instagram), Bibliography (as needed probably by year, book info plus short descriptive text), Resources (as needed, probably just one big list, things I found useful, like a “bookmarks” page).