Gene Gort on Evolution of a Project

Q: What should people expect at Reliquary of Labor?

GG: We will present the solo version of ROL as seen on the website with a few tweaks. There are some areas in the last movement I want to embellish with images from earlier sections as a kind of reprise...I haven't told Ken or Jeff (cellist in image on left) yet, but that' what's interesting about this - they will probably surprise me with something too. The set up for the evening will be single channel video projection, stereo fixed-media sound and Jeff on electric cello with real-time effects using MAX/MSP processing. It focuses on Jeff's musicianship as a soloist, so other parts from the original work that highlighted percussion have been edited out. It runs about 40 minutes.

Q. How has Reliquary of Labor changed over time? Has the project evolved as you had imagined it?

GG: Some things have happened that we expected/predicted. Ken developed the music for Jeff's solo repertoire that will be at Axiom, which required a re-working of all the percussion parts as electronic, sampled and pre-recorded parts. I re-worked the multi-channel video into single channel with the opportunity for sync sound editing in this version. We were able to do a studio recording as well,, which is now on the site. Jeff has also worked with a short section of the "Under Wraps" video, edited it, and now has an improvisation he has added to his solo "Videocello" repertoire under the title "Recycled Tyvek." One thing that hasn't developed very much is the re-use of our material as posted online. I think that's just due to marketing/visibility but we don't know unless people inform us - which is part of the Creative Commons philosophy. There is so much material I want to return to - especially the sound files. We harvested material for over a year so I suspect we all will resuscitate new things as time goes by. It's very rich for us.

RELIQUARY OF LABOR, a parallel-media project by Gene Gort + Ken Steen features a solo performance by electronic cellist Jeff Krieger. It is a work-in-progress that incorporates the performing forces of electronic cello, multi-channel computer generated and manipulated sound, video and a variety of web-based components.

More info at: www.reliquaryoflabor.net Podcasts and videos of the work are on the website.

Tuesday, 28 April, 2009 - 7:30pm. Axiom Gallery 141 Green Street, Jamaica Plain, MA Tickets $10