david behrman: on the other ocean

Originally released on Lovely Music in 1978. David Behrman's On The Other Ocean is an improvisation by Maggi Payne and Arthur Stidfole centered around six pitches which, when they are played, activate electronic pitch-sensing circuits connected to the "interrupt" line and input ports of a microcomputer, Kim-1. The microcomputer can sense the order and timing in which the six pitches are played and can react by sending harmony-changing messages to two handmade music synthesizers. The relationship between the two musicians and the computer is an interactive one, with the computer changing the electronically-produced harmonies in response to what the musicians play, and the musicians influenced in their improvising by what the computer does. Figure In A Clearing, made a few months before On The Other Ocean, was the first piece of Behrman's to use a computer for music. For Figure, the Kim-1 ran a program which varied the time intervals between chord changes. The time intervals were modelled on the motion of a satellite in falling elliptical orbit about a planet. David Gibson's only "score" was a list of six pitches to be used in performance, and a request that he not speed up when the computer-controlled rhythm did. The timbral richness and concentrated eloquence of his playing sprang from his own sources. Personnel: David Behrman - electronics, Kim-1 microcomputer; Maggi Payne - flute; Arthur Stidfole - bassoon; David Gibson - cello. Recording engineers: "Blue" Gene Tyranny and Richard Lainhart. Charming booklet notes by David Behrman.