Performance Review: ASDF; at Bowery Poetry Club
ASDF; (Tristan Perich, Ted Hayes, Eric Beug and Chris McDonald) performed at the Bowery Poetry Club as part of Tristan Perich's retrospective of musical projects.
ASDF; is an electro-acoustic laptop band - microphones are pointed at the built-in speakers of four laptops, which the four musicians play by using the laptop keyboard.
The ASDF; performance consisted of two pieces by Steve Reich, "Piano Phase" and "Clapping Music", played simultaneously. The Reich pieces are based on playing very simple musical or rhythmic phrases that gradually drift out of the phase, creating complex polyrhythms. They are notoriously difficult to play on their original instruments (pianos and handclaps), because they require extreme precision in the constant repetition, but also very high concentration to allow the phrases to drift out of time.
However, these extremely difficult pieces are actually trivial to perform on a laptop, which will endlessly repeat a loop with absolute precision, at whatever tempo it chooses, ignoring any other stimuli. Choosing to play, not just one Reich phase piece, but two, simultaneously, is a way for ASDF; to drive home the point of what could be an elaborate musical joke.
Given this, the performative focus of ASDF; is elsewhere: once the laptops are set in motion, the performers start "rocking out", dancing and jumping on stage, and building up the dramatic tension as the various laptops go in and out of phase. The idiom is far more "punk band" than "piano recital".
This is actually quite interesting: in conventional performances of "Piano Phase" a lot of the interest lies in the difficulty of the piece and the minor errors and slips of the performers. The ASDF; performance shifts the focus to the drama of the changes occurring in the music.
Also, it sounds pretty good.
I was inspired by this performance to go and build this.