Sunday afternoon 2 PM July 26, 2009Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY [details]
"Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company, makers of fine electronic music since 1969.
One of the first live synthesizer ensembles wasn't Tangerine Dream, but Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company, led by composer David Borden. Mounting the stage with three massive Moog Modular synthesizers, they spun out their intricate cyclical melodies. We listen back to their now classic albums for this Ancient Echo."
On David Borden and Bog Moog"I didn’t realize Bob was using me as a test person until several months later when it was clear that I finally knew what I was doing. He explained that I helped in the research to idiot-proof the soon-to-be famous Moog Synthesizer. I had been chief idiot, which upon reflection, I enjoyed immensely."
Update via Inverse Room:
"A flickr set
They were playing David Borden's piece 'Viola Farber in Seven Movements,' which they also played at the Anniversary show a few months ago, among other things. Farber was a choreographer and dancer David knew and worked with; she was a founding member of the Merce Cunningham dance company and died in 1998. The show was accompanied by digitally altered video of her dances. The band is all playing Reason patches, running on Macbooks and an iMac and triggered by M-Audio controller keyboards; the patches are custom-made by David Borden, using various samples of other keyboards. At the last show they had a couple of analog synths in the mix as well, but this was a more stripped-down set, with the software only. They're not sequencing, it's all played live!"
As someone who attended many of MMPMC's concerts in Ithaca back in the 70's, I'd love to see this. Although I think I'd probably be disappointed without the massive modular synth setup they used to use, not to mention the (seemingly) hours of patch changes between pieces.
ReplyDeleteI was at this show, and it was really spectacular! If you live in the central NY area, they are playing this coming Sunday afternoon, a free concert at the Johnson art museum on Cornell's campus.
ReplyDeleteDavid's new pieces are excellent, and the band has heavily sampled analog synths for use in Reason. There are also a few old synths onstage as well.
hello young gordon mumma- fast forward to 1990 and I'd be taking classes from you in electronic music at uc santa cruz! modularland is built on the classics!
ReplyDelete