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Tag Archives: chick lyall

Lab report December 7th 2009: futzing

…or not so random thoughts about not so random techniques The Vortex, London, November 22, 2009 Ingrid Laubrock leans forward, the tenor just about balanced on her right thumb. She shakes the horn, her fingers barely press the keys. There’s a flurry of (imagined? quasi? pseudo?) notes. Sonic Arts Research Centre, Belfast, May 16, 2009 […]

Lab report April 14th 2009: little instruments

Okay, okay, I’m a somewhat born-again luddite so I can sound a little evangelical and pig-headed, but bear with me… Here’s a little back-story: in my first semi-public attempts as an improvising guitarist, I had my guitar, amp and volume pedal… plus a compressor, a distortion box, a delay pedal and a chorus unit. Eventually, […]

Lab report January 12th 2009: healthy disrespect for the comfort zone

A couple of days after the January Lab, I was discussing with Murray Campbell how you avoid getting too comfortable in the context of group improvisation, and he said something interesting, that you should have a “healthy disrespect for the comfort zone”. It’s an issue that popped up before (I briefly touched on this last […]

Lab report June 12th 2008: being the odd-one-out

There’s a lot to be said for being the odd-one-out: you can be lazy. There’s also a lot to be said for putting two ‘alikes’ together; be it the same instrumentation, or people who share a name. Okay, AFAIK, tactically, as an improviser, that latter factor doesn’t make an iota of difference, but I can […]