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Music
is something we all carry within ourselves. Like all aspects of
life, we refine and develop its appreciation without ever being
conscious of it. Life and music are like that. Just as there is
no logical end point to any quest for expression in life, so it
is for music. So when improvised music pushes the outer limits
of tonality and structure, it does not end there. In some vital
way it is a beginning.
On the whole the mainstream is ignorant of improvised music and
the people who perform it. Major record companies in a conflation
of art and commerce promote a particular sound to prominence by
denying the twin pillars of fire and passion. It is the small
labels who against all odds continue to nurture the flame, small
historically significant labels such as FMP Berlin, Leo, Hat Hut,
Emanem, Intakt and Victo. They exist for people who want to listen
to the alternatives and who prefer a choice. They represent music
as a mirror of the times reflecting the greater social truth:
that spontaneity is deficient in our modern cultural systems.
Improvised music is a representation of the unconscious underbelly
of a society that has thrust its anxieties and fantasies into
the safe keeping of a popular music tyranny. It seeks to shift,
change and revolutionise peoples way of hearing things for people
who truly want to hear things again. It is there to push people
out of the corners of their life, out of habits blemished with
mundane inactivity, into a defining moment of discovery and renewed
vigilance. And if ever the dominant state of affairs needed to
be challenged, it is now. The merging of social and political
systems has created a haven for mediocrity, its neutral politics
defeating all critical engagement.
How do words explain the exciting pluralism and collaborative
spirit that allows improvising musicians equal space to develop
their ideas? How does one communicate the dense textures, describe
the open harmonic approach? In many ways improvised music represents
the underground tradition of all great art. It is engagement and
interaction of the highest order.
Will there be a move towards a new improvised music in the 21st
century as people free their minds and become impulsive? Will
we allow talent and innovation to become the dominant standard
instead of the sterile populism imposed by cultural dictators?
The ordinary has overwhelmed music and converted it into a eunuch
of convenience. New forms of music must undoubtedly emerge. Either
that or music will be pushed to the margins of people's lives
where it will become a mere commodity.
The sound of music is no longer the issue. It sounds like everything
now. We need to re-evaluate the social role of music. There is
a veneer of activism inherent to improvised music that is sympathetic
to progressive politics. The true end of history is the death
of activism and involvement. With the subordination of the middle
class to dreams and the elevation of the working class to the
vast anonymous middle ground of mediocrity, the end of history
may be closer than we think.
Improvised music is a private exercise that imposes a fresh commitment
between the performer and the audience every time contact is made.
It encourages stylistic fragmentation with the refreshing tribalism
of sub-cultures. Perhaps this is why music conservatives maintain
their constipated agenda. They feel the need to stop the clock.
They fear the dissonant crowd thriving in the underground. Perhaps
they should go back to the basement and start listening all over
again.
We may truly be on the verge of a very liberating epoch. With
the decay of late capitalism and the rise of its ugly cousins,
we cannot presume to know that what comes next will be better.
We can only begin to guess what it might be. But the times demand
vigilance once more and the call is out. The greatest human achievement
is not competition, but cooperation.
There might appear to be a void in counter-cultural activity but
there is a lot more going on than we are led to believe. It must
forever be so. Thirty-three years of Total Music Meetings is testament
to that. It is up to us whether we chose the route to prosperity
or otherwise. We haven't come this far simply to fail ourselves
now.
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