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Trio (Wesleyan) 2005 and Quartet (Mannheim) 2010 are two examples of Anthony Braxton's Diamond Curtain Wall Music, the Wesleyan concert being one of the earlier examples and the Mannheim concert being one of the latest. In the DCW Music, Braxton combines intuitive improvisation with interactive electronics. The musicians in the ensemble respond both to the evocative graphic notation of his Falling River Music, and the unique and responsive electronic patches the composer designed using the SuperCollider programming software. Both the rich graphics of the Falling River Music and the complex algorithms of DCW Music's SuperCollider patches are extraordinary examples of how Braxton has continued evolving into his fifth decade of music-making. While he has always been interested in both graphic notation and electronic music, these manifestations explore new levels of depth and conceptual engagement. (It is also interesting to note that James McCartney, the original developer of SuperCollider, was specifically inspired by Braxton's Language Music system as an example of functional and modular musical vocabulary.) These two concerts offer fine examples of the "origin" state of the Diamond Curtain Wall system, but in typical Braxton fashion, the sound world presented here is not isolated to these kind of experiences; it has been incorporated into the erector set mentality of Braxton's overarching body of work. Close listeners will notice how DCW Music makes a few appearances in the opera Trillium E, creating an electronic landscape Braxton first imagined when he finished composing the opera in 1999, one that would be brilliantly realized and developed in the ensuing decade before the opera's recording in 2010.
2011/9/29 Taylor Ho Bynum
Part of the Anthony Braxton at 60 celebration produced by Andrew Raffo Dewar. Engineered by Jon Rosenberg.
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