Grace and Delete

Chris Cundy and James Dunn have worked together in a variety of live projects since 1996. The duo of Grace & Delete deals with a direct approach to free improvisation. The music is governed by an endless variety of sounds, organised by will of an apparently anarchic instrumental relationship. The bass clarinet is played acoustically and explores an inventive vocabulary with its electronic counter part. A custom programmed screen-less laptop has been modified to allow for the transference of triggered sounds, to and fro, within its system. The minor role of an ironic go-between is played by a Tinnitus Analyser with its detected noises becoming elevated to electronic sounds in their own right. In the midst of this spontaneity of thought, a unity of sound is found within the music.

http://www.chriscundy.com/
http://www.4thharmonic.com/

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Myriad interwoven textural fractures from Grace & Delete - aka no-screen laptop wizard James Dunn and bass clarinet boss Chris Cundy. "Dunn’s electronics are a masterclass in the resources of outdated technology. After being exposed to so much laptop texturing, the ear appreciates its limits. The electronics give Cundy’s contributions a jagged starkness, like coming upon a crude screenprint in an exhibition of digital printouts. The musicians are fully in control of their pitches and the music often proceeds by finding a harmony and then forcing it into crisis, unbearable tensions resolved into rhythmic exchange. Cundy also uses a Tinnitus Analyser to detect noises and elevate them into audibility. This provides the musicians with a stimulating randomness - the difference between the unexpected shapes generated by looking and drawing rather than simply doodling and reproducing habit, the eversame." - Ben Watson  In The Screwtape Letters C.S Lewis defines music as a "meaningless acceleration in the rhythm of celestial experience," but it can also be a sped up inferno complete with the alien cries of the damned. Either way, the cat cannot get enough. She rolls on her back and flashes her claws in the air when this music plays. She is blown away by the concept of a bass clarinet; the longer a note lasts, the more she purrs; it seems to stretch her actual perception of time. She wriggles with pleasure; she twists and switches her tail; she forgets to close her mouth over her thirsty pink tongue. "Tinnitus!" she mews, "I have it! Come closer!" --- Chris Cundy / bass clarinet, alien toy James Dunn / electronics, tinnitus analyser ---   --- Recorded live at Cafe OTO by Paul Skinner on Friday 9th June. Mixed & mastered by James Dunn. Words by Patricia Lockwood - Priestdaddy

Grace & Delete – 9.6.16

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