Morphogenisis

Morphogenesis started recording in January 1985, and their first public performance was at the West Square Festival in London in July '85. The group was formed by a group of people interested in exploring the possibilities of live electronic music and collective improvisation. Their preferred choice is to work in a live situation where the clash of different performance spaces, available equipment and general atmosphere creates a more diverse music. The members of the group come from a wide range of musical backgrounds and have worked in a variety of musical activities outside of the group. Ron taught music technology at Morley College for 20 years an was responsible for our early studio recordings, Adam has run several clubs i London, Roger wrote a book (New Perspectives in Music), and numerous articles on new music, and we have all played in a variety of other groups ranging from Roger's involvement in Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra in the 60's, to Clive G's studio work with Nurse With Wound in the 80's and Mike's live and recorded work with Organum in the 90's. Adam is the most active member of the group and works in different musical and theatrical situations including his recent activities as one half of the Bohman Brothers. Additionally, Adam and Mike are both engaged in solo music production. Clive G. and Mike both have their own CD labels (Paradigm Discs and Mycophile respectively), and Clive G. also had a regular 2 hour show on Resonance FM each week which ran for 4 years (the playlists for Sound Poets Exposed are included on this web site).

The groups aim is to unify and integrate many diverse sound elements, (electronic, vocal, instrumental and environmental) within a context of continual evolution and group dialogue. They construct some of their own instruments in addition to using adapted or prepared conventional instruments - usually violin, piano and acoustic guitar. The range of sounds are further extended by means of filtering and other forms of signal processing. Contact microphones are used to amplify the sounds of bubbling water and other small sounds. All these accoustic sounds are enhanced by electronic filtering etc. One electronic instrument used is a bioactivity translator which is used to measure the voltage potential of living organisms - including plants, fungi, and the human nervous system - and translate the biological rhythms into electronic sound. Other electronic instruments include a 4 speed portable reel to reel tape recorder and a multi speed CD player, both of which are used to work with short sound samples. We do not use laptops or pre-recorded material for playback.