Spark week Interference
Yesterday’s Spark presentations, workshops and events ended with a new type of music performance.
Spark’s PechaKucha event came to a close with a musical interference last night in Wintec’s Atrium.
Kent Macpherson. Photo by Taylor Sincock.
Although it might suggest otherwise, Interference is actually the name of a Hamilton based electroacoustic ensemble who clash traditional Chinese instruments with modern music effects.
It includes Wintec lecturers Kent Macpherson and Jason Long with Xiang Li (bawu flute and bottle gourd flute) and Xi Yao Chen (guzheng).
Macpherson said Interference is a project that’s been around for two months as part of research for Long and himself.
“Basically the idea is that these guys [Li and Chen] play this really nice stuff and we [Macpherson and Long] destroy it.”
He said “Interference” is the name of the idea rather than the group.
Long, who came up with the name, said it’s all about taking traditional music and interfering with it.
“It’s also thought of like an interference in communication between people from different cultures, it’s like a lost in translation thing.”
Alongside onscreen visuals by Wintec lecturer Luke McConnell, the group performed to a near full audience, documenting the performance with a 360 degree camera and high quality audio recording.
Li is an international student from China and said it will be a good project to share with his university when he goes back home.
“If you put different music styles together you get something interesting.
“It’s very fun and has a new feel to it,” he said.
Macpherson said the video and audio might be available to the public later in the year.
