extended-guitar improvisations

It started out as an attempt to break out of the expected sonic space that the guitar traditionally inhabits, making the instrument stylistically independent of its historically and culturally defined role. This is done by extending the instrument in two ways. First the conceptual space of the instrument is extended by changing its behaviour. Second its physical space is extended by linking it with objects from outside. This piece is performed on guitar and the Pure Data audio programming environment. By using a hex-pickup and a modified guitarsynthesizer the software is able to capture the six guitar strings separately. These signals are modified and parametrized using a custom built pedalboard. Treating the guitar strings all separately opens up an new concept of the guitar as an instrument. The gui-tar is broken down into six uni-tars, allowing for variable alternate tunings, melodic restructuring, and independance of physical limitations of the guitar-neck. This way the performer comments on the 'pursuit of virtuosity' by evaporating the boundaries of the physically playable. Extending further into the physical dimension, percussive instruments, such as a snare-drum driven by a door-chime mechanism and various electromagnetic units can be controlled by the guitarist in realtime.

tim vets and peter jacquemyn

tim vets and Eric Thielemans, Pure Data Convention 2011, Weimar