EAR-CAM

All of my projects involve som e form of structure. Except EAR-CAM. With this group, the only rule is there are no rules: everything is permitted.

The name of the group is a play on IRCAM, the prestigious, ¸ber-intellectual Paris institute for musical research and experimentation. Where IRCAM aims at total control of musical and sound resources, EAR-CAM aims at unbridled freedom. The name also refers to an ‘ear-cam’ (like a steady-cam in film making), a peculiarity of our performances: some are ‘accompanied’ by a soundtrack of ambient sounds that could have been captured anywhere—a coffee shop, a Chinese street market, a tourist attraction, a horse stable. The ‘ear’ brings its ‘camera’ (a minidisc recorder) and ‘photographs’ an environment that becomes our sonic landscape.

The members of the group are Plunderphonics innovator, John Oswald on alto saxophone, bass virtuoso Jason Hammer (also on theremin), Tomasz Krakowiak - electronic sounds, Jean Martin -percussion and noisemakers, and vocal artists Christine Duncan and Nobuo Kubota (also on sampler and cracklebox).