AMM (ensemble)

AMM at the Freedom of the City Festival 2009 in London

AMM is a British improvisation ensemble that has existed since 1965.

History and cast

Saxophonist Lou Gare , drummer Eddie Prévost and guitarist Keith Rowe founded the ensemble in 1965. They were initially art students and jazz musicians (Gare and Rowe played with Mike Westbrook , Prévost and Gare in a hard bop quintet). At the London Art School , through contact with artists such as Marcel Duchamp , Jackson Pollock and Robert Rauschenberg, they came up with the idea of transferring concepts such as action painting to music. In 1966, the double bass player Lawrence Sheaff (who played cello and accordion with AMM) and the pianist and composer Cornelius Cardew were added; first recordings took place. After Sheaff left in 1967, the percussionist Christopher Hobbs (1968–1971) and the composer Christian Wolff (1968) also played. The group later shrank again, e.g. after Cardew left in 1973. Sometimes up to the duo format (Gare and Prévost 1973–1975, then Rowe and Prévost in the mid-1970s). The pianist John Tilbury joined in 1980 . Sometimes the cellist Rohan de Saram , the clarinetist Ian Mitchel or the saxophonist Evan Parker also played . As a rule, AMM consisted of three musicians until 2005; since then the group has consisted of Prévost and Tilbury, who occasionally perform with guests.

Working method and self-image

Basically, no appearance is planned by AMM, but takes place spontaneously (without prior arrangements). Furthermore, the musicians neither rehearse together, nor do they collectively analyze the result of their playing. In the implementation of these principles a radical understanding of improvisation arose, which, based on John Cage, led to a quasi- alleatorical creation of new musical works. In this way the opposition between musique concrète and serial music that dominated the musical debate in the 1950s became obsolete. By taking up this practice of improvisation, the socially relevant question of the relationship between performing musicians and composers also arose in a new way. The hierarchy between these two bodies could now be overcome, in that the players themselves became composers and the musical idea emerged spontaneously on stage instead of in the composer's ivory tower.

AMM always sees itself as a collective. If the individual voices are also important for the process of interactive sound generation, the result is generally based on collective improvisations and not on a series of solo contributions. The ensemble's performances have nothing to do with jazz improvisations , which usually take place via a chorus , but are defined by a radical denial of given formal structures (not unlike free-form jazz), but also by largely avoiding existing idioms . In order to avoid formal arbitrariness, however, the improvising musicians play with each other as rarely as possible in order to avoid developing routines: "It should be part of our secret that we have never played too much," analyzed Eddie Prévost. In addition, the range of instruments was expanded at an early stage (e.g. with shortwave receivers , echo tape recorders or a “ tabletop guitar ” that is prepared with a plastic ruler or made to sound with a transistor radio ). The group entered e.g. Sometimes in darkened rooms, with the concerts sometimes lasting several hours. The improvisations regularly contained long, tension-increasing phases of silence.

aesthetics

Right from the first record ( AMMusic 1966 ) there was a very conscious handling of time, dynamics and musical textures, which differs significantly from the aesthetics of free jazz and its “energy play” over long passages ; Instead, the tonal language of New Music is used, although an underlying tension arises that is not dissimilar to that of free jazz.

"Every noise has a note", this (analytical and normative) statement by Eddie Prévost describes the radicalized aesthetics of New Improvisational Music: The noise , which is often confused with the non-musical, is based on the same regularity as the musical, so that a (creative) ordering principle can be found which implies the communication of noise and notated music. The generation and origin of noises is determined from the social practice of making music, but also from the interaction with the audience .

Dealing with compositions

AMM is an improvisation ensemble, but does not close itself dogmatically to the performance of composed works. Due to its interactive capabilities, it was able to realize Cardew's graphically notated Treatise (1963–1967) early on . Since the mid-1980s, the ensemble led repeats the chamber opera Irma by Tom Phillips on.

effect

The musicians from AMM developed a tonal language and playing posture that radically exceeded both the possibilities of new music and (free) jazz at the time. The group was thus exemplary for improvisers in a wide variety of music genres, from rock music to classical music, and for the development of an independent free improvisation, similar to what is otherwise perhaps only the improvisation ensemble Musica Elettronica Viva (MEV) around Alvin Curran , Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum . (It wasn't until 2004 that the two improvisation ensembles performed and recorded together.)

AMM also had unintended effects on pop music at the level of the technology used, as guitarist Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd was present during her first recordings and was deeply impressed by the possibilities offered by the tape echo device used. While AMM even acted as the opening act for Pink Floyd in Great Britain for a while, the ensemble had little opportunity to perform in other countries for a long time.

AMM with Eddie Prevost (front) and John Tilbury (2008), current line-up since 2005

Discography (selection)

"AMMMusic 1966" (ReR Megacorp / Matchless, 1966)
"The Crypt - 12th June 1968" (Matchless, 1968)
"AMM at the Roundhouse" (Incus Single / Matchless CD 1972)
"It had been an ordinary enough day in Pueblo, Colorado" ( JAPO 1979)
"Generative Themes" (Matchless, 1983)
"Combine + Laminates + Treatise '84" (Matchless, 1984)
"The Inexhaustible Document" (Matchless, 1987)
"The nameless uncarved block" (Matchless, 1990)
"Newfoundland" (Matchless, 1992)
"Live in Allentown USA" (Matchless, 1994)
"Before driving to the chapel we took coffee with Rick and Jennifer Reed" (Matchless, 1996)
"Tunes without Measure or End" (Matchless, 2000)
"Fine" (Matchless, 2001)
AMM / MEV: "Apogee" (Matchless, 2004)
"Norwich" (Matchless, 2005)
AMM with John Butcher "Trinity" (Matchless, 2009)
"Uncovered Correspondence - A Postcard From Jasło" (Matchless, 2010)
"Sounding Music" (Matchless, 2010, with Christian Wolff and John Butcher)
"Two London Concerts" (Matchless, 2012)
"Place Sub. V. "(Matchless, 2014)