Feel Free Installation by Duane Pitre

In celebration of the March 27 release of Duane Pitre’s two new albums on Important Records — Feel Free CD/LP (containing the group version of Feel Free) and a split LP w/ electronic minimalist artist Eleh (Pitre’s side containing a 20 minute recording of the Feel Free Installation) — Liminal Space will host Pitre’s Feel Free Installation, running all day from 1pm to 8pm.

Feel Free is a new composition by Duane Pitre that currently has three possible manifestations: solo performance, group performance, and sound installation. At the core of all of them is the pillar of the work, an open yet orderly system whose intention is to produce potentially infinite variations of self-generating rhythm and melody. This system is created in part by a Max/MSP patch, designed by the composer, which consists of two (unprocessed) sound sources: guitar harmonics and simple-timbre electronic tones (in the solo/group versions, the latter are performed by the composer).

These solo and group versions of Feel Free find the work following a sequence of movements, with each embodying slight variations in feel, pitch material, performance methods, and rules. Blanketing the entire performance are suggestions given to the performers, such as that they should feel free to interact with one another, as well as with the random, real-time, computer generated patterns of guitar harmonics; therefore making intuitive yet rule-based decisions, in that moment of the piece, instead of relying on standard notation to dictate their every move. This approach creates a performance that is unique upon each occasion that it is performed; it is free from its own restraints.

For the “installation version” of the piece, titled Feel Free Installation, it is void of any performers and is meant to embody a certain stillness. And while the listener may become familiar with what seem to be recurring patterns, no sounds or phrases are ever looped, but are rather continually changing and moving forward, yet remain suspended.

LIMINAL SPACE | 950 54th St. Oakland 94608 (http://maps NULL.google NULL.com/maps?q=950+54th+Street,+Oakland,+CA+94608&gl=us&z=15&vpsrc=0&iwloc=A)
Tuesday March 27th | Open hours 12pm – 9pm
FREE