Richard Lainhart - Tranzducer

Seth wrote in to let me know he made it to the Tranzducer show featuring Richard Lainhart. The following are his notes and a couple of shots of the show. Thanks Seth!

"Here's a couple of photos from the Richard Lainhart show at Tranzducer last Friday.

It was a really good show. Rui Pereria did an incredible piece with looping video and audio that was both intellectually and musically interesting. Short video loops with audio snippets that went with them, mutating and overlapping and constantly changing but at the same time all related somehow. Moldover did a genius piece combining recognizable song segments in Ableton Live, custom-made MIDI controllers and an fabulous sense of humor all mixed together to create a captivating and fun performance that was also quite powerful. I didn't know what he did before I saw the show, but if somebody told me "laptop performer" beforehand I would have been maybe mildly interested. However, after seeing his custom-modded Novation controller, his creativity and his energy, I can only say it was totally rock 'n' roll!

And then came Lainhart. I don't even know where to begin. He started slow and low with long slowly changing drones and they just built and built and built until the room was completely taken over by this enormous wall of sound that was moving and changing with sound and textures and rhythms all over the place. It was amazing.

It was also nothing like any of the other things I've seen him do either live with Jordan Rudess at Moogfest or on video. With Rudess he's providing textures, backgrounds, support, an anchor, and then there's Rudess doing his virtuoso thing. And YouTube videos just can't convey the power and intensity of what an actual live performance feels like.

Plus, at the end, Lainhart and Moldover did a totally improvised and unplanned piece together.
I honestly didn't think an Ableton rhythmic loop-meister and a Buchla sound sculptor would have very much in common to play together, but it was actually a perfect combination of rhythm and texture and it totally worked.

Anyway, about the photos, I really like the blue one as a photograph, but maybe the purple one is more representative of the show. I just thought I'd pass them on and put in my 2¢ on the show."