Canto Battuto and Sam Hayden - Friday 20 November 2009

A visit to Sussex University by the Swiss ensemble Canto Battuto also raised, and illuminated, questions of collaboration and communication between performers and composers.

Canto Battuto were here to perform a cycle for soprano, percussion and electronics by Sam Hayden, entitled 'Actio' and inspired by the work of Roland Barthes.

During the lecture-demonstration part of the afternoon workshop, the performers and composer described the development of a language of electronic treatment for Sam's work.

Martin Lorenz commented that a common problem is the relation of electronics to source. It is either like a 'clone' (slavishly imitative) or too far away and you miss the connection with the source. Sam and Martin found the best solution was a light touch: short delays with an element of randomness, creating a fragmentation which neatly mapped the pursuit of vocal textures, of pure sonic qualities, arising from the fragmentation of Barthes's original text. Sam commented that it took some time to evolve this relationship - the original conception of the electronics' intervention being more aggressive.