Morton Subotnick — As I Live & Breathe
7PM doors
8PM performance
9PM special teaser preview of SUBOTNICK documentary film
Seated performance
All Ages
Proof of vaccination is required for all attendees over 12 year of age. Learn more
Recombinant Media Labs presents pioneering experimental composer and analog electronic musician Morton Subotnick in a special live performance of As I Live and Breathe, a duet of image and sound augmented with live visual animation.
Subotnick has described the piece as “a fitting title as, at 88, it may be my last appearance on the road.”
As I Live and Breathe combines analog recordings, electronic patches, and live performance on a hybrid Buchla 200e/Ableton “instrument” with live video animation. The work opens with the sounds of Subotnick himself breathing into a microphone: a single inhale, followed by silence, followed by an exhale. There is silence and darkness between each breath gesture, and both sound & image develop in long phrases, simply at first and gradually transforming.
Morton Subotnick states, “’As I Live & Breathe’ features live and sampled vocalizing along with some of my most advanced electronic performance techniques. At last, some Buchla modules are now digital plugins and Ableton Live has evolved into a form that will allow me to create a technological environment that I never expected, in my lifetime, to experience. It starts with my breath, moves through a vocalising cadenza of vocal gestures and ends with a tender and simple use of gentle rhythms and melodic fragments.”
About the Artist
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music and multi-media performance and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems. Most of his music calls for a computer part, or live electronic processing; his oeuvre utilizes many of the important technological breakthroughs in the history of the genre. His work Silver Apples of the Moon has become a modern classic and was recently entered into the National Registry of Recorded works at the Library of Congress. In the early 60s, Subotnick taught at Mills College and with Ramon Sender, and co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center. It was also during this period that Subotnick worked with Don Buchla on what may have been the first analog synthesizer.
