Racer Session #299 | Modern Recollections | November 15, 2015

This Sunday, we are very pleased to feature a performance by Modern Recollections helmed by Carl Lawrence and featuring music by Cameron Armstrong.

Modern Recollections

Modern Recollections is a company of young visionaries, a collection of abject children borne from the clandestine wasteland of a mediatised age. We know no truth. We know no language. We adhere to no rules save for those which exist in the game we create, the game of our choice. We have faith in nothing beyond the burden of our own imminent failure.

Defeat is glory.

The theatre is our mask and we reside within its deathly shadow, permeating its arid landscape as an aberration of mortality. We are acolytes of its deceit, now and forever seeking within it a salvation we know we will never find. All the same, we seek its destruction, plunging it into anonymity. Now and forever, with blood pouring from our shoes, we obey the ubiquitous order: iconoclasm.

Glory is defeat.

With no intention of returning, we wade into the amorphous shadow of indeterminate light, swallowed by nightfall, navigating the inscrutable irreal of the cosmic void. In searching for its parts, we search for ourselves, bearing forth moments of the ungraspable and the unspeakable, forever adrift in its colossal secret. We are borne from darkness, and in darkness we shall remain.

The Music

The concept of Beauty within Chaos is at the heart of the composition, and this is an idea I would like to explore further as the night turns into a jam session. For this piece, I've been exploring the idea of sonic madness and density that is controlled or contained by a logic or limitation, and within the cacophony, I find structure, stability, and even serenity.

I hope to have those participating in the jam session explore the juxtaposition of sonic erraticism and linear motifs resulting in recognizable melodic figures cutting through walls of sound like a knife though butter. Try to explore the limits of musical density, specifically utilizing the full frequency spectrum as well as  relentlessly using irregular and turbulent rhythmic figures. 

Cameron Armstrong

Learn More

• Modern Recollections

  • Official Website: modernrecollections.org

  • Instagram: instagram.com/modernrecollections

  • Twitter: twitter.com/carljlaw

• Cameron Armstrong: www.cameronarmstrongmusic.com

Improv 1: Andrew Olmstead (keyboard), Austin Larkin (balloons), Christian Pincock (trombone)
Improv 2: Evan Woodle (drums), Simon Henneman (synth), Neil Welch (tenor sax), Gianni Aranoff (tenor sax), Bill Kautz (cornet)
Improv 3: Austin Larkin (drums), William Hayes (guitar), Travis Fisher (keyboard)
Improv 4: Chris Icasiano (drums), Aaron Otheim (keyboard), Gianni Aranoff (tenor sax), Nick Nihil (guitar), Marcin Paçzkowski
Improv 5: Andrew Olmstead (keyboard), Luke Bergman (bass), Evan Woodle (drums)