The performance yesterday went exactly as I hoped it would, with the pre-written guitar parts being played right, and the three of us feeling comfortable enough to take risks and react to each other’s improvisation. It was a bit chaotic at points, but that was exactly what I had envisioned, and I was pleased with the result.

The performance was moved to the studio space in the Ferens to ensure the safety of the paintings, as well as the public. In a way it was great to have a bigger space, and having the painting on the projector was quite imposing, fitting the music quite well.

In terms of composition, I felt that the open parts of the score being structured by the Launchpad’s speech worked quite effectively, but if we were performing again I would give everyone a sheet of paper to jot down settings for parts of the music, so that they can be very quick about extracting sounds from the feedback loop, or mixing quicker in Ableton. It was hard to balance the music having not tried the 4 speaker setup in Ableton before Monday, but I am happy enough that we made the most of it.

One small slip-up I found was that the MIDI mix has pages to let you access channels what is physically available. This meant that when I went to turn on the delay blast, the previous page’s fader settings were set to full, and I couldn’t do anything except do my best to lower the fader. I had envisaged a fade in for the delay, but perhaps the extremes of silence and then full volume was very much appropriate for the idea of a middle ground between two opposites.

There is talk of the performance being re-recorded for the Gallery, which would be great if it can happen, although I would need to contact the Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust for their permission to use samples.