The CD society and the Playlists

Here is a complete list of Listeing Room CD presentations: click

Phil Morton invented 'The Listening Room'. From the start, Roger Parry has assisted him. It opened its doors over six years ago - in summer, 1998 - and has since presented regular sessions either contrived by Phil, usually incorporating live performance, or derived by Roger from an archive of recorded material mainly associated with the genre of 'free improvisation'. The archive is in fact part of a a larger private collection of recordings and other related material built up over many years by Roger covering the precursors of free improvisation right up to the present day. Thus, the Listening Room is wider ranging than many of those 'music appreciation' societies that meet up and down the land in public libraries, etc.

Each of Roger's presentations has a 'theme': musicians (with many of whom he is acquainted personally), a record label, a genre or sub-genre are 'picked' and informally presented - he makes it up as he goes along - within the palatial setting of the Neptune Room, in the famous Bluecoat Arts Centre of Liverpool.

In the beginning, The Listening Room employed CDs and a "ghetto blaster", then it graduated to the minidisk then to laptop/ firewire/ digital audio interface/ DVD; the technology has got smaller, slimmer and wider ranging. The sessions are not numerically well attended, although in line with chaos theory there is the occasional high attendance for no apparent reason. Thus, for the select personages who make the effort to be present those additional links is provided - sounds to names and names to faces. It is a valuable 'educational' link, as the names we read about or hear about come to be present at the session via their recorded material. Perhaps 'educational' is not the right word but it is worthy of note how many featured artists within the sessions have subsequently arrived in Liverpool to play at Frakture. Recently, for example there has been the residency for two weeks of Carlos Zingaro and, in 2003, there was one with Joelle Leandre within our Frakture Festival.

For PhilM, notable high points and enjoyable CD sessions included one on the ''New London Silence', what is it?'; 'John Oswald, Plunderphonics and before'; 'SME (Spontaneous Music Ensemble)'; and 'scrape, rattle and roll'.

And then, presentations have also mixed live music with the CD presentation with both formats following a theme, for example, percussion. Different contributions may be distinct sections of the evening or be presented as a continuous schedule / presentation / performance. Examples of the latter were 'Just a minute', 'Shut Your Mouth and Play Your Guitar' and 'The Strange Effect I Have On Myself'. Boundaries blur slowly as the use of digital media permits randomly selected tracks to shuffle alongside free live improvisation. Eventually the recordings drift into the performance as in 'Twilight', 'A Game of Two Halves', 'Shunt' and 'Lifts': either played dry and cold or in disguise via the sampler.

This deceit and conceit hides within the Listening Room's epic piece 'WYHIWYG' [okay - it stands for 'What You Hear Is What You Get']. This was an all day piece/ exposition that places the 'experiencer'* within a tent whilst surrounding them with live music, CD material, 'soundscapes', noise and KERFUFFLE : What they hear is what they get, the manner of its construction, the boundaries of live music and recorded material, sound and noise, become irrelevant, or just a matter of degree, or the sacred cow of individual opinion…
* = Friendly, we hope!

Here is a complete list of Listeing Room CD presentations: click