An Interview with Sensorband

Abstract

Sensorband, as name suggests, is an ensemble of musicians who use sensor-based gestural controllers to produce computer music. Gestural interfaces-ultrasound, infrared, and bioelectric sensors-become musical instruments. The trio consists of Edwin van der Heide, Zbigniew Karkowski, and Atau Tanaka, each a soloist on his instrument for over five years. Edwin plays MIDIConductor, a pair of machines worn on his hands. The MIDI-Conductor uses ultrasound signals to measure his hands' relative distance, along with mercury tilt sensors to measure their rotational orientation. Zbigniew activates his instrument by moving his arms in space around him. This motion cuts through invisible infrared beams mounted on a scaffolding structure. Atau plays BioMuse, a system that tracks neural signals, translating electrical signals from body into digital data. To quote group's World Wide Web page (http:// zeep.com/sensorband), the result is a powerful musical force of intense percussive rhythms, deep pulsing drones, and wailing melodic fragments. As a developer of new electronic musical instruments, I have been involved in some of Sensorband's projects, and have seen group perform a number of times, starting in 1994 at Sonic Acts Festival in Paradiso, Amsterdam. At these concerts, audience becomes involved in compelling energy of performance, relationship between physical gesture and sound, and musical communication between three performers. A Sensorband concert is impressive in its display of instrumental virtuosity, and proves that three musicians have been playing together for some time. Although they had met each other individually on several occasions (including International Computer Music Conference in Cologne in 1988), first time three met as a group was in Octob r 1993, at Son Image festival in Berlin. While in Berlin, Edwin had idea to form a trio. Sensorband's first performance was in December of 1993, at Voyages Virtuels, a virtual reality exhibit organized by Les Virtualistes in Paris. I interviewed Sensorband in The Hague in November 1996, and thereafter discussion was extended through electronic mail. The topics of interview included: how they established an ensemble based entirely on new electronic instruments; special musical and technical concerns associated with medium; their aesthetic views on relationship between science and art; and their influences and approaches. Before presenting interview, however, I will start with some explanatory notes about musicians and their unique instruments.