(Re)thinking improvisation: Artistic explorations and conceptual writing - Frisk, Henrik; Östersjö, Stefan (Lund Lund University, 2013)
Two CDs and a DVD were produced as part of the publication (re)thinking Improvisation: artistic explorations and conceptual writing, published in a box by Lund University Press in 2013. All recordings were made live during an international festival at the Inter Arts Center in Malmö, Sweden.Wu Wei and Cléo Palacio-Quintin joined The Six Tones for a performance of Sandeep Baghwaatis Transience (2008), a comprovisation with an interactive score designed for a group of three Asian and three Western performers, drawing on the musical traditions represented by each individual musician. In the three large group improvisations titled The ethics of improvisation 1-3 The Six Tones are joined by more guests from different musical cultures and parts of the world, displays the collaborative capacity of an improvising community.The relationship between freedom and constraint, as well as between improvisation and composition, was also highlighted in the conducted performances in the recordings, most notably in the rendering of parts of Cardews Great Learning, directed by John Tilbury, as well as in the performance of Gino Robairs opera I, Norton with the Swedish group Operaimprovisatörerna, and in Ture Larsens Beslutningens anatomi with The Six Tones and guests. The difference between a sign inscribed as visual gesture in space and as written text is questioned, while a different question also emerges that has to do with work identity and individual agency.The CDs contain the world premiere recordings of works by the Vietnamese composer Kim Ngoc Tran Thi, the swedish composers Christer Lindwall, Staffan Storm and Henrik Frisk and by the British composer Helen Papaioannou, all drawing on various aspects of encounters between cultures and between the practices of improvisation and composition.