Two Part Interventions was composed in real time at the Church of All Nations, Carlton, Victoria, Australia on March 9th, 2020. It was rehearsed by each of us separately and together over the last 40 years of playing. That's the paradox of improvised music: It's made in the present but prepared for each time we pick up our instrument. That's why it matters so little and so much. It's a practice, not a product, and any realisation of it could just as well have been completely different. It is only by the fact that this particular event happened to be recorded on that day that it is artificially decided to be as it is. It's as much a document of a time and a place as a piece of music.
We didn't have even the most rudimentary plan before we began to play on that day, in that space, apart from the most constructive plan of all: absolute trust in ourselves, and each other. Anything could happen, any outcome was as good as any other: We could play with each other, against each other, alongside each other, or not play at all. It's not a dialogue in the common sense of the word, where you listen to each other's arguments and respond with an appropriate reply. It's not a clearly defined attempt to arrive at a common goal. It's more of a sympathetic co-existence, or an attempt at a kind of immediacy of communication, where success is measured by the ability of the music to erase our sense of critical self-awareness and the friction that it creates between the fingers, the ear and the sound.
We could make a decision. We could decide not to make a decision. We could think before we act. We could act before we think.
Erkki Veltheim
credits
released May 30, 2020
Erkki Veltheim violin
Scott Tinkler trumpet
Recorded by Phil Noy at The Church of All Nations, March 9 2020
supported by 7 fans who also own “Two Part Interventions”
Incredible work by the great Eugene Ball and quartet. Amazing and nuanced playing from each member of the band, greats of the Melbourne scene. audreypowne