audio samples: MP3 format 1 | 2 | 3
recorded August 21 and September 25, 2006
Christopher Burns, performer

In Johannes Kepler's 1619 book Harmonice Mundi, he describes a particular combination of shapes, including pentagrams, pentagons, and decagons, fit together into a repeating pattern. He refers to this pattern as "monsters". Kepler's Monsters takes up the idea of a complex pattern by using a large network of simple sound-processing modules to modify basic synthesized tones. Each module produces a different sonic and rhythmic modifcation (its "shape") to the overall sound, and feedback can be introduced across the network to create recursive loops ("repeating patterns").

Kepler's Monsters is the latest in a series of projects exploring the way in which electronic improvisation environments might be imbued with "resistance" -- a situation in which the performer does not completely control the instrument. The scale and complexity of the sound-processing network (especially when feedback is introduced) means that the instrument's behavior is not predictable -- as surprises, contradictions, and new directions appear, the performer must adapt and integrate them into the overall flow of the music.

Performances:
2007.11.13: La Crosse New Music Festival, La Crosse, Wisconsin
2007.08.28: International Computer Music Conference 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark
2007.02.26: Lawrence University, Appleton, Wisconsin
2006.11.05: radio broadcast of live performance, WMSE, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2006.08.28: sfSoundSeries, ODC Theater, San Francisco, California
2006.08.12: Hotcakes Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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