Research Catalogue

A point of departure in this exposition is the author’s experience of practicing and playing on the saxophone for more than 30 years. In particular, three aspects of practicing a musical instrument are discussed: firstly, development and maintenance of general skills; secondly avoiding stagnation and so-called arrested development, and thirdly practicing for specific events. These aspects of practicing are elucidated thru long time personal experience from playing and practicing the saxophone. The saxophone is an acoustic instrument where its properties are given by design and acoustics, and it is up to the player to master and perhaps extend its playing possibilities to its physical limits. Noteworthy, parts in this article is taken from the author’s thesis A Field of Possibilities (Nilsson, 2011), however practicing examples are either reworked or new, and reformatted for this context. In my thesis, which treats designing and playing digital musical instruments, the purpose of discussing the saxophone was about to create a background, something else, as contrast to the main subject. In this exposition practicing the saxophone is at the forefront, however written with more than 15 year’s experience of deliberately practicing electronic musical instruments of various kinds as a background.

A salient feature in all forms of jazz accompaniment since the 30s is the walking bass, which is “a line played pizzicato on a double bass in regular crotches in 4/4 metre, the notes usually moving stepwise or in intervallic patterns not restricted to the main pitches of the harmony”. The most developed virtual instrument of mine is the Walking Machine, which is thoroughly described in my thesis A Field of Possibilities (Nilsson, 2011) as well as in the ICMC 2008 proceedings. There are however a number of predecessors, as well as successors up to a present rendering, which together make up a work story of virtual walking bass instruments. Heard in the rear-view window, despite using quite different technologies, concepts and algoritms, it displays different sameness, variations of a permanence that mediates aesthetic preferences of its inventor and player, in this case within the realm of walking bass accompaniment.

In this paper we discuss the meaning of musical instruments, particularly an electronic instrument intended for ensemble improvisation that is called the exPressure Pad. A basic premise is that the actual instrument in play mediates and actualizes particular aesthetical ideas, comparable to a composition. In play a multitude of interactions and cross relations occur: between the players, between the instrument and the player, and between the player and the musical outcome. However, the inherent properties of the instrument delimit what we can, and cannot do, therefore, it is feasible to claim that the instrument directs and informs our playing as much as we are shaping the musical output.

Field recording project with EEC students. Fall 2020

Den gudomliga läckan - tractatus papyrus är en slags operaföreställning som ingick i projektet Paper Music som genomfördes i november 2022 i Mölndal.

A point of departure in this project is to investigate man – machine interactions with the improvisation group Natural Artefacts that features a mix of acoustic and electronic musical instruments. The main questions are: is it possible to program electronic instruments, such as sequencers, samplers, and synthesizers in such a way that an organic “groove and feel” of jazz occurs? And is it possible to perform with them in a live context retaining a “true” jazz feeling?