Liveness

Live performances can become very objective when it comes to Electronic music. Some might argues that electronic artists prepare all materials in advance, controlling glimpses of music with pushes of the button, so what makes their music live? Here I will discuss Liveliness in my chosen live performance of “Paper Trails” by Darkside.

In the RA sessions performance of their studio track “Paper trails” Jaar (DJ/vocals) and Harrington (guitar) drawn out the original composition to almost twice its length. Jaar Dj techniques and signature ‘airy’ sound is filled with bluesy-funky riffs Harrington performed live, giving the ‘weight’ to the track. Manipulating and introducing different sounds controlled with Ableton Live, Jaar creates textures and layers for the live performance. You could say Jaar is DJing with his own music, but also going beyond that: changing elements, tempo, structure of the piece and remixing the track on the live settings.

One of the most common figures you can find in Nicolas Jaar performances is his tempo changes. This is also present in this performance. Arrangement starting on slower tempo moves after to faster tempo regiment but comes back to slower, but different tempo by the end of the performance. Tempo in the track is correlated and depended on other sounds and live improvisations introduced on the spot during the live performance.

Starting the arrangement with heavily delayed and reverbed sounds of synth and guitar, bringing in the fragments of the original melody. From 0:58 Jaar introduces first percussion sounds (hand clapping), the track sets to the faster tempo and from 1:15 guitar starts to play main melody pizzicato. From 1:30 guitar player layers delayed single high notes on top of the existing melody using guitar pedal to manipulate the sounds and the timing he is going to play them. You can still hear the main melody in the back of the track, but the performance itself is heavily improvised, introducing such elements as prolonged parts and delays. Two performers listen to each other and introduce new elements and improvisations on existing structure of the studio version of the track.

From 2:01 the main guitar melody is starting to play , bringing attention to the player and telling the audience that the track is coming into the first verse and moving away from the intro section. After guitar finishes playing the melody for two bars, the drums are brought in into the track. These two actions bring listeners attention to upcoming sections and uplifts the mood and tempo in the track.

2:33 the second performer (Jaar) starts to sing. Guitar and singing performed in the response to each other, leaving the backing track almost empty (sound wise) during the verse.

After singing the verse and the chorus, the performance goes into more electronic genre arrangement, (from 4:43 to an end) manipulating sounds and sampled clips on Ableton Live and improvising with technology (delays, synch sounds) and live guitar playing.

Some might argue that it was only the voice and the guitar, which truly have been performed live, but it might not be necessarily true. Different electronic elements introduced during the performance correlated with improvised guitar sounds and moved the performance dynamics. By choosing manually and controlling live software instruments and sounds with Ableton, Jaar is able to make the performance unpredictable and bring in liveliness in the electronic genre performance.

Darkside performance of “Paper Trails,” from the album Psychic, is the most view video RA has ever produced.

Reference List:

Croft, John (2007) “Theses on Liveness,” Organised Sound 12, no. 1 p. 59-66

Emmerson, S (2007). Living Electronic Music, Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing Ltd