Off-Cut Twenty Seven

Saturday 31st March 2001 on Andrew Ford's "Music Show" (Radio Natonal) two Canadian musicians, Jean Derome and Joane Hetu, were interviewed. They were in Perth for "The Totally Huge Music Festival". Their wonderful music was improvisation based.

Andrew asked them about their recording sessions and wondered what was the point of recording something which was so spontaneous it would never be the same again. Jean explained that he thought recordings were an invaluable snapshot of the way a musician was playing at a particular time. As such he thought they were well worth doing.

This brings an interesting perspective to the role that recording plays in a performance artist's world. I wonder how many actors see their next opportunity in film or television as merely the opportunity to create a record of their performance process at this time.

March 2001