Things are off to a rather hectic start–we are already less than a week away from our first mini-tour of the 2010/11 season. L2Ork will be stopping by Duke University on Sept. 19th for an outdoor performance (weather permitting), followed by a lecture recital at WSSU on the 20th. Finally, on 21st we will be featured on two concerts as part of the UNCG’s New Music Festival. For additional info on the performance times and locations, see the Events page.
Hope to see you there!
I would like to use this opportunity to welcome all our old and new L2Orkists back to the beautiful VT campus. We have some exciting things planned for this year including the upcoming North Carolina tour (and hopefully a couple surprises I am not a liberty to discuss just yet :-). I am also very pleased to report that as of this fall L2Ork has now 17 members. To top it all off, this past summer, we’ve worked hard at further improving upon the networking protocol and as a result our platform is now more stable than ever.
Indeed, there are a lot of exciting things in store for us this year, so stay tuned for more updates… soon!
I cannot really add much to Miles’s post. And I suppose it is coming a little late. And at an odd time (4 in the morning). But someone asked me earlier today (or I guess yesterday) to describe the L2ork tour. And well one of the best ways for me to do that was to cite a funny instance on the tour. Actually, it doesn’t really do anything to describe the tour. It’s just kind of funny.
I think we were in Carbondale. And I reached into my pocket to grab my phone so that I could text Ico and ask him when we would get a break to eat. But instead of my phone, my pocket yielded a complimentary bar of soap, compliments of the Carbondale Comfort Inn.
Apparently, complimentary bars of soap in your pocket feel the same as a phone in your pocket. I then proceeded to text people on my newly acquired soap phone throughout the rest of the day.
Oddly enough, no one seemed to reply to any of my texts.
I don’t know if anyone knows much about touring so here is a statement in regards to touring: you spend an inordinate amount of time with the same people.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but as has happened with this group something magical has happened, everyone becomes their own separate person.
While 2 hours a day twice a week seems like a large amount of time with the same people, 24 hours a day for 5 days is a ridiculous amount of time. During this time one gets to know the person, rather than the part; and groups of people once associated with one another shatter and are replaced with individuality. It’s quite amazing really and one of the best things that has happened on this trip.
Furthermore, this conference has been the most creatively jarring experience that most of us ever had. It really puts into perspective the artistic work that Ico and L2ork and the kids in Computer Music are trying to do and are trying to introduce to the world. One really gets a glimpse into a world that, to most of us, is completely new and original.
Though it is not entirely over, it is coming to a close and I’d like to take this time to show appreciation for anyone responsible for making this “tour” possible, to thank all of the artists that we have met and experienced and most of all to Ico, for taking a rag-tag bunch of students and introducing them into a new world and we would not be here without you.
And lastly to the L2orkists: It has been an inspiration and pleasure to get to know you all as individuals and while I enjoy the time spent with you… I’m going to need you all to go home.
-Miles
In a decisive move to conquer an unsuspecting world, the L2Orkists have packed up their hemispherical speakers into their custom-made bags, loaded into three cramped minivans and begun a six-day sojourn through the mid-west.
With the first of three performances at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati happening at 7:30 PM our troop of droopy-eyed, wiimote wielding, laptop-virtuosos left a sleepy Blacksburg around 8 AM. Our caravan cut through a foreign countryside and, in 7 hours, arrived outside of an eager concert hall.
We unpacked and were left to our own devices to explore the surrounding city until sound check. A group of us found a hipster coffee shop and on suggestion by what could have been the owner, were led to an amazing Mediterranean restaurant and feasted on delicious Spicy Gyros. Later we returned to that hipster coffee shop and sipped on some of the best coffee that I’ve experienced in my lifetime.
As the opening act we were able to break down our set up and enjoy the rest of the concert, which kind of helped to put some perspective on the work we’ve been doing.
I had intended to finish this post before we left Cincinnati but the time to leave approached too quickly and since then we have traversed into 4 states and traveled 5+ hours and have arrived in Carbondale, IL where it is surprisingly flat and every store is separated into its own mini strip-mall.
We have a performance tomorrow at Southern Illinois University with Ron Coulter which should be exciting and then we pack up and journey to Indianapolis Friday for our last performance on Sunday.
This is Miles, signing off until next time!
