Works » By Title » T » This is not Iggy Pop (12:00 / 1987)

“This Is Not Iggy Pop” is a piece I created using the computer music facility at Helicon Systems in Toronto. Using a MIDI pitch and rhythm detector, I sampled each song on Iggy Pop's recording “Zombie Birdhouse” and stored the result in the computer. I replaced the original durations, registers, and tempi of each song to create the twelve “voices” of the piece. “This Is Not Iggy Pop” is the orchestra, and the music must be found between the lines. By this I mean that I have created a palette of timbres, and the counterpoint that can be heard within the piece depends on the listener's focal point. The piece is performed using three networked computers tied to a central fileserver by a local area network. Each node on the network controls two or more FM synthesis modules. The music is divided between the computers and I manipulate the performance by each node in real-time using Helicon's software package “Conduct”. This software allows independent control of the dynamics, tempi, transposition and articulation of each part so the result is different from performance to performance. “This Is Not Iggy Pop” is, as the saying goes, “to be played at maximum volume”. JF