Global Barrage
Ansurbana improvises sights and sounds of the world
Eyedrum, Oct. 18 — The Atlanta debut of Ansurbana’s ambitious “Rain, Train, Steel and Time” compiled sights and sounds into a larger-than-life work of art. Projected images of the four titular elements depicted each’s effects on modern culture, and directed the constantly shifting barrage of improvised music. With no discernable message or overtly political stance, the event came off as something close to Koyaanisqatsi — Philip Glass’ mesmerizing collaboration with filmmaker Godfrey Reggio — its only objective being a good long look at the rhythms of the world.
The only thing out of balance, however, was the impact of the music vs. the visuals. As the performance unfolded, it became obvious that the artists involved have been musicians much longer than they’ve been filmmakers. While the visuals partly compensated in size what they lacked in substance, they weren’t as finely honed as the music. A more effective fusion would’ve been reached if the visuals were as grand as the music.
For the event, the open studio at Eyedrum was vaulted by large white cloth sheets, which stretched from floor to ceiling and morphed the room into an angular hour-glass shape. The sheets created four screens, each concealing unseen musicians behind them who, aside from casting occasional ghostly shadows on the sheets, remained anonymous.
The room became washed in a murky blue ambiance as the man behind the aural montage, San Franciscan David Sanchez Burr, called attention to the center of the room to introduce and give thanks to everyone involved. Ansurbana’s current incarnation is a hybrid, begun with last year’s Dawn of a New Riff collaboration — featuring Burr’s own visual improvisation outfit and local musician Russell Jackson’s annual mass improv event, Riffest. While Jackson lurked somewhere behind the scenes, Burr handled emcee duties.
Hidden away behind the screens, the players — three musicians and one conductor per screen — struck up an orchestra of guitars, drums, keyboards, a saxophone and one car jack. Flashing lights and images of cityscapes, trains, water and scrap yards circulated from screen to screen as the musicians improvised around the images. Arching crescendos peaked alongside images of industrial scrap yards and grinding metal, while footage of rain brought the music to a lull.
Those in attendance were a mix- and-match of beer drinkers and hell-raisers rubbing elbows with wine sippers and chin scratchers, all locked in standard rock show formation — acting up occasionally, but mostly respectful of the performance at hand and applauding when appropriate.
Impressively, Burr and Jackson have continued with this massive endeavor, each year improving upon the last despite living at opposite ends of the country. But the potential for growth is still there, and it’ll be interesting to see how the exploration of the way rain, trains, steel and time affects the world — or whatever other themes Ansurbana choses to focus on — will shape Ansurbana itself.