Live electronic music performance was a novelty in 1964 as was the useof electronic percussion instruments. Perhaps even more progressive wasthat Max Neuhaus' version of Cage's Fontana Mixis used nothing but feedback. Neuhaus placed contact microphones on topof kettle drums and put the drums in front of loud speakers. Themicrophones were free to move around on the drums. The performercontrolled the intensity of each microphone with a mixer and Neuhausdid this following a performance score that he prepared from JohnCage's Fontana Mix. This indeterminate composition from 1958comprises a grid and a set of curved lines, some with dots, ontransparencies. The interpreter arranges these in superposition tocreate a unique new graphic image from which, following theinstructions, a performance score from is derived. Using this procedureNeuhaus created the set of curves that he used to control the intensityof each microphone in the mix and used this score in each performance.However, the feedback system itself is a very sensitive andunpredictable instrument, so much so that even following the same scorethe resulting music is essentially indeterminate. Hence the sixdifferent versions on this CD, four live and two studio recordings,spanning 1965-68 are very different from each other. Neuhaus, abrilliant and highly respected percussionist, would put Feed onthe program of high-brow contemporary percussion concerts in placeslike the Carnegie Recital Hall and he would play it very loud. It'samusing to imagine the responses in the highly cultivated audiences.The remarkable thing is that even in today's context with decades ofnoise art behind us, Neuhaus' trail-blazing performances from the mid60s are brilliant. The music is relentless feedback noise but has astructural complexity that, if you can tolerate its basic assault, isfascinating and hypnotic. It is piercing and very abrasive but onceimmersed in it, and if you are willing to play it loud enough, itsvitality and detail are consuming. Neuhaus' musical genius blazesthrough this brutal material in manner that puts many a modern noiseartist in their place.Read More
