Video version: http://youtu.be/JFuzW6NjdEo

About 4 years ago, just after a brief South American tour (Argentina and Colombia) and a concert at the Experimentaclub Festival in Madrid (October 2009), I decided to stop performing on the Reactable. The reasons were basically that I really couldn't find much time for rehearsing, that new reactablists (e.g. Carles López) were really starting to take the instrument very seriously (much more than I was able to), and that on top of that, I was feeling a strange pressure, performing for wider audiences than I had ever played before with my "own" music. Wider audiences that didn't know much about myself and my previous music (perhaps not too "commercial" and definitely not techno…) and that were there just to listen to the "instrument". For all these reasons, I was having a difficult time finding a weird compromise between "what I really felt like doing", "what I was being able to do as a performer" and "what I felt most of the people were expecting from me, on the instrument we had conceived"… 

Then finally, this last August 2013, after enjoying Reactable Mobile on my tablet for a few months, I decided to give it a new, clean try. So I borrowed and brought home a new Reactable Live for some days, and began experimenting, improvising, composing and rehearsing. On the 3rd night, and with the invaluable help of Sergi Dies on the camera, I decided to record a 20' semi-composed improv. We then edited and shortened it to 9'40", keeping the performance original order and without adding any overdub, post-processing or embellishment of any kind. The intended composition (and the full recorded performance) was a sort of suite with 3 ABA sections, but while editing it, we decided to leave it as a simpler and shorter AB performance, which now without the A return, sounds more like 2 separate pieces performed one after the other. Still, I'm quite happy with the results and I believe it reflects well most of the things I really fancy about the Reactable.

Just 4 loops were used: (1) a tenor sax line from Charles Brackeen (one of my favorite and most underrated saxophonists) taken from Paul Motian Trio's "Dance" album (ECM 1977) (although it only appears twice it constitutes the "seed" for the harmonization pattern for the whole 1st part), (2) a brief synth loop from Stu Martin/John Surman's "Live at Woodstock Town Hall" (1975), (3) a drum loop from Carles López, and (4) the simple and hypnotic bassline from Portishead's single "The Rip" (2008) (on top of which all the 2nd part is built). The rest makes heavy use of most of the Reactable's "typical" features, specially sequencers, oscillators and synths, and filters and distortion. Hope you like it!

Brackeen's Distorted Rip (Reactable Live Improv, August 2013)

Recorded live by the FMOL Trio, with Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga (alto sax & bass clarinet), Oscar Celma (spanish guitar), Cristina Casanova (FMOL synth) & Sergi Jordà (FMOL and electronics), in 2002, on top of a composition by Sergi Jordà from 1998, which mainly uses John Barry material. Recording and mastering by S. Jordà (2002)

This track was part of the soundtrack for Eugeni Bonet's long-feature documentary "Tira tu reloj al agua" (2002), which explores the figure of Spanish experimental movie maker José Val del Omar (1904-1982)...

Matilde (Sergi Jorda & the FMOLTrio, 2002)

An electronic composition dedicated to Eric Dolphy, I did in 1992, with an 8-bit sampler (Amiga 500), a Yamaha SPX multieffects and a 4-track cassette. All samples are taken from Eric Dolphy, except from two short excerpts from two well-known Spanish politicians from 1992. Since the Amiga had only 512 KB of RAM, the piece was performed live in different short fragments, passing through the Yamaha SPX, into the 4-track cassette (each fragment filling with different samples the whole memory avaiulable on the Amiga).

For Eric (1992)

A piece for Yamaha's Disclavier, composed in 1994, with some feedback and very simple algorithmic processes (sadly, this recording is with a MIDI sound module, as I don't have the original Disclavier recording). 
The piece is somehow reminiscent of Debussy (going crazy, and playing at four hands with Cecil Taylor).
The algorithmic process for the composition is described here: 
http://mtg.upf.edu/files/publications/PhD2005-sjorda.pdf (pp. 266-271)

Solo Soles (1994)

A kind of "dark ambient" piece from 1998, taken from the CD by La Fura dels Baus & Sergi Jordà, "F@ust 3.0 FMOL". The piece was composed from dozens of bits and pieces collected from the Internet collaborative composition project FMOL. The track was mastererd by Alex Martin.

Tierra Bajo Tierra (1998)

A kind of "glitchy ambient" piece from 1998, taken from the CD by La Fura dels Baus &amp; Sergi Jordà, "F@ust 3.0 FMOL". The piece was composed from dozens of bits and pieces collected from the Internet collaborative composition project FMOL. The track was mastered by Alex Martin.

Agua Sobre Tierra (1998)

This rendition of Albert Ayler's piece, was recorded live by the FMOL Trio in Köln (october 2001) and published in the FMOL Trio album "The Köln Concert" (Hazard Records hr028). Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga (tenor sax & voice), Cristina Casanova (FMOL synth, tibetan bowl), Sergi Jordà (FMOL synth). This is free-jazz meets free-electronica, so probably not everyone's cup of tea...

Ayler's Ghosts (FMOL Trio 2001)

This improvised piece, was recorded live by the FMOL Trio in Köln (october 2001) and published in the FMOL Trio album "The Köln Concert" (Hazard Records hr028). It can be considered as a virtual bass clarinet trio, with Pelayo F. Arrizabalaga (bass clarinet), Cristina Casanova (FMOL synth), Sergi Jordà (FMOL synth). This is free-jazz meets free-electronica, so probably not everyone's cup of tea...

Bass Clarinets (FMOL Trio 2001)

Crazy free-jazz meets proto-techno from 1982. Several layers of overdubs (ping-ponging with two stereo cassette recorders), a Casiotone VL1, a Korg MS20, a JEN Synthetone, tenor sax (all by me) + guest alto sax from Scott Waxler. Remastered with Waves L2 from the cassette "master".

Sergi Jorda

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