John Bischoff, an early pioneer of live computer music, presents a set of four electronic pieces.

Decay Trace measures sonic impulses to trigger sequential glimpses of sampled fragments. A similar process drives Audio Combine, but here Bischoff activates mechanical toys, providing both the timing and the sound material for fragmentation. Local Color features synthetic bell-like tones, sustained tonal clusters, and computer-triggered real bells in complementary patterns and processes.

The set also includes a solo version of Tesla Sync, Bischoff’s most recent piece for The Hub, the computer network band he has worked with for over 20 years. In that work, one player broadcasts a rhythmic “trigger” message to create a timing grid upon which all musical actions are based. All players—in this version, all played by the composer—respond to some statistical percentage of the triggers, a choice that is continuously variable between all or none, by generating sounds of their own creation.

John Bischoff (b.1949, San Francisco, Calif.) has been active in the experimental music scene in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 30 years as a composer, performer and teacher. He is known for his solo constructions in real-time synthesis and the pioneering development of computer network bands. He was a founding member of the League of Automatic Music Composers (1978) and he co-authored an article on the League’s music that appears in Foundations of Computer Music (MIT Press 1985). He also was a founding member of the network band The Hub with whom he has performed and recorded from 1985 to the present. In 1999 he received an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in recognition of his music. He is currently on faculty in the Music Department at Mills College in Oakland, California.

John Bischoff made his Chicago debut at Lampo in October 2004.