John Bischoff presents four recent works—Surface Effect, Field Transfer, Vocal Imprint (Test Pressing) and a new untitled work.

On his method, Bischoff writes, “The work projects sounds from an analog circuit into juxtaposition with raw digital audio generated from a laptop. As a performer interacts with the circuit, which consists of two square-wave oscillators activated by pressure sensors and shorting disks, instances of pulsed and modulated sound are triggered in the circuit and the laptop as well in a manner that couples the analog and digital sources together.”

He continues, “In these pieces the detailed nature of the performer’s actions with the circuit—the initiation of sound events, the timing between them, and their spectral characteristics—are analyzed in real-time and used to construct an extended computer-generated response.”

John Bischoff (b.1949, San Francisco, Calif.) has been active in the experimental music scene in the Bay Area for over 40 years as a composer, performer and teacher. He is known for his solo constructions in real-time synthesis as well as his pioneering development of computer network music. In the early 1970s he studied composition with Robert Moran, James Tenney, Robert Ashley and David Behrman. In ‘78 Bischoff co-founded the League of Automatic Music Composers, the world’s first computer network band, and from 1985 to the present he has performed and recorded with the network band, The Hub.

His performances around the U.S. include New Music America festivals in 1981 and 1989, Roulette and Experimental Intermedia in New York City, and Lampo in Chicago. He has performed in Europe at the Festival d’Automne in Paris, Akademie der Künste in Berlin, STEIM in Amsterdam, and Fylkingen in Stockholm. In 1999 Bischoff received an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in recognition of his music. Two important retrospective CD packages documenting computer network music were released in 2007 and 2008: The League of Automatic Music Composers: 1978-1983 (New World Records 2007) and a 3-CD set of recordings by The Hub titled Boundary Layer (Tzadik 2008). A solo CD, Audio Combine, was recently released on New World Records and was picked as one of the Best of the Year 2012 by The Wire magazine. Bischoff is currently Associate Professor of Music at Mills College in Oakland, California.

John Bischoff performed at Lampo in October 2004 and March 2008, presenting works Decay Trace, Audio Combine, Local Color and Tesla Sync.

Presented in partnership with the Graham Foundation