TIMARA concert showcases today's music

More and more of the music that is being composed these days is done either with the aid of, or entirely using a computer. Apparently, this is a fact that the Oberlin Conservatory has taken into consideration, for they have an entire department designed solely for the purpose of nurturing emerging electronic performers.

Called the TIMARA Program, an acronym which stands for Technology In Music and Related Arts, their first concert of the year featured 12 student composers who certainly march to the beat of their own electronic drum. Judging from the program, Oberlin might very well be home to the next John Cage, Chemical Brothers, or Nick Parks, creator of the "Wallace and Gromit" claymation features.

The concert was performed in Warner Concert Hall, a venue that was not appropriate for the experience. It felt awkward to be listening to electronic soundscapes and techno-inspired music while sitting and genteelly applauding. After each piece, the lights would come up and the audience would clap. For what though?

Unlike a live performance, there was no one on stage to receive applause. All of the music had been composed and recorded many weeks before. The audience was listening to live music that was not live. This experience was both maddening and fascinating. For an art form that is in such a germinal stage, the concert hall does not seem like quite the right place. But maybe computerized music just has not yet had the opportunity to flourish in the mainstream.

Many of the pieces sounded the same. This first performance was weighed heavily on the side of lush soundscapes and trip-hoppy inspired beats. The first two pieces, Jeff Allen's "The Potato Mix" and Joel Corelitz's "August" were punctuated with African beats and felt very space-agey. Heavily cinematic, they both sounded like lost movie scores searching for the right images with which to integrate.

The performance did feature two videos, as video and computerized imaging both fall under the auspices of the TIMARA program. The videos that were created were quite different from the lushness of the first two compositions. The more accessible of the two pieces was Kristen Waite's video "Dilbert (but not that guy in the cartoons)." It featured the same type of technology that was used in the popular Wallace and Gromit movies: claymation.

Waite's very short piece was the story of a brown blobby man who kills an equally blobby worm and is

Music Makers: TIMARA students perform at their concert on Thursday. The show in Warner showcased student pieces and spanned a variety of themes. (photo by Stephen Menyhart)