Miller, Vidiksis, and Wells
About
Scott L. Miller, Adam Vidiksis, & Sam Wells perform free music that specializes in telematic improvisation. Their music is marked by propulsive textures and rhythms, graceful emergent structures, and carefully crafted timbres that are seamlessly woven from their composite sounds. Trumpet, drum set, and electronic sound merge to create atmospheres that range from playful and heartfelt to panoramic and profound. Located on the East Coast, West Coast, and the bank of the Mississippi, this trio has cultivated a musical practice that embraces the challenges of distanced, free improvisation to create music that is immediate and arresting.
Recordings
Memory Palace (2021)
This debut album documents two performances by the trio, recorded during the unprecedented time of physical distance during COVID-19 lockdown. Working telematically, Miller, Vidiksis, and Wells have developed a unique approach among themselves to listening, time, and coordination. The recording demonstrates one point of listening in the complex interflow of time and latency between the performers.
Performances
Improvisation 25/02/21
Scott L. Miller, Kyma Sound Design Environment
Adam Vidiksis, drum set
Sam Wells, trumpet & video processing
High-Low II by Scott Miller
High-Low II (2020) – Scott L. Miller
Streamed live on Oct 28, 2020
Sam Wells, trumpet
Adam Vidiksis, percussion
Scott L. Miller, Kyma
High-Low II is one of a collection of graphic scores, SPRING 2020. In March 2020, I began experimenting with a variety of performers and ensembles telematically, over the internet, and created these graphic scores to guide my experiments, many of which employed interactive electronics programmed in Kyma. The sonic network I normally would create with Kyma and performers would be in the same room, connecting electronic and acoustic sounds with microphones and speakers. In this new paradigm, the sonic network is distributed across communication networks intended for business meetings and conferences. Because of this, I was interested in hearing how specific contrasting musical elements behave and sound in this telematic music environment. This led me to create graphic scores focused on particular aspects of sound, indicated by the titles, while leaving other dimensions open, such as instrumentation, timbre, tempo, and pitch. I also found myself working in a modular fashion, combining and recombining a limited palette of graphic elements to produce the scores. This work is dedicated to my friends, distant in geography but close in spirit, who persevered with me through many challenging rehearsals as I learned how to make music with other people in this new environment.
