Faust Music Online.(Review)

Sergi Jorda: Faust Music Online

CD-ROM, 1998; La Fura Dels Baus; electronic mail sergi.jorda@iua.upf.es; World Wide Web www.iua.upf.es/~sergi/FMOL/ fmoltrio/history_fmol.htm

Faust Music Online (FMOL) is a new approach to collaborative composition. The concept was created by the director of La Fura Dels Baus's production, Faust 3.0, Carlos Padrissa, in collaboration with computer artist and musician, Sergi Jorda. The aim was to create a method for composers around the world to produce music over the Internet. They did not want to be limited to MIDI, or even discrete pitches. What they were after was sound that could be arranged and composed in real time with a mouse.

The software was made available for download in January 1998, and by April the database contained more than 1,200 20-sec submissions. During the process of selecting pieces for the production, they discovered many pieces which could be developed beyond the 20-sec limitation. In September 1998, some of the composers were given a disc of 300 of these short submissions to work with. The music on this recording represents their results.

Each of the seventeen tracks is an example of an "arranger's" vision for some of these 300 submissions. The liner notes credit the individual compositions by the final arranger and also by the contributor of the original submissions. It is difficult to comment on the individual tracks because of the nature of the compositions. There are similarities between several of the tracks, which could be expected considering each person is working with the same materials. It is unlikely this collection would be used for pleasure listening, but that is not its purpose. It would, ...