BLACK ‘MIDI’ MAGICK

BLACK ‘MIDI’ MAGICK [2022, AI, A/V]

Displayed at NFT Biennial, on a 35m high LED wall.

An exercise in the tradition of Black MIDI [not the band, a music genre consisting of compositions that use MIDI files to create a song or a remix containing a large number of notes. People who make black MIDIs are known as blackers] by ecolagbohrsaco2021 [ENGLAND’S COUNCIL OF LEGISLATION AND GOVERNING BODY OF HYPER REAL SIMULATIONS AND CONSTRUCTS] written for –at least– 17 keyboards.

‘Though the two are unrelated in origin, the concept of impossible piano existed long before black MIDI, manifesting itself for example within Conlon Nancarrow’s work involving player pianos, in which he punched holes in piano rolls, creating extremely complex musical compositions in the same impossible, unplayable spirit of black MIDI. Another precursor to black MIDI is Circus Galop, a-player-piano composition written by Canadian virtuoso Marc-Andre Hamelin, featuring complex and impossible arrangements with up to 21 notes played simultaneously. Frank Zappa also wrote a dense and extremely difficult composition called “The Black Page”.’