Kiva

Kiva was a remarkable performance group, created in 1975 by the American trombonist John Silber and the French percussionist Jean-Charles François. It was formed as a research project at the Center for Music Experiment at the University of California San Diego. During the period of its existence, from 1975 to 1991, various other artists joined the ensemble, among them the Korean dancer Hi-ah Park between 1978 and 1985, and the Australian pianist/composer Keith Humble between 1984 and 1991. This 2-CD package contains selected performances and a composition.

The conceptual contribution of the Kiva project was the emancipation of the classical performer from the role of interpreter of written music and the performer's redefinition as an actor of artistic creation through the direct production of sounds. The members of Kiva did not view themselves as improvisers, which to them implied spontaneous behavior, but they rather saw themselves as explorers of a complex and chaotic sound world that could not be explored through the planning and structure of a written composition. The members of Kiva described themselves as an experimental group dedicated to notationless music, mixed media, and extended instrumental techniques. To completely dissociate themselves from fixed musical behavior, they refused to make recordings.

But the context today has changed, and the publication of this CD of selected performances by Kiva makes sense, not only as a document of the music, but also as the articulation of a valuable idea.