Approaching Ališka: Bližím se k Elišce (2017) by Dan Senn consists of improvised works performed and composed over a thirty plus year period using improvisational methods guided by difficult instruments—objects like a rusty door, lids off cooking pots, sound sculptures constructed from found objects, windup alarm bells, a bass fiddle with its strings tuned to an E-natural, cascading machine washers, feedback filtered through metal objects, and pieces of paper used as mallets atop groups of PVC tubes. Improvisations may be guided by graphic notations but often are regulated by instrumental topography and thus considered non-linear as they naturally resisted the performance practice of console instruments, i.e. piano. Here, the importance of consciously embracing the opaqueness of such instruments is important to enable tensions between an anthropomorphized object and western performance traditions. Frankly, I have found this concept is too obscure for some to understand and that one is better off looking for performance complexity in the untrained and childlike mind as non-console-based instruments herd like cats.This collection of audio works begins with a reference to the death of the German-American Carl Schurz and ends with a sound track from a video work referencing the work of the Czech feminist Eliška Krásnohorská. Works were realized in Australia, Indiana, Oregon, Wisconsin and Prague, the Czech Republic. Bližím se k Elišce is the Czech translation of the English title, Approaching Eliška.1. Es Ist So Einfach Zu Sterben (2002) 6’30” uses a Fayfer and a Shmoos Harp, both non-linear instruments designed by the artist. The title comes from the last words spoken by Carl Schurz, 1929-1906, on his death bed. Schurz lived for a time in Watertown, WI and was likely guest at the home of the composer. Schurz was a confidant of Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Senator, Civil War General and musician who had been imprisoned before his escape after the 1848 German Revolution. The piece was realized at Shy Anne Studio, Tacoma.2. Big Brown Lyde (2002) 1’38” is a short improvisation which uses a 10-inch lyde (cast aluminum pot lid). The word lyde is pronounced “lid” and was borrowed from the Scandinavian word for sound. This improvisation took place in Tacoma, WA, at Shy Anne Studio, using the one lyde performed between two directional microphones.3. Hissy Fit (2002) 1’46” is similar to the previous work except using a different performance technique. The piece was realized at Shy Anne Studio, Tacoma.4. Ms Schlei (2002) 1’55” was realized using a Fayfer and spinning wires which protruded from the end of the mallet. Ms Schlei is the name of Senn’s very good third grade teacher. The piece was realized at Shy Anne Studio, Tacoma, WA.5. Bipolar Bird Cage (2002) 2’40” is a recording of a patron activated sound sculpture setup for an exhibition at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. This simple work consisted of two twisted 3/16th inch threaded steel rods attached to two found metal resonators. The sound instigators are three metal washers, each with off-balancing paper wings attached as they spin from the top of the sculpture to the bottom. The resulting colorations result from the metal resonators—the rhythms from the curvature of the rods. 6. Four Bells Turning (2002) 6’00” is the sound track from aMaize, a video made from sweet corn blowing in my vegetable garden. It was realized by turning (circular rubbing) the edges of four found lydes using a PVC mallet covered at one end by duct tape. The piece was produced at Shy Anne Studio, Tacoma, WA.7. Squeaky Door (1984) 5’09” is a monophonic work made late at night at the Canberra School of Music, Australia, using as an instrument a squeaky loo door on the building’s 5th floor. A single guitar microphone, borrowed from the Australian composer Don Banks, was attached near the door hinge and a recording made into a JVC cassette recorder. 8. Gandy Dancer (2001) 5’20” is the sound track from a video by the same name. The instrumental sounds come from Senn playing a bass fiddle with all its strings turned to E-natural using a cyclical bowing technique. The spoken parts are that of an old railroad worker retelling a story of a gandy, aka gandy dancer, he observed out west during the depression. The piece was produced at Shy Anne Studio, Tacoma, WA.9. fffalarum (1998) 5’17” is made from manual alarm bells, the type that preceded household electronic versions. Here, bells are wound tight, and then played against the mouth of the performer, Dan Senn, who is recording the performance within a stereo field. The piece lasts as long as the alarm spring allows. The piece was produced at Shy Anne Studio, Tacoma, WA.10. The Odradek Complex (2006) 4’19” is a recording of a sound installation built for the Čtyři dny (Four Days) festival held in Prague and was comprised of four tubes resting atop 4” woofers (bass speakers) with hinged paper “mallets” covering the top. The speakers were controlled by an audio score of sub-audio waveforms mixed with occasional short spoken sounds. Paper mallets pounded the tube tops as the woofers “pumped” columns of air up and down. As a guiding principle, the curator of this portion of the festival, Miloš Vojtěchovský, suggested the impish figure of the Odradek as related to the work of Franz Kafka. The recording was realized in Dan’s Prague studio.11. Beep Boop (1988) 2’28” is an improvisation based on the resonances of Scrapercussion #7 and realized at Ball State University where Senn was a professor of interdisciplinary art. The work is real-time and consists of feedback processed by the found metal objects of this sound sculpture. A feature of these sculptures was that metallic, resonant objects were suspended around a PVC chassis to create both an aural and visual continuum. Connected to the chassis were two contact speakers and when simple piezo microphones were attach to various objects in the sculpture, then run through an audio mixer and back through an amplifier to the chassis speakers, feedback loops were formed which were uniquely colored by the metal resonators. Simple. The feedback was then controlled at the mixer by adjusting mic levels and equalization to create a broad range of timbres. Once a mix of usually four microphone positions were established, the performance/improvisation occurred by simply moving faders up and down while twisting knobs. 12. Approaching Eliška: Bližím se k Elišce (2017) 12’36” is the sound track from a video of the same title and comprised of samples taken from many of the sound sculptures mentioned above and then manipulated in real-time using Ableton Live. The video entails Senn rising out of the Prague metro (subway) on the escalator onto the statue of Eliška Krásnohorská over and over and over. Krásnohorská, 1847-1926, was an influential feminist writer, poet, critic and educator in Bohemia. The work was realized in Dan’s Smíchov studio.