What happens when a bunch of high-tech musicians link their computers together? You get The Hub - the most wired band around. Since the late 1980s, these six musicians have been using networked MIDI systems to create spontaneous digital musical productions.
Inspired by jazz groups like the Art Ensemble of Chicago and electronic pioneers John Cage and Xenakis, The Hub produces a strange mixture of improvisation and programmed music.
During Hub jams, the musicians write music programs using their own software, and a central "hub" computer coordinates the interaction. One machine may send out a melody while another delivers the rhythm or pitch. Says Tim Perkis, a software developer and Hub member, "The Hub is about redefining a social context for music making."
The Hub is evidence that the medium is indeed the melody - the networked "instruments" invent the process while the musicians input the variables. How does the music sound? Well, let's just say you've never heard anything like it.
