Michael Robinson
Music/Visual Performances, Installations and Seminars
Michael Robinson uses technology and Indian ragas as a basis for composition. He engenders performances by programming a meruvina (computer, software and sound module) to play his fully notated scores in real time, voicing each work with sound samples of acoustic instruments from world music cultures, and using Indian tunings.
Michael accompanies his meruvina with improvised visuals. He plays an elaborate color synthesizer projected from a computer onto a large screen to produce what India West described as "an innovative and vibrant symbiosis of music and image."
Robinson's improvisations are abstract and meditative in nature, with subtle and dynamic elements reflecting a fascination with modern and Asian art forms. This results in a new interpretation of the ancient Indian tradition of ragamalas (paintings of ragas) in real time.
The composer's music exploits the expressive and technical capabilities of pure computer-performed music. He believes the musical potential and beauty of computers and digital/electronic instruments may be realized by allowing them to perform entirely on their own, reflecting anahata nada (unstruck sound).
The spatial placement of sounds in Robinson's compositions are improvised by a computer and sound module in real time, and the pitches, rhythms, timbres, dynamics and articulations are programmed by the composer from his fully notated scores.
Robinson has given music/visual performances at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and Borders Westwood, and a three-day music/visual installation at the Indian Film of Los Angeles. He has also performed over sixty solo music concerts in New York City, Los Angeles and Hawaii.
Michael has been interviewed numerous times on NPR, Pacifica and college radio programs, and has lectured on Indian classical music at UCLA, and computer/electronic music at California State University at Dominguez Hills.
He is currently available for performances, installations and seminars.
Cultural, educational, corporate and individual presenters and patrons are welcome to email for more information.