the hub
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the hub is a computer network band that originated in the eighties. six individual composer/performers - chris brown, scot gresham lancaster, john bischoff, tim perkis, mark trayle, and phil stone - connected separate computer-controlled music synthesizers into a network. the ensemble explored a new genre called 'computer network music'. the members of the hub electronically coordinated the activity of their individual systems through a central microcomputer, "the hub" itself, as well as manually through ears, eyes, and hands. the hub sought surprise through the lively and unpredictable responses of their systems, and instead of trying to eliminate the imperfect human performer, used the electronic tools available to enhance the social aspect of music making.


mark trayle about the hub:

almost from the inception of the hub, we've lived with an artistic and social identity crisis. are we a band, or are we some kind of loose collaboration of like-minded individuals? should the core of our practice be about
the very idea of the network and it's socio-musical ramifications , or is it finally about music?

almost twenty years on, we're finally learning that we don't need to mandate an 'official hub aesthetic' and instead we can relax with the ambiguity of the situation. we all agree that the result of performing in an interconnected fashion should be musically interesting for each of us. hence, the latest tack we're taking is to improvise using streams of data from other players to influence what we do. it's a return to an earlier network music practice, that of the league of automatic music composers and the earliest hub instantiations.

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