City Research Online

Abstract

This article explores a meeting of ‘embodied technique’ (Spatz) and ‘material agency’ (Pickering) in experimental music performance, where two musicians (Benjamin and Kanga) are materially entangled with each other through a single sounding instrument-system; a ‘performance ecosystem (Waters). We discuss McLaughlin's piece we are environments for each other [trio] (2024) which was developed through a collaborative process of practice research around a feedback-system that centres the ‘material indeterminacy’ (McLaughlin) inherent in performing with musical instruments: the feedback-system entangles the musicians’ soundmaking such that specific individual's influence on the sound is largely unknowable, and performance becomes highly contingent. We ask how such contingency affords a coalitional technique in performance that moves beyond simply collaborating or the usual dynamics of musical ensembles. Specifically, we argue that coalition – an underused term in music performance discourse – is a productive description for intersubjective negotiation in performance, highlighted in this context of entangled human and non-human agencies. Equally, the concept of coalition in the political context of responsive improvisation acts for to reformulate the control/freedom binary. The coalitional formation of technique in a live performance is discussed through three ‘phenomenotechnical’ (Spatz, after Rheinberger/Bachelard) articulations that highlight the epistemic practice of performance.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Subjects:	M Music and Books on Music > M Music
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity School of Communication & Creativity > Department of Performing Arts
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

Export

Downloads