Some I Know, Some I Don't

100487 original

Summerhall's Dissection Room is an appropriately sinister temporary home for the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra. This space in the former veterinary school turned arts centre undoubtedly feels eerie 365 days a year, but their free-jazz improvisations (and Too Many VJ's disorienting live visuals) certainly heighten the illusion that we're part of a collective abandoning of mental faculties.

Tonight, they perform American composer/producer Jim O'Rourke's aleatoric piece Some I Know, Some I Don't – a loosely structured, semi-indeterminate, semi-improvised piece in which the musicians obey a bizarre series of instructions on Lilo and Stitch playing cards. It's the sort of oblique, beard-scratching compositional practice that harks back to American experimental pioneer John Cage and neo-Dadaist ‘Happenings’ – no sound is unmusical. The double-bassist whacks and scratches her instrument, while the percussionist smacks his lips, and the sounds they make are as valid a part of the performance as the more conventional trumpet and piano solos. Who knows what the cards said to inspire all of this, but given that one musician empties a bottle of water over his musical comrades, and another makes a loud phone call, it's fair to say the scope for interpretation is pretty broad. 

The Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra are more than just Fringe performers – they're the sort of oddball collective that reside on the fringes of the Fringe. Meta-fringe, if you will. But while their appeal might be limited, the effect is universal. The audial and visual stimuli complement the creepy performance space perfectly, and the whole event feels like one nightmarish cascade into dementia.