One-man band

This website presents practice-based research related to solo simultaneous instrumental performance ('one-man band'). The site was conceived as a creative and widely accessible platform for music and ideas resulting from one-man band activates carried out between 2008 and 2013.

Central to this project is an interest in how one-man band technique informs compositional process, including studio production. Through presentation and analysis of the author’s own creative practice, the site explores how factors related to one-man band such as limb coordination and instrument modification influence a musical result that is unique to this mode of musicianship. Examples of the author’s work (performance and composition) are examined to show how one-man band practice, like overdub-based recording, facilitates a unique synchronization of expressive nuances across multiple instrumental sounds, thus reinforcing the perception of these features as integrated aspects of a composition. The web content also considers the potential of one-man band in an ensemble context, and as a form of live accompaniment for silent film.

The online dissemination of this work represents an additional research interest of the project. The employment of a webpage for the presentation of this content investigates how this dynamic format might be exploited as an effective means of analyzing and sharing creative, practice-based research. Employing a wide variety of resources (demonstration performances, recital-talk, concert, and practice-led research text) both facilitates a thorough documentation the multi-faceted research activity, and diversifies the way in which audiences, both academic and non-academic, might engage with it. To this end, the publication of the project as part of the artists’ webpage (www.robertstillman.com) seeks to position the content in the context of the artist’s other creative work, readily accessible to those worldwide who link to the page from online journals and research databases, reviews, blogs, label websites, and social media.