From Scratch are a New Zealand experimental music / performance group, best known for their large sculptural invented instruments (primarily percussion), original music and hocket-style rhythmic innovation. They have performed since 1974 with an ever-changing lineup, though principally led by Philip Dadson.
History 1970s From Scratch was formed in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1974 by Philip Dadson, along with other founding members Bruce Barber, Gray Nichol and Geoff Chapple.Clifford, Andrew, "Five Rhythm Works", CD liner notes, EM Records, 2016 The group emerged from the NZ Scratch Orchestra (formed in 1970, also by Dadson, as an offshoot of Cornelius Cardew's original London-based Scratch Orchestra). The new From Scratch group sought to explore a more structured and rhythm-based approach than was possible with the Scratch Orchestra, whose large-scale, largely improvised performances had "often degenerated into therapeutic free-for-alls".Shieff, Sarah and Curnow, Wystan, "From Scratch: 273 Moons, A History, the Music and an Interview", New Zealand Magazine, Auckland, New Zealand, Spring 1995
From Scratch's first performance was part of the Wellington Sonic Circus (1974), a mini-festival of new music, sound and art organised by Jack Body. They performed from a series of works titled "VOM" (Variable Occasion Music"), a manifesto providing "a flexible framework for rhythm, procedure and instrumentation, the variables for which are suggested by influences from the context or occasion in which the music is to be played".From Scratch, "From Scratch: 10 Years '69 – '79", New Directions in New Zealand Music: A Festival of New Zealand Music and Sound Installations by New Zealand Composers, 18 October – 19 November 1979, National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand
The VOM works laid the groundwork for subsequent 1970s From Scratch rhythm-based compositions, including "Out-In" (1976), "Drumwheel" (1977) and "Triad #1" (1978), which was scored for two pianos, one played via a long rosined line attached to its interior.Clifford, Andrew and Dadson, Philip, "Triad #1 – Drum/Sing – Fax to Paris", CD liner notes, EM Records, 2018 This produced harmonically rich continuous drone textures, which were also to become a feature of From Scratch performances.
By 1978 the group had also begun to perform using initial versions of the racks of long, horizontally mounted end-struck plastic pipes which would become their trademark instrument. Multiple sets of these "plosive aerophones"Dadson, Philip and Hopkin, Bart, "Slap Tubes and Other Plosive Aerophones", audio CD and book, 64 pp., Experimental Musical Instruments, 2007 were typically used, struck with rubber paddles. They were inspired partly by seeing a Solomon Islands group performing with bamboo tube instruments at the 1976 South Pacific Festival of the Arts in Rotorua. The From Scratch versions were constructed from PVC drain pipe, beginning the group's association with sculptural instruments invented from industrial materials.
Towards the end of the 1970s the group had begun to perform internationally, presenting works at the Third Biennale of Sydney, Australia in 1979.
1980–1986 By the beginning of the 1980s Bruce Barber and Gray Nichol had left the group, to be replaced by Don McGlashan and Wayne Laird. This incarnation of From Scratch developed and performed some of the group's most iconic works, all featuring the PVC pipe instruments, but supplemented with racks of other instruments to form one-person "percussion stations" with a range of sound sources. These included rototom drums, metal chimes, tuned-tongue bamboos and aluminium gongs.
Gung Ho 1,2,3D Their first major work of this period was "Gung Ho 1,2,3D" (1980), named after the slogan of the workers' co-operative movement established in China by New Zealander Rewi Alley (who was the subject of a book by From Scratch member Geoff Chapple). This slogan, meaning "work together", summarised From Scratch's commitment to egalitarian principles in music-making, expressed in an equal sharing of musical roles. Musically the piece explores a series of seven slowly evolving three-part polyrhythms, the first combining time signatures of length 3, 4, 5, the second 4, 5, 6, and so on up to 9, 10, 11 (with the fourth player taking on a drone role).Dadson, "8,9,10 and 9,10,11 from Gung Ho 1,2,3D", CD liner notes, EM Records, 2017 This kind of polyrhythmic exploration had also featured in earlier works such as "Out In" and "Drumwheel", and would continue to be present in most later works by the group.
From Scratch previewed excerpts from "Gung Ho 1,2,3D" at the South Pacific Festival of the Arts in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea in June 1980. According to Dadson, "It was just the most magical context to be in, because there were like fifty groups from all the outlying provinces of PNG that came into Port Moresby for the festival... we cart out our PVC pipes, do a quick setup, flail into something out of Gung Ho. And this is in the absolute heat of the noonday sun, broad brimmed hats on. It was so hot that all the pipes changed pitch, while the drums went flaccid. It went down okay with the locals. They just thought we were hilarious".
The visual interest of their performances began to attract the attention of film-makers, and "Gung Ho 1,2,3D" was filmed for New Zealand television in 1981. The entire work was also later pressed for a Flying Nun LP in 1988, but this was never released because the covers were damaged during production.
Pacific 3,2,1,Zero (Part 1) In October 1982 From Scratch made its first trip to the Northern hemisphere, to perform "Gung Ho 1,2,3D" at the twelfth Paris Biennale. Here they also took the opportunity to present a new work, "Pacific 3,2,1,Zero", written as a protest against French nuclear weapons testing and waste dumping in the Pacific. Names of Pacific islands contaminated by nuclear tests are sung and shouted during the piece, which ends with an urgent polyrhythmic PVC pipe section, followed by the solemn tolling of aluminium bell-poles.
The group also performed "Pacific 3,2,1,Zero" outdoors in the Pompidou Centre plaza to bring their music and message to a wider audience. A large crowd gathered, unexpectedly prompting a French fire-eater, on whose turf the group had unwittingly trespassed, to wade in amongst the performers and threaten to incinerate them, together with their PVC pipes. On completing the piece they were able to negotiate a truce and alternated their act with that of the fire-eater from then on.From Scratch, "Pacific 3,2,1,Zero / Eye-Drum", CD liner notes, Kiwi Pacific Music, 1994
From Scratch later collaborated with film-maker Gregor Nicholas on a short film of "Pacific 3,2,1,Zero", which won the Grand Prix and first prize in its category at the 1994 Cannes/Midem Visual Music Awards.
Pacific 3,2,1,Zero (Part 2) Returning to New Zealand after the 1982 French tour, Dadson began work on a follow-up piece to "Pacific 3,2,1,Zero", less of a protest and more an expression of hope, "dedicated to the emerging force of solidarity among the peoples of the Pacific".From Scratch, "Pacific 3,2,1,Zero Parts 1 & 2", CD liner notes, Atoll CD Ltd, 1986 The piece is scored for an expanded twelve-person ensemble (six men and six women) including percussion, male and female vocals, saxophones and trombones. It was intended to follow directly after Part 1. The first performance of the complete work was not until 1986, at Auckland Girls' Grammar school, Shed 11 in Wellington and the sixth Sydney Biennale.
Drum/Sing "Drum/Sing" (1984) was conceived as a collaboration between From Scratch (now a trio after the departure of Geoff Chapple) and film-maker Gregor Nicholas. The resulting 22-minute film screened on New Zealand television in 1985 and was also presented as a short film before screenings of a popular locally made feature film, The Quiet Earth, in New Zealand cinemas – "much to the surprise of audiences who had not expected an art-music film to precede their entertainment". However, the film went on to win a Blue Ribbon Award in the Film as Art category at the New York Film Festival, as well as Best Short Film at the New Zealand GOFTA Awards.
"Drum/Sing" was the first From Scratch piece to explore the use of sung vocals in combination with the percussion stations. It is structured in linked modules, and for live performances was extended with an extra vocal section. The piece uses hocketing to share rhythmic / melodic lines between the performers, a technique which would be further developed in later From Scratch compositions.
1988–1994 Between 1986 and 1988 From Scratch went into temporary recess, following the departure of both Don McGlashan and Wayne Laird. Walter Muller joined in 1988, and he and Dadson performed a piece called "Rhythmwheel" as a duo at the World Drum Festival in Brisbane. At the 1989 inaugural Sound/Watch Festival in Auckland, they performed "Songs for Unsung Heroes", an early version of "Songs for Heroes".
The following year From Scratch regrouped with new members Neville Hall (a saxophonist) and James McCarthy (a student of Dadson's at the University of Auckland Elam School of Fine Arts). New instrumentation was developed, including parade bass drums with short racks of small-diameter PVC pipes attached, "Tone-trees" (tree-like assemblages of percussion sound sources), and "Zitherums", long string instruments with polystyrene resonators, played percussively with sticks or slides, or bowed as drones.
Carhorn Hocket "Carhorn Hocket" involves multiple car-horns (with cars still attached), and features door-slamming and engine revving, as well as horns. "Carhorn Hocket" was first performed with four cars on 6 February 1991 as part of a double-album launch party at Artspace in Auckland, celebrating the release of the From Scratch album "Songs for Heroes" and the Gitbox Rebellion album "Pesky Digits". Expanded to eight cars, it was performed as "Carhorn Hocket 2" in 1994 in Civic Square, Wellington as part of ExtravaCANZa, which was the 20th birthday of the Composers Association of NZ – on this occasion, performers included Gary Wilby, Mark Langford, Harry van Enckevort and Judith Exley. It was performed again (in the Auckland University quad and the Titirangi War Memorial Hall carpark) for the 273 Moons concerts in 1995 and in Jakarta in 1997 for the International Percussion Festival. It was later revived for the 2018 survey exhibition "555 Moons".
Songs for Heroes One of the first works performed by the revitalised group was "Songs for Heroes" (1990), a tribute to "spiritual sages of all times and ages". Besides the newly developed instruments, soprano saxophone and pianohorns, the piece also makes use of vocal harmonics in its closing drone section.
Fax To Paris "Fax To Paris" (1990) was a short piece protesting continued French nuclear testing in the Pacific, featuring shouted vocals, hand-clapping and tone-trees. Like "Songs for Heroes", it uses hocketed vocals using the syllables "ha" and "hey" which would become part of the group's trademark sound.
Eye/Drum The 1992 piece "Eye/Drum" marked a departure from previous From Scratch works, being their first large-scale piece not to feature the classic large end-struck PVC-pipe instruments. These had been replaced by "Eye-drum" stations, made from shorter lengths of PVC pipe with hard plastic membranes at the playing end and playable with mallets. Other new instruments included hand-held found objects such as "Fingerpots" (small gourds played with hard thimbles attached to the fingers, featured also in the piece "Fingerpot Rag") and "Song-stones" (pairs of selected resonant stones).
The From Scratch Rhythm Workbook