‘Live is Dead?'

Here we offer some considerations on performing practice with live electronics, in a deliberately ‘open’ format in which the discussion can be rather erratic. Actually, this is a theoretical ‘reflection in progress’ that requires a fundamental premise and has some inevitable limitations. One of the limitations lies in the decision to focus above all on European art music produced since the early 1980s, determining both the examples and the treatment. ¹ The premise derives from the realization that for many of the producers and/or sound engineers I have consulted during the research, and indeed for a number of composers, live electronics simply no longer exists (hence the provocation implicit in the title). Many performers, ² whether on the basis of their practical experience or for aesthetical or poetical reasons, now call into question a category which – with the new technologies and means for synthesizing and processing sound – has taken on new practical and conceptual meanings and which can now be analysed in a historical and theoretical perspective.