In Europe, the so called classical or serious music is always seen as a very detached musical style, high above other musics, including jazz. How this division looks from New York perspective?

I've always felt that music is music - some i like, some not - it has little to do with category (i hate genre classifications!) and more often depends on context and personal focus at any given time

What exactly is the inspiration unique to NYC and not found anywhere else?

NYC teems with loose, fast, data - everywhere, 24 hours a day

In music, do you still learn new things and explore new ways?

Always!

What new did you discover in past 2 years?

I wouldn't want to reduce it to a list - ears & brain always try to stay open - it's just as every time I walk out of my house in NY i see something new -architectural, sociological, biological

What is the difference between musician's life in New York and Prague?

couldn't say having not lived the latter

In your very diverse musical projects, is there any inspiration that comes from non Western musical cultures?

back to my first "feelings" of music, i've found great inspiration in non-western musics: attitudes of approach, timbres, techniques, methods of organization

What do you consider as the most important part of your musical education?

firstly, learning to hear (i.e the inner hearing, the inner music), then, the actual making of music: the praxis

On the other hand, do you have any disciples or students?

I have occasional students but if anyone tried to present themselves as a disciple, i would do my best to discourage it!

Why did you decide to work with Agon? Was it that simply you wanted to have a contact in Prague, or was there something special about the band?

I liked the sound (instrumentation, organization) of Agon(when i heard them at Victoriaville festival and thought a collaboration would be great. i first came to prague in 1983 and have always felt a special resonance with my friends there and with the city itself- it's cultural history, it's architecture as well as the inspirational struggles of the Plastic People.

You list Mingus and Coltrane as your influences. Was Frank Zappa also an inspiration?

Zappa was an influence politically and culturally - i enjoyed some of his early records but more as entertainment - they didnt move me as deeply as Captain Beefheart or Jimi Hendrix. his list of references on the sleeve of Freak Out was very important!

You told me about education, that the most important is learning to hear (i.e the inner hearing, the inner music), then, the actual making of music: the praxis. Could you explain this in detail? Is this something you would learn at conservatory or more likely from a spiritual master, by meditation or psychedelic experience?

all possibilities! everyone finds a different way - i'm happy that i was at university (studying at different times with Morton Feldman, Roswell Rudd, Lejaren Hiller, Charles Keil) but mostly because of the contact with other people and exchange of ideas, not the "handing down" of knowledge. i never "fit" with society or other people's plans for me or the normal way of doing things - i felt this at a very early age so i think i had to find my way quickly (though i sometimes got lost!)

In the 60's, both musicians and audience was ready to experiment. Do you feel today's audience is more lazy, conservative, fed up with to much information available too easily?

these are very bad times for creativity! yes, too much info but also this "millenium" disease - everyone looks back instead of forward - they're afraid! also,the big corporations control everything - the ways of disseminating info - internet has potential for getting things out there but in terms of artists surviving, the economic reality is grim - a mirror of society at large - we see a new feudal system developing - the middle class is destroyed, now mostly serfs working to achieve consumer dreams, not thinking about other things. the new corporate lords (very few!) control most of the wealth and parcel it out to the favored while keeping audiences dulled and stupid. "culture" is narrow and upholds the prevailing values - some "avant garde" art is allowed - usually safe, cute kitsch that does not change anyone's chemicals but only allows them to feel smug & hip.

Why the title Coriolis Efect?

Within the study of violent storms, the "Coriolis effect" may be regarded as a "fictitious" force of nature, a construct to help visualize how the earth's rotation will cause air flow to be deflected in increasing amounts, from zero at the equator to maximum at the poles. It is not a physical force in the way that pressure or wind velocity so much as it is a "mathematical force," but one with very real manifestations in its governance of hurricanes and cyclones. In CORIOLIS EFFECT, as the musicians travel from their own "equator" following simple algorithms to manipulate the given musical materials, the music finds itself blown, deflected, magnified, distorted, and transfigured into various disturbances.
CORIOLIS EFFECT was composed for the Berlin ensemble Zeitkratzer and premiered by them in January of 1996. It remains a malleable work, tailored for its various performances. Versions of it have been performed by the Canadian ensemble Hemispheres and by a 17-piece group assembled for a "Portrait" of the composer in Wien, January 1998.

What kind of instruments are you ging to play in Prague?

i will have a guitar,soprano sax, some electronics, & my powerbook

You mentioned that you explored the Fibonacci series after eating psylocibin mushrooms. Do you often use psychedelic substances while composing? Or to perform?

psychedelics are never a regular practice for me (& never in performance these days - in the late 60's and early 70's though....)- they have played important catalytic functions at different times.

You played in Bachir Attar in New York. Did you consider playing with him in Morocco?

we've discussed the possibility - i absolutely would like to!

Even now, do you still listen to rock? Your favourite band?

I listen to everything though i don't hear too much new rock. i like PJ Harvey very much & will always check out new things from Pere Ubu (longtime friends). rock is generally much too conservative for my tastes though.