Background
Music/sound performance, rhythmic invention and experimental instruments
have been a feature of FROM SCRATCH since the 1972 manifesto VOM.
This was the original probe-and-hatch plan devised by Phil Dadson
for the Auckland Scratch group as an alternative to the mainly improvised
activities of SCRATCH ORCHESTRA (NZ)- an off-shoot of Cornelius
Cardew’s foundation group for a scratch orchestra which he
was involved with in London during the late 60s.
The rhythm stress implicit to VOM prompted a drift from large scale
pieces to smaller scale tightly-structured rhythm works and to the
formation of the first FROM SCRATCH group in 1974.
The politics of FROM SCRATCH are reinforced by it's Pacific context.
Egalitarian and co-operative ideals are embodied in the music and
the performance with players sharing equal and similar roles.
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