John Edwards: Not Knowing What Comes Next Is a Luxury in Improvisation

British double bassist John Edwards is regarded as one of the most prominent free improvisation musicians in Europe. LSM Kultūra has published a conversation with him about music whose course is not known in advance and which, as the article's headline suggests, can even provoke a fight.

Uncertainty as a value

Edwards stresses that the chance of not knowing how things will turn out is, in his view, a luxury. In everyday life most people try to anticipate the next step and plan events. In improvisation the situation is the opposite: uncertainty itself becomes the greatest value.

The driving force of the creative process

Several circumstances drive the musician's creative process. The first is meeting an unfamiliar musician with whom there has been no shared experience. The second is the audience's reaction, which cannot be predicted. The third is music that arises only in a specific moment and exists in no other way.

In the interview, Edwards explains why this approach matters to him and what it means for a musician who goes on stage without knowing what the result will be.