Avant Music News

From NY’s Roulette:

Tenko
Thu Feb 11 – 8:30 PM
Tenko kicked off her career in music with female rock group Mizutama Shobodan in 1979. Two years later in New York she got captivated by improvised music and back in Japan started performing in a vocal duo The Honeymoons. In 1984 in New York, Tenko made her debut as a soloist and before long started working with New Yorkers Fred Frith, John Zorn, Christian Marclay and David Moss. She also performed and recorded with Art Lindsay, Wayne Horvitz, as well as Japanese Otomo Yoshihide, Tatsuya Yoshida, Ikue Mori duo and Wni-Gohan female improvisers group. Since 1985, Tenko has collaborated with various musicians in festivals in the USA, Europe and Asia. Tonight marks a rare opportunity to hear Tenko in the US.

David Linton: Bicameral Research Sound & Projection System with David First & Satoshi Takeishi : 60 Hz Raga
Sat Feb 13 – 8:30 PM
Originally a percussionist David Linton has created sound for many collaborative dance, theater, & performance settings since his arrival in downtown NY in the early 1980′s. By the later 80′s he was equally known for his live wired solo electro-acoustic drumkit performances as well as his soundscore productions. His 1986 solo LP ‘Orchesography’ (on Glen Branca’s Neutral Label) was an influential collusion of ‘early’ sampling tek with street beats and theatrical post modernism. Throughout the 90′s Linton became a dedicated advocate for the expansion and appreciation of realtime performance in electronic media through the design and/or production of event / environments. Since 2002 Linton’s fascination with instantaneous collaborative audio visual communication among select units of electronic musicians and visualists has assumed the form of a live television Manhattan cable/webcast project – UGTV – Unitygain Television.

John Lindberg’s TriPolar
Mon Feb 15 – 8:30 PM
Tripolar is the new ensemble of bassist/composer/producer John Lindberg, featuring multi-reed instrumentalist Don Davis – renowned for his formidable work with the Microscopic Septet and a wide array of other associations ranging from the Swollen Monkeys to Levon Helm, and master percussionist Kevin Norton doubling on drums and vibraphone – well-known for his numerous albums as a leader in his own right, and for his work with artists as diverse as Anthony Braxton, Milt Hinton and Tony Malaby. John Lindberg has recorded over fifty albums and has been an active member of the String Trio of New York for 32 years, as well as working with artists such as Jimmy Lyons, Wadada Leo Smith, Tony Coe, Steve Lacy, Albert Mangelsdorff and many others.

Ma La Pert: Jennifer Walshe & Tony Conrad
Fri Feb 19 – 8:30 PM
Ma la Pert is the duo of Jennifer Walshe and Tony Conrad. They use voice, violins, viola, bass, autoharps, autotune, keyboard, shells, broken plastic, words, parts of words, stories, chanting, jigs, screaming, shouting, broken drum skins, bells, green furry outfits, breastplates, wire, bird call, and old lady dresses. Walshe and Conrad first began working together after they ran from service as household slaves of King Pepy I at the end of Old Kingdom Egypt. They were subsequently monks in Carolingean Gaul during the period roughly 820 to 850, Venetian courtesans at Pope Eugene’s court during the mid 15th century, and prisoners on Reunion Island in 1738, where Walshe tried to secure Conrad’s escape using “remote viewing” techniques. The unfortunate outcome of the latter incident resulted in Conrad’s work as a medicine man in Australia in the 19th century, where in 1834, trying to quell a cattle riot, they both accidentally ingested leprosy vectors and subsequently lost three legs and two arms between them.

PFL Traject
Sat Feb 20 – 8:30 PM
PFL Traject is the improvisational trio of Pascal Pariaud, clarinets and pipes, Jean-Charles François, percussion, and Gilles Laval, electric guitar, from Lyon, France. The members of the group all went through very different journeys : Pascal Pariaud is a clarinetist specializing in new music performance and early music, a choral conductor and teacher; Jean-Charles François is a composer and percussionist who was professor at UC San Diego and founding member of the improvisation group KIVA; coming from the world of Hardcore and the alternative scene, Gilles Laval has been involved with many unlikelies, like Chef Menteur, Impur with Fred Frith, and La Douzaine., he is also the head of the popular music department at the Villeurbanne National Music School. Each improvisation of PFL Traject is a voyage in the already constituted memory, a promenade in the garden of delights. PFL Traject invites the audience to travel, to stroll, to ramble, to put oneself into orbit, to fly off at a tangent, to make the tour of a world that is well-defined in its individual windings, but is infinite in its collective combinations.

INTERPRETATIONS: Thomas Buckner premieres new works by Earl Howard, Matthias Kaul, Eckart Beinke and Bun Ching Lam
Thu Feb 25 – 8:00 PM
Buckner presents an evening of new works, including Earl Howard’s Frond, for baritone, violin, bass saxophone, and live electrtonics, Bun Ching Lam’s Trois Cadeaux, for baritone, harp, and piano, and Matthias Kaul’s Zappa-esque The Mellow Quark. With French harpist Isabelle Courret, the German ensemble L’Art Pour L’Art, Mari Kimura (violin), JD Parran (bass saxophone), and Earl Howard (saxophone, live electronics and processing).
William Parker, Conrad Bauer & Hamid Drake

Fri Feb 26 – 8:30 PM
Master musician, improviser, and composer William Parker teams up with one of Europe’s finest free jazz trombonists – Conrad Bauer, and virtuosic percussionist Hamid Drake for an evening of off the wall free improv. With a collective resume including collaborations with such names as Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Anthony Braxton, Peter Brotzmann, Cecil Taylor, and Butch Morris – this All-Star trio is NOT to be missed!

Childrens Concert with WOLLESONIC
Sat Feb 27 – 2:00 PM
Wollesonic returns to Roulette for a very special kids workshop/concert where YOU the audience can be a part of the show! Kenny Wollesen and members of Wollesonic will distribute instruments designed and made by Wollesonic Laboratories (balloon bassoons, chika chikas, and scrap wood marimbas) to all participants, then give a brief tutorial on sound making, performance styles, and improvisation techniques….then, freshly armed with our sound devices we will all embark on a sonic exploration where we will attempt to discover never before heard sounds, get a feel for what its like to be “in the lights”, perform our newly learned improvisations and have a great time! Plus you can take your instrument home! join Wollesonic for a one of a kind soniferous situation! All kids welcome!

Steve Swell
Sat Feb 27 – 8:30 PM
“One of the most adventurous and prolific members of the New York free-jazz community” according to Ed Hazell of Signal To Noise, Steve Swell’s reputation, work ethic and committment to excellence has kept him in the forefront of improvised music and a leading voice on his instrument for more than 20 years. Tonights concert will feature a relatively new ensemble with some of improvised music’s finest contributors: Rob Brown, alto; Chris Forbes, piano; Hilliard “Hill” Greene, bass; Michael T.A. Thompson, drums, percussion. It will feature Swell’s writing along with his unique, on the spot direction of incorporating this group’s rich improvisation abilities along with his compositions. An extra element of improvisation that determines the direction of the music.

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