From Important Records:
VARIOUS ARTISTS – IMPREC300: 10 YEARS, 300 RECORDS
ELIANE RADIGUE – TRANSAMOREM – TRANSMORTEM
ASVA – PRESENCES OF ABSENCES
JOZEF VAN WISSEM – THE JOY THAT NEVER ENDS
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE & THE MELTING PARAISO UFO – LIVE AS TROUBADOR
BARN OWL & THE INFINITE STRINGS ENSEMBLE – HEADLANDS
CHRISTINA KUBISCH – MAGNETIC FLIGHTS
CHRISTINA KUBISCH – MONO FLUIDO
The Substrata Festival is a three-day sound & visual art event held in Seattle, WA, scheduled for July 15 thru July 17, 2011. Substrata seeks to explore varying perspectives of scale though the use of sound, composition and visuals – an international showcase featuring accomplished artists working in the cutting edge where structural abstraction meets physical dynamics.
Artists include:
BIOSPHERE
Biosphere is the main recording name of Geir Jenssen, a Norwegian musician who has released a considerable catalogue of ambient electronic music, most notably on prestigious UK label Touch. Jenssen has scored a number of films, including Eternal Stars (1993) and Insomnia (1997). Jenssen is also an active climber and mountaineer. His highest feat was in 2001, the Cho Oyu (Himalaya, 8201 meters) sans oxygen. This hobby can be an inspiration on his work, as well as a source of natural sound samples.OREN AMBARCHI
Australia’s Oren Ambarchi is an electronic guitarist and percussionist with longstanding interests in transcending conventional instrumental approaches. His work focuses mainly on the exploration of the guitar, “re-routing the instrument into a zone of alien abstraction where it’s no longer easily identifiable as itself. Instead, it’s a laboratory for extended sonic investigation”. (The Wire, UK). Ambarchi’s recorded work is published in over half a dozen labels around the world, most notably on Touch, Southern Lord, and Häpna.ELUVIUM
Eluvium is a freakishly beautiful affair – it’s the ambient moniker of one Matthew Cooper, an American composer and musician living in Portland, OR. Cooper’s musical output includes “evocative ambient guitar work and features liberal use of loop/hold pedals to create lush/abstract guitar textures,“ which as described by All Music Guide, exist “cautiously on the lines of pure ambient and textural noise experiments” His more recent works include placid compositions for piano and strings. Cooper’s work is featured in numerous films, including Matt McCormick’s feature film debut “Some Days Are Better Than Others.”NILS FRAHM
Germany’s Nils Frahm had an early introduction to music. During his childhood he was taught to play piano by Nahum Brodski – a student of the last scholar of Tschaikowski. Throught this musical upbringing Nils began to immerse himself in the styles of the classical pianists before him as well as contemporary composers. Today, Nils Frahm works as a composer and producer in Berlin, where he founded Durton Studio, and records for Erased Tapes and Sonic Pieces labels.BENOÎT PIOULARD
Thomas Meluch is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, writer, and photographer, best known by his pseudonym Benoît Pioulard. Fascinated by natural sounds and the textures of decay, he began playing piano before his feet could reach the pedals, and for more than a decade has sought to create a unique sonic environment by combining remnants of pop song structures with the lushness and unpredictability of field recordings. Thomas continuous musical output has been documented for over half a deacade by Chicago’s famed Kranky records.MARCUS FISCHER
Marcus Fischer is a multimedia artist and musician currently living in Portland, Oregon. The exploration of sight and sound has been a continual focus for Marcus, both in his personal work and in his repeated role as co-curator of vision+hearing, a series of audio/visual events with the goal of bringing musicians and filmmakers together for collaborative performances. He has also had the opportunity to score various short films and videos and enjoys experimenting with unconventional sound sources to create music. His latest work was released by renowed 12k label and currently Marcus is working on a collaborative album with label curator Taylor Deupree.CRYS COLE
Crys Cole is based out of Winnipeg, MB and has worked and performed extensively as a solo artist and in free improvisation settings across Canada, NYC, Germany, France, Italy and Belgium. She works predominantly with contact microphones, minimal signal processing and no-input mixing board. Her approach to sound emphasizes subtlety and discretion, guided by a fascination with microsonics that test the limits of audibility and intentionality.I3O
Rafael Anton Irisarri is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, curator, producer and mixed media artist. He is predominantly associated with post-minimalist, drone and ambient music and has been exploring textural electronics for over half a decade. I3O is his live trio ensemble, alongside pianist Kelly Wyse and veteran drone/metal drummer Phil Petrocelli.
Cover of Marilyn Crispell
Gerry Hemingway writes about recording a CD for Tzadik records of Anthony Braxton‘s music with Marilyn Crispell and Mark Dresser.
The Mizzou New Music Summer Festival takes place this week, featuring performances by Alarm Will Sound, and works of Mario Davidovsky and Roger Reynolds.
Against it Records has a new release out by Ralf Rabendorn.
Matthew Shipp is featured in the Denver Post
Image by dalvinyard via Flickr
From Austinist:
The improvised music world at large hasn’t really caught on to Terrence McManus, a New York-based guitarist who builds and modifies his instruments to help create a muted field of sounds and non-gestural phrases, both roiling and understated. Though the guitar is often thought of in a principally soloistic role, McManus’ philosophy tends toward emphasizing ensemble and collective orchestration – his master classes spotlight concepts of interactive, free/open, and ensembles within ensemble playing.
McManus has worked with a core group of Downtown NYC heavies – drummer Gerry Hemingway, bassist Mark Helias, saxophonists Tim Berne and Ellery Eskelin, and trumpeters Herb Robertson and Dave Ballou. That being said, he did not record much until the last year or so; following discs with the Twin Cities rhythm team of bassist Adam Linz and drummer J.T. Bates, 2010 saw McManus stepping out in duo with Hemingway, in a power trio with Hemingway and Helias, and a solo EP, all of which are worth investigating.
Image by tictocman via Flickr
From Chicago’s Umbrella Music:
Jul 13
SET I: Nate McBride
SET II: Bishop/Falzone/Parker/Lash/Daisy
The HideoutJul 17
Paul Hartsaw Quintet
Hungry BrainJul 24
SET I: Anton Hatwich Trio
SET II: Christoph Erb Quintet
Hungry BrainJul 27
Starlicker
The HideoutJul 28
SET I: Beatty/Poretti Duo
SET II: Erb/Baker/Lonberg-Holm
ElasticAug 04
Riordan/Rosaly Duo
ElasticAug 11
Rempis/Rosaly Duo
ElasticAug 14
Josh Berman and his Gang
Hungry Brain
Image by volume12 via Flickr
From Tzadik:
John Zorn – Enigmata
Klezmerson – Siete
Pet Bottle Ningen – Pet Bottle Ningen
From All About Jazz:
Francois Carrier Trio + 1
Entrance 3 (Ayler Records)Rich Halley Quartet
Requiem For A Viper (Pine Eagle Records)Matt Lavelle
Goodbye New York, Hello World (Music Now)
Reviewed by Florence Wetzel
From output:noise:
For our 2nd, official, event in Syracuse we are bringing in two very multi-dimensional, boundary forging artists; Work/Death, hailing from Providence, RI and Baltimore resident Elijah Forest (also known as Lolly Gesserit and formerly known as Terrors.) Of his sound, the man behind Work/Death enunciates his intention to “connect the dots along the path of music concrete, electro-acoustic improv, harsh noise and the pop song” through a sonic palette ranging from “crumbling distortion and dense synth textures to delicate melodies and empty field recordings.”
Traveling with Work/Death on a tour that began last month at the Ende Tymes Festival in NYC is Lolly Gesserit, the most current endeavour from the prolific Elijah Forest. Here, Forest implements tape collage, industrial/dub overtones and occasional crooning to invoke a “warm grim meditative blur.”
Output:Noise contributors Craig Marlowe (Rochester) and Jeremy Dziedzic (Syracuse) open the evening as The Table.
Work/Death, Lolly Gesserit and The Table will perform at The Badlands (1007 E. Fayette St.) in Syracuse, NY on Sunday, July 24th.
From Monsieur Délire:
ARTISTES VARIÉS-VARIOUS ARTISTS / SM 4 (Spezialmaterial – merci à/thanks to Dense Promotion)
MACHINIST / Of What Once Was (Moving Furniture Records – merci à/thanks to Dense Promotion)
SPLICE / Lab (Loop Records – merci à/thanks to Dense Promotion)
DIKOLSON / The Bear is Sleeping Now (Minority Records – merci à/thanks to Dense Promotion)
YANNICK DAUBY / Listen to the Atayal in Taoshan (Kalerne)
REINHOLD FRIEDL / Inside Piano (Zeitkratzer Records – merci à/thanks to Dense Promotion)
MAX GOLDT / L’Église des crocodiles (Gagarin Records – merci à/thanks to Dense Promotion)
LES MYSTÈRES DE L’OUEST / Les Mystères de l’Ouest (Unit Records)
LUIGI ARCHETTI & MICHAEL HEISCH / Frozen Solid (Creative Works Records)
VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED / Teddy Bear Stinks Real Bad Now (VioSac)
VIOLENCE AND THE SACRED / Arkinoid (VioSac)
From Downtown Music Gallery:
The opening set was a delightful trio called Tokyo Taiga which featured Makigami Koichi on vocals, theremin, jaw’s harp & pocket trumpet, Bolot Bayryshev (from Mongolia) on voice & topshur (2-string plucked guitar-like instrument) and Sato Masaharu on percussion & flutes. The set started with the ever-charming Makigami singing slowly and making that mischievous face that we all love. Both Makigami and Bolot both sang lead in different combinations, with Bolot most often singing in that exotic Tuvan throat-singing voice.
