Avant Music NewsFrom Oakland’s 21 Grand:
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Avant Garde Night at the Uptown (9:00pm)Thursday, July 23, 2009
An evening with William Hooker (8:30pm)Sunday, July 26, 2009
Amazements + Shunga + Roids (8:30pm)Thursday, July 30, 2009
the why because + eastern seaboard + amawricans (wiggwaum + guest) (8:30pm)
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From DC’s Sonic Circuits:
Monday June 15
Doors 730pm Music 8pm SHARP
$7
PYRAMID ATLANTIC
8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring MD 20910
301.608.9101
located three blocks south of the silver spring metro station (red line)
Free parking in gated lot out front
DIRECTIONS: http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.orgGregg Kowalsky resides in Oakland, California where he completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in Electronic Music and Recording Media at Mills College. Kowalsky’s compositions range from drone and noise pieces to meditative psychedelia with minimalist aesthetic. Gregg has composed dance, sound installations, ?lm and acoustic ensembles.
For the past 15 years, Ben Bracken has slowly been creating a unique sonic language utilizing electronics, acoustic sound sources (guitar, cymbal, bells, found objects, etc), electric guitar, and field recordings. Primarily interested in the possibilities of a kind of echo- relocation that exists with sound based art, his work has oscillated from performance to installation, often blurring the lines between the two. In both, the location of the event becomes an active participant, intimately shaping the nature and direction of each work. After finishing a graduate degree in Electronic Music at Mills College in Oakland, CA, Ben moved on to his current technical support position at Cycling ‘74, the developers of Max/MSP. Ben also curates the Totally Intense Fractal Mindgaze Hut, a performance space in West Oakland, CA. Some previous or current musical groups include Crystal Village (with Gregg Kowalsky), Flashpapr, Tiny Lights, Remote Viewing Ensemble, Duo with Luis Maurette, Duo with Zach Wallace, Bones (with Jacqueline Gordon). Ben has improvised with Le-Quan Ninh, Brent Guetzeit, Kevin Drumm, Peter Kowald, Chris Cutler, Phil Minton, Rhodri Davies, Werner Dafeldecker, Fred Van Hove, Johannes Bauer, among others.
Trio O is Rich O’Meara (Kwo’m Percussion Group, Silent Orchestra) on amplified vibes, electronics and percussion, Kevin O’Meara (Videohippos, Blood Baby) on drums and percussion and Gary Rouser (Vector Trio, Nine Strings) on NS bass/cello and other objects.
A Matthew Sperry Memoriam Festival takes place this week in the San Francisco area:
Please join us in a celebration of Matthew Sperry’s life and music with the Bay Area’s creative music community:
June 2, 4 & 5, 2009
Seventh Annual Matthew Sperry Memorial FestivalThis year the festival kicks off with Seattle-based Lesli Dalaba performing in a trio with Fred Frith, Jason Hoopes and a duo with special guest Gail Brand (UK) in Oakland’s intimate Studio 1510. Gail closes the festival with a performance with local Sperry collaborators Gino Robair, Morgan Guberman, John Shiurba, Tim Perkis and Tom Djll on the stage of the Maybeck-inspired Hillside Club. The festival tradition of works for large ensemble continues as OrcheSperry ascends the tall stairs of the Luggage Store Gallery to perform new works in homage to Matthew’s musical life and work, and reprise Matthew’s rollicking improv karaoke of Treasure Mouth, which requires a band to follow along to lyrics as fast as they can be written out for them by others.
From East Bay Express, an article about an avant music series:
“I was surprised that they had an experimental night here — an actual place with a bar,” said Oakland’s Reid May, whose curiosity got the best of him. None of the other avant-garde concerts he’s attended, though they account for about a fifth of his overall live music intake, have been at a place this nice, this … official: one with a bouncer, a liquor license, and a quality sound system. Normally it’d be a converted art gallery, a nonprofit arts center, some dude’s house — or, at the other end of the spectrum, an academic setting like Mills.
This is precisely the purpose of the Uptown’s monthly Avant-Garde Tuesdays series: to draw experimental, avant-garde, and improvisational music from the sidelines and into a safe, welcoming, fully permitted space. The music may be daunting, but the setting certainly isn’t, affording both performers and fans the opportunity to try something new.
A bunch of pictures from Frith’s 60th.
This concert, billed as “The Music Of Fred Frith,” was presented as a celebration of Fred Frith’s 60th birthday this year, and took place at Mills College in Oakland CA on the Sunday afternoon of 5 April 2009. Featured were solo and ensemble improvisations, a Frith composition entitled “Water Stories” for chamber quintet, and Frith’s most recent rock quartet, Cosa Brava. It was a fine testament in performance to an artist who has been challenging, expanding and dissolving musical boundaries for forty years.
Avant Music News