Homage to Ohm
Katastatik
My Evil Twin
The Great Quentini
visuals by Theatre of the Mind
HOMAGE TO OHM: For his most ambitious project in his 20+ year, wildly eclectic career, Patrick Stacey has constructed a one of a kind sound control station, painstakingly sampled the pioneers of early electronic music, and created an experimental audio abstraction unique in its history, form, and presentation. A project going into its second year, Patrick started by delving into the roots of his life long passion, electronic based sound, and came across a three disc compilation recently released by Ellipsis Arts entitled "OHM: the early gurus of electronic music". Using computer based digital signal processing technology, Patrick methodically extracted hundreds of sound bites from throughout the collection, loaded them into a performance based application from Ableton software called "Live", and slowly put together a piece that is all at once an improvisation, a tribute, a science, and an art. Needing a bit more than his I-Mac laptop to execute his vision, Patrick enlisted the help of his father and designed and built a custom control desk to transport and present his medley of devices in a user friendly and efficient system that not only adds to the experience, but inspires it.
KATASTATIK: “I'm Mandra, I used to play guitar for the now dormant great mutant skywheel. I do play guitar (and the manDrum) for the remarkable telesma, I do a lot of improvised music with people and machines as Katastatik or the manDrum, quite often playing breakbeats and Drum N Bass on my body with a trigger suit and computer program I've created... I've been doing electro-acoustic music since the early '80s, and began integrating orchestral instruments and interactive computer technology in the '90s, all while playing in various bands, writing music for theater pieces, indie films, installation art projects, and having music I'd written played at conferences in exotic locations populated by well meaning but dull people that I feel lucky to have escaped from. I love sound.” In addition to making music and performing live, Mandra hosts/curates/participates in the defDumbAndBass fREAKoUT, a “Baltimore monthly for disparate Baltimore area underground creative/experimental/artist/musicians to meet, hang out, present, represent, discuss, show, show-off, inform, inspire, educate and display what they're thinking, doing, and what they think people should know about. It costs nothing to join this collective - just participate - it grows out of an idea to unite elements of the Bmore happening scene which exist in vacuums - music, writing, visual art, dance, any and all expression. His hope is that this could function as a thriving idea exchange, and provide a necessary outlet to the artistic community, and a viable inlet for the audience of same.”
MY EVIL TWIN: What happens to an audio engineer when he likes the noises the board makes better than the recorded music? My Evil Twin (Bernard M. Cox) mixes noise with classical, jazz and other motifs producing swelling crescendos and delicate abstract passages all aimed at creating dark emotive soundscapes. The artist also avoids the use of sequencers in order to yield an organic sound from what looks like a bunch of knob turning.
THE GREAT QUENTINI: There are many lines that can be and have been written about The Great Quentini, the shaman of the pasta strainer, the enlightened one who sees art where others see trash, the only human with whom Barbie will truly converse, but our favorite description comes from a web page dedicated to Quentini: Born in an obscure corner of Pennsylvania. Abducted by space aliens for cross cloning with Yeti. Twelve year residency at Dr Zorg's secret underground space station. Five year unexplained gap. Thirteen years in Philadelphia recovering from wounds received while fighting Gondar. In the words of an 8-year-old critic: "Don't be afraid Mom, he's just a Sacred Clown.
THEATRE OF THE MIND: Mark Baechtle, aka Theatre of the Mind, has been performing live in a variety of venues for many years. Both his electronic music and psychedelic visuals are original creations which transport listeners and viewers to other worlds. For this event, Mark will provide visual backdrops only, to the performers’ musical sets. Undoubtedly, he will create live while adding some tried and true eye candy to enhance the sensory experience of each person in the audience.
