October 20, 2006

TROCKENEIS :: experimental music for dry ice, bowed metal, musical saws, voice, percussion, and more

MARIA CHAVEZ vs. CHARLES COHEN :: avant garde turntablism meets the Buchla Music Easel

FORTY-2 :: circuit-bending, trumpet, accordian, guitar, percussion

TROCKENEIS: Born quite impromptu during a live improv set performed for the Peadbody Conservatory student body in spring 2004, the Baltimore quintet, Trockeneis, has since been generating excitement in the East Coast improv/experimental music scene. The group is comprised of a core group of Baltimore improvisers (Paul Neidhardt, Dan Breen, Andrew Hayleck, Catherine Pancake, and Audrey Chen) each who brings great passion and musical subtlety to create a truly unique sound/improv experience. A combination of highly idiosyncratic instrumentation, focused, mature musicianship and ego-free, risk-taking group dynamics promise to make this group known on a national level. The group has definite roots in lowercase improv, but grows rapidly beyond that creating complex, rich soundscapes rooted in a true spirit of experimentation.

They have recently released their first lp on ehse records entitled 5025 AD.

Paul Neidhardt, percussion
Paul Neidhardt is a very accomplished rock, jazz, free jazz and experimental percussionist from the Baltimore MD area. He performs in a variety of musical projects and also teaches percussion for a living. His ability to trade extremely tight traditional chops with very focused sound-oriented techniques such a doweling, bowing, suction etc has made him a favorite in improv circles.

Dan Breen, bowed metal
Dan Breen is an well-known multi-instrumentalist in Baltimore and other East Coast cities. His wandering, eccentric style of playing and living brings joy to the many who know and love him. He performs with a range of musical projects from the funk band, The Financial Group, to the un-categorizable and tasty electronics/drums group - Snacks.

Andrew Hayleck, bowed metal
Andy Hayleck is quickly becoming a nationally known sound artist and musician. His extensive touring and field-recordings (ice, crabs etc) are well-known in experimental music scenes across the US. He has performed in local and national festivals and participated in radio broadcasts in the US and GB. Andy is also a professor at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Catherine Pancake, dry ice
In an on-going tribute to Michael Culligan -- Catherine Pancake will play dry ice and try not to cause too many disruptions before it is all over. She is also an accomplished film maker and has just completed a documentary entitled “Black Diamonds”, which charts the rise of large scale coal surface mining and community resistance in Appalachia.

Audrey Chen, voice
Using her trusty cello, self-styled vocal techniques and ever surprising content/concepts, Audrey Chen has emerged as one of the most vital experimental free-improvisers in the United States and beyond. She has toured extensively around the world bringing her sounds and intuition to Poland, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, China, Japan, and the United States. Among musicians, she has worked with many great improvisers, including Phil Minton, Alessandro Bosetti, Mike Cooper, Mats Gustafsson, Sten Sandell, Mazen Kerbaj, Jaap Blonk, Michael Zerang, Tony Buck, Tatsuya Nakatani, Assif Tsahar, Scott Rosenberg, Le Quan Ninh, Joe Mcphee, Susan Alcorn, Michele Doneda, Paolo Angeli, and Gianni Gebbia. Some current projects include: duo projects with Tatsuya Nakatani (percussion) and Gianni Gebbia (saxophone) from Palermo, Sicily, Trockeneis (Baltimore’s power quintet), and a new trio (SILO) with Nate Wooley and Leonel Kaplan (trumpets). Recent performances have included a duo tour with Nakatani through China and Japan celebrating the release of their new duo CD, LIMN. www.hhproduction.org. Also, Chen has just returned from touring solo and with Gebbia and SILO through Europe in February/March. Some upcoming engagements include, a USA tour with SILO and a tour through China, Japan and Taiwan with Bosetti later in 2006.

MARIA CHAVEZ: Born in Lima, Peru in 1980, Maria Chavez grew up in Austin and lived in Houston from the age of 10. She became a club DJ at the age of 17, and eventually met her mentor David Dove (Director of the Pauline Oliveros Foundation-Houston) who convinced her to improvise on the turntables and since then has been totally dedicated to improvised music.

Maria has a degree in Audio Engineering and is working full time on her experimental music. She calls it "improvised/abstract turntabilism", and it consists of all electro-acoustic sounds from only vinyl and needle. She melts and mutates all forms of vinyl and has a collection of 8 broken styluses (and counting) that all get different sounds.

Maria has worked with many international, regional and local improvisers, including Christina Carter who is in a duo with Maria called Weird Cookie. Kaffe Matthews, who is in the process of making a cd with Maria due out early next year, opened for Hrvatski in August of '03 and has performed with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth during her debut in NYC.

Maria also has performed in various art galleries around the United States including the Austin Museum of Digital Art, the Eyedrum in Atlanta, and has an upcoming sound installation project at Diverse Works Art Gallery in Houston, where she will do personal descriptions abstract art through turntabilism, improvising with artist David Chien.

CHARLES COHEN: Based in Philadelphia, Charles Cohen has been composing and performing electronic music since 1971. He specializes in collaborative, cross-disciplinary projects with theatre, dance, music, and media artists, and is especially interested in live performance and improvisation. His instrument is the Buchla Music Easel. It is an extremely rare integrated analog performance instrument made by synth pioneer Don Buchla. In regards to his work, he states, "Mood, atmosphere, and landscape are what my sounds are about. Collaboration and exploration are what my process is about. The intent is sharing our favorite pastime with others."

FORTY-2 is an improvisational quartet made up of Alban Bailly, Dustin Hurt, Bonnie Jones, and Toshi Makihara.

Alban Bailly's first adventure of music making began with rock in his native France. Music lessons with Eric Le Lann and Cesarius Alvim in Rennes opened him to jazz and free improvisation in the late nineties. Together with percussionist Loup Barraud, Alban formed Ghenso Project and the two traveled to Morocco to study Arabic music in 2001. Under the instruction of Marrakchi Master Mohammed El Quadi, Alban practiced classical guitar and oud. While attending Music Academy in Nancy, Alban came upon a world of free improvisation. Since 2002, he has collaborated and performed with Sebastien Coste, Camille Perrin, Louis-Michel Marion, Claire Cooper, Marit Schechte, Dominique Repecaud, Chris Heenan and many others. Performances at Musique Action festival, Theatre du Saulcy, MJC Lillebonne, France, Belgium and Germany. New found interest in gypsy jazz music, learned the gypsy music with gypsy local guitarists and founded the “Meri Wago” gypsy swing jazz trio. He continued his pursuit of eastern European music by playing traditional Balkan music in Novi Sad ( Serbia ). Alban landed in the USA in 2005 and now calls Philadelphia his home. He frequently performs with Jack Wright and plays actively with many musicians ( Evan Lipson, Dave Smolen, John Berndt… ) and dancers ( Nicole Bindler, Eun Jung Gonzales...) with the guitar or the accordion.

Dustin Hurt: Composer, free improvisor, and organizer, Dustin Hurt is emerging as a key element to Philadelphia's experimental and new music scene. Dustin's frequent colaboratorations include a duo with Alban Bailly (as Ko Koed), a trio with Tim Albro and Jesse Kudler (as HZL BRD), and a trio with Sean Mattio and Troy Herion. He is a performer in Nicole Bindler's Philadelphia New Dance and Music Ensemble and was a performer in John Berndt's Baltimore based large group ensmemble, Second Nature, in March of 2006. He has also performed with Toshi Makihara, Jon Barrios, Jack Wright, Gene Coleman, Nozal Cube, Dave Smolen, and Carlos Santiago, among others. His composed works have been performered by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pennsylvannia Ballet Orchestra, and regularly by the Philadelphia based avant-supergroup, Normal Love. Dustin is also the founding director of bowerbird, a Philadelphia based experimental music presenting organization.

Bonnie Jones works with text, sound, and performance focusing on collaborative action and group artmaking. She is also interested in communication systems, dialogues, and shared experiences. SOUND - Created with exposed digital delay pedals, the pedals are played "live" using instrument cables and manual manipulation. Primary collaborators, Andy Hayleck in Baltimore, Joe Foster in Korea, and sometimes Bryan Eubanks and Andrew Lafkas in NYC.

Toshi Makihara studied drums, percussion and improvisation with Sabu Toyozumi, a prominent percussionist in Tokyo. Since arriving in the United States in the late 1970's he has worked with various new music ensembles as well as with numerous dance and theater companies internationally. Makihara has provided original music to Arden Theater Company, Diversions Dance Company (Wales), Pennsylvania Ballet, ZeroMoving Dance Company and Leah Stein Dance Company among others, and has worked with musicians including Steve Beresford, Peter Brotzmann, John Butcher, Nels Cline, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Amy Denio, Thurston Moore, William Parker and John Zorn. He has also collaborated with poets, visual artists, filmmakers and performance artists widely.