Nostalgia for the Future

Deborah Aschheim, a Los Angelses-area based installation artist and sculptor with whom I've been working for nearly four years now, invited me to collaborate with her on her latest endeavor, a series of installations called "Nostalgia for the Future." The first installation was at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, CA this past fall and winter. The music features a combination of processed live recordings of my group Nightshade, and samples of analog sounds from everyday appliances and gadgets. An online exhibition of some of Deborah's Nostalgia drawings and ruminations, with some of my sound clips from the installation, is viewable on the Viralnet site at CalArts.

Also, this is my favorite piece from the Armory show, and somehow one of the most heartbreaking videos I've seen. It is found footage filmed by the astronauts from one of the Apollo missions, shot from inside the capsule as they returned to earth. In the installation, this video was projected in an enclosed stairway with speakers embedded in the walls...Watch Video

duo B.


duo B. is an ensemble of acoustic bass + percussion that plays ethereal chamber music wrapped in dense improvised soundscapes. Drummer Jason Levis uses gongs, Tibetan singing bowls, bowed cymbals, marimba and drumset to create lush, delicate textures and abstract noise grooves. Bassist Lisa Mezzacappa draws on a palette of sinister drones, punchy vamps and acoustic bass manipulations to weave storylines through gnarly rhythms, pointillistic shapes and ecstatic melodies.
mp3s from our 2006 CD these things seem natural to us, available for purchase at CDBaby:

Cylinder


Cylinder is an all-star collective quartet of Bay Area improviser-composers who have traveled and performed widely. The sum experience and musical wisdom of this group is inspiring and stimulating, and most of all I really like that almost anything is possible between the four of us - we get into really abstract sonic spaces, but also groove very hard and very freely in a way that I can only describe as extremely satisfying. Everyone writes for the group also, which keeps things surprising. Expect our debut CD release in 2010.

Aram Shelton / alto saxophone, clarinet
Darren Johnston / trumpet
Lisa Mezzacappa / acoustic bass
Kjell Nordeson / drums

Live at 21 Grand, Oakland CA 6/10/09


Cylinder Double Quartet: Chicago
Aram Shelton / alto saxophone
Dave Rempis / tenor, baritone saxophone
Darren Johnston / trumpet
Jeb Bishop / trombone
Lisa Mezzacappa, Anton Hatwitch / acoustic bass
Kjell Nordeson, Frank Rosaly / drums

Live at Heaven Gallery, Chicago IL 9/12/09

Earworms


Earworms, a collaboration with artist Deborah Aschheim, and vocalist/songwriters Katy Stephan and Michelle Amador, is an exploration of language and memory through sound and space. Named after the German word Ohrwurm, a fragment of song that becomes stuck in a person's head and repeats endlessly, the project began as an experiment to cure aphasia by embedding words in memorable songs. Inspired by stories of stroke patients who had regained the ability to speak by remembering words buried in song lyrics from their past, Deborah and I have created a series of installations based on a list of her favorite words. Along with Katy, Michelle, and a dozen or so Bay Area musicians, I composed and recorded a song for each word; Deborah built a sculpture for each song, and we collaborate on site-specific installations that re-imagine the sound and sculptural elements for each space they inhabit. Each sculptural instrument performs a unique musical composition, based on a single word, to create a layered sonic and visual experience in the gallery space. Earworms has been shown at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, Pasadena CA (2008); Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO (2008); and the Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno (2007).

A CD of all of the Earworms music was released in fall 2008, available online at CDBaby.
Listen:

Gold Record Studio


For six weeks in spring 2007, Jon Brumit and I hosted a free recording studio and improvisation lab out of the back of a van, in the Laney College Flea Market in Oakland. It was a wild, exhausting, exhilarating ride - we recorded anyone and everyone who came to participate, released a 2-CD set of the results on the Edgetone Records label, and mounted an exhibition of paraphernalia, photos and video at 21 Grand in Oakland. At the exhibition opening, recording artists from the flea market returned to perform in the gallery to celebrate the CD's release. The project was funded by the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program.

Learn more, read reviews, listen, and purchase the CD on the Edgetone Site: www.edgetonerecords.com

Moths Drink the Tears


Moths Drink the Tears is a collaboration with Boston-based poet and mad scientist Oni Buchanan, scoring an interactive digital poetry work. Duo B. is the core ensemble for the project, which will also involve additional instrumentation, electronic and manipulated sonic elements, and improvisation games. Check out Oni's animated online poetry project, The Mandrake Vehicles.