Presented with assistance from DXARTS. UK composer Charles Celesté Hutchins comes to Seattle as part of his west coast tour and is joined by Seattle composers and performers Don Craig, Ewa Trebacz, Hector Bravo Benard, and Joshua Parmenter for an evening of digital and experimental music with video.
Cloud Drawings: an evening of computer music
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French-American Peace Quartet
Presented by Nonsequitur& Earshot Jazz, supported by the French-American Jazz Exchange and administered by the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and Cultural Services of the French Embassy. The cultural threads connecting France, New Orleans, and New York are explored by this ensemble, featuring a new suite of music by 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award recipient William Parker. The powerful and elastic duo of bassist Parker and drummer Hamid Drake teams up with the venerable New Orleans saxophonist Kidd Jordan and piano innovator François Tusques.
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East-West Collective + Harth/Mueller duo
Presented by Nonsequitur, Earshot Jazz, & Polestar, supported by the French-American Jazz Exchange and administered by the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and Cultural Services of the French Embassy. The East-West Collective is a trans-national collaboration exploring the intersection of Asian traditions with the compositional structure and sounds of free jazz, with Larry Ochs (sax), Miya Masaoka (koto), Didier Petit (cello), Sylvain Kassap (clarinet), and Xu Fengxia (guzheng). Opening set is the duo of German saxophonist/multimedia artist Alfred 23 Harth and Vancouver-based, German 5-string bass player Torsten Mueller.
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Tom Peters: Nosferatu
Director F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922) stands as one of the most important films to come out of pre-World War II Germany. After almost 90 years, it still delivers chills! Tom Peters’ live electronic score seamlessly weaves through Nosferatu’s dark alleys to create an experience like no other. Peters is a composer and bassist in Los Angeles who specializes in creating music for silent films, performing original scores through looping electronics and synchronized electronic soundscapes.
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Tim Root: Pound Fifty Turns
Pianist, composer, and experimentalist Tim Root presents his new music/theater/performance work, Pound Fifty Turns, for amplified instruments, voices, electronics, movement and projection. The project combines absurdist theater, aleatoric composition, improvisation, and visual images in a celebration of the composer’s 50th birthday. With Beth Fleenor (amplified clarinet, voice, electronics), Queen Shmooquan (voice, performance), Kate Olson (soprano sax, electronics), Greg Sinibaldi (tenor sax), Sam Boshnack (trumpet), Naomi Siegel (trombone, electronics), Tom Peters (bass, electronics, projection), Steve Ball (guitar), Greg Campbell (percussion, horn, electronics) and Tim Root (inside/prepared piano, voice, electronics).
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Seattle Composers' Salon
The Seattle Composers’ Salonfosters the development, performance and appreciation of new music by regional composers and performers. At bi-monthly, informal presentations, the Salon features finished works, previews, and works in progress. Composers, performers, and audience members gather in a casual setting that allows for experimentation and discussion. Everyone is welcome! Composers for this month: Neal Kosaly-Meyer, Carson Farley, and Kam Morrill.
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Stuart Dempster & Dennis Rea: Double Tanabata Birthdays!
Presented by Nonsequitur.
Seattle composers Stuart Dempster and Dennis Rea celebrate their shared birthday that falls on July 7, which is also the Japanese Tanabata festival. Dempster premieres Seventy Seven Sevens, featuring nine trombonists surrounding the audience, along with bass drummers Paul Kikuchi and Dean Moore. Rea's ASJ, premiered at the Chapel last January, this time incorporates the trombones along with John Seman, bass and Kate Olson, soprano sax.
Seattle composers Stuart Dempster and Dennis Rea celebrate their shared birthday that falls on July 7, which is also the Japanese Tanabata festival. Dempster premieres Seventy Seven Sevens, featuring nine trombonists surrounding the audience, along with bass drummers Paul Kikuchi and Dean Moore. Rea's ASJ, premiered at the Chapel last January, this time incorporates the trombones along with John Seman, bass and Kate Olson, soprano sax.
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Earshot: Syrinx Effect + Chemical Clock
7:30 PM; $5 - $15 sliding scale suggested donation at the door or in advance online. Presented by Earshot Jazz. Jazz: The 2nd Century is Earshot's annual juried showcase featuring Seattle artists performing original, forward-looking music, in a concert setting. Selected by a peer panel of fellow artists, the series offers audiences a chance to check in with the cutting edge of where Seattle jazz is now, and where it is headed.
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Syrinx Effect is an experimental platform for trombonist Naomi Siegel and saxophonist Kate Olson. The duo plays contemporary, improvised music with electronics. Olson mixes jazz licks and space on soprano sax above a layer of laptop effects, Buddha Machine loops, and snaps, pops and analog electronic sounds from a Cracklebox. Siegel explores the range and booms of trombone and lays down a background of looped brass thwarted by guitar pedals, plus field recordings from her travels. The duo’s recent release Gnarly & Sweet shows their approach to improvised sonic journeys, tending to cinematic soundscapes set on droning rhythmic motifs. The two trade responsibilities in driving the shape and form of the pieces, each, at times, soloing minimally and sweetly or bombastically.
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Chemical Clock is an aggressive and determined young band with a lot of good ideas and more than enough chops to pull them off. Led by keyboardist and composer Cameron Sharif, the quartet includes Ray Larsen (trumpet), Mark Hunter (bass), and Evan Woodle (drums). Their self-titled debut CD EP is a brief and refreshing blast of post-everything avant fusion. "Fusion," to Sharif and his colleagues, means something very different than it did back in the 20th century. The combination of Ray Larsen’s electric trumpet and Sharif’s electric keys might suggest a set inspired by Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew– but Chemical Clock is not about reinterpreting or regurgitating the past. Indeed, there is very little nostalgia going on here. The fusion here encompasses aspects of jazz, electronic dance music, prog-metal, contemporary classical music, and the indefinable electro-acoustic music currently being explored by edgy rock bands such as Lightning Bolt and Hella.
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Jeph Jerman
For over twenty-five years, Jeph Jerman has been a seeker of sound. Tirelessly creative, he has released cassettes, vinyl, CDs, hand-made sound-oriented objects, and collaborated widely – and sometimes wildly – developing a global network of enthusiastic listeners along the way. In 1999 Jerman established the animist orchestra, a group that uses natural materials and very specific, directed actions to create sounds. He's continued to assemble groups to play his compositions, with recent invitations from Arizona State University, New Music Co-Op Austin, and Oberlin College.
In 2010, Jerman recorded a series of drone pieces using found pot lids and metal bowls, played in the manner of Tibetan singing bowls. Titled arrastre, these were released as a three-part work on LP, CD-R, and cassette. In 2012 the live premier of arrastre was performed as a quartet in St. Pail, Minnesota. Tonight it will be performed by a septet comprised of Jerman, Dave Knott, Doug Theriault, Mike Shannon, Esther Sugai, David Stanford, and Carl Lierman. Listeners will be treated to a dense, shimmering wall of singing metal, rich in overtones and marked by gradual harmonic evolution.
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Substrata 1.3: Day 1
Substrata Festival explores varying perspectives of scale though the use of sound, composition and visuals. Three live performance showcases feature accomplished and internationally renowned artists working within the cutting edge where structural abstraction meets physical dynamics. The performance program focuses on live electronic music: applying technology to a concert setting while incorporating traditional and non-traditional instruments.
Tonight we offer electronic structures and rhythms drawing on conceptual references ranging as far as the isolated landscapes of Iceland, the haunting woodlands of the Pacific Northwest, the celestial Music of the Spheres and imagined, encephalonic spaces between. All three composers work is concerned as much with digital sound design, as with sequencing and real-time instrumentation in performance interplay – theirs is an expansive lexicon not delimited by genre constraints or stylistic signifiers.
7:30 PM – Ethernet
8:10 PM – The Sight Below
9:00 PM – Yagya
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Substrata 1.3: Day 2
The second night of Substrata plays host to an evening of the 21st century continuance of folk, psychedelic, free form and non-rock traditions of the electric guitar. Far removed from its central pop culture role as the locus of the rock band, these artists explore the guitar through obfuscation of the ego, in abstract forms drenched in effects, enveloping dissonance and hypnotic untethered repetition. Voiced as a disembodied, refractive issuing from beyond rather than the marshal command of the pop chant, theirs are ‘songs’ of a parallel world where effectuation is cloaked in the corpus of reflection.
7:15 PM – Sean Curley
7:45 PM – Ken Camden
8:40 PM – Grouper
9:20 PM – Noveller
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Substrata 1.2 : Day 3
Doors/Soiree, 7 PM; $35 online in advance (limited tickets remaining for this show!)
Concluding Substrata’s evening performance program, this showcase presents an amalgam of the most acutely distinct vocabularies to be heard in the sub-genres of post-minimalist and electro-acoustic music. Pure digital programming giving voice to glistening architectural spires. Continental monoliths of physical mass and keening tonalities. These evoke pastoral landscapes generated by the acoustic melodicism of the chamber symphony. When accompanied by analog synthesis, they create a kaleidoscopic coalescence where the physical meets the intangible in a superlative hybridization.
7:20 PM – Christina Vantzou
8:10 PM – Jacaszek
9:15 PM – Kim Cascone
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New Music from the Deep North
Cellist Karl Knapp and percussionist Bonnie Whiting travel south from Alaska to present new works by Seattle composers Nat Evans and John Teske. The program features field recordings collected in Fairbanks and Seattle, found and natural objects, and a portable record player.
Teske's facets for solo cello is a series of five short movements, each with a different character—interrupted at times by reflections of other movements. Evans and Whiting collaborated on The Narrow Aisle to the Deep North in Fairbanks in November: a 25-minute work for solo percussion inspired by both the northern landscape and the seventeenth-century Zen poet Basho's travelogue The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
Knapp and Whiting will also perform music by Martin Bresnick (Songs of the Mouse People: interspersed with readings from the Kafka short story Josephine, the Singer), Qu Xiao-Song, and John Steinmetz.
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Earshot: Eric Ring + Paul Kikuchi's Autonomic Ensemble
7:30 PM; $5 - $15 sliding scale suggested donation at the door or in advance online. Presented by Earshot Jazz. Jazz: The 2nd Century is Earshot's annual juried showcase featuring Seattle artists performing original, forward-looking music, in a concert setting. Selected by a peer panel of fellow artists, the series offers audiences a chance to check in with the cutting edge of where Seattle jazz is now, and where it is headed.
Pianist Eric Ring made an impact on Seattle’s jazz scene in the late 1980s - early 90s in the trio Circular Cowboys, and with trumpeter Jim Knodle, bassist Doug Lilla and drummer John Lavin. In recent months, Ring has re-joined his contemporaries, plus drummer Jeff Ferguson, in jams and hangs in White Center–West Seattle bars Mac’s Triangle Pub, the Shipwreck Tavern (recently closed), and Duos. He's also been playing with Wayne Horvitz' large "conduction" band, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble. Ring’s solo piano submission to Second Century shows the pianist in a pensive mode. He writes: “This music is an exploration of texture, voicing and song in small compositions...these pieces are deliberately quiet.”
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Paul Kikuchi is a percussionist, composer, educator, instrument inventor/builder, founder of Prefecture Records, and Feldenkrais practitioner. He performs solo and in collaborative projects from large to small, and in site-specific works. As an undergrad, Kikuchi sought out rhythm great Milford Graves at Bennington College, and eventually pursued a Master of Fine Arts from Cal Arts African American Improvisational Music program led by AACM alum Wadada Leo Smith. The emphasis on interdisciplinary arts from that program continues to be part of Kikuchi’s artistry. Tonight he brings his Autonomic Ensemble, which includes Taina Karr (oboe), Emma Ashbrook (bassoon), Kate Olson (bass clarinet), Alex Guy (viola), Natalie Mai Hall (cello), and John Teske (contrabass).
Pianist Eric Ring made an impact on Seattle’s jazz scene in the late 1980s - early 90s in the trio Circular Cowboys, and with trumpeter Jim Knodle, bassist Doug Lilla and drummer John Lavin. In recent months, Ring has re-joined his contemporaries, plus drummer Jeff Ferguson, in jams and hangs in White Center–West Seattle bars Mac’s Triangle Pub, the Shipwreck Tavern (recently closed), and Duos. He's also been playing with Wayne Horvitz' large "conduction" band, the Royal Room Collective Music Ensemble. Ring’s solo piano submission to Second Century shows the pianist in a pensive mode. He writes: “This music is an exploration of texture, voicing and song in small compositions...these pieces are deliberately quiet.”
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Girma Yifrashewa + Amy Rubin
Girma Yifrashewa is Ethiopia’s most famous living pianist and composer. Using traditional tunes as a foundation, Yifrashewa’s compositions combine the ecstasy of Ethiopian harmony with the grandeur of virtuoso piano technique into an effortlessly enjoyable, heady mixture.
Born in 1967, Yifrashewa’s life in music began at a tender age with the kirar, a traditional Ethiopian harp. Introduced to piano at age 16 at the Yared School of Music in Addis Ababa, he later studied at the Sofia State Conservatory of Music in Bulgaria with the support of the Ethiopian government. When the fall of the Communist regime in 1989 ended his scholarship, he emigrated to Italy, returning to the Sofia Conservatory in 1991 to earn a Masters in Piano under Professor Atanas Kurtev. In Bulgaria he made an impact as a solo pianist, performing the works of Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, and Debussy until his return to East Africa in 1995.
Yifrashewa has chosen to remain in Ethiopia, forging a classical tradition for his own country where classical music is far from a dominant practice. He currently works to promote Ethiopian and classical music, touring throughout Africa, Europe, and beyond. In October 2009 he was invited to Los Angeles for the Africa Meets North America symposium and festival at UCLA. His CD releases include The Shepherd with the Flute (2001), Meleya Keleme (2003) and Elilta (2005).
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Border Crossings: New Music from US & Canada
8:00 PM; $10 suggested donation at the door (cash/checks only)
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Seattle composer Brad Sherman and Christopher Gainey (University of BC) team up again, composing, performing and bringing other composers and performers from the northwest and British Columbia together for a concert of new and exciting music by Canadian and USA composers. Brad and Chris each have premieres on the concert: Stipple and Crosshatch for guitar and violin, and Whiskey Desk for flute, banjo and piano, respectively. Come find out what a banjo under the capable hands, fingers (and who knows what else!) of Christopher Gainey can REALLY do! Also, world premieres by Kyle Grimm and Adam Hill, along with Glenn James’ US premiere of Get in Line. This promises to be an exciting and memorable evening, full of variety, interesting sounds, great music and even some good, old-fashioned fun.
Seattle composer Brad Sherman and Christopher Gainey (University of BC) team up again, composing, performing and bringing other composers and performers from the northwest and British Columbia together for a concert of new and exciting music by Canadian and USA composers. Brad and Chris each have premieres on the concert: Stipple and Crosshatch for guitar and violin, and Whiskey Desk for flute, banjo and piano, respectively. Come find out what a banjo under the capable hands, fingers (and who knows what else!) of Christopher Gainey can REALLY do! Also, world premieres by Kyle Grimm and Adam Hill, along with Glenn James’ US premiere of Get in Line. This promises to be an exciting and memorable evening, full of variety, interesting sounds, great music and even some good, old-fashioned fun.
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Christian Pincock CD release + Dave Marriot
Trombonist Christian Pincock performs music from his new album release Plentiful Excitement, as well as new works to be released in the future, with Aaron Otheim (piano), Jon Hansen (tuba) and Chris Icasiano (drums). CDs will be available for purchase. Trombonist Dave Marriott opens the evening with an ensemble of trombones and drums performing original compositions by the group.
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The Westerlies play Wayne Horvitz
The Westerlies are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of four friends from Seattle. Avid explorers of cross-genre territory, they have premiered over 30 original works for brass quartet since their inception in 2012. This program features new arrangements of the music of Wayne Horvitz - from his Gravitas Quartet, Sweeter Than The Day, 4+1 Ensemble, Zony Mash and The President repertoire, as well as recent chamber works.
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Two Cellos: Yanover + Rucker
Presented by Nonsequitur. Solos (and a duo) by two of Seattle's more unusual cellists — totally different, yet somehow complimentary. Gretchen Yanover uses looping devices to perform tonal compositions and improvisations, including material from her upcoming EP to be released this summer. Paul Rucker (visual artist, composer, and musician) combines traditional methods with extended techniques to create his own sound on the cello. Rucker continues to evolve through years of experimentation and continuous exploration.
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Fuller/Fischer + Steve Peters
An evening of music by three 12k label-mates. Corey Fuller (Tokyo) is half of the Japanese electro-acoustic duo Illuha. Marcus Fischer (Portland) experiments with tape loops, electronics, field recordings, and various instruments. The two join talents for a duo of restrained and delicate music.
Steve Peters (Seattle) debuts the first live version of one of his Chamber Music installations derived from room tone. Stained Glass draws on a recording of the empty Chapel used in his sound installation for an art show there in 2008.
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