Covers (three groups performing improvisations and familiar tunes)
Covers set 1: OK Chorale Matt Samolis - flute Forbes Graham - trumpet Tom Plsek - trombone Steve Norton - bass clarinet Vic Rawlings - prepared cello
Covers set 2: Duck That Angela Sawyer - voice, electronics, game calls Josh Jefferson - reeds, game calls Steve Norton - reeds, percussion, celesta, game calls
Covers set 3: De-votion Vic Rawlings - electronics, guitar Brendan Murray - synths, guitar Steve Norton - percussion, saxophone, elec. bass Chris Strunk - percussion, drums, vocals
duo: D. Greenwood - handmade electronics J. Starpoli - amplified trombone
trio: Michael Rosenstein, electronics Vic Rawlings, exposed electronics, speakers Angela Sawyer, electronics
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Saturday, May 19, 2012
Third Life Studios 33 Union Square Somerville, MA (Almost at the heart of Union Square, on the segment of Somerville Ave. coming into Union Square from Porter Square)
For directions and parking: http://www.thirdlifestudio.com/directions.html
Doors open at 7:30. / music at 8:00 p.m. $8 admission
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Opensound is a monthly concert series that explores improvised and experimental music, bringing artists from disparate backgrounds together for unique events in Somerville MA. The process of improvisation combines the distinctive voices of its individual performers. The music that results is often surprising, unconventional and dynamic. It s not uncommon to hear music made of electronic crackles, noisy multi-phonics, gurgling, hissing, quiet vocalized gibberish, atonal noodling, bowed metal, blowing sounds, post-everything harmony, and a thousand shades of hullabaloo.
You may also see video and dance cohabitating with buzzes, clicks, drones, wooshes, and bleeps in a bizarre galaxy of pitch and spectra!
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Some Performer Bios
Multi-reedist Steve Norton is best known for his work with the 1990s Boston-based band Debris. Debris was an ambitious, exuberant, puzzling band that puzzled together serialism, free jazz and funk. Their music is in equal measure exhilarating and exhausting. It was the combination, in part, that burned Norton out about ten years ago, as well as a need to attend to his job and family. Back in full force now, at fighting weight, with drive and direction and reinvigorated sound, he's steaming. Recent projects include the duck-call trio, Duck That, with Joshua Jefferson and Angela Sawyer; Matt Samolis' Metal and Glass Ensemble; a trio-without-name performing a stunning rendition of Steve Lacy's "Tips," with Noell Dorsey on voice and Samolis on flute; and a duo with Vic Rawlings, Symptomatic.
Composer / performer Jeremy Starpoli has been developing his unique musical interests in the northeast United States for over two decades. His original music explores our perception of the fundamental parameters of musical sound (pitch, rhythm, dynamics and tone color) as a basis for creating detailed worlds of sound in a variety of styles. As a composer, Starpoli's interest in sound as a perceptual substance motivates endless variations of musical material. As an performer, Starpoli has over fifteen years experience performing on slide trombone as well as a variety of bass strings and percussion instruments. Based in Western Massachusetts, Starpoli has collaborated with many regional and internationally-known musicians such as Joe McPhee, Jessica Pavone, Dan Greenwood (a.k.a. Diagram A), Ben Karetnick, Cliff White, and many others. He has performed with groups such his own RICEnsemble, the Middletown (CT) Creative Orchestra, power-noise-core band Squidlaunch, etc. His approach to the trombone utilizes a wide variety of conventional and extended techniques, allowing for diverse sound-types and moods. The music of J Starpoli is noisy and passionate at times, at others it is textural or rhythmic or melodic, crossing many styles and sounds in a constant exploration. Follow the sound.
Vic Rawlings (Boston- amplifier/ prepared cello, speaker elements/ exposed circuitry) employs a still and unstable sound language that traverses from the visceral excess of the Laurence Cook Disaster Unit to the extreme austerity of undr quartet. He has designed and built 2 separate instruments to realize this aesthetic, including extensive and invasive cello preparations- some directly based on obscure baroque instrumentation. The amplified cello is used as a resonant wooden microphone. He also continually develops an electronic instrument from the exposed circuit boards of sound processors, effectively producing an analog synthesizer with a highly unstable interface. This electronic instrument is realized by a flexible array of exposed speaker elements, chosen for their often unpredictable and idiosyncratic acoustic qualities. His solo performances deny conventional assumptions about the use of time and refuse alliance with dominant trends in improvised music.
More information available on the web: www.opensound.org
