NEW MUSIC SERIES, every Thursday, 8pm
co presented by Outsound.org
8pm: Larnie Fox’s Crank Ensemble
9pm: Toychestra
The Crank Ensemble is a San Francisco-based performance group whose musicians create rhythmic and repetitive patterns by using handmade crank-operated machines. The instruments are constructed by artist Larnie Fox; each has a mounted piezo (contact microphone) to amplify its sound. The ensemble of cranks creates layers of sound, resulting in a range of a sparse new-music style “plinking” to melodic loopiness and hardcore noise. The Crank Ensemble has performed at numerous local spaces/events such as the Luggage Store, the LAB, the Hemlock Tavern, 12 Galaxies, at 21 Grand as part of the Edgetone Music Summit, Godwaffle Noise Pancakes, and at the 2007 Maker Faire. www.myspace.com/crankensemble
Toychestra is an all-women musical ensemble that plays toys. Some are actual instruments like toddler-sized pianos and xylophones and drums. Others just make great sounds, like the pink zoo train or Boo Megaphone or the acoustic, multi-sonic Activity Center. Still others are used for percussion, like the washboard, Don’t Wake Daddy, and woodblock. Each instrument is individually amplified with contact microphones and the collection is mixed live for a bigger electronic sound. This creates a sophisticated aural experience that is a far cry from a bunch of kiddies banging around. Toychestra performs original compositions ranging from stark to upbeat, from percussive to melodic, to ambient, avant-garde and kitsch. In the past the band was known to do a few covers ranging from Dvorak to Kraftwerk to Black Flag. www.toychestra.com
Thursday Dec 6 2007 8:00 PM
8pm Tony Dryer – double bass and Stefanie Ku – laptop/projection
9pm Biggie Vinkeloe-saxophones(SWD) with Donald Robinson-drums
Biggi Vinkeloe has lived in Germany and France. Today she lives in Sweden and partly in California. She started with classical flute studies, and came to improvised music already as a teenager. But it was not until she was 24 years old before she got her first saxophone, a Buffet Crampon. Today, she plays a Selmer Super Action from the eighties with a Ducoff mouthpiece. She has studied mostly on her own, and sometimes with great musicians from different fields, among them David Glasser, Dave Liebman, John Tchicai and Bill Dobbins. She has recorded with her own trio, the Biggi Vinkeloe Trio, with drummer Peeter Uuskyla and different bassists, Georg Wolf, Peter Kowald, Barre Phillips. Tours in Europe, USA and Canada and several recordings. Peeter Uuskyla was one of the first musicians supporting Biggi Vinkeloe as a jazz woman. In 2000 she began to collaborate with heavy metal bass player Magnus Rosen (HammarFall), two CD’s which were very successful in Brazil and Argentina of all places. In 2001 she was the 3rd musician ever to be invited as an Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts outside San Francisco, after Glen Spearman and Miya Masaoka. Different collaborations came out of this intense period, with, among others, Donald Robinson and Lisle Ellis (REV), Chris Brown and Donald Robinson (CBD-Trio) and Miya Masaoka. Biggi Vinkeloe has initiated and produced many cross-over projects (MAD, music, art, dance / over the ocean /echoes). She gives workshops and performs in Europe and the US. Meeting with other musicians and artists is still inspiring and wonderful!
Stefanie L. Ku is a San Francisco-based intermedia artist dedicated to the sculpting, faceting, and polishing of sound and image. Stefanie began her musical career at the tender age of five studying the piano on a booster chair. She has studied piano under Betty Oberacker and composition under Jeremy Haladyna and Curtis Roads. After years of dedicating herself to the study and pursuit of music, Stefanie began venturing into intermedia (audio, visual, and tactile information and the way they interact with one another) upon completing a Bachelor’s in Music Composition, and has since been performing in various international new media festivals (Sounding Taipei – Taipei, Taiwan; Consciousness Reframed as presented by the Planetary Collegium – Beijing, China; Get It Louder – Shanghai,China) as well as throughout California (CCRMA, Stanford, Woodstockhausen – Santa Cruz, The Luggage Store Series -San Francisco). Stefanie is currently concentrating on transmuting her visions from the dimensionless realm of pure thought into a more accessible language, one that can be realized and communicated.
Thursday Dec 13 2007 8:00 PM
8pm: MaryClare Brzytwa, Travis Johns, Phillip Greenlief Trio (Sax, electronics, guitar, flute)
9pm: Bloom – Steven Baker Laosian mouth harp Rent Romus & Thollem Mcdonas keyboard fresh off his three month US midwest tour of 50 cities.
Thursday Dec 20 2007 8:00 PM
8pm BRAN(…)POS
9pm James Goode – solo electro-acoustic
bran(…)pos from San Francisco, CA has blundered his way through nose sounds andelectronic mish-mash since 1993 with a theatrical performance history that extends back to childhood (under various stage and screen personas, including child actor Jacob Donner and actor/sound designer Jake Rodriguez). the bran is currently continuing his investigation of various forms of performance and music synthesis, with a focus on sonic plasticization and voice manipulation using both hardware synthesizers and a custom set of software-based sound gremlins that interface with the real world via tactile control and performances rounded out with facial interpretations and physical gesture (suzuki and biomechanics-trained/butoh and max fleischer-inspired). this all combines for an experience that is heavy and heady like a metal band doing xenakis covers/ridiculous and magical like popeye sitting in for jean-jacques perrey (popeye and kingsley). full length cds are self-released on Chitah! Chitah! Soundcrack with a new 2005 release in the works titled Quick Martyr/Deified Danger Duck. bran has been performed from Belgium to Boise alongside many of today’s most enigmatic and prolific sound and performance experimenters.
James Goode is a composer and sound designer living and working in San Francisco. His approach to musical composition takes several forms: quasi-improvisational ensemble pieces guided by a narrative score; pre-recorded electro-acoustic pieces that are given to musicians to learn by ear; site-specific sound installations; and solo electro-acoustic music. His performance tonight falls into the latter category and will incorporate various objects and devices (e.g., artificial larynx, telephone bells, dog whistles, game calls, nose flute), tapes, and electronics.
In the Bay Area, Goode has performed at Mills College, 21 Grand, The Exploratorium, The LAB, New Langton Arts, Hemlock Tavern, Triple Base Gallery, DNA Lounge, Slim’s, Great American Music Hall, ODC, and The Makeout Room; in New York City, at SHARE and The Stone; and at venues throughout Japan, Australia and Canada.
He has played with Secret Chiefs 3, Faxed Head, The Double U, John Zorn, David Slusser, Phil Gelb, Bevin Kelley, Greg Saunier, Bill Horist, John Shiurba, Matt Ingalls, and others.
Thursday, Dec 27 2007 8:00 PM
8pm: IronSax Quartet (Sacramento)
9pm: Knudsen-Benedict duo
Knudsen-Benedict duo: Two Bay Area improvisors trying to play jazz-related material with no rhythm section and no chording instrument. And one of them thinks he’s a scat singer.
Kasey Knudsen is a bay area based saxophonist & composer. Since graduating from Boston’s Berklee College of Music in 2002 with a BA in Jazz Composition, Knudsen has played an active role in the San Francisco music scene, making appearances with Marcus Shelby, Realistic Orchestra, Terrence Brewer, The Montclair Women’s Big Band, The Killing My Lobster Theater Company, The Monday Night Big Band at Pearl’s, Joe Bagale & the Dirty Workshop & many more. Knudsen leads her own trio and sextet, has been commissioned to compose and perform new work by the Jazzschool’s 2005 Emerging Artist Series, The Joanne Langione Dance Company, as well as The Intersection for the Arts 2007 De Young Museum concert series. She is currently a faculty member of Berkeley’s Jazzschool and UC Berkeley’s Young Musicians Program.
Lorin Benedict is an improvising vocalist (scat singer, essentially) living in San Francisco. In addition to performing with Kasey Knudsen, Lorin also co-leads the group Bleeding Vector with guitarist/bassist Eric Vogler. Since becoming active in 2003, he has performed with Bleeding Vector at various Bay Area venues and at The Stone in NYC, as well as with various groups led by saxophonist Howard Wiley at places such as Jazz at Pearls, Intersection for the Arts, and the 2006 Stanford Jazz Festival. He has also been a member of John Schott’s Typical Orchestra (with Ben Goldberg, Ches Smith, and Devin Hoff) with which he performed at the Elbo Room, Starry Plough, and Yoshi’s among other venues. He appears on the Typical Orchestra recording John Schott’s Typical Orchestra (2005), as well as on the Steve Coleman and Five Elements album, Lucidarium (2004), and has made guest appearances on several of rapper Malik Ameer’s albums: Sanctified (2003), Nothing Better To Do (2006), and The Rose Line. Lorin is featured most extensively on a recent release of Howard Wiley’s: The Angola Project.