15 People

I will be opening for Unrecognizable Now and Clue to Kalo on May 21st. Also, I’ll be playing with Unrec Now and our pal Delaney Kelley, reprising our piece that we wrote for the last Vision+Hearing event.

If you’re around, please come!

Details:

Clue to Kalo
Unrecognizable Now (with Delaney Kelley)
The Oo-Ray

Holocene
1001 SE Morrison
Portland, OR
Thursday, May 21
9 PM, $6 (21+)

After writing the Bebe Barron post, I realized there was a silence of about 4 months before I posted that. I apologize for my silence. I was taking a Biochem course on top of work, as well as continuing my Cellistic studies.

During my time of taking the Biochem course (Enzymology and Metabolism), I was extremely unhappy, depressed, and couldn’t think of anything but metabolic pathways and enzymes…happy to say that course is over and am now taking a much better course in Nucleic Acid Biochemistry. Hopefully I will be having an LP out on luvsound in the near future as well…more announcements as that develops.

To make it up to you, here are two Tracks of the Month.

The first is an experiment with mixing more noise into my tracks, called “The World is as Small as You Make It”.

The second is the first fruits of playing with the massively great Sooperlooper:

Bebe Barron, half of the Electronic Music composing team of Louis and Bebe Barron, died today. They were most well known for composing the “Forbidden Planet” soundtrack, for which Louis built various analog feedback circuits and literally recorded the sounds of them dying/overloading. Interestingly, they built circuits for each character, each with sonic properties they felt highlighted that character. Sadly, this was one of their last soundtracks for Hollywood after being blackballed by the Musician’s Union.

When I first heard this soundtrack, I was blown away at how organic these sounds were - these are the sounds of overloaded circuits, circuits slowly melting, producing otherworldly sounds we still consider sci-fi. In their mastering of circuit feedback, one could say the Barrons were one of the original founders of noise music and we know and love it.

Like most pioneering woman electronic music composers (another being Delia Derbyshire, arranger of the Dr. Who theme), Bebe’s contribution was not recognized until much later. Louis Barron may have built and recorded the circuits, but it was Bebe’s editorial voice who managed to cull and cut these electronic improvisations into recognizable pieces. In her later years, after Louis Barron’s death, she continued as a solo composer, including a piece called “Mixed Emotions”. An early leader of the Society for Electroacoustical Music, she also knew John Cage well, and it was actually Cage who encouraged the Barrons to think of their “Electronic Tonalities” as music.

The Barron’s legacy is quite large and amazing, and I’m glad to see they are finally getting their due as electronic music pioneers.

Anyway, more info about Bebe here: Louis and Bebe Barron

Matrixsynth obituary of Bebe Barron, probably the most comprehensive one.

Another obituary here: Obituary for Bebe Barron

A great NPR piece about the Barrons here: The Barrons: Forgotten Pioneers of Electronic Music

And here is the Forbidden Planet Soundtrack.

Added an up-to-date gigography page with links to everyone I’ve played with.

Compiling it is a nice way to wrap up 2007…I’ve gotten to play shows with lots of talented people last year and I’m looking forward to playing with much more people in the future!

Sorry for the delay…I’m trying Douglas Kerr’s new and improved contact form plugin. Let me know in the comments if there are any issues.

I’m working on the first movement of a Kummer Cello duet with my teacher right now (after working on much harder stuff, it’s a relief to play something, well, playable). While searching for a version to listen to, I stumbled upon Magnatune’s humble cello section.

Not too much there, but what you can stream it all online…some nice gems, including this release by Vito Paternoster doing Bach’s Solo Sonatas and Partitas for Violin on cello…quite wonderful. The low range of the cello really makes these pieces sound incredible. You pay what you like for the release - from a measly $5 on up (suggested payment is $8, you cheapskate!).

Will check out this release by Claire Fitch, an “ambient cellist”, next.

In celebration of the stress fest that is known as the winter holiday, I’ve decided to post a holiday drone. If you’re having a stressful holiday season, listen to my nondenominational drone and relax for a second. Aaaaahh, isn’t that better?

Track details: This was recorded as a single pass with cello, looper, and pitchshifter, with some time stretching.

I hope to release a free track a month. Sorry about the silence posting as of late - I have been having a crazy past few months, with work, biochem class, and all other sorts of distractions conspiring to keep me away from music.

Download

It’s been a while since I played a live show, but when it rains, it pours. I’m gonna do 3 shows in december, all pretty different…

December 6 - at p:ear gallery (809 SW Alder) - probably at 6 or 7 ish for first thursday
December 12 - Someday Lounge (125 NW 5th) - playing with Unrecognizable Now
December 17 - Someday Lounge - opening for Umami, The Positive Jam (Jim’s Band) and Demi Batard

I’m excited for the unrec now show…I have been playing cello with mapmap and matt these past few weeks and it’s been fun working on a piece to perform with them. It’s gonna start out drone-y and then get plinky (toy pianos and xylophones!) and droney again.

Due to spam…I will be looking for a more spam proof contact form plugin soon. Anyone using WordPress have any suggestions?

I’ve posted before about Kevin Shields’ soundtrack to the dance “2″ by dance troupe Lalala Human Steps. But I hadn’t seen any video of it performed before.

The following is a short, tantalizing youtube vid. I wish there were more.