Clavius Productions presents a night showcasing Kranky Records artists sandwiched between adventurous free jazz and noise. Greg Davis, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and Bird Show will be performing as a series of solos, duos, and trios in their inimitable electro-acoustic styles. It isn't too often when six musicians this talented share a bill, so see for yourself what kinds of sounds they conjure up on a spring evening in DC.
Sunday, April 17
611 Florida Ave NW WDC
8pm, $5 suggested donation
202-360-9739 for more info
BYOB!
David Gross/Michael Bullock/Tucker Dulin Trio (avant-jazz improv from Boston)
Greg Davis (Kranky)
Keith Fullerton Whitman (Kranky)
Bird Show (Kranky, Ben Vida of Town & Country)
Horse Sinister (noise trio from Boston)
Jesse Kudler (solo noise from Philly)
Bios below:
DAVID GROSS (reeds, Boston)
Labeled as "one of Boston's steadfast explorers," by Bob Blumenthal of the Boston Globe, saxophonist and clarinetist David Gross discovered improvised music while studying with Yusef Lateef at Hampshire College. He has performed with Le Quan Ninh, Eddie Prevost, Bob Marsch, Martin Tetrault, Glenn Spearman, Raphe Malik, and many members of the Boston free-improv scene including Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley, and Laurence Cook. Currently, Gross is transforming the saxophone into exactly what it is: a metal tube with keys, mouthpiece, and a reed. Reviews of his recordings, on his own Tautology label with ensembles EED and FETISH, have ranged from "the range of textured noise that he cajoles from his instrument is impressive" to "lengthy episodes of fingernails ripping at a blackboard."
MICHAEL BULLOCK (contrabass, Boston)
Free improvisor Michael Bullock has played bass in eight countries, on a dozen records, and in a variety of bands, touring extensively both solo and as part of various ensembles. He has also played with well-known improvisors Eddie Prévost, Lê Quan Ninh, and Peter Kowald, in addition to working with numerous members of Boston's improvised music community. Two of his current obsessions include IIbasSpit, an electro-acoustic trio with Tucker Dulin (trombone) and Seth Cluett (bass, voice) which is planning a CD release this year; and an ongoing curiosity with acoustic feedback. Bullock has released recordings on such diverse labels as Emanem, Rounder, and Naxos.
TUCKER DULIN (trombone, Boston)
Improvisor. Trombonist. Noise artist. Has had performances all over the country in many contexts including the Boston Philharmonic, SONOR, Klaresque Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Mass Eye and Ear, and the Masashi Harada Ensemble.
Working on DMA in contemporary music at UCSD with Miller Puckette, Ed Harkins, and Charles Curtis. Specializes in post-war solo and chamber repertoire for the trombone. Most recent performances with Steve Roden, Nick Hennies, Bhob Rainey, Phil Wachsmann, Martin Blume, Wolfgang Fuchs, Torsten Mueller, and Anne LeBaron. Trio, IIBasspit, with Seth Cluett and Mike Bullock, has performed throughout New England and may never have an album.
Projects include: a commission by San Diego New Music for an interactive installation for computer and ambience, an 18 hour performance of unconventionally-notated scores, and a linux cluster sound war installation at NWEAMO, SDSU. Currently lecturing at UCSD on contemporary music. Forthcoming spring 2004: 3-night event using resonant qualities of Geisel library, UCSD, as structure.
GREG DAVIS http://www.autumnrecords.net Greg Davis has made recorded appearances on numerous singles and compilations, played around the world, and is best known for his two albums on the Carpark label: "Arbor" and "Curling Pond Woods." Those two albums, as impressive and well-received as they are, don't tell the whole story of Davis' omnivorous interest in music (he studied composition and jazz studies at DePaul University and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music) and considerable abilities. "Somnia" collects drone-oriented material Davis has been working on over the last two or three years with the final track, "Mirages (version 2)" being a recording from spring 2004 using a schaaf pnch card music box and computer. Each track features a single instrument (bowed psaltery, acoustic guitar, harmonica, Fender Rhodes, Magnus chord organ) played by Davis and then filtered through a computer. The tones that come out of the process bear little immediate resemblance to the instrument of origin, taking on extended and diffuse forms of their own.
"In skilled hands, the music comes off as a perfect fusion of silicon and psilocybin inspiration." (Dave Segal, Portland Mercury)
"He's grown nimble enough in his approach to pull out the computer and make it sound like anything but." (Andy Beta, Pitchfork)
KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN Keith Fullerton Whitman started his path through music at an early age (9) by intentionally 'versioning' Commodore Vic20 basic sound programs to yield raw computer-speak skronk. Growing up at record-collector fairs throughout northern New Jersey in the late ??80s, Keith had access to just about every phylum of underground music imaginable...declaring allegiances early on to European free improvisation, progressive and psychedelic rock, breakdance-themed urban machine music, the post-World War II orchestral avant-garde, and the early electronic experiments of the WDR and INA-GRM camps.
A few years after moving to the fertile creative ground of Boston in 1991 to study Computer Music with Richard Boulanger at the Berklee College of Music, he proceeded to form rock-based ensembles in a smattering of forms (the Fluxus-pranks-meets-Hasil-Adkins duo El-Ron, the Dub/Sahko/Jungle beep-vibes of The Finger Lakes, the electro-acoustic/freely improvising 'power trio' Sheket/Trabant), most rehearsing bi-weekly for months in preparation of a single gig (after which, mission being accomplished, the ensemble would break up). After barely acquiring his Bachelors in Music Synthesis in 1996 due to some...confusion regarding his final piece/thesis "Error" (three hours of broken DAT machine connections, skipping CDs, corrupt signals of all walks, DC offset, barely audible clicking, etc.), he set out on his own to bridge the gap between the academic avant-garde and the fan of sound at large through a series of subversive tracks credited to dozens of homonyms...the main of which, Hrvatski, was lifted off of a billboard for the Boston Language Institute for it's similarity to one of Keith's favorites...the hip hop collagist Steinski.
It wasn't until the release of Hrvatski's debut album "Oiseaux 96-98" in 1999 that things really started taking off...the album was voted #9 in The Wire's year-end bests poll under the electronic music category, and did very well in both the dance and experimental music scenes (just like he hoped it would). There was an exposé in The Village Voice. People started calling around wanting to interview Hrvatski, at this point an imaginary figure. Word of Keith's...talents started gaining momentum, eventually leading to a slew of singles, remix commissions, and compilation spots on such labels as Apartment B, Diskono, Leaf, Lo, Lucky Kitchen, Planet-Mu, Tigerbeat6, Tonschacht, and V/VM, all of which Keith produced for free, if at all. References soon followed in high-profile publications such as Spin, Rolling Stone, Spex, XLR8R, etc.
BIRD SHOW Though best known for his work in Town & Country, Ben Vida has been a prominent player in the Chicago music scene, placing himself at the nexus between improvised and acoustic minimalist musics. Ben Vida has played and recorded with the experimental chamber group Terminal 4 with Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jeb Bishop, and Josh Abrams. He is in the improvising group Pillow, formed in 1996 with Michael Colligan, Liz Payne, and Fred Lonberg-Holm. There will be a new Pillow album out later this winter. Ben Vida and his brother Adam (who also drums in U.S. Maple) founded Central Falls with Jason Adasiewicz and Steve Doreke. That group has recorded two albums and toured. And he is a member of the rock group Everyoned with Chris Connelly and Tim Kinsella.
Ben Vida plays guitar, cornet, and harmonium in Town & Country, who have been experimenting in acoustic resonance, minimalist composition, and world folk musics for the past seven years. Town & Country continue to record and tour, most recently with Tony Conrad in spring 2004. Ben Vida has brought the deliberation and repetitive structures of Town & Country to ??Green Inferno? and augmented it with somnambulant vocals, a trellis of percussion, and psychedelic drone.
Subsequent to recording the album, Vida began Bird Show. Bird Show intend to pick up on and extend the material on ??Green Inferno? and plan to tour as soon as the album is released. Although recorded entirely by Ben Vida, ??Green Inferno? is being attributed to the band Bird Show.
HORSE SINISTER These Boston lads rip through the sonic butter with a knife of fierce subtlety. Their live shows: a mixture of hypnotizing power drones, pummeling beats, and feedback-fueled primal screams. Formed in 2001 from the ashes of The David Dukes of Hazard, a power-noise trio from Florida, Loren and Harvey first performed as a duo before recruiting Ken, a sampler-wielding, synth-building wunderkind. Now the time has come for these humble dictators to once again hit the road.
JESSE KUDLER Studied music at Wesleyan University with Ron Kuivila, Alvin Lucier, and Anthony Braxton. He eventually became active as an organizer and performer in improvised, experimental, and electronic music, forming a regular duo with Jonathan Zorn and leading the large electronic improvising ensemble Phil Collins. Kudler has also worked as a recording engineer for various
projects. His solo work often operates on the extremes of volume, demonstrating an interest in the subtleties that can arise from intense softness or loudness. He is also interested in allowing complex processes or setups to develop on their own, with minimal intervention from the performer.
Upcoming events:
at 611 Florida 5/7: Sir Richard Bishop (guitar soli, from Sun City Girls)/Double Leopards (power drone from NYC)/Mouthus (noisy guitar/drums duo from NYC with a metal attitude, on Ecstatic Peace)
at Warehouse Next Door 4/16: The Hidden Hand/Weedeater/Rwake
4/20: Franklin Delano (File 13 Rec., from Italy)/Marston & Ponieheart/Justin Jones/Madagascar
4/22: Hand Fed Babies/Gang Wizard (Ecstatic Peace)/r_garcia
4/23: Distant Sun (a tribute to Captain Beyond featuring members of Spirit Caravan and Unorthodox)/Wretched/Black Manta (featuring Joe Hasselvander of Pentagram on drums)/The Expotentials
4/26: Eyes Like Knives/The Catalyst/Me Vs The Monster
4/28: Uncut (post-punk from Toronto)
5/4: Psychic Paramount (ex-Laddio Bolocko/Panicsville)/Trephine
5/9: The Crackpipes (Sympathy for the Record Industry)/Goners
5/10: Sightings (Load Records)/Michael Columbia (ex-Bablicon/Need New Body/Olivia Tremor control)/Ovo (from Italy)/Mr Natural
5/15: Bang! Bang! (from Chicago)/Pile of Face (Zorn-inspired madness from NYC)
5/21: Manhunter/The Sea, Like Lead/Water School/The Fake Accents
5/22: Deceased (return of Virginia's finest death metal!)/Misery Index/Hope and Suicide (ex-Bloodlet)/Needless Guilt
5/25: Meatjack/Stinking Lizaveta/Mouth of the Architect
5/26: (Sounds of) Kaleidoscope/Relay/The Grey Daturas (heavy noise/psych from Australia)
5/31: The Dirty Projectors/The Wind-Up Bird
6/1: Wooly Mammoth/Test-Site (math-metal from Milwaukee)
6/11: Navies (record release show)
6/20: Green Milk From the Planet Orange (Japanese space rock/prog/psych)
6/29: Rope (family Vineyard)
7/2: In Gowan Ring/Nick Castro (Strange Attractors/Eclipse)
7/16: Reverend Bizarre (Finnish doom)/Well of Souls/Gates of Slumber
