Clavius Productions is going all out with this event: surround sound and video projections will enhance the sensory experience and sonic wash of the esteemed artists. I had the pleasure of seeing Birchville Cat Motel in Massachusetts last week, and if he performs a set half as mesmerizing as the wall of drone/chant/buzz/hallucinatory birdcall that i heard, we're in for a real treat. Not only that, Mikroknytes will finally debut at 611 and Boston's Stelzer and Parker will break the boundaries of what can be considered music. Think of this as a prelude to the Noise Against Fascism show on the 20th.
Clavius Productions presents:
Saturday, January 8, 8pm
611 Florida Ave NW
$5 suggested donation
call 202-360-9739 for more info
BYOWhatever!
Birchville Cat Motel (from NZ, Ecstatic Peace/Drunken Fish/Scarcelight/Last Visible Dog)
Mikroknytes (From DC, violin/electronics duo, Scarcelight, Crank Automotive)
Howard Stelzer (cassette tape manipulator from Boston, Intransitive Records)
Donna Parker (two guitar pedal effects and a mixer, from Boston, Twisted Village)
Birchville Cat Motel New Zealand's Campbell Kneale hears things in modern suburbia, things that might surprise you. Where most people perceive only the roar of lawnmowers, the hum of traffic and the hypnotic thump-thump of pre-fab commercial pop, Kneale discerns an intriguing and elusive conglomeration of hums, rattles and buzzes that intermingle with the seemingly deafening white noise of suburban life. As Birchville Cat Motel, Kneale explores the hidden sounds of the suburbs, creating what he described as “a handwritten report on the lurking mysticism of the humdrum.”
And yet there's very little that is humdrum or ordinary about BCM's musical investigations. Equal parts noise, drone, electro-acoustic and even ambient, they're far too idiosyncratic and personal to fit neatly into any musical category. With its layers of hum and clang, children's voices, kitchen appliances, toys, traditional instruments, turntables and electronics, BCM buzzes with the sounds and textures of Kneale's home in the suburban town of Lower Hutt. “I have my own vision,” he writes via e-mail. “It's informed by all sorts of music, but it's also informed by lots of things which aren't musical at all: people, places, objects, sensations. I'm not making music in a hip downtown New York apartment. Birchville Cat Motel is from a small shed in suburban New Zealand,” he says, referring to the shed that he's converted into a studio, “and I hope the music reflects that context.” (from a Weekly Dig interview:
http://www.weeklydig.com/dig/content/7975.aspx) Mikroknytes Mikroknytes began sometime in 1998. Derek Morton and John Coursey (aka Commie 64 and Redknyte respectively) began improvising with keyboards, violins and f/x pedals. Like Commie's other freeform lo-fi electronic groups, Music Arch de Lux and Commodore 64, m_Knytes followed the path of the tripped-out-power-drone. Soon however, the Mikroknytes yearned for new directions, and new sounds. Redknyte began acquiring f/x for his violin to explore other sonic possibilites. By Spinus 99 (an unreleased CD-R demo) the group was experimenting with cheap sampling devices to augment the 8-bit beats of their beloved Casios.
Howard Stelzer Howard Stelzer has been active as a composer and performer of electronic music since 1992. His improvised music utilizes the qualities inherent to cassette tape and tape players; namely hiss, the roll of tape across play heads, the crackle of dirt caught inside old players, play speed altered manually by pressure from fingers applied to the tape's reels. Stelzer's work tends to employ space and silence as well as gritty low-fidelity noise, and is almost always centered on the physicality of live performance, with an instrumental (rather than the classical 'concrete') approach to the tapes. He has collaborated with folks such as Kevin Drumm, Otomo Yoshihide, Le Quan Ninh, Martin Tetreault, Gert-Jan Prins, Axel Doerner, Jason Lescalleet, Jerome Noetinger, Joe McPhee, Haco, Christian Wolff, and many other artists from diverse backgrounds. He has toured the US and Canada six times, and performed at festivals in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Rotterdam (the Netherlands), and Columbus (Ohio). In addition to solo performance, Stelzer is a member of the BSC, a large electro-acoustic orchestra led by sax player Bhob Rainey (nmperign). He also operates the Intransitive Recordings label and mail-order catalog for electro-acoustic and improvised music, and regularly hosts sound-art, electronic and improvised music concerts by visiting and regional artists in the greater Boston area, where he lives.
Donna Parker Donna Parker, the alter ego of noise artist Mary Staubitz. Using only two guitar effects and a mixer, Parker has remarkable range using minimal equipment. Her music can be a pounding, cyclic assault or careful, considered improvisation. She performs with both rock bands and instrumental improvisers, most importantly in duos with synth-builder Jessica Rylan and Vic Rawlings (of the BSC). Her debut LP will be published in early 2005 by Twisted Village.
Upcoming at 611 Florida:
2/12: phonography symposium featuring Andy Hayleck, Derek Morton, Ben Owen, Scott Allison, Seth Cluett, and others
3/26: Harris Newman (Strange Attractors, solo acoustic guitar in the vein of John Fahey, Jack Rose, Steffan Basho-Junghans, etc)
4/17: David Gross Quartet (free jazz from Boston)
