Clavius Productions presents:
The First Annual DC Phonography Symposium
A Gathering of Found Sound Practitioners
Saturday, February 12
611 Florida Ave NW
Washington, DC
8pm, $5 suggested donations
call 202-360-9739 for info
BYOB!
What is phonography?
"The word "phonography" speaks to me precisely because, like "photography," it is agnostic; I mean it's factual rather than semantically loaded like "music" or "art" -- words that signal worthy ambitions and hierarchies that may, or may not, help you hear (or see) fresh. "Phonography" (translated literally) says nothing but: soundwriting. To me as a listener that means: audio "read" -- sound attended to -- for any revelations and resonances it turns up -- not only those that music knows how to handle, but the whole thing. (What does "audience" mean, after all?). Space, narrative, pain, hypnotism, temperature -- a sound's interesting dimension might be anywhere. Once you've listened to unauthored sounds in that spirit, music too sounds richer, more deeply authored (by the inventor of the drum, for example): fuller of history and space. Any time a sound is selected -- whether recorded, or just singled out ("listen!") -- attention has already transformed it." (by phonogrpaher Joel Smith)
http://www.phonography.org For this event, some of the northeast’s most renowned phonographers will present their work as interludes between sets by Scott Smallwood, Andy Graydon, Andy Hayleck, and Omnid (Albert Casais). Expect an atmosphere of ambience and audio/visual interaction.
Scott Smallwood Scott Smallwood was born in Dallas, Texas, and grew up at 10,000 feet in elevation in the Colorado Rockies. When Smallwood was 10 years old, he received his first tape recorder, and ever since he has been fascinated by the possibilities of recorded sound.
Traditionally trained as a pianist and composer, Smallwood has at various times found himself composing concert music, improvising in free-music contexts, recording and manipulating field recordings, and making dance music. He has been active as a composer/performer with several New York-based ensembles, including Nyquist, Brown Cuts Neighbors, and Evidence. He holds music degrees from Miami University of Ohio and Peabody Conservatory. He has performed with a variety of improvisors including Curtis Bahn, Dan Trueman, Leroy Jenkins, Joe McPhee, Phil Gelb, Todd Reynolds, and Pauline Oliveros.
His work has been presented in a variety of national and international venues including the Kitchen in NYC, the Knitting Factory in NYC, Lincoln Center, Roulette, Mobius in Boston, the 2003 ICMC in Singapore, and the 2003 Conference on World Acoustic Ecology in Melbourne, Australia. He has produced numerous recordings on Wavelet Records, Televaw, and Deep Listening. From 1997-2003, he served as studio engineer and technical director at the iEAR Studios of ensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he was also on the faculty teaching computer music and technical production. Scott is currently a doctoral fellow in the music department of Princeton University.
http://music.princeton.edu/~skot/ Andy Graydon Andy Graydon (b. 1971, Maui, Hawaii) is a film and video maker and sound artist based in New York City. He is currently a resident in the visiting artists program at the Computer Music Center at Brooklyn College. His work often focuses on potentials and problems in the interaction of sound and image, taking the form of videos and live video mixes, sound works, music and movement performances, and installations. This performance will feature a new version of Conductant, a video reinterpreted here for performance, with a new live improvised
soundtrack.
www.andygraydon.net Omnid (Albert Casais)
New Jersey based sound artist working with treated field recordings. Graduate of the Institute of Audio Research Nyc 1995. Releases on many labels including but not limited to: Authorised Version, Retinascan, The Shadow Puppet Recording Company, and Stasisfield.
www.geocities.com/omnid2003/omnid2003.html Andy Hayleck Andy Hayleck plays/improvises on the following instruments: gong, saw, bowed cymbal, computer. He is also a sound recordist who uses hydrophones, contact mics and microphones to capture sounds in gases, liquids and solids. Frequent collaborators are Neil Feather, Ian Nagoski, and Dan Conrad. Has lived in Baltimore, MD since 1998. Recordings include "Various Recordings Involving Ice" on Heresee, "Gong/Wire" on Earlids and "The Disappearing Floor" on Recorded as well as individual tracks on compilations and several CD's which document the High Zero festival.
www.earlids.net www.recorded.com www.heresee.com Derek Morton Derek Morton has generated and manipulated sound since the early 1990's. From his days as a rock guitarist and record label owner to more recent forays into performance curating and gallery installation, he has relentlessly investigated the possibilities of audio in all contexts. He is equally interested in live improvisation, studio research, exploratory composition, and electronic reconfiguration. Morton's sound experiments have attacked everything from cutting-edge technologies like surround-sound to reinvented tools like Gameboy video game consoles. His work with violinist John Coursey in the duo Mikroknytes has resulted in numerous performances around the U.S. as well as two full-length CDs.
His organization of a variety of performance series, most recently the ongoing Tech Club, has given a forum to D.C.-area sound artists and explored the relationships between performance, improvisation, and collaboration. Morton's approach to sound as environment, experience, and pure physical object continues to seek new venues and results.
www.mikroknytes.com Violet Violet is the current moniker for solo works by Jeff Surak, who has played in such projects as v., Normal Music, Critikal, Second Violin, -1348-, and New Carrollton and a multitude of collaborations. Organic irrational compositions, using electro-acoustic instruments and tape/cd/vinyl manipulations. Violet has performed across the USA and in Europe.
www.zeromoon.com Ben Owen Ben Owen works with projected slide film manipulations and experimental electro-acoustic sound composition. His collaborations can be found with Ting Ting Jahe, tiptip, and radio transmission works with free103point9 and broadcastatic. Ben first explored the theme of instability and decay through his work with stone lithography printmaking. He has continued to work with these themes. This theme is evidenced by Ben's decision to focus on (mostly) unmanipulated location (field) recordings, thereby underscoring the ephemeral and unpredictable nature of sound. Ben arranges these sound-fields both as raw captures and digitally processed fragments.
www.seasonalbk.net/b.html Upcoming Clavius Productions events:
at 611 Florida: 3/4: Woody Sullender (experimental banjo player from Chicago)/Otono Brujo (AKA Eric Carbonara from Philly, solo acoustic guitarist incorporating flamenco, classical, and fingerpicking folk styles)
3/26: Clavius' birthday show w/ Jack Rose (Eclipse/VHF Rec.)/PG Six (from NY, mem. of Tower Recordings, folk/psych)/Harris Newman (from Montreal, on Strange Attractors)/The Michael Dimmick Joy Band (from SW Virginia, featuring Mike Gangloff of Pelt)
4/17: David Gross Quartet (Coltrane/Ayler-esque free jazz from Boston)
at Warehouse Next Door: 2/26: Earthride/Unearthly Trance/Vog/PB Army/Peasant (w/ Detournemont Productions)
3/1: Microwaves (no wave noise rock from Pittsburgh, mem. of Don Caballero)
3/6: King Valley/Valkyrie
3/11: George Kinney (singer/songwriter/guitarist from legendary Texas psych band the Golden Dawn)/Pagoda/Parts & Labor (experimental rock from NYC)
3/16: Radian (from Austria, on Thrill Jockey)/Machine Drum/Band of the Name/H8
4/12: Mono (from Japan, on Temporary Residence)/Eluvium
4/20: Franklin Delano (from Italy, File 13 Rec., new album recorded with Califone's Tim Rutili and Brian Deck)
4/22: My Way My Love (from Japan, on File 13 Rec.)/Gangwizard (Ecstatic Peace Rec.)/Hand Fed Babies
