Clavius Productions presents its second show at new Northeast DC space The Red and the Black, with three mindblowing Midwestern noise merchants, the debut meeting between saxophonist (and Egyptian resident) John Dikeman and DC percussionist Scott Verrastro, and DC area vinyl mangler Tone Ghosting. Don't miss what promises to be an esoteric night of alien sounds:
Sunday, June 18
The Red and the Black
http://www.redandblackbar.com 1212 H St NE WDC
$7, 21+
doors at 8:30, show at 9:30
Will Soderberg
Roxanne Jean Polise
Adam Mokan
John Dikeman/Scott Verrastro Duo (sax/drums free jazz-influenced improv)
Tone Ghosting (vinyl and hacksaw sound manipulator from DC)
Will Soderberg http://white-rose.net http://www.myspace.com/willsoderberg Will Soderberg is part of an ever-evolving, eclectic collective of musicians and sound makers, playing under various guises and making lots of racket. He has been exploring the outer limits of sound and music for more than two decades, sometimes using laptop, midi guitar, and electronics to conjure up bone-rattling sounds of ghosts in the attic. His recordings and performances cover ground from the outer limits of electronic free noise to swervy psychedelic rock 'n' roll. He's currently working with producer Mayo Thompson (The Red Krayola).
Roxanne Jean Polise http://www.roxannejeanpolise.com/ http://www.myspace.com/roxannejeanpolise "Steev Thompson of Roxanne Jean Polise is so embedded into the cassette world that I look to his discography to see what tape labels have come into existence while my back was turned. American Grizzly was such a discovery, a pleasant one thatâ??s only looking sunnier as the release schedule snaps into focus. While many of his blink-and-miss-it offerings (on Tapeworm, Rundownsun, Apop, and loads others) have eluded me, the density of
Bottom of the Ocean provides material enough to keep the appetite sated.
Like many of his Michigan brethren, RJP flings that broken electronics shite, although the RJP recipe leaves much of the violence behind. Instead, the word harmbient has been applied -â?? with a cringe from all involved, Iâ??m sure -â?? but the term does roughly fit. Combining the attitude of harsh noise, some of its sonics, and a healthy dose of horror movie pacing (creak, creak, creak, BOOM), RJP makes ambient sounds for paranoid delusionals. The layers in his tracks sound alternately and simultaneously like burning buildings, Frankenstein footsteps, Frankensteinâ??s victims crushed -- glottis gurgles, and Antarctic radio wave interference, providing just the climate of moist breath and desolation to provoke one hell of a breakdown.
Iâ??ve always been fond of the suffix "scape" in regards to music like this, so here goes: Roxanne Jean Polise spawns deathscapes, scrapescapes, and broken-metal-gratescapes, all the decrepit castles and missing persons that can fit on the rolling land of the average dronescape. RJPâ??s anger is muted, small of gesture and large of threat, and it makes for one hell of an escape." (Bryan Berge/Stylus Magazine)
"A dense unsettling blanket of liquid gloom. like mechanical ants getting under your skin slurping your blood. A shivering totally intense experience of sleep-inducing waves that lower the hydration of the brain colloids. As your mind gets buried under dust, a blackened cluster of clouds looms over the garbage. An anthem for intense sleepwalkers before getting sucked into a bottomless void." (Freaks End Future)
Highly recommended for fans of creepy, death ambience, i.e. Hive Mind, Wolf Eyes, Double Leopards, etc.
Adam Mokan http://www.russolo.com/adammokan/ http://www.myspace.com/adammokan Originally from Flint, Michigan, Adam Mokan currently resides in Chandler, Arizona. Adam collaborates with a wide range of artists often releasing material under different aliases or projects that range from harsh noise to ambient works. Since 1996, Adam has performed in nearly every corner of the United States with a wide variety of acts and musicians.
John Dikeman/Scott Verrastro Duo http://www.johndikeman.com/ http://www.claviusproductions.org John Dikeman, born in Nebraska, spent most of his childhood in Kemmerer, Wyoming. Thanks to the extreme isolation of his hometown, he spent most of his free time practicing and studying music. He quickly discovered the musics of John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, John Zorn, and Albert Ayler and instantly connected to the unmatched expressive power of free jazz.
At the age of 16, Dikeman met New Mexican guitarist, Stefan Dill, who became his mentor. They performed together in Wyoming and Utah throughout the next couple of years. Dikeman was later featured in one of Dill's albums
Flower and Song. Dill introduced Dikeman to the legendary improviser Jack Wright. Jack became one of the biggest influences on Dikeman's music, bringing him away from his overt jazz influences and opening him up to many different approaches to improvisation such as the reductionist aesthetics that Jack had been exploring at the time with Bostonian improviser Bhob Rainey.
Dikeman left Wyoming in 1999 to study saxophone and composition at the Interlochen Arts Academy. Later, Dikeman would study with free jazz legends Joe Maneri and Milford Graves. In 2002, Dikeman found himself in New York City. He played with many of the most innovative musicians around, including Jeff Arnal, Chris Forsyth, Jonathan Vincent, Tatsuya Nakatani, Mike Pride, Nate Wolley, Reuben Radding, Blaise Siwula, George Cremaschi, Daniel Carter, Lukas Ligeti, Ty Combe, Fritz Welch, Mat Bua, and dancer Zack Fuller.
A year later Dikeman moved into Jack Wright's house in Philadelphia, where he met violist Jonathan Fretheim and bassist Michael Barker. During this time, Dikeman worked regularly with his housemates and local musicians such as Toshi Makihara, Charles Cohen, Wes Mathews, Dave Smolen, and Evan Lipson. He was also an occasional guest with Philly based avant-rock group, Sharks Without Wings. In his spare time, Dikeman installed security alarms for Action Alarm Specialists.
John is currently living in Cairo, Egypt where he has had continued success performing free music, both solo and as a duo with New Zealand pianist Darren Pickering. Dikeman has also helped connect free music in the Middle East, performing in the Lebanese festival Irtijal as well as working with bassist Raed Yassin in Cairo. Besides improvised music, John works regularly with groups ranging from his own jazz and blues band, Gerry and the Facemakers, to the international Nubian pop star Mohamed Mounir. Dikeman has performed as a soloist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra; he has also performed with most of the jazz musicians in Cairo at one time or another. Dikeman works as a studio musician, teaches woodwinds at the New British School in Cairo and The Modern English School, and plays weddings, bar mitzvahs, funerals...
Other musicians John has worked with through the years include: Jon Barrios, Kurt Heyl, Damon Smith, Ben Hall, John Voigt, Bryan Eubanks, Masashi Harada, Ava Mendoza, Katt Hernandez, Jonathan Leland, Keefe Jackson, Cristina Menendez, Andy Hershberger, Daniel Barnidge, Markus Eichenberger, Sam Shalabi...
Dikeman will be performing in DC with Kohoutek drummer/percussionist Scott Verrastro, who utilizes a plethora of sticks, brushes, bells, shakers, cymbals and gongs, metal, contact mics, and household items -- in addition to a traditional drum kit -- to coax a wide palette of sounds. Though he never studied with anybody in particular, he received a degree in music literature from Northeastern University in Boston and continues to examine many forms of music, including all styles of improvisation and traditional folk. His main percussion influences are Milford Graves, Rashied Ali, Muhammed Ali, Sunny Murray, Han Bennink, Jaki Liebezeit, Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir on
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, and yes, even John Bonham, Keith Moon, and Nick Mason. His improv psych band Kohoutek explores all of this territory, veering from drony Krautrock-inspired psych to abstract noise freak-outs and everything in between.
Tone Ghosting http://www.panicresearch.com/ A solo project of Jeff Bagato (aka DJ Panic), Tone Ghosting features a unique homemade instrument he invented himself: playing vinyl LPs with small hacksaw and electronic FX, magnifying, modifying, and energizing the small scrapes & squeaks to create a complex musical vocabulary. The patented "Tone Ghosting process" includes looping these sounds, reformulating them in frenetic live dubs, and adding freeform vocal madness. Tone Ghosting creates a unique sonic universe somewhere between the attack of power electronics and the complex mind-body games of electronica and non-idiomatic free improvisation.
Bagato's other musical projects include the electro-acoustic free improv trio Spaceships Panic Orbit; a duo with Violet called Violet Panic; the electro-acoustic free improv + poetry group Croniamantal; and the improvising avant-punk band Alzo Boszormenyi and the Acid Achievers. He promotes the Electric Possible monthly series for experimental music in Washington, DC. His book
Mondo DC: An Insider's Guide to Washington, DC's Most Unusual Tourist Attractions was published in 2005 on Panic Research Press/AuthorHouse. From 1989-2000, Bagato edited and published 13 issues of Mole Magazine, a journal of "Outsider Art, Crackpot Thought, Other Music, and the Counterculture."
Upcoming Clavius events:
611 Florida:
6/25: Dragons 1976 (free jazz from Chicago featuring members of Vandermark 5, Born Heller, and Mandarin Movie)/Andrew Lafkas (acoustic bass) & Bryan Eubanks (electronics)/New America Wing (avant-chamber music from CT)
The Red and the Black:
7/2: Stamen & Pistils/Madagascar (instrumental gypsy folk ensemble from Baltimore)/Emma Zunz (accordion/guitar duo from Seattle)/Homemade Knives/John Shaw (from Son of Eart/The Believers)
7/5: The Coughs (Load Records, noise rock from Chicago)
7/23: French Toast (Dischord)/Lucky Pineapple (Louisville post-punk)/The Family Underground (Danish improv psych ensemble)/Book of Common Gestures (Jean Smith of Mecca Normal and David First of The Notekillers)
DC9:
6/26: Brightblack Morning Light (Matador psych-folk)/Espers (Drag City, psych-folk from Philadelphia)/Mariee Sioux
6/29: Drunk Horse (Tee Pee Records)/Birds of Avalon (ex-Cherry Valence)
Warehouse Next Door:
6/23: Zodiac Mountain (mem. of Wooden Wand/Davenport)/Religious Knives (mem. of Double Leopards/Mouthus)/Chris Grier/Insect Facotry/Rivers In Fields
6/30: The Good Anna (experimental guitar/drums duo from the UK)/The Blizzards (mem. of Castanets/Owl Sounds/La Otracina)/Knife Crazy (mem. of The Bloody Hollies)
7/7: Rosetta/Day Without Dawn/Wetnurse/The Heuristic
7/10: Shearwater/The Court & Spark/Donny Hue & The Colors
7/12: Carla Bozulich's Evangelista (Constellation Records)/Dead Science
7/15: Francisco Lopez (electronic drone composer from Spain)/Violet *in Warehouse Black Box Theatre*
7/16: Vetiver (Gnomonsong/DiChristina)/Benjy Ferree
7/19: Rah Bras/Genghis Tron (Crucial Blast)/Buck Gooter
7/20: Kohoutek/Icy Demons (mem. of Bablicon/Need New Body)/Skeleton & The Girl-Faced Boys/Eagle-Ager (multi-media absurdist performance art)
8/1: Oneida (Jagjaguwar)/The Apes/Awesome Color (Ecstatic Peace)
8/5: Alkem Benefit w/ Greg Osby (Blue Note)/DCIC/Joe Lally
8/12: King Valley/Unorthodox/Admiral Browning
8/13: Indian (Chicago sludge/doom)
8/18: Wooly Mammoth (CD release)/Owls & Crows/Kohoutek/John Bustine
8/23: Beirut (Ba-Da-Bing!)/Curtains (mem. of Deerhoof)/Get Him Eat Him
8/27: HZMT/Piasa/Height/Werewolf Unit
8/30: USAISAMONSTER (Load Records)
and TBD 8/3: Pumice (from New Zealand)
