On May 19th I’ll be sitting in with electronic musician Philippe Petit at Issue Project Room.

July 2nd Opsvik & Jennings will be at Joe’s Pub with Huntsville.
You can be-friend us here…

Zimoun : Sound Sculptures & Installations | Compilation Video V1.7 from ZIMOUN VIDEO ARCHIVE on Vimeo.

Last weeks IBeam gig was one of those group improv sets that you always hope you have.
Six people that have never played together, all with different approaches to creating and manipulating sound. Considerable potential for a sonic-soup-sandwich averted by deep listening and what I can only describe as a desire to carve out our own communal sonic space. The kind of set that ends with a pause and a deep breath, as if coming out of a trance state.

I’m curious to hear if the recording will reflect this feeling. With these kinds of gigs I lean more towards the idea that it’s all about the moment, and that doesn’t always translate to “tape”. Hopefully I’ll be able to post something in the next few weeks.

In the meantime check out El MuCo’s page, complete with photos and a recording of their first piece of the night.

Friday, Feb. 12th

I’ll be playing with a group of electro-acoustic composer-performers at Ibeam Brooklyn.

Traditional instruments (saxophone, trumpet, guitar, etc.) and
Slovakian folk instruments such as fujara and sheep bells with electronics.
Some improv, some compositions, a lot of good music

@ Ibeam Music
Brooklyn, New York
8:30 pm $10 suggested

Ignite a Noise presents: Slov-Core

fujara player

Juraj Kojs: fujara, sheep bells, electronics
Michael Straus: saxophones
Andrew Greenwald: percussion and electronics
Scott Petersen: guitar, electronics + homemade electronics
Brian Kane: electronics + homemade electronics
Paula Matthusen: electronics
Rich Johnson: trumpet + laptop

Juraj Kojs:
Juraj Kojs is a performer, composer, producer, and educator. He is a Postdoctoral Associate in Music Technology and Multimedia Art at Yale’s Department of Music. In May 2008, Kojs received his Ph.D. in Composition and Music Technologies at the University of Virginia. Kojs’ compositions were recently featured at festivals and conferences in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Kojs’ works received awards at Eastman Electroacoustic Composition and Performance Competition and the Digital Art Award. His articles appeared in journals such as Organized Sound, Digital Creativity, Leonardo Music Journal, and Journal of New Music Research.

Mike Straus:
Amsterdam-based saxophonist Michael Straus is responsible for the commissioning and premieres of over seventy compositions and can regularly be seen collaborating with composers, visual artists, turntablists, conductors, dancers and other instrumentalists around the world. His extensive performance career has led to concert appearances throughout the United States, Holland, Canada, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Ireland. He is founder of the multimedia performance and commissioning project What are you looking at? and regularly performs with the chamber ensembles quux, portals of distortion and rare degree. He is the recent recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for studies in Amsterdam and holds M.M. degrees in saxophone performance and computer music from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and a B.M. from Louisiana State University.

Andrew Greenwald:
Andrew Greenwald (born 1980, Queens N.Y), produces work which satisfies his fascination with the extremes of duration, density, texture, and their collective absence. His compositions have been programed by The Vancouver Jazz Festival, Festival of New Trumpet Music, Nhebraska Noise Fest., DUMBO Art Under the Bridge, SoundBubbles(for emerging NYC artists), Darrmstadt ‘Essential Repertoire of the Avant-Garde’ at Issue Project Room, HI-Fi New Music, the International Supercollider Symposium, and the 2010 MATA Festival. Residencies include The Banff Centre, Western Front (Vancouver BC), Harold Arts, Pamplemousse Seedlot, and Soaring Gardens. He has been commissioned by Ensemble Pamplemousse, On Structure, Tall Brown Boots, and the Flux Quartet. Work has been supported by NYSCA, The Argosy Foundation, The A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’connor Foundation, Wesleyan University, and the Ora Lerman Trust.

An active educator, Andrew has been an invited lecturer at the Manhattan School of Music, the School at the Art Institute of Chicago, Hartwick College, and taught classes at The Banff Centre and Wesleyan University. He holds a BM in music from New York University(cum laude), and is currently a graduate fellow in the composition program at Wesleyan University, working with advisor Alvin Lucier.

Scott Petersen and Brian Kane
El MuCo |el moōkō|
El MuCo is a group of composers and musicians dedicated to the production and performance of new music with electronics in the New Haven, CT area. El MuCo’s current activities revolve around hardware hacking (circuit bending) and the creation of new, custom musical interfaces for performance.

Paula Matthusen is a composer, currently based in Miami and New York.
She writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound
installations. Her work often considers discrepancies in musical
space–real, imagined, and remembered. Her music has been performed
by Alarm Will Sound, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE),
orchest de ereprijs, Ballett Frankfurt, Dither, Glass Farm Ensemble,
Kathryn Woodard, James Moore, Jody Redhage, and Todd Reynolds. She
performs frequently with the electroacoustic ensembles ouisaudei,
Object Collection, and winter company. Awards include a Fulbright
Grant, two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers’ Award, First Prize in
the Young Composers’ Meeting Composition Competition, the MacCracken
and Langley Ryan Fellowship, and a Van Lier Fellowship. Matthusen is
currently Director of Music Technology at Florida International
University.

If your looking for something to do Saturday afternoon head to Bowery Poetry Club and help support Jesse Neuman’s next visit to these great kids.

Saturday 23rd 2pm Bowery Poetry Club (308 Bowery @ 2nd St.)

“Benefit for Brass” concert to raise funds for a 2nd volunteer seminar with
Fundacion Brass Band del Ecuador, a school & community safehaven
for underprivileged students and families in Quito, Ecuador.

Featuring members of Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Brooklyn Qawwali Party,
Imogen Heap, Michael Bolton, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Ursa Minor,
Bjork, Josh Ritter, and the Saturday Night Live band.

A tax deductible $20 suggested donation may be made online at www.FracturedAtlas.org on
behalf of MUSICWORKS (https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/2849).

Checks and cash will also be accepted at the door.

On Jan. 15th at 6:30 the Ignite a Noise Trumpet Trio will be playing with experimental chamber-pop duo Opsvik & Jennings at this seasons Festival of New Trumpet Music series Forward Flight.

This promises to be a great night of music with O&J + Ignite, followed by Chicago Underground Duo’s Cornetist Rob Mazurek and drummer Chad Taylor celebrating the release of Boca Negra, their fifth recording for Chicago’s Thrill Jockey Records, and indie rock’s The Low Anthem with special appearance by Dave Douglas.

Ticket’s are priced low at $15 for THE WHOLE NIGHT of music!!

You can also get a complete festival pass for all 3 nights, Thurs-Sat, for only $40! To top things off there’s a benefit Wednesday, Jan. 13th, celebrating “The Music And Legacy of Wilmer Wise”. If you don’t know Wilmer check out this post by Dave at Greenleaf Music. All proceeds from the Benefit and Forward Flight go to benefit FONT Music’s nonprofit programs, including commissions of new trumpet music by emerging artists.

I’m looking forward to getting more into my new monome.
“what’s a monone?” you ask.

a reconfigurable grid of backlit keypads which connects to a computer. interaction between the keys and lights is determined by the application running on the computer. there is no hard-wired functionality.

ok, so what does that mean?

basically, it means the sky’s the limit. Live sample cutters, math simulations, drum machines, generative controllers, tonal maps, games, visualizations – all open source and community driven.

Built by brian crabtree and kelli cain in the catskills.

we strive for economic and ecological sustainability. careful design practice allows us to contribute to culture and preserve the environment by choosing domestic, high-quality, and responsible providers and production facilities. we acknowledge that our future will depend on our ability to support and maintain a local, regenerative economy.

i think this will become a main part of my live set up, as well as a big influence on the next recording.
stay tuned…..

Saturday 8:30
The “Batteries” Duo + Rich Johnson solo electronic set

The “Batteries” Duo
Gareth Flowers – trumpet and electronics
Josh Frank – trumpet and electronics

The “Batteries” Duo is an ambient psychedelic duo.
Using laptops and samplers, the ‘Batteries’ duo creates a unique breed of spacious, timeless,
non-jazz that is steeped in both traditional and non-traditional minimalism.
The sets are mostly improvised, and often rely on a deliberately limited harmonic language to create the atmospheric,
languishing sound that they are known for.

ORJE
Rich Johnson – trumpet, laptop, iPhone, Wiimote

Drone-acousmatronic-glitchfolk from member of experimental chamber pop group Opsvik & Jennings.

I-Beam Music

168 7th St (between Second and Third Aves)
Brooklyn
Subway: F, M, R to Fourth Ave–9th St
Tickets: $10