Calendar of Events:
(click performer names for extended bio)
Wednesday, Feb 9
The first night of this year's festival features solo performances by three of the west coast's most innovative performers.
The first night of this year's festival features solo performances by three of the west coast's most innovative performers.
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Paul Hoskin (Clallam Bay) solo baritone saxophone
Paul Hoskin's solo performance at this year's festival is a truly special event. Paul founded the Seattle Improvised Music Festival twenty years ago, and is world renowned for his epic solo performances, exhilarating for all those in attendance. Absent from Seattle performances for the past few years, his return is highly anticipated. Paul writes the following as a preview for the festival's solo concert appearance:
CHANTS
(or, improvisation informs form)
An exploration into chants. Where is repetition? What is a sound?
Multiplicity is a constant.
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Karen Stackpole (Bay Area) solo gongs
Karen Stackpole brings an entirely different approach to 'percussion'. Her work with gongs and other metal can be both meditative and jarring."Gongs and resonance are the calling. Small distinct sounds (a la insect music) and use of silence and space rank high also."
Karen Stackpole at bayimproviser.com -
Tim DuRoche (Portland) solo percussion
Tim DuRoche melds a conceptual performance sensibility with his jazz-informed rhythmic drumming. The Stranger writes,"I saw DuRoche a few months ago and marveled at how he treated his drum kit (augmented with lots of little toys and objects) as a playful laboratory. Creating new sounds and rhythmic juxtapositions during the entire set, DuRoche thwapped his cymbals with towels, jabbed the drumheads with unusual sticks, and did too many other marvelous things to list here."
Tim DuRoche homepage
8:00pm, Gallery 1412, $10-$20 sliding scale
Thursday, Feb 10
Possibly the most diverse night of the festival, Thursday's concert features three completely different perspectives on improvised music from both coasts.
Possibly the most diverse night of the festival, Thursday's concert features three completely different perspectives on improvised music from both coasts.
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Manpack Variant (Brooklyn) electronics duo
Manpack Variant is Brooklyn electronicists Jaime Fennelly (of psi) and Chris Peck. Brought together by a mutual interest in the reconfiguration and regurgitation of military-industrial technology and ideology in the context of subliminal noise performance aktions, the pair has created a number of celebrated one-off community rituals that drown in murky waters below the threshold of audibility.
Manpack Variant homepage -
Arrington de Dionyso (Olympia) solo clarinets
Arrington de Dionyso, known for his relentless vocalizing and clarinet playing, uses his experience with throatsinging, Tuvan and other, to project a fiery whirlwind of sound. Placing he and his audience in an otherwordly space, with all the energy of the original sparks of the universe.
Old Time Relijun homepage -
Floss (Seattle)
Members of the Monktail Creative Music Concern, Floss is three emerging Seattle improvisers:
Izak Mills, woodwinds
Mark Ostrowski, percussion
John Seman - double bass
From Earshot Jazz Newsletter:"They incorporate a lot of musical influences that most mainstream American youth internalize, namely metal and punk. Yet they do not turn their backs on the legacy of the group’s instrumentation."
And from the Monktail website:"Originators of the Bopcore genre, Miles Gloriosus and His Golden Floss are a band of jazz nazis."
Floss bring both mayhem and honesty.
monktail.com
8:00pm, Gallery 1412, $10-$20 sliding scale
Friday, Feb 11
Friday night's concert will be a great contrast from the Bay Area's What We Live, who investigate concepts central to the tradition of jazz-based improvisation, and Seattle's Na, who combine improvisation and noise with a slight pop slant. Check out two totally different perspectives on improvised music.
Friday night's concert will be a great contrast from the Bay Area's What We Live, who investigate concepts central to the tradition of jazz-based improvisation, and Seattle's Na, who combine improvisation and noise with a slight pop slant. Check out two totally different perspectives on improvised music.
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What We Live (Bay Area)
What We Live is three accomplished and renowned veteran Bay Area improvisers: Larry Ochs, tenor and soprano saxophones Lisle Ellis, bass Donald Robinson, drums and percussion The ensemble's formation was inspired by and a direct result of Ellis' work with Ochs and Robinson within the context of the Glenn Spearman Double Trio, which performed and recorded from 1991 until the leader's death in 1998. Ellis' initial vision was to bring together a small group of musicians to invetigate concepts central to the tradition of jazz-based improvisation - swing, song form, modalities, etc - in a less explicit manner than the mainstream but in a more emphatically traditional way than offered by the practice of free jazz. Over a period of time the concept of the trio evolved more towards a collective situation rather than being solely the vision of an individual musician. Compositions by Ellis and Ochs as well as group compositions make up the music.
What We Live homepage -
Na (Seattle) japanese improvisation/noise/pop
Na formed in the summer of 2004 in Seattle, taking their name from the Japanese word for a kind of beautiful flower. Sometimes found wearing robes or homemade hats, Na consists of three performers: Noriaki Watanabe, Shinsuke Yamada, and Kazu Nomura. Na reaches musical cacophony, combining improvisation and noise with a slight pop slant and a good sense of humor. The group performs with all instruments possible, including classical guitar, piano, electronic guitar, laptop, cymbals and vocals. Since they began last summer, Na has been busy releasing dozens of CDRs and organizing tons of performances.
Na homepage
8:00pm, Gallery 1412, $10-$20 sliding scale
Saturday, Feb 12
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Improvised Music Workshop
Facilitated by Chris Cogburn (Austin), Gust Burns (Seattle), and other festival participants TBA
Workshop facilitators will briefly perfrom, then discuss with participants what worked, what didn't and how this can apply to music improvisation in different contexts. Participants and facilitators will then experiment with different group improvisations, discussing the succssess and diffuculties that occured. This workshop is created with the intention of sharpening improvising skills for both musicians and non-musicians who have a marked interest in improvised music.
-All are encouraged to participate.
*1pm, Gallery 1412, $5-$15 suggested donation
Saturday, Feb 12
These three groups include artists from both coasts of the country. A National meeting of young improvisers, all of whom are breaking important new ground in their respective communities.
These three groups include artists from both coasts of the country. A National meeting of young improvisers, all of whom are breaking important new ground in their respective communities.
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Beach Party (Austin - Portland - Boston)
Beach Party is Linda Gale Aubry (Boston), electronics; Chris Cogburn (Austin), percussion; and Bryan Eubanks (portland), soprano saxophone and analog tape.
The trio first met and performed together at last year's NO IDEA FESTIVAL, in Austin Texas. Beach Party represent a new wave of improvisers in the States, one that has successfully dealt with it's lineages and genealogies, to the point where they are completely transparent, allowing a truly new music to emerge. Oftentimes sparse, narrative-less, othertimes loud and invigorating. -
Gutcanes Trio (Los Angeles - Seattle)
Gutcanes trio is Sara Shoenbeck (Los Angeles), basson, Jesse Canterbury (Seattle), clarinets, and Nathan Levine (Seattle), bass. An unusual instrumentation from up and down the west coast. Expect to hear avant chamber music focused on the spiral and spinning forms. -
Murderous Copulation of Birds (Seattle)
Murderous Copulation of Birds is a long-standing project of Cristin Miller (Seattle), voice and Gregory Reynolds (Seattle), alto saxophone. Highly physical and breath-oriented improvisations that are informed by the alchemical concept of annihilation (of the individual) through intercourse (the creation of a third identity from the loss of the two). This duo routinely leaves audiences gasping for air.
8:00pm, Gallery 1412, $10-$20 sliding scale
Sunday, Feb 13
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Panel Discussion
Featuring many of the festival performers
The panel of musicians performing in this years festival will discuss the current state of the improvised music community both regionally and nationally as well as worldwide. Come and offer your thoughts with these improvisers and all those in attendance.
-All are encouraged to participate.
*3:00pm, Gallery 1412, Free admission
Sunday, Feb 13
Finishing off the festival proper, a night featuring a rare NW appearance by French percussionist Lê Quan Ninh, and an exciting new Seattle duo project Kamigakari.
Finishing off the festival proper, a night featuring a rare NW appearance by French percussionist Lê Quan Ninh, and an exciting new Seattle duo project Kamigakari.
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Lê Quan Ninh (France) solo percussion
Lê Quan Ninh is one of Europe's most sought-after percussionists. A completely unique approach to percussion, focussing on a single bass drum, applying other percussions to it, on it."I try to deeply trust in sound (the air vibrations generated by the instruments) and the silence. In a relation almost animist, I try to catch each vibration that each instrument indicates as necessary. I try to not be afraid of my memory, but to take support from it, to escape from it, and create new collusions. It’s take and drop at the same time. Possession and dispossession."
Lê Quan Ninh homepage -
Kamigakari (Seattle)
Kamigakari is the duo with Beth Fleenor (Seattle), clarinet and Mark Oi (Seattle), electric guitar. Kamigakari disconnect from the larger ensemble works they’re associated with to navigate the running channels of collective memory. With the aid of some electronics and light machinery, this dynamic duo happily flies their garbage truck of flowers and skulls to somewhere just over yonder, to gain a clearer perspective of now.
8:00pm, Gallery 1412, $10-$20 sliding scale
Monday, Feb 14
An ad hoc after-festival.
An ad hoc after-festival.
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Sound of the Underbrush / Meeting of Improvisers
Festival participants will come together and make music in different groupings not yet experienced during the rest of the festival. Presented by Open Music Workshop, Sound of the Underbrush has been an ongoing weekly series for the past three years, hosting perfomances by local, regional and visiting sound artists combined with open-participation sessions.