Seattle composer John Teske presents a new suite of graphic and generated works for any ensemble as part of his ongoing vectorscores project. Since 2016, John has been writing music with vectorscores, which uses web technologies to generate and render scores. The shape of each piece is composed, with some flexibility in the details, so the works as a whole are crafted but each performance is unique. The new suite explores some recurring thoughts, visions, and dreams from a dark and surreal time, as well as expanding on the potential of the vectorscores project.

Any Ensemble:
Greg Campbell, percussion
Luke Fitzpatrick, violin
Haley Freedlund, trombone
Noel Kennon, viola
John Teske, double bass
Neil Welch, saxophone

John Teske writes contemporary concert music and creates site-specific concert experiences. Many of his works use graphic and alternate notation systems to craft works with an improvisational element. His recent work includes vectorscores, a collection of graphic and generated compositions; topographies, a series of musical contour maps through which musicians navigate; site-specific performances in Seattle parks; and a series of works for chamber orchestra. His music has been performed across the United States, in South America, France, and Russia, and has received support from the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, the Jack Straw Foundation, and the City of Seattle.

Presented by Nonsequitur.

SF Bay Area post-classical artist Cellista will perform excerpts from her latest album Transfigurations, an avant-garde, conceptual multimedia work steeped in genres, social commentary and fueled by the conscious imagery that surrounds us all. It blends ambient noise with slices of hip hop, classical music, and alternative pop to tell a common narrative through music and film and literature.

She is joined by The Zero Collective, an on-going open source collaboration specializing in improvisation, noise and audio surrealism. Sonic improviser, instrument builder and destroyer, wave distorter and analog synthesist noisepoetnobody also joins along with collaborator Cailleach.

LISTEN to noisepoetnobody’s set.

Lisbon’s Alforjs is like a strange bag on the back of the mule of the almocreve [itinerant trader], filled with assorted artifacts and relics accumulated while encountering various landscapes, traditions and rituals. Deformed from the swelling caused by so many collected cultural objects, its original weft is what unites all these references and transports them to another existence in a new form. Alforjs have always aimed to make non-referential music away from a mimicry of watertight musical genres, aiming to create idiosyncratic music with a deep and direct relationship with the context in which the band is inserted – a reflection of the cauldron of disparate influences that is Lisbon in the 21st century, from the most avant-garde jazz, to the darkest and most peripheral dance music, to noise, to electronics and electroacoustics.

Bad Luck performs in another cosmos from most bands. With more than a decade of collaboration, Neil Welch (saxophone + live electronics) and Christopher Icasiano (drums) “bear down on you like a cyclone of fire” (The Stranger). Based out of Seattle, Bad Luck is a genre-defying supernova of electronics, metal, folk and jazz. Their new album, Four, recorded at Avast Studios with Randall Dunn (Sunn O))), Earth, Marissa Nadler) slams the epic energy of free improvisations into shorter, rhythmic forms. Welch screams and breathes into his horn, acoustically creates chords, and uses electronics more familiar to guitar players. Icasiano does things that seem impossible with four drumsticks at once. “Outside of music’s commonly accepted beat exists an emancipated, implied meter, an empowered and truly free human expression.” – CityArts

Watch video of the sets by Bad Luck and Alförjs, thanks to elhotrod32.

Bleeps+Loops presents SPACE, a meditative ambient soundscape & planetarium experience in quadraphonic audio (4-speaker surround sound).

The soundtrack to your individual meditations will be provided by a collective of modular synthesists, whose individual acts will overlap to create a continuous sonic experience.

This music is best experienced in repose; we encourage attendees to bring pillows, blankets, yoga mats… anything that will nurture a contemplative space. Sit or lay back, and allow the ambient sounds of modular synthesizers wash over and surround you. Projections of the night sky, in which to get deeply and peacefully lost, play overhead.

PERFORMERS
Tim Held
Snowdn
Fathom the Void
ZodiacGallery
Demitrius
Vawter
Ohn Dāka
Auxia
Brien Barrett
Lousy Falcon

Gift Tapes/DRAFT presents Jason E Anderson and RM Francis, with support from Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture. Jason E Anderson will present a new composition called CORM (Consequence of Recursive Memory). RM Francis will present new computer synthesis work to open the evening. All proceeds from this performance will be donated to friend and fellow musician Norm Chambers to assist him with medical expenses.

Anderson will also deliver a one hour workshop/demonstration at Patchwerks at 3 PM prior to this event. He will discuss the new composition and share some strategies he’s devised to control modular synths with SuperCollider.

Jason E Anderson is an artist now living in the Inland Empire of the Pacific Northwest, having left Seattle in 2018 to live among the Palouse farmlands just outside of Pullman WA. His work includes performance, recordings, film/video, installation, music for dance, producing and publishing. Anderson performs and records music under his own name and in performance art/film collaboration LIMITS with dancer Corrie Befort. In 2001, he began performing in Seattle’s free improv/experimental music circles and in 2008 he co-founded improv synth duo Brother Raven with Jamie Potter, leading to his active involvement in the synth music scene running experimental music label Gift Tapes/DRAFT. In performance, Anderson employs systems that generate sound and patterns that are subject to manual manipulation. His occasional use of voice/text, particularly in the context of LIMITS, has augmented his use of abstract sound with extra-musical information to address concepts and context within the auditory realm. See also: Mesh Collaborative, Space Habitat, Spare Death Icon, and Harpoon Pole Vault.

About CORM

Consequence of Recursive Memory is a composition for voice/computer, comprised of prepared texts spoken by the performer in dialogue with a computer as a framework to observe recursion within human memory. The computer ‘listens’ to text spoken by the performer, which uses statistical analysis to model increasingly complex responses articulated by means of rudimentary sound synthesis. The system is biased to stimulate conceptual links between the textual content and technological process, but obfuscates speech intelligibility and pacing to equalize this information with the electronic sound.

The composition and performance of CORM are made possible with support from the Office of Arts and Culture, City of Seattle.

RM Francis is an artist working with computer-generated sound via performance, recording, and installation. His work has been presented throughout North America at numerous festivals, including Debacle (Seattle), 2 Day (Portland), Diffusion (Baltimore), and Human Festival (Philadelphia). His Hyperplastic Other project is a series of works utilizing chocolate, video, performance, and sound to dramatize alternative models of subjectivity. Francis was also a member of Mesh Collaborative, a computer music ensemble employing network architecture to explore novel modes of distributed authorship and human-computer collaboration. He lives in Seattle, where he is also active as a concert organizer.

After 16 years of musical collaboration, drummer Ted Poor and trumpeter Cuong Vu come together in a rare duet setting to celebrate new beginnings.

Ted joined Cuong’s band in the Spring of 2003 and the two have been making music together ever since. They have made numerous records together and toured the world over. The tables are now turned, with Ted supplying the repertoire and driving the initial aesthetic. This concert will surely be a celebration of space, groove, melody and resonance.

Ted Poor is a Seattle-based drummer whose adventurous, soulful playing has vaulted him to the stages of some of today’s most important musicians and placed him amongst those drummers most in demand. After graduating from the Eastman School of Music in 2003, Ted moved from his hometown of Rochester, NY to New York City where he quickly made a deep impression on its jazz and indie-rock music communities. In his ten years in NYC Ted appeared on dozens of recordings and shared the stage with many world renowned artists such as Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Cuong Vu, Ben Monder, Myra Melford, Mark Turner, Gabriel Kahane, My Brightest Diamond, Aaron Parks, and Ralph Alessi.

Now a resident of Seattle, Ted has joined the band of Los Angeles based singer/song-writer Andrew Bird; appearing on and touring the albums Are You Serious and My Finest Work Yet (Loma Vista/Concord). As his presence in the Los Angeles music community has grown, Ted has collaborated with producers and artists such as Michel Froom, Blake Mills, Tony Berg and Madison Cunningham – appearing on Cunningham’s recent release Who Are You Now (Verve). Ted also performs regularly on the live radio broadcast of Live From Here with Chris Thile.

In the fall of 2018, Ted signed with record label New Deal (Verve/Universal) and is currently finishing his debut release You Already Know, a collaboration with saxophonist Andrew D’Angelo and producer Blake Mills. Ted is currently an Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle. Ted endorses C&C Drums.

Cuong Vu is widely recognized by jazz critics as a leader of a generation of innovative musicians. A truly unique musical voice, Cuong has lent his trumpet playing talents to a wide range of artists including Pat Metheny, Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Dave Douglas, Myra Melford, Cibo Matto, and Mitchell Froom.

As a youngster, Cuong’s intense dedication and love for music led him to a full scholarship at New England Conservatory of Music where he received his Bachelor of Music in Jazz studies with a distinction in performance. Transitioning from his studies in Boston, he moved to New York in 1994 and began his career actively leading various groups while touring extensively throughout the world. As a leader, Cuong has released eight recordings, each making critics’ lists of the 10 best recordings of their respective years. Each record displays how he has carved out a distinctive sonic territory on the trumpet, blurring all stylistic borders while developing his own compositional aesthetic.

A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Cuong was awarded the Colbert Award for Excellence: The Downtown Arts Project Emerging Artist Award. Currently an associate professor in jazz studies, he was awarded the University of Washington’s prestigious Distinguished Teacher Award in his third year on faculty and is a Donald E. Petersen Endowed Professor.

In 2002 and 2006, Cuong was a recipient of the Grammy for Best Contemporary Jazz Album as a member of the Pat Metheny Group. He’s been recognized as one of the top 50 young Jazz Artists in an article called “The New Masters” from the British magazine, “Classic CD” and in 2006 was named the Best International Jazz Artist by the Italian Jazz Critics’ Society. Amazon listed Vu’s Come Play With Me on their “The 100 Greatest Jazz Albums of All Time”. Cuong is a Yamaha Performing Artist, playing the Yamaha Custom YTR8310Z trumpet.

(photos: Ted Poor by Piper Hanson; Cuong Vu by Steve Korn)

Post-classical composers and pianists Kyte Mika (Seattle) and Peter Colclasure (San Jose, CA) play a set each of original work, aiming for a soothing, ambient, and beautiful sonic landscape.

Peter Colclasure is a Bay Area composer who lived in Seattle for six years. He played in various rock bands and toured full time before finding work as a ballet accompanist. Asked to write music for dance performances, he started composing instrumental music, blending piano, Fender Rhodes, sampled loops, distortion, and strings. He has since released two albums, performed at the San Francisco Center for New Music, and had nearly a dozen of his pieces choreographed by various dance companies across the country. His music was described as “Steve Reich meets Radiohead” by one review, but you can hear traces of Bach, Philip Glass, Debussy, and Olafur Arnalds.

Kyte Mika is a pianist and composer native to the Pacific Northwest, and has been working out of Seattle for the past five years. Since stumbling on neglected pianos as a kid, they have spent the past 18 years combing influences from post classical, ambient, and electronic genres to evoke distinct and fascinating narratives.

Athens, Ohio-based percussionist, composer, and educator Aaron Michael Butler presents concerts of contemporary solo and chamber music, and has been active in the creation of new works through commissioning composers of his generation. His recent work includes a solo release on Full Spectrum Records (Tim Feeney’s Things I Said I’d Never Be), a performance at the Black Mountain College Museum’s {Re}Happening, touring and recording Brian Harnetty’s latest project, Shawnee, Ohio (karlrecords), with performances at the Liquid Music Series and Duke Performances, and presentations at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and Nief Norf’s Genre Lines Research Summit.

For this performance, Aaron will be featuring works recently composed for him by Nick Zammuto (of The Books), Brian Harnetty, and Rob Funkhouser; and David Gibson’s Lillian Brook, a ground-breaking vibraphone solo from 1973 that was nearly lost until Aaron revived it for performance in 2018.

Local percussion ace Bonnie Whiting opens, and the two will also play duo improvisations.

Touring duos Marcia Bassett / Samara Lubelski (NYC) and Kaori Suzuki / John Krausbauer (Oakland) perform at the Chapel Performance Space with Seattle’s Greg Kelley / Rob Millis. Doors open at 7:30.

MARCIA BASSETT (guitar) and SAMARA LUBELSKI (violin) first performed as a duo in 2009, improvising musical scores to films by Michael Snow and Hollis Frampton at X-Initiative, Next Years Model series at DIA. Since their initial collaboration, Bassett and Lubelski have continued to draw from their like-minded approach to improvisational music; creating personal interplay with the environmental surroundings to expand on abstraction, chromatic noise, and long form drone. Both Bassett and Lubelski have extensive backgrounds in the East Coast/NYC sub-underground. Bassett has performed in experimental music projects for over twenty years including Un, GHQ, Hototogisu, Double Leopards and her solo project Zaïmph. Lubelski is best known as a solo artist with eight full-length releases, but she has also been involved in various art-music provocations – Hall of Fame, Tower Recordings, as a member of Thurston Moore’s band, and in her associations with the long-standing German collective Metabolismus. The 2012 release of their first LP Sunday Night, Sunday Afternoon on KYE Records, was praised as having “ … incredible expanses and delicately menacing interplay with an increasingly satisfying audaciousness upon each subsequent listen.” — Paul Haney, Tiny Mix Tapes. The latest LP, Live NYC, (Feeding Tube Records, June 2017) “Elegantly shows just how much brain damage you can do using only a guitar and a violin… A tale of twinned and lightly fuzzed tones, twirling and blending…The threads of sound absolutely phosphoresce. It’s an incredible mix of motion, stillness and power.” – Byron Coley. The duo will have a new LP release on Drawing Room Records Fall 2019.

Kaori Suzuki (US/JP) and John Krausbauer (US) will present music for voices, amplified strings, electronics, and bell percussion. Their work originates from a shared interest in ecstatic and spiritual musics as well as the “avant-garde”. Utilizing sustained tones, alternate tunings, long durations/playing endurances, and stroboscopic lighting, their music explores the parameters and possibilities of psychotropic “experiential” environments rather than the strictly “musical”. Watch video: The Lab, 2018.

Rob Millis (guitarist, author, filmmaker, Climax Golden Twins, Idol Ko Si) & Greg Kelley (trumpeter, insurance underwriter, nmperign, Heathen Shame) have performed twice as a duo, one time involving their usual instruments guitar & trumpet in a resplendent display of feedback, the other time involving the Baldwin Fun Machine, an electric organ manufactured in the 1970s and known for creating good times, and a slide whistle run through delay and a ring modulator. Both attempts were considered successful by the participants and the third time is the proverbial charm.

Pianist Thollem McDonas is coming to town in the midst of his 6-month U.S. tour to join forces with trumpeter Samantha Boshnack and multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio. All three composers are masters of their instruments. As a trio, they bring an extraordinarily wide array of techniques and experiences to one singular concert in Seattle. These musicians approach music with precision and abandon, fierceness and joy as they explore the infinite possibilities of their instruments and their relationship to each other.

Thollem has spent his life skirting and erasing the edges of boundaries musically, culturally and geographically. His work is ever-changing, evolving and responding to the times and his experiences, both as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of artists across idioms and disciplines. In the last 15 years he has released over 60 albums on 22 vanguard labels to international critical acclaim. “Thollem is a modern griot who has absorbed sounds from every place he has visited.” (William Parker from Conversations II, Rogue Art).

Member of Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame Amy Denio is an award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist (guitar family, bass, alto sax, clarinet, accordion) with a four-octave vocal range. She has written more than 400 works and has produced over 50 recordings solo and in collaboration with artists worldwide. Based in Seattle, she runs her own recording studio, record label and publishing company, Spoot Music. Her 17th solo release EUREKA will be released in September, 2019 by Klanggalerie (Vienna, Austria) in collaboration with Spoot Music.

Prolific composer/trumpeter Samantha Boshnack is based in Seattle, where she leads three ensembles dedicated to playing her compositions; Samantha Boshnack’s Seismic Belt, B’shnorkestra and the Sam Boshnack Quintet. She is also a member of the composer-collective Alchemy Sound Project and co-led Reptet. She has released five critically-acclaimed albums as a bandleader, and toured extensively. “Boshnack can scream or play it sweet.” (All About Jazz New York)