Mikroknytes (DC violin/electronics duo on Scarcelight, Crank Automotive)
Mountains (NYC electro-acoustic experimentalists on Apestaartje)
Dan Higgs (Lungfish vocalist playing solo acoustic guitar)
Sharks With Wings (Philly no-wave psych ensemble)

Mikroknytes
http://www.mikroknytes.com
Mikroknytes began sometime in 1998. Derek Morton and John Coursey (aka Commie 64 and Redknyte respectively) began improvising with keyboards, violins and f/x pedals. Like Commie's other freeform lo-fi electronic groups, Music Arch de Lux and Commodore 64, m_Knytes followed the path of the tripped-out-power-drone. Soon however, the Mikroknytes yearned for new directions, and new sounds. Redknyte began acquiring f/x for his violin to explore other sonic possibilites. By Spinus 99 (an unreleased CD-R demo) the group was experimenting with cheap sampling devices to augment the 8-bit beats of their beloved Casios.

Mountains
http://www.staartje.com
Mountains is an ongoing collaboration between Apestaartje cofounders Brendon Anderegg and Koen Holtkamp. Having worked in parallel and often overlappingcontexts within their respective solo projects (Aero & Anderegg), Mountains was initially created as an outlet for live performance. After numerous performances they decided it was time to document the experience and this their debut album was born. Four lengthy pieces composed around acoustic instrumentation and field recordings gradually blend with subtle electronics and live sampling to create an extremely dynamic and detailed listening experience that ranges from quiet crackling to dense layers of harmonic texture. Psychedelia, Americana and classical Minimalism are just a few of the genres referenced in this epic suite of resonant frequencies. "Infinite sheets of grainy sound build and renew themselves to immensely pleasing effect." (The Wire)

	Max Ochs (Md. fingerpicker on Takoma's first compilation) Glenn Jones (of Cul De Sac, Strange Attractors) Sean Smith (West Coast fingerpicker)

Clavius Productions presents an evening of transcendent solo acoustic guitar, honoring the release of the Imaginational Anthems compilation, which includes all three performers on the bill.

Saturday, November 5
611 Florida Ave NW WDC

Max Ochs (from Baltimore/Annapolis, original Takoma fingerpicker!)
Glenn Jones (from Boston, of Cul De Sac, on Strange Attractors)
Sean Smith (from California, on Isota Records)

The newly-formed, NYC-based indie label Tompkins Square Records plans on officially kicking things off on October 25th with their first CD release, Imaginational Anthems. A collection of acoustic guitar music, the 16-track set spans 40 years of performances from 1965 through 2005. Compiled by Tompkins Square founder/former Sony Music executive Josh Rosenthal, the album will feature the talents of obscure six-string wizards like Harry Taussig, Steve Mann and Max Ochs alongside better-known artists like John Fahey and Sandy Bull. In several instances, the long-lost musicians unearthed by Rosenthal recorded their first tracks in decades exclusively for Imaginational Anthems. "I've been a devotee of solo acoustic guitar music since I bought my first John Fahey record when in high school," Rosenthal told Billboard. "About two years ago, I found a very rare LP, Contemporary Guitar, Spring '67, on Takoma. The album featured Bukka White, Robbie Basho, Fahey, Max Ochs and Harry Taussig. I was haunted by the Ochs and Taussig tracks and needed to know what happened to these two artists in particular, as I could not find any info about them. I wanted to unearth some great players from that exciting experimental time in music and juxtapose them with today's torchbearers." Tompkins Square will be releasing albums by some of these exciting guitarists in the future, and a second volume of Imaginational Anthems is already planned for next year, featuring unreleased tracks from John Fahey, Robbie Basho and Fred Gerlach as well as new recordings by Sharron Kraus, Peter Lang, James Blackshaw and Jesse Sparhawk.


Max Ochs
Max Ochs was featured on the very first Takoma Records compilation, Contemporary Guitar, Spring '67, and has since been criminally unrecorded. He was born in Baltimore, is Phil Ochs' cousin, was responsible for turning Robbie Basho on to folk music, and played in the seminal, if obscure, ESP raga band Seventh Sons. Admittedly enamored with Pete Seeger, Ochs until recently operated Annapolis' 333 Coffeehouse, where he occasionally performed. This is, incredibly, his first DC appearance in years. More information on Max can be found in this interview:
http://www.bayweekly.com/year04/issuexii12/lifexii12.html


Glenn Jones
“I'm sure you know who Glenn Jones is, but just in case: Glenn's full-time band, Cul de Sac have amassed a huge following and have been releasing records since well into the Grunge Administration. Despite their long running career, they have only just recently hit their peak with the stunning Death of the Sun (also released by Strange Attractors). And, while this is Glenn's first solo release, he has been playing solo shows for some time around the Northeast, perhaps most notably at the notorious (was it?) Brattleboro Free Folk Festival a couple years back. He also recently lent his guitar prowess to Jack Rose for a track on his second LP, Opium Musick.

This collaboration is very fitting for Glenn, as his solo music is very much in line with Jack Rose's. Jones has an incredibly adept control of the guitar. Over the course of this album's 43 minutes, his guitar soars, stomps, and burrows its way through your speakers with many faces. It opens with the blues-tinged title track, which mournfully moans its way into the deeply moody "Sphinx Unto Curious Men" which was originally released, in greatly truncated form on Cul de Sac's most recent effort, The Strangler's Wife. "Linden Avenue Stomp" has a ragtime feel and may sound familiar: it is the only song on this album with a guest appearance (Jack Rose), and it is the song that Glenn co-wrote for Jack Rose's album (though it is a different take than the song on Opium Musick). "The Doll Hospital" shows Glenn's obvious love for Fahey's music, and "One Jack Rose (That I Mean)" is a richly melodic take on Americana.

Glenn's technical abilities are above any kind of criticism. The first time I saw him play, I was literally watching in disbelief, as the movement of his fingers didn't seem to be matching up with the music coming from his guitar. And I've played guitar for 10 years. I'm generally able to pick apart basically everything I see performed live. But I wasn't prepared for that first time seeing Glenn. But, beyond that, he has the musical wherewithal to release an album like this, packed full of hints, influences, and references to a myriad of world and especially traditional American musics, but make it all so hard to pin down to a single thing.” (Sean Hammond, Fake Jazz)


Sean Smith
http://www.seansmithlives.com/

"Guitarist Sean Smith plays strictly instrumental music in the tradition of Fahey, Basho and Peter Lang, but he alludes to that same sensation of connection in the song notes to his new self-titled CD. For one piece he writes, 'Looking through the pines upon the pseudo-disguised industrial/commercial developments, I glanced to a dark grove of trees and realized, with indescribable visions, that I had begun to be dealt coincidental consequential challenges and would not soon be rid of them. Perhaps, for the first time, my existence was affirmed and presented to me.' For another, he quotes architect/author Gyorgy Doczi: 'When we look deeply into the patterns of an apple blossom, a seashell or a swinging pendulum...we discover a perfection, an incredible order, that awakens in us a sense of awe that we knew as children.'" (SF Gate)

Sir Richard Bishop (of Sun City Girls!!!)
www.suncitygirls.com

Since 1981, Richard Bishop has been traveling the spaceways as 1/3 of Ethno-Improv Pioneers, Sun City Girls. The Girls have released nearly 100 albums and tapes over the last 25 years, many of which are now very difficult to obtain. Sun City Girls have managed to perplex, amaze, and alienate their audiences over the years (as planned) and though they toured heavily in 2004, they will be taking this year off as a trio to work on other projects both at home and abroad.

Sir Richard Bishop is taking advantage of this opportunity and will gladly fend for himself with his first solo US tour which begins in April and will continue well into the month of May. His only weapon will be one magic wooden guitar and with this sole instrument he will perform unique and startling wonders and will present a series of mysterious displays and unaccountable mysteries, which have been given in the presence of the Crowned Heads and Nobility of Europe, and before large and intelligent assemblages throughout the civilized world! These mysterious powers have astonished the wisest of all countries, and the most learned have been forced by overwhelming evidence to acknowledge them as inexplicable. There will be no complicated or glittering apparatus for deception used. This rare tour is all about playing the guitar…in ways that it should be played and ways in which it has never been played. Each performance is likely to be diffferent from any of the others so we recommend seeing as many shows as possible. Shows are also likely to include a few rarely played Sun City Girls pieces, as well as a selection of North African and East Indian style music, both original compositions and improvisations.

Double Leopards (NYC, Eclipse Rec.)
www.doubleleopards.org

"This digital version contains the exact same tracks as the double LP (now out of print) and is a mini-replica of the gatefold LP version. tempted to shove this in alongside such shadowy double albums as Wickham & Young's "Lake", The Dead C's "Harsh 70s Reality", Charalambides' "Market Square", and Twenty-Six's "This Skin Is Rust", but even those gave you a little breathing room now and then; "Halve Maen" smothers all light from the get-go as it burrows into the bowels of the earth below. Very tactile from the first needle-drop, the everyday objects at the old loft space move of their own volition, at the edges of the feverish eyes. Household items like chord organs, plastic toys, and wind chimes suddenly lurch to the fore during "The Fatal Affront", before all the room's paraphernalia disintegrates into the more solemn and murky affair, "Druid Spectre". The last side is given over to "The Secret Correspondence 1 & 2", plopping us into the vertiginous tides of the Dead Sea, where the silty, unseen bottom is stirred up something fierce. Cymbals are struck but quickly sink below the briny waters. Tremors of ghostly orchestras are constantly conjured by the guitars, a mass grave of vindicative strings that howl and die only to be resurrected for the finale. The instruments and processed moans of the group commune with a far more surly and slurred spiritual world than previously glimpsed, heavily sedated and hovering with a menacing glint just at the threshold of sanity. As it all slips away at record's end, I'm left questioning the mental stability and half-life of this trip. What I believed to be firmly in my grasp slithered away, a disquieting residue left behind on my hands and in my eyes and ears. Overwhelming in its morose synesthesia and downright bleary at times, Halve Maen is like those little yellow pills I popped so long ago: Ingestion will definitely fuck you up." (Andy Beta)

Mouthus (NYC, Ecstatic Peace Rec.)

"Somewhere between electronic noise, drone, and psychedelic rock, you will find the Brooklyn duo, Mouthus, coiled and ready to strike. On "Loam", Brian Sullivan's impenetrable guitar stirs your emotions and Nate Nelson bangs a primeval beat that pounds through your chest to your very being. Sinister vocal sounds on "Must Anubis" threaten to spin you back to your caveman past. The movement of sound from chaos to structure is Venus emerging, not from the ocean, but from primordial ooze, then melting back into the goo."

Clavius Productions presents a night showcasing Kranky Records artists sandwiched between adventurous free jazz and noise. Greg Davis, Keith Fullerton Whitman, and Bird Show will be performing as a series of solos, duos, and trios in their inimitable electro-acoustic styles. It isn't too often when six musicians this talented share a bill, so see for yourself what kinds of sounds they conjure up on a spring evening in DC.

DAVID GROSS (reeds, Boston)
Labeled as "One of Boston's steadfast explorers," by Bob Blumenthal of the Boston Globe, saxophonist and clarinetist David Gross discovered improvised music while studying with Yusef Lateef at Hampshire College. He has performed with Le Quan Ninh, Eddie Prevost, Bob Marsch, Martin Tetrault, Glenn Spearman, Raphe Malik, and many members of the Boston free-improv scene including Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley, and Laurence Cook. Currently, Gross is transforming the saxophone into exactly what it is: a metal tube with keys, mouthpiece, and a reed. Reviews of his recordings, on his own Tautology label with ensembles EED and FETISH, have ranged from "the range of textured noise that he cajoles from his instrument is impressive" to "lengthy episodes of fingernails ripping at a blackboard."
MICHAEL BULLOCK (contrabass, Boston)
http://www.mikebullock.com
Free improvisor Michael Bullock has played bass in eight countries, on a dozen records, and in a variety of bands, touring extensively both solo and as part of various ensembles. He has also played with well-known improvisors Eddie Prévost, Lê Quan Ninh, and Peter Kowald, in addition to working with numerous members of Boston's improvised music community. Two of his current obsessions include IIbasSpit, an electro-acoustic trio with Tucker Dulin (trombone) and Seth Cluett (bass, voice) which is planning a CD release this year; and an ongoing curiosity with acoustic feedback. Bullock has released recordings on such diverse labels as Emanem, Rounder, and Naxos.
TUCKER DULIN (trombone, Boston)
Improvisor. Trombonist. Noise artist. Has had performances all over the country in many contexts including the Boston Philharmonic, SONOR, Klaresque Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Mass Eye and Ear, and the Masashi Harada Ensemble.
Working on DMA in contemporary music at UCSD with Miller Puckette, Ed Harkins, and Charles Curtis. Specializes in post-war solo and chamber repertoire for the trombone. Most recent performances with Steve Roden, Nick Hennies, Bhob Rainey, Phil Wachsmann, Martin Blume, Wolfgang Fuchs, Torsten Mueller, and Anne LeBaron. Trio, IIBasspit, with Seth Cluett and Mike Bullock, has performed throughout New England and may never have an album.
Projects include: a commission by San Diego New Music for an interactive installation for computer and ambience, an 18 hour performance of unconventionally-notated scores, and a linux cluster sound war installation at NWEAMO, SDSU. Currently lecturing at UCSD on contemporary music. Forthcoming spring 2004: 3-night event using resonant qualities of Geisel library, UCSD, as structure.

GREG DAVIS
http://www.kranky.net/artists/davisg.html
http://www.autumnrecords.net
Greg Davis has made recorded appearances on numerous singles and compilations, played around the world, and is best known for his two albums on the Carpark label: "Arbor" and "Curling Pond Woods." Those two albums, as impressive and well-received as they are, don't tell the whole story of Davis' omnivorous interest in music (he studied composition and jazz studies at DePaul University and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music) and considerable abilities.

"Somnia" collects drone-oriented material Davis has been working on over the last two or three years with the final track, "Mirages (version 2)" being a recording from spring 2004 using a schaaf pnch card music box and computer. Each track features a single instrument (bowed psaltery, acoustic guitar, harmonica, Fender Rhodes, Magnus chord organ) played by Davis and then filtered through a computer. The tones that come out of the process bear little immediate resemblance to the instrument of origin, taking on extended and diffuse forms of their own.

"In skilled hands, the music comes off as a perfect fusion of silicon and psilocybin inspiration." (Dave Segal, Portland Mercury)
"He's grown nimble enough in his approach to pull out the computer and make it sound like anything but." (Andy Beta, Pitchfork)

KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN
http://www.keithfullertonwhitman.com
Keith Fullerton Whitman started his path through music at an early age (9) by intentionally 'versioning' Commodore Vic20 basic sound programs to yield raw computer-speak skronk. Growing up at record-collector fairs throughout northern New Jersey in the late ‘80s, Keith had access to just about every phylum of underground music imaginable...declaring allegiances early on to European free improvisation, progressive and psychedelic rock, breakdance-themed urban machine music, the post-World War II orchestral avant-garde, and the early electronic experiments of the WDR and INA-GRM camps.

A few years after moving to the fertile creative ground of Boston in 1991 to study Computer Music with Richard Boulanger at the Berklee College of Music, he proceeded to form rock-based ensembles in a smattering of forms (the Fluxus-pranks-meets-Hasil-Adkins duo El-Ron, the Dub/Sahko/Jungle beep-vibes of The Finger Lakes, the electro-acoustic/freely improvising 'power trio' Sheket/Trabant), most rehearsing bi-weekly for months in preparation of a single gig (after which, mission being accomplished, the ensemble would break up). After barely acquiring his Bachelors in Music Synthesis in 1996 due to some...confusion regarding his final piece/thesis "Error" (three hours of broken DAT machine connections, skipping CDs, corrupt signals of all walks, DC offset, barely audible clicking, etc.), he set out on his own to bridge the gap between the academic avant-garde and the fan of sound at large through a series of subversive tracks credited to dozens of homonyms...the main of which, Hrvatski, was lifted off of a billboard for the Boston Language Institute for it's similarity to one of Keith's favorites...the hip hop collagist Steinski.

It wasn't until the release of Hrvatski's debut album "Oiseaux 96-98" in 1999 that things really started taking off...the album was voted #9 in The Wire's year-end bests poll under the electronic music category, and did very well in both the dance and experimental music scenes (just like he hoped it would). There was an exposé in The Village Voice. People started calling around wanting to interview Hrvatski, at this point an imaginary figure. Word of Keith's...talents started gaining momentum, eventually leading to a slew of singles, remix commissions, and compilation spots on such labels as Apartment B, Diskono, Leaf, Lo, Lucky Kitchen, Planet-Mu, Tigerbeat6, Tonschacht, and V/VM, all of which Keith produced for free, if at all. References soon followed in high-profile publications such as Spin, Rolling Stone, Spex, XLR8R, etc.

BIRD SHOW
http://www.kranky.net/artists/birdshow.html
Though best known for his work in Town & Country, Ben Vida has been a prominent player in the Chicago music scene, placing himself at the nexus between improvised and acoustic minimalist musics. Ben Vida has played and recorded with the experimental chamber group Terminal 4 with Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jeb Bishop, and Josh Abrams. He is in the improvising group Pillow, formed in 1996 with Michael Colligan, Liz Payne, and Fred Lonberg-Holm. There will be a new Pillow album out later this winter. Ben Vida and his brother Adam (who also drums in U.S. Maple) founded Central Falls with Jason Adasiewicz and Steve Doreke. That group has recorded two albums and toured. And he is a member of the rock group Everyoned with Chris Connelly and Tim Kinsella.

Ben Vida plays guitar, cornet, and harmonium in Town & Country, who have been experimenting in acoustic resonance, minimalist composition, and world folk musics for the past seven years. Town & Country continue to record and tour, most recently with Tony Conrad in spring 2004. Ben Vida has brought the deliberation and repetitive structures of Town & Country to “Green Inferno” and augmented it with somnambulant vocals, a trellis of percussion, and psychedelic drone.

Subsequent to recording the album, Vida began Bird Show. Bird Show intend to pick up on and extend the material on “Green Inferno” and plan to tour as soon as the album is released. Although recorded entirely by Ben Vida, “Green Inferno” is being attributed to the band Bird Show.

HORSE SINISTER
http://www.horsesinister.com
These Boston lads rip through the sonic butter with a knife of fierce subtlety. Their live shows: a mixture of hypnotizing power drones, pummeling beats, and feedback-fueled primal screams. Formed in 2001 from the ashes of The David Dukes of Hazard, a power-noise trio from Florida, Loren and Harvey first performed as a duo before recruiting Ken, a sampler-wielding, synth-building wunderkind. Now the time has come for these humble dictators to once again hit the road.

JESSE KUDLER
http://www.white-flag.org
Studied music at Wesleyan University with Ron Kuivila, Alvin Lucier, and Anthony Braxton. He eventually became active as an organizer and performer in improvised, experimental, and electronic music, forming a regular duo with Jonathan Zorn and leading the large electronic improvising ensemble Phil Collins. Kudler has also worked as a recording engineer for various projects. His solo work often operates on the extremes of volume, demonstrating an interest in the subtleties that can arise from intense softness or loudness. He is also interested in allowing complex processes or setups to develop on their own, with minimal intervention from the performer.

Jack Rose
http://www.klang.org
Jack Rose is -- without exaggeration -- one of the premier fingerpickers on this revolving chunk of dirt called Earth. From delta blues and bluegrass to Hindustani raga drone and avant-garde composition, Jack's songs touch upon numerous cultures, eras, and moods, culminating in an overarching statement of personal _expression. His ability and melodic sensibilities completely belie his thirty-something years.

“Drink a couple shots of neat Kentucky whiskey and see if you don’t slur raag and rock into the same guttural syllable. While I can’t comment knowledgably upon Jack Rose’s substance intake during the sessions that comprise Raag Manifestos, his third LP of acoustic steel-stringed guitar music, he certainly managed to mash those sounds together so solidly that they bond into an entity heavy enough to exert its own gravitational pull. That he does this with neither an amplified instrument, nor any formal training in Indian classical music, only heightens his accomplishment.
With each successive record, Rose has stepped further from the Mount Rushmore-sized shadows cast by John Fahey, Robbie Basho, and Sandy Bull. Sure, you can hear their influence in his choices of instrument and material; and like them, he plays steel-stringed acoustic guitar, and blends American blues and folk styles with Eastern and Western elements.

But Rose, unlike the rest, came to fingerpicking fairly late in his personal musical evolution. He grew up listening to classic rock and graduated to punk without ever cutting ties with his old school. Pelt, the band in which he came of age as a player, used punk’s anything-goes ethic as permission to use Indian instruments, as well as minimalist forms, without going through any lengthy dues-paying process.
There’s no denying Rose’s command of the guitar. On “Tower Of Babel,” for example, his nuanced articulation and resonant tone combine to stir the emotions. But he hasn’t lost that punk attitude. Not only does Rose make good on the record’s name, staking his claim farther into the hinterland of the Indo-blues territory any of his Takoma forebears did, he does it with unsurpassed aggression. His slashing attack on “Black Pearls From the River” and brutal chording on “Hart Crane’s Old Boyfriends” is pure rock and roll, and it’s the weight in his playing that makes this album stand out in a year packed with solo acoustic guitar records.” (Bill Meyer, Dusted)

P.G. Six
http://www.perhapstransparent.com/artists/artist.php3?authorid=30
Along with his identity as P.G. Six, Pat Gubler is also a founding member of Tower Recordings. Tower Recordings took its name from a loft space in Port Chester, New York called "Tower Gallery" where Helen Rush and Matt Valentine were living in the early nineties. Pat soon was living there too and it was in this loft space that the core of the Tower Recordings collective began putting songs and improvisational sessions to tape. The group put out the Rehearsals for Roseland LP (in a limited edition of 500 copies) on Superlux (Lux 003) packaged in hand-painted covers in 1995. Stylistically the record takes cues from contemporary bands like Sebadoh, GBV, Palace, Silver Jews, and The Fall. Following this record came The Fraternity of Moonwalkers on Audible Hiss (AH 16) which sounds more reminiscent of sixties folk and psych, as well as bands like the Godz and Amon Duul. This record was followed by the amazingly beautiful Planet T.R. release Let the Cosmos Ring on Spirit of Orr (SO 8) where, along with a few "group" songs, each Tower member is showcased on their own tracks. P.G. Six’s "The Seventh Member" reveals a beautiful droning folk sound, reminiscent of a loosely improvisational traditional folk tune. This was followed by the full length Furniture Music for Evening Shuttles on Siltbreeze (SB 54). Most recently, a one-sided 12” entitled Folk Scene (Shrat Field Recordings) documents the expanding Tower line-up, which now includes Tim Barnes, Samara Lubelski, and Dean Roberts, to name a few.

Prior to his involvement in Tower, in the early nineties, Pat Gubler studied music at SUNY Purchase. While at Purchase, he met Matt Valentine and Marc Wolf, who formed the Captain Beefheart and Pussy Galore-inspired Memphis Luxure. Memphis Luxure did some live shows around the Northeast with like-minded noise outfits like Danbury, CT’s Bunnybrains and released two seven-inches on Superlux (Lux 001 and 002), a label started and run by Matt Valentine, Helen Rush, and Pat. In 1995, Pat also released "Book of Rayguns" (Lux 005) on Superlux, which is P.G. Six’s formal debut. This 7" is a Branca-esque piece of concert music for the electric guitar performed with Tom Keller and P.G. Six. At one point in its development, Pat had twelve guitarists rehearsing in the basement of SUNY Purchase Music Division. The Superlux 7" features an edited version of this larger concept and composition. Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites is a continuation of P.G. Six’s development.

Pat has also played with one of his musical heroes, Robin Williamson of the Incredible String Band. The influence of Williamson is clear throughout Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites, especially on the Pentangle-inspired "When I Was a Young Man," with its echoes of Irish and Scottish folk music. P.G. Six covers Anne Briggs' "Go Your Way," as well. P.G. Six also shares a strong connection to folk instrumental virtuosos like Sandy Bull and John Fahey, especially on "The Divine Invasion" and "Unteleported Man." The bluesy sound of the American Christian backwoods is evident on the "The Shepherd." Like most American art forms, the record has experimental flourishes and, in this case, Pat references minimalist theory, on the drone epigraph/epilogue "Letter to Lilli St. Cyr" and free improvisational playing on "Quiet Fan for SK." "The Fallen Leaves That Jewel the Ground" is clear P.G. Six, melding the harpsichord-like sounds of a wire-strung harp and electronic drone.

Harris Newman
http://www.harrisnewman.com
“Way back in the early/mid-‘90s, tired of all the lo-fi and indie rock that had been just about everything I had listened to in recent years, I wanted to get out of all that and my way out was through the genius of John Fahey. Admittedly, it took some time before I really saw the mastermind of Fahey but hearing some of his music truly opened doors that I didn’t even know existed. Canadian Harris Newman has a similar approach to music in the sense that he goes out of his way to merge different musical styles and cultures. Unlike the deeply spiritual (and highly recommended) predecessor, Newman’s brand new album Accidents With Nature and Each Other goes far beyond being another Fahey-esque guitar album. We still get plenty of fingerpicking along the Takoma axis but the package is way more grand and complex this time out. The languid guitar structures are flavored with a fair bit of tasty experimentalism and acoustic drones. The way the sounds move back and forth from the abstract and droning to the compositional and folky makes me feel like I'm in some weird state of awareness where it’s hard to make out of if I am dreaming or if the vision for my eyes is the actual reality. The ghostly droning steel string landscapes of “It’s a Trap (Part 1)” provides just that sort of dreamlike hypnosis, but before you know it we’re all back in the midst of Newman’s quietly intense, subtly dynamic and desolate acoustic guitar sound. The result of all this is a rather diverse trek through the outer possibilites of the acoustic guitar and if you ask me it just doesn’t get much better. Definitely an early contender for upcoming top 2005 lists.” (Mats Gustafsson, Broken Face)

“The critical consensus on Montreal-based steel string guitarist Harris Newman's debut CD, 2003's Non-Sequiturs, was that it showcased a nascent stylist with little of the idiosyncratic bent and voracious ability of heavy-hitting post-Fahey players like Jack Rose, Glenn Jones, and Matthew Valentine. However, its follow-up, Accidents With Nature and Each Other, is a different bag entirely. Here Newman unravels the rudimentary basics of his technique into some beautifully hypnotic spools, combining tough solo conceptions in the mode of John Fahey with some group-thing and a few deeply psychedelic tone poems. Newman's core approach is based around working repeating single note patterns into accumulatively potent forms, anchoring each composition with an implied undercurrent of drone. At points here, his writing is as evocative as great Fahey compositions like "Joe Kirby Blues" -- second track "Cloud City" has the same complex aura of attempted emotional neutrality almost overwhelmed by poignant remembrance -- while at others he steps outside of the canon altogether. "It's A Trap (Part 1)" works long singing tones into a phased devotional mass that sounds like something from Popul Vuh's Hosianna Mantra, while the closing "Driving All Night With Only My Mind" adds some subtle swing thanks to Godspeed You! Black Emperor member Bruce Cawdron's brush glockenspiel work. Indeed, the addition of Cawdron provides a clutch of the record's highlights, especially on "Lords & Ladies," where his drumming helps meld motorik German rock and American primitive guitar in a way that's as evocative as Cul De Sac's pioneering work. Newman really plays the hell out of his guitar here and his approach has taken such a massive leap, both technically and conceptually, that it's enough to blow any latent accusations of piggybacking or opportunism out of the water for good. This is the real deal.” (David Keenan, The Wire)

Glenn Jones
"I'm sure you know who Glenn Jones is, but just in case: Glenn's full-time band, Cul de Sac have amassed a huge following and have been releasing records since well into the Grunge Administration. Despite their long running career, they have only just recently hit their peak with the stunning Death of the Sun (also released by Strange Attractors). And, while this is Glenn's first solo release, he has been playing solo shows for some time around the Northeast, perhaps most notably at the notorious (was it?) Brattleboro Free Folk Festival a couple years back. He also recently lent his guitar prowess to Jack Rose for a track on his second LP, Opium Musick.

This collaboration is very fitting for Glenn, as his solo music is very much in line with Jack Rose's. Jones has an incredibly adept control of the guitar. Over the course of this album's 43 minutes, his guitar soars, stomps, and burrows its way through your speakers with many faces. It opens with the blues-tinged title track, which mournfully moans its way into the deeply moody "Sphinx Unto Curious Men" which was originally released, in greatly truncated form on Cul de Sac's most recent effort, The Strangler's Wife. "Linden Avenue Stomp" has a ragtime feel and may sound familiar: it is the only song on this album with a guest appearance (Jack Rose), and it is the song that Glenn co-wrote for Jack Rose's album (though it is a different take than the song on Opium Musick). "The Doll Hospital" shows Glenn's obvious love for Fahey's music, and "One Jack Rose (That I Mean)" is a richly melodic take on Americana.

Glenn's technical abilities are above any kind of criticism. The first time I saw him play, I was literally watching in disbelief, as the movement of his fingers didn't seem to be matching up with the music coming from his guitar. And I've played guitar for 10 years. I'm generally able to pick apart basically everything I see performed live. But I wasn't prepared for that first time seeing Glenn. But, beyond that, he has the musical wherewithal to release an album like this, packed full of hints, influences, and references to a myriad of world and especially traditional American musics, but make it all so hard to pin down to a single thing.” (Sean Hammond, Fake Jazz)

phonography symposium
- a gathering of foundsound practitioners -

scott smallwood
andy graydon
omnid (albert casais)
andy hayleck
scott allison
derek morton
violet (jeff surak)
ben owen

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, & 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

2004

12/19: ORTHO/Facemat/Kohoutek + sc.all

ORTHO (NYC, members of Lo-Vid)
ORTHO will change your life. Hailing from New York and the Solar System, ORTHO uses homemade costumes, props, and electronic instruments to tell their tales and espouse scientific theories.

Viduo is a live video mixing project of Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus.
Hinkis is primarily a video artist, while Lapidus has traditionally focused on music and more recently become involved with video. The two have collaborated for several years, working on live performances involving sound, video, costumes, and food, as well as single channel video works. They have toured together in the northeast, southeast, and across America with several projects including their current sound and video collaboration, LoVid.
A collaborative video with performance documentation and some animation was released in 2001 on Ignivomous, a recent videotape by LoVid was released on Kaboom! Press. Hinkis and Lapidus are involved with independent projects, including ORTHO, The Cook Sisters, and Seasonal Affect. They have performed widely in America and Europe, as well as Japan and Israel. In New York, they have performed in many types of venues, from the Knitting Factory and Tonic, to the Lunatarium and Culture Project, as well as bars such as Remote, Baktun, Local, and the Right Bank.

Facemat (DC noise duo)
Noise duo from DC utilizing analog and digital devices, layered with tweaked vocals and lo-fi beats.

Kohoutek + sc.all
Improvised psychedelia via guitar/bass/percussion, inspired by Krautrock, free jazz, abstraction, shoegaze, drone, etc. Textures and mood over technical proficiency. 611 Florida’s house band. With Scott Allison (sc.all) on laptop and sinus and ring modulations.

12/5: DCM Trio (Dierker/Cherry/Makihara Trio)/DCIC

DCM Trio	Dierker-Cherry-Makihara (DCM) is a Baltimore-based avant-garde jazz trio which has been active since the late 1990s. The trio features 2 of the Baltimore's best jazz artists, John Dierker (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet) and Vattel Cherry (bass), along with Philadelphia's Toshi Makihara on drums. The trio performs dynamic improvised music influenced by both Traditional Free Jazz and European Free Improvised Music. DCM truly pushes the boundary of traditional jazz forms by incorporating dynamic sonic integration, extended techniques and passionate spirits. The result is truly powerful and remarkably beautiful experience.
* John Dierker (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet) Baltimore's "Most Valuable Player," John Dierker's ongoing inspiration covers a huge range of music, from rock-and-roll and surf music to arcane forms of jazz and free improvisation. Unpretentious and extremely passionate, the evocatively high integrity screech and warble of Dierker's horn can be heard most nights of the week at venues throughout the city with groups like The Swingin' Swamis, New Volcanoes, il culo, and The Can Openers. He has a highly distinctive sound and is increasingly known outside of Baltimore in free jazz circles and through collaborations with musicians like Jeff Arnal, Sean Meehan, and Lafayette Gilcrhist. * F. Vattel Cherry (bass) F. Vattel Cherry has has studied with bassists Linda McKnight, Keter Betts and Fred Hopkins. He has worked with many brilliant musicians including, Charles Gayle, Brother Ah (Robert Northern) , John Tchicai, William Parker, David Murray's Big Band, Cecil Taylor's PTHONGOS and Charli Persip's Superband. has two CD's as a leader, "is it because i'm black" and "For Those Who Heal" both on Commercial Free Jazz. Cherry earned a BA from the Manhattan School of Music. He is the bass instructor at Morgan State University and the Development Assistant at the Children's Chorus of Maryland. * Toshi Makihara Toshi Makihara is one of the major voices in Philadelphia's New Music scene today. As an aspiring youth, Makihara studied drums, percussion and improvisation with Sabu Toyozumi, a prominent percussionist in Tokyo. Since arriving in the United States in late 1970s' he has worked with various new music ensembles as well as with numerous dance and theater companies internationally. Makihara has provided original music to Arden Theater Company, Diversions Dance Company (Wales), Pennsylvania Ballet, ZeroMoving Dance Company and Leah Stein Dance Company among others, and has worked with musicians including Steve Beresford, Peter Brotzmann, John Butcher, Nels Cline, Eugene Chadbourne, Tom Cora, Amy Denio, Thurston Moore, William Parker and John Zorn. He has also collaborated with poets, visual artists, filmmakers and performance artists widely.
DCIC	Mysticism abounds when the DC Improvisers Collective (DCIC) holds a musical séance. The performers delve into remote realms, conjuring up inventive music with sorcerous cunning. This searching association of experimental artists affords its members the opportunity for open-ended exploration in various-sized group scenarios. On this recording, the DCIC features four free spirits. Mike Sebastian awakens the ghosts of music present and future through his fierce woodwind flights; Jon Ozment offers weighty acoustic and electric piano brews; Mark Merella executes jarring percussive resonance; and Jonathan Matis adds bracing stimuli through his guitar. Electronics play an important role as well, with Ozment, Merella, and Matis each negotiating the amplified terrain for special effects. The program, as could be expected from the band’s name, is fully improvised. These instant composers thrive on the spontaneity of the moment, allowing their innate sense of adventure to dictate the direction the music takes. It goes off in multiple streams of consciousness that slide into hallucinatory states, often through alternating pairings that fold into full quartet activity. (All About Jazz)

The Free Folk Phantasmagory
a celebration of folk, psych, and improv
611 Florida, NW Washington DC