Friday, March 8, 2019, 8:30pm – Nightlife – UCM Gallery of Art and Design — Art Center — 217 East Clark
The Disease
Jeff Kaiser (trumpet, things) and Andrew Pask (woodwind, things)
When all is lost and hope is gone, when you are cornered in and there’s nowhere to turn, when you can’t make time run backwards, when you are out of black eyeliner, hang on. It’s about to get a whole lot worse.
The Choir Boys!
Infinite Edges
Eric Mandat/clarinet, bass clarinet
Infinite Edges plays with the inherent tensions between those elements over which we have control, and aspects of our existence which control us. Additionally, the alternation of highly controlled compositional choices and free improvisation adds a further parallel between the macro, externally controlled environments in which we are a part, and our own highly micro and individualized interactions with everything around us.
For more than 35 years, clarinetist/composer Eric Mandat has been at the forefront of clarinet extended techniques explorations, particularly multiphonics, microtones, and timbral modulations. He is recognized worldwide as one of the foremost authorities on clarinet extended techniques.
Eric tours regularly as a concert soloist, performing his works throughout the world. He was a member of the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW ensemble from 2000-2014, and he performs regularly in solo and small group improvisation contexts.
Eric is currently Visiting Professor of Clarinet and Distinguished Scholar at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where he has taught since 1981. He received the 1999 Southern Illinois University Outstanding Scholar Award, the university’s highest honor for research/creative work.
Free Improvisation
Jean-François Charles + Wombat
Jean-François Charles – electronics, Justin K. Comer – saxophone, Carlos Cotallo Solares – guitar, Will Yager – double bass
Wombat combines deep sonic exploration through experimental playing techniques, live signal processing, and instrumental preparations with a real-time compositional approach, creating engaging structural shapes and contrasting sections. The relationships between the three of us are in constant flux: merging into a single sonic entity, building contrapuntal textures, or letting one performer lead the trio as a soloist.
For this performance, Wombat will be joined by Jean-François Charles performing on electronics with a custom-built live remix tool.
Jean-Francois Charles creates at the crossroads of music and technology, as in the collaborative soundtrack to Dziga Vertov’s movie The Eleventh Year (2015). As a clarinetist, he worked with Stockhausen for the world premiere of Rechter Augenbrauentanz. His recent album Electroclarinet was compared to “Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny” (Chris Spector). His opera Grant Wood in Paris will be premiered in April 2019 by the Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre.
Improvisers Justin K. Comer, Carlos Cotallo Solares, and Will Yager formed Wombat in October 2017. Together they explore new sonic textures and instrumental techniques in concert halls, coffee shops, and backyards. Though the performances are never planned beforehand, the trio’s music is influenced by their collective experience with contemporary art music, noise, jazz, metal, and drone. Recent appearances include the Maximum Ames festival, Composers’ Workshops at the University of Iowa, and the Feed Me Weird Things concert series.