Tunnel Diode Flux
for clarinet and electronics
Eric Mandat, clarinet
Aligning and misaligning the flow of electrons
Eric Mandat is recognized worldwide as one of the foremost authorities on clarinet extended techniques. He tours frequently as a concert soloist, and for 15 seasons he was a member of the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW ensemble. For nearly 30 years Eric was a member of the eclectic improvisation sextet Tone Road Ramblers.
Eric’s solo compositions have become staples in the repertoire of adventurous clarinetists throughout the world. He has received numerous awards and honors, including a 2021 Illinois Arts Council Composition Fellowship.
Eric is Visiting Professor of Clarinet and Distinguished Scholar at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, where he has taught since 1981. He received the 1999 SIU Outstanding Scholar Award, the university’s highest honor for research/creative work.
Hermetic Fever: Glitter Stars Speak
Louis Lopez, trumpet/electronics
Josh Gerowitz, guitar/efx
Hermetic Fever is Josh Gerowitz and Louis Lopez, a project inspired by the Hermetic tradition of philosophy, practical magic, potions, and alchemy. The belief in the power of transformation through fermentation, dialectic, and improvisation fuels their musical process.
Joshua Gerowitz is a composer, performer, improviser, and guitarist who resides in Los Angeles. His work is concerned with live human interaction, the juxtaposition of premeditation and spontaneity, as well as the fickle nature of our perceptual senses. He has written and performed music that involves everything from traditional instruments to bottom-shelf beer tastings, knife sharpening, ping pong, and surfing. Gerowitz has performed in many different settings and locations including but not limited to Teatro Manzoni, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Paradise Rock Club, REDCAT, Bowtie Project, Clockshop, Firehouse 12, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions. His recordings have been referred to as “eccentric and original work of multidimensional and captivating music” (Vital Weekly), and he has been called “a creative soul with hugely impressive chops, as his keen vision is assertively concentrated on blazing newer trails” (All About Jazz). Gerowitz is a cofounder (along with Georgia Bell) of SatanNotSatan (a community based multi-disciplinary artistic salon founded in 2014). He holds a B.M. in guitar performance from Berklee College of Music and an M.F.A. from CalArts in Performance/Composition.
Louis Lopez is a performer/composer/engineer working in Los Angeles. His live performances incorporate trumpet, electronics, and custom software that he builds. As a trumpet player, he has performed and recorded with artists Wadada Leo Smith, Mike Keneally, Todd Hannigan, and Twin Temple. His latest project, Hermetic Fever, with guitarist Josh Gerowitz is an improvised duo based in Los Angeles with their debut album set to release in 2023. He has done sound design for film and television including Patagonia’s films Fish People, Finding Fontinalis, and Takayna. His work as a commercial brass arranger/performer can be heard on ads for Patagonia, Yeti, and other outdoor apparel brands. Louis can be found rebuilding and modifying vintage audio gear and teaching music production at Pasadena City College.
KO SOLO
Kate Olson—saxophone and effects
Let’s explore some magical worlds of sound together! In this improvised looping electroacoustic journey, we’ll visit everywhere from orchestral lushness to primal grittiness.
Kate Olson is a performer/composer/educator living in Seattle, Washington. She is currently on the jazz faculty at Pacific Lutheran University, and specializes in saxophone, woodwinds, and improvisation.
DISEnsemble
malkovri vin, perforation
Rachel Oosterhoff, hacker, DISharp, handmade keyboards, audio engineer 3
Pariah Peels, hacker, tape loops
Andrew Horton, synths, tape loops
Moses Kaufmann, visual media
Logan Harlan, audio engineer 2
Luke Handlon, lighting engineer, visual media
Sarah Lopez, dubler mics, vocals, Squish controller
Toby Fry, electric guitar with attitude
Will Culpepper, trumpet, synths, useful mammal
Ryan Connelly, bass guitar
Franklin Wagle, electric guitar with even more attitude
Nate Roe, electronic drums, composer
Tochi Nwachukwu, telephones, vocals
Chloe Golden, vocals, no input mixer, signal generator
Drew Hampton, amplified drums
Ross Newnam, audio engineer 1
Michaela Di Palmo, amplified clarinet, melted clarinet, composer
Emilie Stewart, vocals, MalletKat, electronic drums
Lexie Allen, amplified saxophone, vocals
Regan Wakefield, amplified viola
Emergency holographic DISEmember: Alexis Rodriguez, holographic MalletKat
Emergency holographic DISEmember: Irina Rzaeva, holographic Push controller
Emergency holographic DISEmember: Lincoln Hoam, holographic EWI
Emergency holographic DISEmember: Van Ghost, holographic audio engineer #4, videographer
Emergency holographic DISEmember: Max Arney, holographic lighting engineer
Melissa Dang, administrator, hacker, videographer
Jason Palamara, director/conductor, founder emeritus
malkovri vin is a phrase in the failed universal language of Esperanto. I won’t tell you what it means but feel free to look it up yourself. Much like the title, the score of this piece is left intentionally vague, though it is busy and convoluted. The performers are forced in some ways to try very hard to comply with the impossible demands of the score, yet they know going into it that there is no chance of them achieving this goal. In rehearsing the piece, my hope was that open-minded performers may come up with ideas on performance that I could never have envisioned in composing it. malkovri vin is dedicated to Per Norgard, for his enthusiastic support. perforation is the 75th piece in a series of 100 pieces, all written in one day. The self-imposed rules of this project allow for one day of composition followed (oftentimes years later) by one day of revision. Many of these pieces were written for unspecified instrumentation, allowing for many performance experiences. A few of these pieces have been performed, notably Symphony6 and …dot…, many have not been performed, some cannot be performed and still others must not be performed. Beyond being one of DISEnsemble’s signature works, perforation has been performed by many different types of ensembles: middle school wind ensembles, jazz quartets, laptop ensembles, traditional orchestras, many chamber groups, and high school choirs.
DISEnsemble (Destructive/Inventive Systems Ensemble) exists to make musical things out of non-musical things; focusing on improvisation, hardware hacking, recycling/freecycling/upcycling, and artificial intelligence. We are a post-modern, post-human, post-laptop, post-apocalyptic, post-orchestral orchestra. We advocate radical dismantling (and eventual remantling) of everything we come across for the benefit of all human and machine kind. There is no such thing as silence. There are no silent people. There are no non-functional machines. We are DISEnsemble…and now so are you.
Director Jason Palamara is a technologist and performer on acoustic and electronic instruments. As an Assistant Professor of Music Technology at IUPUI, he specializes in the development of machine learning-enabled performance technologies for music. He is the founder/director of IUPUI’s 30+ member DISEnsemble (Destructive/Inventive Systems Ensemble), which builds or hacks musical and non-musical stuff and plays live concerts. He regularly performs and composes music for modern dance as a solo artist and maintains long-term creative partnerships with electroacoustic musician Justin Comer (under the name JCϟjp) and percussionist-composer Scott Deal, with whom he developed AVATAR. This autonomous music system uses machine learning to play along with live improvisation. In his spare time, he raises chickens.