- Eric Mandat: The Grinding Machine
- Jeff Kaiser: 4-K.McM
- Ryan Gaston + Sarah Belle Reid
- Barry Moon + Doug Nottingham: pincushioned
Eric Mandat – The Grinding Machine
Swirling micrograins of kinetic energy extracted from macro soundscapes
For more than 40 years clarinetist/composer Eric Mandat has been at the forefront of clarinet extended performance techniques exploration, particularly multiphonics, microtones, and timbral modulations. Eric has developed a deeply personal artistic expression as a performer and composer, and he is recognized worldwide as one of the foremost authorities on clarinet extended techniques.
Eric enjoys an extremely diverse performance career as a soloist and chamber musician. He tours regularly as a concert artist, premiering and performing his works throughout the world. For 15 seasons he was a member of the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW ensemble. As an improviser, Eric was a member of Tone Road Ramblers, an eclectic sextet dedicated to free improvisation exploration, for more than 25 years. He continues to perform regularly in solo and small group improvisation contexts. Eric’s ongoing solo improvisation projects with live electronics have received wide acclaim at performances throughout the United States and in Europe: the MIT Computer Music Journal lauded Eric’s “ebullient curiosity…infused with decades of thoughtful improvisational practice, resulting in another unforgettable performance.”
A dedicated and in-demand teacher, Eric has presented recitals, master classes, and lectures on extended performance techniques at more than 140 conservatories and universities around the world, and he regularly appears as guest artist at clarinet-specific events throughout the United States. Eric has taught at Southern Illinois University Carbondale since 1981, where he is currently Visiting Professor of Clarinet and Distinguished Scholar. He has received numerous honors and awards for his work as a composer/performer, including a 2021 Artist Fellowship Award for Composition from the Illinois Arts Council. Eric was also the recipient of the 1999 Southern Illinois University Outstanding Scholar Award, the university’s highest honor for research/creative work.
Jeff Kaiser – 4-K.McM
A set for the man who introduced me to father death.
Jeff Kaiser enjoys making music. Very much. He also enjoys creating opportunities for those who enjoy making music, hence, MOXsonic. https://jeffkaiser.com/
A multi-woodwind performer, Vinny Golia’s recordings have been consistently picked by critics and readers of music journals for their yearly “ten best” lists. In 1990 he was the winner of the Jazz Times TDWR award for Bass Saxophone. In 1998 he ranked 1st in the Cadence Magazine Writers & Readers Poll and has continually placed in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll for Baritone & Soprano Saxophone. In 1999 Vinny won the LA Weekly’s Award for “Best Jazz Musician”. Jazziz Magazine has also named him as one of the 100 people who have influenced the course of Jazz in our Century. In 2006 The Jazz Journalists Association honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award. 2013 Vinny won the Downbeat Critic’s Poll in the “New Star” category for Baritone Saxophone.
Ryan Gaston & Sarah Belle Reid
Noise, phase cancellation, glitches, stutters, aliasing, and DSP failures—the sounds of errors and imperfections in the age of computer music are the primary material of this improvised duo performance. The sounds of tubes and trumpet extended techniques stammer into extended, unnatural, repetitive pulses; arbitrary transfer functions impose continuous transformations on sputtering electronic feedback; whistles, clicks, and crackles shift unexpectedly into explosive blasts, sonic caricatures, and frantic gestures before dissolving into a soft, intermittent digital fizz.
Sarah Belle Reid performs on trumpet and laptop; Ryan Gaston performs on map02/21, a chaotic hardware instrument of his own design. Both performers utilize unpredictable synthesis and processing structures whose behaviors are always responsive, yet difficult to predict. The performers must rely on careful listening and quick reflexes, constantly learning and re-learning their instruments’ shifting behaviors over the course of the performance.
Barry Moon + Doug Nottingham – pincushioned
Obsolete people jamming out on obsolete electronics.
pincushioned is the invention/fabrication of Arizona-based duo Barry Moon (Baz) and Doug Nottingham (Dug). Since 2007 they have been working from a remote/suburban desert bunker melding digital sounds and images with their analog counterpartsTheir ethos/nihilism is evidenced by a DIY/DUI search for “digital answers for unasked questions” or “D.A.F.U.Q”.