- Brad Decker: Loophole
- Jake Sentgeorge: Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
- John Thompson: x 8 o 8
- Nickolai V Zielinski: Indicative of Drumming
- Kory Reeder: if the thought evaporates
Brad Decker – Loophole
Loophole is a long-form improvisation for double bass and computer. This project explores the rhythmic potential of layers of sounds created on the double bass to create a consistently evolving ambient texture. Within this ambient space, the performer is free to react to these sounds and build more foreground, sometimes aggressive gestures.
Brad Decker is a composer, educator, and performer of contemporary concert music, whose works often incorporate electronic, electroacoustic, or interactive media. His recent works explore the interaction of acoustic instruments and electronics to create immersive composite textures. His instrumental works combine virtuosic flourishes, polyrhythmic interplay, and extended techniques. Electronic elements include adventures in analog synthesis, interactive computer processing and sampling, multichannel diffusion, and fixed-media accompaniments. Multimedia projects range from traditional film soundtracks to live-performed improvisations with video. As a double bassist, he regularly performs his own compositions and improvisations that incorporate computer interactivity. His teachers include Peter Hestermann, Kenneth Jacobs, Erik Lund, Heinrich Taube, Steven Taylor, and Scott Wyatt. He has attended masterclasses and lessons with composers Agostino DiScipio, Stefano Gervasoni, Lee Hyla, and Tristan Murail. He is currently Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Technology at Eastern Illinois University. His music is distributed through his website www.braddecker.org.
Jake Sentgeorge and Brian Riordan – Wouldn’t it be nice if we were older
Poet HC Palmer is a Vietnam veteran and retired KC area Doctor. He served as a medic in Vietnam, and his first collection of poems draws from his experiences there. He has granted permission for his poems to be used in these performances.
The grim reality of battlefield triage contrasts with the lightness of the song that was briefly in the dead medic’s throat, and then in our ears at the poem’s end.
Brian Riordan is a composer, performer, improviser, producer, and sound artist from Chicago, IL. He is currently located in Pittsburgh, PA, where he teaches a class he designed called “Programming Environments in Music: An Introduction to Max/MSP”. His research interests are in temporal discontinuity, delay-based performance, real-time digital signal processing, and laptop performance aesthetics.
Jake Sentgeorge, tenor, is Professor of Music in Voice at UCM. He is based in Kansas City, MO.
John Thompson – x 8 o 8
This piece draws on my long-standing love of hip hop. Samples of some of existing artists along with some classic drum machine samples and some various other sonic sources make up the material from which x 8 o 8 is made.
John enjoys creating evocative sounds that inspire the imagination. His compositions of the last 10 years have focused on audiovisual works, works for instrument and electronics, and works involving live coding or live electronics. He works at Georgia Southern University as a Professor of Music Technology.
Nickolai V Zielinski – Indicative of Drumming
My primary mode of musical organization is improvisation so my work is about listening. I sift through the nostalgic pseudo-cultural junk pile of audio Americana and listen… Listen for ways to up-cycle the aural artifacts that catch my ear’s eye into electro-acoustic sound collages which tread the line between parody and pastiche, irony and sincerity, paradox and truth… out of which I hope to squeeze a tiny bit of meaning, self reflection, insight, fun and aesthetic pleasure.
My primary media are live performance and digital recordings which I present to the public in the form of gigs and audio recordings disseminated through digital channels (internet, streaming, social media, etc.). In both cases I create sounds using a combination of acoustic instruments (mostly drums) played by myself and digital instruments which I’ve created using an object-oriented computer programming language called Pure Data. The computer holds the repository of “pseudo-cultural nostalgic junk” in the form of samples lifted from various sounds that were tattooed on to my brain during childhood (tv themes, commercial jingles, vocal snippets, etc) mixed with slightly less nostalgic sounds from my early creative work (back from the days when I wrote bizarre coded dots and lines on a piece of paper an tried to make other musicians translate them into sounds). These samples get processed, chopped up, slowed down, twisted, shifted, compressed, and generally mangled until they are interesting. At times I “play” the computer by using analog-to-digital interfaces (such as midi drum pads) and at times the computer plays itself using algorithmic processes which I have created to suit my tastes and also to add an element of aleatoric unpredictability to which I must react in the moment, lending the music an air of improvisational excitement.
Nick Zielinski is a drummer, improvisor, instrument builder, and general musical DIYer. He channels his creative energy into self-producing, self-recording, and self-releasing original music and content. He also likes cat videos, short walks on flat, paved surfaces and using two spaces after a period when typing.__
In response to COVID and the continual downward spiral of the music industry, I am presently retooling my creative practice to focus on solo performance. I have spent the past year conceptualizing and creating audio applications for my portable-microchip-processor—computing box which serve to replace the human beings that someone like me usually finds himself playing with. I have created seven so far. They are all named “Steve.” I like to think of it as a kind of dystopian take on the dehumanizing effects of robotic automation and the unrelenting mandate from the overlords of the capitalist death-cult to keep us all marching toward peak efficiency and maximum profit.
In addition to my shameless pursuit of self-interest, I contribute to a variety of forward-thinking and extremely talented indie music collectives including: [current] ARP of the Covenant, Mantis, BANZÅT Trio, and ASTRO.
I have also had the honor of performing alongside many iconoclastic musical innovators such as Henry Grimes, Anders Astrand, Thollem McDonas, Anthony Cox, Hanah Jon Taylor, and Anders Svanoe.
I have showcased my music at festivals and conferences such as The Heliotrope Festival, The Northern Spark Festival, The International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM), The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), and The Spark Festival of Electronic Music.
Finally, I have completed commissions to create music for the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Black House Collective in Kansas City, MO.
Kory Reeder – if the thought evaporates
“if the thought evaporates” is an improvisation environment exploring harmony. A piece for instruments and electronics, a MAX patch that contains 6 instances of oscillators which listen to the performers, listen to each other, and then makes decisions on frequency, duration, amplitude, and some subtle effects based on the received information of the performance. With this piece, I’m more interested in creating a space, or a place for two (or more) to be together rather than providing a strict hierarchical relationship. On some level, I have attempted to give a general direction to this space. “It’s over there.” In summary, the piece is very quiet with long notes, some short notes, many pauses, and a specific harmonic framework. Still, this is only the vaguest idea: the details are left for you.
Kory Reeder is an American composer and performer whose music, drawing inspiration from the visual arts and political theory, is often introspective and atmospheric, investigating ideas of objectivity and immediacy, while exploring the social implications of musical interaction with pieces ranging from symphonic works to text scores and computer-assisted improvisations.
Described as “one of the most captivating composers in modern classical music” (Dallas Observer), Kory’s music is performed frequently around the world in concert halls, festivals, academic settings, basements, and DIY venues. A dedicated collaborator, he has worked with opera, theater, and dance programs, as well as noise, free-improv, and new media artists on projects ranging from video collaborations to 3-hour performance art works.
With a catalog of over 100 programmed works, his music has been released on Edition Wandelweiser Records, where one may also find scores of his work, as well as Petrichor Records, Sawyer Editions, Sawyer Spaces, Impulsive Habitat, and Another Timbre, with upcoming releases planned for 2023 on Full Spectrum Records.
Kory is from Nebraska and currently resides in Denton, Texas where he is an active performer and received his PhD from the University of North Texas.