Electric Possible
2005 Show Log
DC's mad monthly laboratory for promethean sound experiments
New Technology, New Spirit, New Energy, New Music.
2005 Anno El Possible
Dec 4--Spaceships Panic Orbit + VioletSpaceships Panic Orbit--Ranging wildly across sonic mindfields, DC-based electro-acoustic free improv trio fuses power electronics, free jazz, avant rock & electronica. Instruments include sax, laptop, percussion, voice, homemades, more.
Violet--While he's "big in Eastern Europe," DC-based experimental musician since the early 80s, Violet has performed solo in town only 3 times. The last show, opening for LoVid & Projexorcism at DC9, he turned in an intense, throbbing set that roared into the night. Easily one of the best noise/drone sets I've ever seen. Can he do it again?
Guillermo Brown--Musician/composer/performance artist based in NYC with solo recordings on Thirsty Ear. Well-known as the drummer for the David S. Ware Quartet. [Cancelled due to buss accident.]
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Nov 6--Solo Electronics: Analog & Otherwise: DaVE,
TL0741, Insect Factory, Sub-Trans, Peligro Elevada + Collective Improv
This show will involve solo sets from each of the following artists, followed by a collective free improv by all five.
Insect Factory--DC area project of microtonal and microscopic ambience with hypnotic layers of sounds and drone textures. Some influences are John Fahey, Fripp/Eno, Steve Reich, Terry Riley. Insect Factory was started by Jeff Barsky (guitar), but is always in the process of rediscovery, and incorporates others to collaborate and challenge itself. Insect Factory has a cd-r release on SoundETERNALsound and a self-released split on Insectfields.
TL0741--Solo project of Pat Gillis (Northern Machine, The Angus Brainpan) featuring audio processors, analogue synth and prerecorded material colliding in an improvisational metallic mist of whirling electrons. All TL0741 performances are recorded for release, recycling, posterity or landfill.
DaVe--Scene newcomer will drag some vintage synths out of his basement to create modular analog musings. He promises to show off the following: serge modular (sounds and control voltages), wiard 300 modular (sounds and control voltages), and doepfer modular (control voltages and audio outputs).
Sub-Trans--DC-based jazz musian, DJ & sound artist DaRon Jones creates electronic compositions he calls "Nu Transmissions" by mixing "sonic textures on the fly from samples to loops to beats to noisey ass wave files to cassette tapes with the meanest hissing. All that shit in one pot like a crazy stew or something. I also do a tribute to Richard Pryor." Check his artist blog at Subtrans8.blogspot.com
Peligro Elevada--New beat-heavy project from Jeff Bagato (El Possible host/Tone Ghosting/Spanorb) using a drum machine & delay pedal. Well, it sounded pretty good in the basement, anyway!
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Oct 2--Matt Weston, The Cutest Puppy in the World,
Jakuta & Carl
Matt Weston--(Northampton, Mass) Combining trap kit percussion and electronics, Weston conjures up intense waves of color and darkness. A veteran of numerous Boston free-improv projects, Weston has released several recordings. Tone Ghosting will join Weston as a special guest on at least one piece.
The Cutest Puppy in the World--DC/Baltimore-based improv duo of Layne Garrett and Bryan Rhodes tears it all up and throws it all away. Sometimes we even try to put it back together again. We explore saturated space, emergent forms, improvisational ethics of interaction. We sound like folk music with broken strings, jazz on a tambourine, trance in a burned-out basement. More info on Layne Garrett.
Jakuta & Carl--Boy & his laptop join up for freaky pop performance fun! Joe Jakuta promises a more experimental, instrumentatl set this time around.
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Sept 11--Signal2Boyz, sc.all, Tape Rape
Signal2Boyz--Representing this free improv supergroup, Evan Lipson writes: "From the 'City of Brotherly Shove', comes Signal-2-Boyz: Philadelphia's most angular, funky, and explosive electro-acoustic improv unit, featuring the legendary Charles Cohen! Utilizing a deceptively simple system known as "Transformative Groove", the ensemble creates shifting grooves, timbres, patterns, and structures that are about as unpredictable as they are infectious. So, WATCH OUT!, 'cause they gonna keep their shit tight!
Signal-2-Boyz is:
-Charles Cohen (Buchla Music Easel Synthesizer)
-Amnon Freidlin (guitar/loops)
-Andrew Gaspar (turntables)
-Joe Lentini (computer/Max/MSP)
-Evan Lipson (electric bass/devices)
-Dave Smolen (processed drum)
also featuring special guest: Tone Ghosting
The ensemble's general aesthetic has evolved into a process of sonic layering or lamenationin which sounds may be frozen in real time (and/or from a previous moment), by a hyper-subtle process of looping and manipulation. Careful attention is payed to aspects of foreground and background texture, dynamics, density, pulse, contrasting colors, as well as various modes of poly-rhythmic/metric /tempic playing.This type of playing is smoothly juxtoposed with a more freewheeling yet interlocking language of varying complexity, where a large emphasis is placed upon purely timbral and sonic experimentation. These two areas freely flow in and out of each other, creating a sound that can often become quite raucous and 'grooving' (in the truest sense of the word...an area that we generally feel is largely ignored by most in the field of experimental improvisation), or very spatial and reduced in texture."
sc.all--Towering walls of drone science from the mad doctor of innovative tone production. Recordings on Scarcelight.
Tape Rape--Side project of the Facemat & Power Bottom Orchestra crew manifest with tape machines and a will to self destruct. 4 reel-to-reel tape players, one giant loop, 4 madmen with noisemakers!
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August 7--Random Access Rendezvous
A workshop project for improvisors playing either acoustic or electric sound sources. We'll be conducting impromptu partnerships for on-the-spot conjury of dissonance and euphony. Bring your axe and your skillz. Best to bring your own amplification if you'll need it. If you're familiar with the "Volunteer Crap Shoot" hosted by Baltimore's Red Room, you know what we're after here. Bystanders welcome. This is a free event!
Participants for RAR #1 were:
Sebastian Krawczuk--bass
Tyler Higgins--gtr, sax, electronics
Pressley Dowler--cheesy keyboard
Davis White--electronics
Eli Asher--trumpet, melodica
Rich Sheehe--guitar, FX
Roger Neele--percussion
Victor Salazar--guitar, recorder, gong
Micah Burns--gong, guitar
Paul Rosenfelder--toy xylophones
Jeff Bagato--vinyl LP/hacksaw/FX
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July 17--RDK + The Picture is Dead Quartet + Sunwards
RDK--RDK attempt to color within the lines of something called spacemusic. Slow, evolving passages pioneered by Steve Roach and the like. The fun begins when they venture outside the bounds of the genre. Way outside. Often this is by design, other times not. So expect the unexpected when Davis White and friends make an emergency landing at RDK's second El Possible. Sample RDK Music.
The Picture is Dead Quartet--combines analog and digital electronics with vocals for a sound reminiscent of early Travelogue-era Human League or very early Cabaret Voltaire.
Sunwards--Remnants of VA's legendary free-noise band Rake have this to say for themselves: "Acoustic frequencies focused in wave form beyond the present into the futures. Tones. This project continues the 17-year collaboration of ~SKB~ and V2G2 and details the ongoing collapse of western civilization. Less info and some sound files can be had at www.RAKE.info. 50 Ways to Leave the Planet, Phase II."
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June 5--C is for Chimerical:
Cash Slave Clique & The Cutest Puppy in the World
& Croniamantal
Cash Slave Clique--Dynamic DC duo of insane electronics and fevered imaginations features former member of Osaka, Japan's Nimrod, current member of 36, who has performed with Spaceships Panic Orbit, Steve McKay, Nik Turner, NoFi, etc. CDs on the Sounds from the Pocket label. Let there be cash!
The Cutest Puppy in the World--Free improv quartet from DC/Silver Spring transform guitar, percussion, bass, & keyboards into rhythmic, chiming trance jazz.
Croniamantal--El Possible's first lab project is a collaboration between free improvisors and DC poet Buck Downs. Instrumentation to include: theremin, analog electonics, viola, & keyboards from members of Angus Brainpan, 10-String Trio, Alzo Boszormenyi and Spaceships Panic Orbit. Downs is best known for his editorship of poetry mag Open 24 Hours, authorship of Marijuana Softdrink, readings at Ruthless Grip and In Your Ear, and his postcard poems. Named for the hero of Apollinaire's surrealist novel The Poet Assassinated. Hear a sound clip of Croniamantal's historic first (and only) practice!
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May 1--Electronix Olde & Newe
Patrick Stacey's Homage
to Ohm--To create his elaborate tribute to early electronics, Homage
to Ohm, Baltimore's Patrick Stacey created his own sound sontrol station
and sampled segments from the Ellipsis Arts compilation "OHM: the
early gurus of electronic music" as source material for his own original
work.
Using computer based digital signal processing technology, he methodically
extracted hundreds of sound bites from throughout the collection. After
loading all this raw source material into a performance based application
from Ableton software called "Live," Patrick slowly put together a piece
that is at once an improvisation, a tribute, a science and an art. Check
out sound & video clips on his website.
BLK w/ Bear--DC sound/visual
artisan JS Adams - will perform a solo set of turntable-loop compositions.
BLK w/ BEAR's collaboration with London's Rothko [ 'wish for a world without
hurt' ] has garnered international acclaim and airplay and was a 2004 Outmusic
nominee for Best Instrumental Recording. His 2004 limited-edition 12-inch
release ['fahrenheit_drafts' on Trace
Recordings UK] was composed of tracks used for QUEERING SOUND 04. Additionally,
BLK w/ BEAR's 'mystery' contribution to the Kuma-Chan
Records 'Hot Hands: A Tribute to Throwing Muses and Kristin Hersch'
compilation disc ... a decidedly warped
deconstruction of 'garoux de larmes'... is now available at the iTunes
on-line store.
All Music Guide said: "His creations use everything from dissonance
to ambient sounds to offer towering, constantly unfolding terrains of sonic
inquiry."
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April 3--SECOND ANNIVERSARY SHOW!!
Freeek Improv Underground:: Hat City Intuitive + The
Power Bottom Orchestra
Hat City Intuitive--The Danbury, CT/Williamsburg, NYC/Arlington, VA nexus of old skool hardcore kids turned "new weird america," loved and respected by Wire critics Byron Coley and Marc Masters, and other great (stoned?) minds. Anyway, they're sure to lay down a sprawling mess of something way more than the sum of electronics, free jazz, avant rock, and etc. They always do.
Power Bottom Orchestra--is apparently DC's Facemat plus "5 or 6 other musicians as an orchestra/ensemble, whatever." This is their music. Maybe yours too? Past Facemat shows have quickly escalated into powerful, thick, greasy slabs of, uh, music.
Tone Ghosting--(DC) record sawing and vocal weirdness combined in frenetic live dubs from the artist formerly known as DJ Panic.
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Sunday, March 6--The New Fusion:: MOMMOM, Vector Trio,
Trinary
MIND OVER MATTER MUSIC OVER MIND--DC trio of Bobby Hill - Record Players; Chris Downing - Wave Drum/Keyboard/Laptop; Thomas Stanley - Wave Stations/Laptop. Their mission is to enlighten and expand mindfields using a combo of cosmic funk, fusion jazz, and musics of like mindfulness. Celebrity alert: Bobby Hill's radio program "The Other Side" can be heard on WPFW Saturday nights from 12-3 a.m. Hill and Thomas Stanley are two-fifths of Transparent Productions, the venerable group of free-jazz presenters. And all 3 are members of cosmic jazz-funketeers Noumenal Lingam.
Artist's statement: "Our work is not a text. By intention, the sounds that we have generated, collected and brought into conjunction are not to be taken as a socially conditioned statement to be decoded or read, nor as an instance of personal or cultural expression to be felt. MOMMOM seeks to change minds not fiddle around with their contents. The political dimension of MOM2 is rooted in the distinction between these two approaches. Art can do many things. It need not be limited to making additions to the clutter of facts, beliefs, ideological warrants, and emotional tropes within which our attention flutters like debris in a strong wind. MIND OVER MATTER MUSIC OVER MIND is directed at the function of consciousness, not at its contents. For the mind, morphology is physiology and MOMMOM seeks to redraw the boundaries of mental health. This radical re-normalization of mental possibility is inherently political, challenging as it must, the most basic premises of social organization and order."
Vector Trio--(DC) Hot fusion delivering miles and miles of Miles and galaxies much further out. Scott Forrey on trumpet, electronics & loops, Marshall Hughey on drums, Gary Rouzer on bass."Vector Trio loops windows of sound while continuing to add to the musical picture in real time with uncanny agility."
Trinary--(DC) A subsection of free-form music collective Indent including Nik Francis on laptop electronics, Tyler Higgins on saxophone & clarinet, and Rob Thornton on bass. "Shifting themes float about slightly composed and mostly improvised settings. Strings, Jazz, Dirt and Light for the brain." More info.
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Sunday, Feb 6--Abstract & Ambient: Freek Electronix
Duos with Violet + sc.all duo plus Harm Stryker (Richmond, VA) plus Caution
Curves!!
Violet + sc.all--Dynamic duo presents towering drone science for consciousness expansion. This DC debut outing as a duo promises to be an Event. Check Violet's solo track on Wire magazine's Wire Tapper 12 CD! Violet records for his label Zeromoon; sc.all records for Scarcelight.
Harm Stryker--Amazing Richmond, VA based duo links abstract electronix, composed "songs," and social activism.
Caution Curves--DC trio of Rebecca (laptoptronix), Tristana (guitar/vocal) & Amanda (drumkit, typewriter, vocals) sneak attack yr mindfield with cold & freeky sonic electricity.
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Jan 9--Modern Jazz Showcase with Windmill Saxophone
Quartet + A-UN
Windmill Saxophone Quartet--Like it says on the label, four reedsmen (Clayton Englar, Jesse Meman, Ken Plant, Tom Monroe) play modern jazz by Mingus, Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and others, plus their own compositions. They even cover Beatles and Talking Heads! Albums on Mapleshade Records prove they can cook it with the best of them. The Washington Post said "like the World Saxophone Quartet meets Lester Bowie." And Jazz Times said: "An astonishing palette of sound from the unorthodox instrumentation... inventive and full of panache, with a dash of the experimental avant garde, both re-working jazz standards and including clever original pieces... a dynamic presentation that is full of forward movement and sustains interest"; "This unit could hold its own against any similar rhythm section-less unit playing today."
A-UN: A-UN is the beginning to the end: a combination of the first (A) and last (UN) letters of the Japanese alphabet that translates into "the universe." A-UN -- a duo consisting of Nobu Stowe (piano) and Alan Munshower (drums) -- is dedicated to exploring 'Total Improvisation': a genre of fully improvised music pioneered by Keith Jarrett, arguably the greatest improviser in recent centuries. His methods are reminiscent of what J.S. Bach was once famous for. Total Improvisation is the incorporation of 'Free Improvisation' (C. Taylor/P. Bley) and 'Instant Composing' (M. Mengelberg), which requires the performer not only to experiment with 'sound textures' but also to spontaneously create 'songs' (melodies with chordal progressions). Yet A-UN is also a unit dedicated to exploring composition-based improvisation in unconventional ways. Nobu Stowe and Alan Munshower are two thirds of the Post-Fusion unit, Trio Ricochet (www.trioricochet.com), which also includes double-bassist Tyler Goodwin.
Nobu Stowe (piano): Nobu was born in Maebashi, Japan. He started taking piano lessons at age 3 and composition at age 6. He moved to the Bay Area to study Music (composition) and Psychology at the University of California at Berkeley (Bachelors). He then moved to Chicago to pursue a graduate degree in Psychology at the University of Chicago. After receiving a Ph.D. in 2002, he relocated to Baltimore to work as a psychoactive-drug researcher for the National Institute of Health. Nobu has mostly led his own projects including a duet with Vytis Nivinskas, a great Lithuanian bassist (ex-Vladimir Chekasin of the legendary USSR free-jazz unit the Ganelin Trio), which was recorded by Ken Christianson of NAIM label (Charlie Haden/John Taylor). His current main project is the post-fusion unit TRIO RICOCHET (www.trioricochet.com) which has been active in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and NYC. His new free-improv trio with the Philly-based percussion master Toshi Makihara and Vytis Nivinskas will make their debut on 1/23 (Sun) as a part of C.O.M.A. series at ABC no Rio in NYC.
Alan Munshower (drums): Alan was born in Hartford, Connecticut. He started pursuing drums at the age of 10. He continued his drumset studies at Goucher College in Baltimore. He has been active in the Baltimore music scene and performs a wide array of music from straight-ahead jazz to classical to rock. Alan currently lends his drumming skills to Baltimore Brass (brass ensemble), Alan Munshower Jazz Trio/Quartet (mainstream jazz), the Dixieland Saints (dixieland jazz), the Karaoke Superstars (surf-rock/fusion), and TRIO RICOCHET. Alan has been giving drum lessons for 5 years and has toured in France twice. You can read about all of Alan's projects on his home page (www.alanmunshower.com).
Upcoming Shows
Show Log--2007 Anno El PossibleShow Log--2006 Anno El Possible
