Electric Possible

2006 Show Log

DC's mad monthly laboratory for promethean sound experiments

Sunday December 3--Free noise + Free folk with Loco Ono (Providence, RI) + Ultimate VAG + Facemat 

Loco Ono--Free noise duo of Geoff Mullen on gtr and Nicole (Black Hand) on electronics. Geoff Mullen--Fingerpicking guitar experiments from Providence, RI, on Last Visible Dog Records: �deep, explorative guitar textures and space.�Something like Young's Deadman soundtrack performed by Keiji Haino.� Black Hand-- Power electronics from Providence. Not the Serbian secret society.

Ultimate VAG--Verrastro & Grier, drums & guitar, from Kohoutek and To Live & Shave in LA. Free noise, free form freek out!

Facemat--DC's free noise heroes return to El Possible, home of their debut performance.Each live incarnation is different, but expect chaos & wonderment.

Chris Heenan/Michael Vorfeld Duo--Free-improv duo from Los Angeles, CA/Stuttgart, Germany featuring reeds, electronics, percussion, strings. Heenan in particular has played with a who's who of the free-improv underground, including Chris Forsyth, harpist/composer Anne LeBaron, and many more.

Chris Heenan lives in Los Angeles and Stuttgart, Germany. He plays alto saxophone, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet and analog synthesizer. Some current projects include Team Up, a trio with guitarist Jeremy Drake and a revolving third member percussionist, a duo with Berlin-based percussionist and light artist Michael Vorfeld, a duo with NYC-based guitarist Chris Forsyth and Phantom Limb and Bison with Chris Forsyth, Jaime Fennelly (electronics) and Shawn Hansen (synthi / radio feedback). Some current playing partners include trumpeter Birgit Ulher, percussionist Michael Griener, vocalist Ute Wassermann and contrabassist Alexander Frangenheim. He is currently a fellow-in-residence at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany.

Berlin-based musician and visual artist Michael Vorfeld plays percussion and self-designed string instruments and works in the fields of experimental music, improvised music and sound and visual art. Besides his frequent solo activities he is a member of various ensembles and collaborates with theater artists, choreographers, visual artists, and musicians on numerous projects. His list of activities includes numerous concerts, performances and exhibitions in Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia. Current projects include Zygoma, a trio with Jeff Gburek (guitar) and Michael Walz (electronics), a trio with Annette Krebs (guitar) and Anna-Maria Rodriguez (laptop), Vestige Vertical with Lothar Fiedler (guitar) and Michael Walz (electronics), a duo with sound and visual artist Claus van Bebber and a duo with pianist Reinhold Friedl.

SAFE-- is the new improvisational project between Tyler Higgins and Dave Vosh. employing assorted electro-acoustic devices and modular synthesizer, they focus on the sound emitted by machines, sounds derived from radio, and slowly evolving noise. 

Dave Vosh has been experimenting with electro-noise music since the early 70s and this project with tyler is among the first things he's done since escaping the basement last year. Tyler Higgins has been creatively misusing technology alongside other musical pursuits since high school, focusing recently on very direct ways of producing and manipulating sound. His other projects include Indent & Trinary.

Sansyou makes acoustic chamber music for chambers you may not have visited before. Formed in the spring of 2006, this Virginia quartet features guitars, cello, and hand percussion. Members have performed throughout the DC area in a diverse range of bands (like Sisters of Morrissey and Suspects DC). When the noise of genres, trends, and labels are silenced, Sansyou makes sounds for open ears.

RDK--Electronics duo combines noise and melodic elements to fuel sonic spacescapes that go where no man has gone before. New EP, Undisturbed, available as a digital download from Zeromoon.com

People Who Can Fly--Spacey electronics duo of Danny Demetro (solo as Lost Astronaut) and Chebon Littlefield (member of Kickdrum productions and Metatrack studios), with special guests: saxophonist Mark Wine (The Subterraneans) and vocalist Kitty Hawk. Old Skool Alert: Demetro rocked the 80s DC scene as keyboardist with art-punks No Trend; he's the one dressed as a Gypsy and credited as "Spidako" on the Dozen Dead Roses LP. Yes, the one recorded with Lydia Lunch. The group contributed the following stuff about their music.
     "We can move some really good music," says Danny Demetro. Formed in winter 2005, People Who Can Fly incorporates electronique elements and the most basic instrumentation to create sonic tapestries that are both emotionally stirring and texturally provocative. "Sound is color and texture," says Chebon. "A listener should be able to feel more than just an acoustic response to our music. They should be able to feel immersed in an environment touching on all their senses."
     When asked about the motivations behind their music, Chebon says, "I've been a freelance mix engineer for a few years working with other people's music and have really developed a fascination with what sound can achieve and how people react to it." Demetro adds, "Music is very spiritual to me. Every note, every sound means something. It brings them closer to experiencing something that is bigger than themselves." Chebon: "We try very hard to steer clear of excess, leaving only the core ideas to guide our compositions."

Dermaptera--The sounds of Dermaptera can be described as sonic visions of falling in slow motion, or inseparable digital and analog sonic convergence. Liquid voice and synthesizer blend with amazing electronic bass sounds. Epic length ambient songs live side by side with shorter tunes. Dermaptera consists of a husband and wife duo, Kathy McMenamin and Kevin Hassett, who have been making music together since the turn of the millennium. Kevin has been playing bass since the early eighties, and has perfected his individual style of playing multiple string chords on the bass. His bass style also currently includes analog Moog effects processors. Kathy plays the synthesizer, and adds signal processed vocals to some songs. Her background includes a decade of training and performing for voice and piano. As Dermaptera, they've self-released a set of four CDRs, each one dedicated to a different quarter of the Wiccan calendar: Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, & Samhain.

Trio Ricochet with Lee Pembleton--This 'post-fusion' unit from Baltimore, including Nobu Stowe (Piano), Tyler Goodwin (Double-Bass) and Alan Munshower (Drums), is dedicated to exploring 'post-fusion'. So what is post-fusion? In short, it is the hybrid between the open-ended composition-based improvisation of post-bop (K.Jarrett/B.Evans) and the rhythm and energy of fusion (C.Corea/P.Metheny). It encompasses other modern jazz forms including world-fusion, free-jazz and ECM, but also different world music from Europe (classical), Brazil (bossa-nova), Japan, and the Middle-East. The music of TRIO RICOCHET is characterized by spontaneous improvisation, group interaction, high-energy dynamism and lyrical melodicism. Perfoming both originals and standards, TRIO RICOCHET guarantees to bring something fresh to the table every time. Since their public debut in September 2004, TRIO RICOCHET has already appeared at some of the top venues on the East Cost, including Blue Note N.Y. (NYC), The 55 Bar (NYC), The Knitting Factory (NYC), Bohemian Caverns (DC), Twins Jazz (DC) and An die Musik (Baltimore).� "This trio fuses post-Evans lyricism and avant aggression with headlong forays reminiscent of Jarrett melodic spontaneity."--Jim DeJong, Jazz Institute of Chicago� 

San Francico-based sound sculptor Lee Pembleton has been composing and performing music for over twenty years. The bulk of that time has been spent investigating sound environments and performative installations. He has been a member and toured the US with several contemporary music/performance ensembles, as well as jazz, rock and folk groups. He has also performed his works solo at a variety of venues, from art galleries such as Inshallah Gallery in LA to punk clubs such as the infamous Czar Bar in Chicago's Wicker Park. His installations have been featured in galleries, clubs and museums across America. Among Pembleton's current projects, The Museum of Viral Memory can be investigated online at www.vime.org. And the work of his performance collective MessHall can be seen regularly onstage and in galleries along the West Coast.

Participants: 
Jeff Surak--tapes and electronic FX
Davis White--circuit bent device
Amber Dunleavy--theremin
Sam Lohman--dumbek & FX
Tyler Higgins--acoustic guitar, laptop
Ted Zook--electric guitar, gongs, rainstick, FX
Roger Neele--hand drums
Jeff Bagato--records, hacksaw, FX
Gary--bass clarinet, small toys
Rick Sheehe--guitar, FX
Serson Brannen--(Atlanta, GA) vocals & FX, optical theremins
Dave Vosh--analog electronics
John Simler--electronics & FX
Andy--electric bass

Sunday July 9--The Five into One: 
Solos + Collective Free Improvisation
with Bushmeat, FFFFs, Layne Garrett, Mr. Natural, & Nobu Stowe!

It's a concept: Five soloists perform their own music and then re-take the floor en masse for one big group free improvisation that drives music and musicians into totally new sonic territory! "Imagine the possibilities!"

Bushmeat--Thomas Stanley has been improving DC's music scene through his efforts as a producer with the Transparent Productions collective, and as a musician with the cosmic jazz-funk band Noumenal Lingam, and the avant-jazz project Mind Over Matter, Music Over Mind (MOMMOM). This is his solo project for keyboards, voice, and piercing socio-political insight.

FFFFs--This solo project of Sean Peoples (SocketsCDR, Hand Fed Babies, Big Cats, Gestures) explores ambient layers of sound along subtle taped/sampled loops. Live shows range from beat-oriented affairs to minimalist experiments that balance improvisation and song structure. February 2006 saw the release of FFFFs first full-length album entitled "Cracked". It is available at www.SocketsCDR.com. There will be a new full-length recording by the end of this year. www.myspace.com/scdr

Layne Garrett--The guitar and junk playing half of Cutest Puppy in the World. Expect Layne to bring his axe plus an arsenal of reeds, found percussion, and electronics.

Mr. Natural--Hailing from Tennessee, John Sharp (aka Mr. Natural) has created his own noise making instruments, which he's played as part of the Radon Ensemble backing Steve McKay. His instruments are made from�wooden planks and unworked wooden branches, with structures of steel wire and springs placed about the surface.�Mr. Natural only uses American wood. He records for Radon Records and runs his own GLK label.

Nobu Stowe--Piano
Born in Maebashi, Gumma, Japan, Nobu started piano lessons at age 3 and composition at age 6. He moved to the US to study Music (composition) and Psychology at the University of California, at Berkeley. During this period, after discovering the music of Keith Jarrett, he started to play/compose more improvisation-oriented music. Then, he moved to Chicago to pursue graduate studies at the University of Chicago. After receiving Ph.D. in Psychology, he moved to Baltimore to work as a "drug researcher" for the NIH.  Since this relocation, Nobu has lead the post-fusion unit TRIO RICOCHET and, in just over a year since the trio�s public debut, has already appeared some of the top jazz-oriented venues in the East Coast including Blue Note N.Y. (NYC), The 55 Bar (NYC), The Knitting Factory (NYC), An die Musik (Baltimore), Bohemian Caverns (DC), Twins Jazz (DC) and Hirshhorn Museum and the Sculpture Garden of Smithonian Institute (DC).  Besides TRIO RICOCHET, Nobu leads and co-leads various projects exploring and blending �total-improvisation� (a la K.Jarrett), "free-improvisation" (a la C.Taylor/S.Lacy) and "chamber-free" (a la J.Giuffre/P.Bley). These include solo, duos with Alan Munshower (drums, A-UN), Vytis Nivinskas (double-bass) and Lee Pembleton (sound sculpture), trios and quartets with the top NY free-improvisors, Blaise Siwula (reeds), Ray Sage (drums) and Dom Minasi (guitar), and units including Ornette Coleman�s Prime Time guitarist Bern Nix, and clarinetist Perry Robinson.

June 4--Denman Maroney/Reuben Radding/Jack Wright Trio + Pierce, Putter & Rumble + Big Cats

Denman Maroney/Reuben Radding/Jack Wright--Special power trio brings free improv to new levels of creativity and insight. Each has appeared on DC stages in the past, showcasing their mastery of extended techniques and fiery invention. Maroney plays "hyperpiano," working inside the piano to elevate keyboard techniques. Wright needs little introduction to fans of free improvisaton for his pioneering work as a saxophonist, and as a "road scholar" who never met a tour schedule or musical partner he didn't like. Radding emerged from the DC scene playing bass alongside Dave Grohl (yeah, that guy) in Dain Brammage, but has since transformed into one of his generation's most masterful free improvising bassists.

Pierce, Putter & Rumble--Combine the creative energies of three GWU music profs: Peter Fraize on piercing sax; Jim Levy on puttering piano, and Steve Hilmy on rumbling electronics. Yes, this was postponed from the May schedule.

Big Cats--(aka Big Cats: The Real Dope $hit) Another example of DC's fine electronica/noise/punk underground, this duo features Sean People of FFFFs and SocketsCDR! and Patrick James Connolly. From the band: "The Big Cats sound falls somewhere in the middle of an enchanted forest and the iron maiden. Or maybe like a Wildebeast with a soft, compassionate side. Who knows? They don't... From spacey folk ballads to zonked-out rug cutting terror-noise, this duo is pure indulgence. With a revolving cast of local DC musicians, Big Cats claim no permanent line-up besides Connolly and Peoples, which keeps songs constantly in a state of flux. This, the band thinks, is a good thing." They were joined by Chris Greier for this show; all 3 played guitars. More info:  www.myspace.com/bigbigcats

--Thursday, June 1, 2006--
--Electric Possible::Special Edition--RE:Sound
BLK w/ Bear, sc.all, Tone Ghosting, & Violet
at Ellipse Art Center, Arlington, VA!
Electro-acoustic free improv solos using recycled or found instruments. In conjunction with the exhibit, "From the Junkyard to the Frontyard."

Free show!
7-9 pm
Ellipse Arts Center
4350 North Fairfax Dr.
One block west of Ballston Metro
703/228-7710
www.arlingtonarts.org

May 7--One Too Early (Tim Olive & Corrie Befort Duo) + Rebecca Mills + Tyler Higgins Project

One Too Early--Tim Olive & Corrie Befort Duo--Electric bass & dance from North American expatriots now living in Japan! A fixture on the Osaka avant rock scene, Tim Olive's a veteran of numerous projects including recordings with Nimrod, Twerdocleb, Soap-Jo Henshi, Jeffrey Allport, & Nishikawa Bunsho, and live performances with Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Ezaki Masafumi, Guilty Connector, Otomo Yoshihide, Martin Tetreault, Unami Taku. New CD forthcoming with Nishikawa Bunsho (Supernatural Hot Rug And Not Used); Sounds at http://gule.pupui.jp/

Originally from Minnesota & Seattle Corrie Befort lives in Tokyo where she works as a Dancer, choreographer & filmmaker. She spent seven years in Seattle with the Molly Sheldon Scott/Jarrad Powell Performance Company; four years with the Sheri Cohen Ensemble. She's performanced in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Geneva, New York City, Osaka, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna. Her films have been screened at festivals in the US, and in Tokyo.

Rebecca Mills--Founding member of Caution Curves & Gestures brings her laptop for freeform electronic & vocal madness. 

Tyler Higgins Project--Free improvisor Tyler Higgins (Indent, Trinary, etc) presents "In Waves," a new composition involving a "tape piece" with live accompaniment. Sounds for electronic composition obtained from the sheng, or Chinese mouth organ. Live accompaniment by Eli Asher on trumpet, Rob Thornton on euphonium and Tyler Higgins on electric guitar and whistling.

Steve Hilmy/Audrey Chen Duo--Hilmy's electronics and Chen on cello and voice for intense improvisations. Hilmy teaches computer music at George Washington University, and Chen is well-known in her hometown of Baltimore as an inventive, prolific, and challenging contributor to any project she joins. Their debut performance as a duo!

Violet Panic--Free-noise duo combines Jeff Surak (Violet) and Jeff Bagato (DJ Panic/Tone Ghosting) on homemade electronics. Tonight, Surak plans to bring his modified turntables while Bagato will play vinyl LPs with a hacksaw. The DJ set from Hell!

Mud Pie--New-ish DC-based trio playing instrumental free-improv in a "pulse-centered eclectic" mode. Group includes Sergio Dalek on drums, Tim Sickles on guitar, and Carlos Pazmino on bass.

Carolina Mayorga's Pig Lengua Class--Learn the language of the future from Columbia/District of Columbia-based artist Carolina Mayorga. Official description: "If you feel you can't express yourself freely, you need to learn Pig Lengua. Pig Lengua will be the only language in which you will be able to communicate your ideas, opinions, thoughts or emotions with no fear.The Pig Lengua class is part of a comprehensive language learning method to teach you the language of the future. Take a free Pig Lengua class and prepare for the future!" From the on-going series Pig Lengua: The Language of the Future.

Carolina Mayorga as born in Bogota, Colombia. Holds an MFA from the University of Kansas, U.S.A. Has had one-person and group exhibitions in Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Sweden and several cities of The United States including Washington, D.C., New York, Loveland, CO, Baltimore, MD, among others. Her work is represented in public collections in Colombia, the US and Sweden. Her work has been reviewed in various publications in Colombia, Sweden, Spain and the United States, including articles in the Washington Post, Washington City Paper, the Winston-Salem Journal from NC, The Telegraph and The Union Leader from NH. Lives and works between Washington, DC and Bogota.

They Can Never Take Our Crow--Started as an open collective where members come and go, contribute and coalesce, attack and decay. TCNTOC's current lineup consists of three members: Justin Blemly, processed voice, Geoff Wilt, drums, and Scott Enriquez, drums. TCNTOC builds gritty soundscapes ranging from atonal and arrhythmic to dark funk. Amid the harsh textures the group strives to evoke something beautiful and cathartic. The sounds produced are free and open compositionally, usually composed from collectively agreed upon states of desired feel. Accompanied by live light show using a homemade video feedback generator.

Short Film: "Photon-Phonon" by Andreas (Poland)--Abstract images and sound similar to Stan Brakhage or Maya Deren.

Sebastian Krawczuk/Eli Asher Duo--Sample sounds (mp3)
Eli Asher: "My goal as an improvising trumpet player is one native to 
many post-jazz musicians--to integrate the diverse means of musical 
expression I've found myself entangled in. This means, somehow, 
reconciling the lyricism of late 19th-c. and early 20th-c. Western music 
with the abstraction of chance-based and experimental electronic musics,
the harmonic concerns of progressive jazz and concert musics with the 
heavy and structural inflection of the blues and Indian music, and the "deep groove" of free jazz with more mechanical or formal musics. For a group with a similar spirit but with more of a sense of humor please check out http://www.respectsextet.com"

Sebastian Krawczuk [www.outdegree.com] is a free improvising musician based in Washington DC, playing electric upright bass w/electronics, influenced by punk, metal and free-improvised sounds while performing with bands in Poland such as Baby Blue Eyes, Felicite Pueros, and STUCKONCEILING. Sebastian is a seasoned player, participating in a series of workshops in Baltimore and performing in the Minijax series in DC. He is a former member of 10 String Trio. Current projects include Outdegree - an "intra-development" experiment; Mystery Shopper - a duo with percussionist Jason Mullinax [Mosquito Death Squadron, Mandible]; and Sneaky Pig - a duo with guitarist Richard Sheehe.

Echolalia--an experimental solo project by Amber Dunleavy consisting of theremin, delay pedals, and whatever else she may come across. Amber plays theremin for local terminal improv band Alzo Boszormeinyi and the Acid Achievers and has also collaborated with the improv collective Croniamantal and Jane Franklin Dance. For a sampling of her sound experiments, visit http://www.myspace.com/echolalianova.

Tyler Higgins--DC-based composer and improviser plays alto sax, guitar, & other stuff in free improv groups Contemporary Art Duo (experimental electronics), Trinary (electro-acoustic improv), Indent (electro-acoustic improv), and Birds in the Sky (minimal free jazz with Bawlmer scenesters). A self-taught composer and improvisor who draws his inspiration from psychoacoustics & musical semiotics and aesthetics, Higgins had an electronic piece chosen for the 2004 Sonic Circuits festival. Plenty of stuff in the works, including solo recordings, an experimental folk with violinist Nancy McDonnell, & a new jazz group.

kataStatik--(aka Chris Mandra) makes live, improvised, ambient drum and bass using a wearable interface he created called "the manDrum", his voice, a P5 VR Glove and interactive computer programs written in MAX/MSP. He sounds like a computer generated Ted Baxter channelling a twenty-first century Al Green at a Zencore festival. Mandra started creating electro-acoustic music in the late'80s and began writing music integrating orchestral instruments and interactive computer technology in the '90s, while playing in various bands, writing music for theater pieces, indie films, installation art projects, and having music played in the United States, Europe, and Asia. In the fall of 2004 he was awarded a fellowship to STEIM in the Netherlands to work on his performance interface, the "manDrum", and he recently completed a three week east-coast tour that took him (and other Unschooled Records labelmates Doofgoblin and Plat) over 6000 miles from as far north as Northampton, MA, as far south as Miami, FL and as far west as Chicago, IL. He lives near Washington, DC with his wife Andrea Seabrook. Free music from live shows available at http://defDumbAndBass.com

Mimeth--DC-based electronic artist working on the fringes of IDM/electronica/dub, or as he puts it, "Vast expanses of monochrome rumble punctuated by brief bursts of ecclesiastical melodica," or "gilded merde for the pale bearded."

Special Orbit--plays laptop electronics with great sensitivity & invention, working with Spaceships Panic Orbit, The Plums (doubling as second guitarist), Dang Gang Collective, etc.

Jan 8--Death Chants, Warning Danger of Death, Cash Slave Clique

Death Chants--DC-area freeak folk quartet explain themselves as follows: "DEATH CHANTS WAS BORN FROM THE RIME OF GINNUNGAGAP AND NOW WALKS ABROAD THRASHING TROLL WIVES AND CHANNELING THE NUMINOUS KNOWLEDGE OF THE COSMOS THROUGH CORPSE-HEAP WOLF-SONG!!  METAL AND WOOD CALLERS IN VOICE-MESH COMMUNION BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF ALL FORETHOUGHT!!!! " Those who attended the 2005 Free Folk Phantasmagory at 611 Florida will fondly recall their expansive "guerrilla" set in the bombed-out backyard. CDR release immenent on Time Lag records.

instruments: 
rafi - loops, acoustic guitar, percussive objects
paul - modular systems, tapes, viola, regurgitations
mikul - toy guitar, synth, vocals
alison - flute, electric guitar, vocals 

Warning Danger of Death--DC-area freeak trio includes
joe houpert - vocals, keys, 'the suitcase'. you have to meet this guy for a definition, but he is a mad genius who programs max stuff and goes berserk live; jean chrastina - vocals, synth. classically trained, and then brainwashed by these two to play insanity; & steve perrucci - drums, keys, effects. this guy uses a completely handmade drum kit. it is sick.

Cash Slave Clique (with members of Temple of Bon Matin)--DC's own godfather of extreme free noise in the Japanese tradition, Sam Lohman's 36 project debuted on the Osaka, Japan, scene in the early 90s, playing "electric drum"--a snare miked with one of Solmania's handmade contact microphones and run through a couple dozen FX. Previously, Lohman rocked the drums with Osaka-based Nimrod (records on the Bron & Scratch labels) with some fellow North American ex-patriots. Currently, he plays in Cash Slave Clique, and has toured recently as drummer with Steve McKay, Nik Turner, and Acid Mothers Temple (no shit). A local boy, Lohman also played with DC's Baltek back in the 80s. Expect big noise anti-music. Tonite, 36 will be joined by special guests: drummer Ed Wilcox & saxaphonist Vincent Paternostro (Philly) of Temple of Bon Matin and Arthur Doyle group. Squank and roll! (advertised as 36 solo).

Upcoming Shows

Show Log--2005 Anno El Possible

Show Log--2004 Anno El Possible

Show Log--2003 Anno El Possible

Photos from El Possible I with DC Improvisor's  Collective, Mikroknytes, EBSK, Spaceships Panic Orbit