WEST
OAKLAND
SOUND
SERIES

a weekly new music and experimental sound series every sunday
presented by new performance traditions and sfSound

 

dresher ensemble studio :: 2201 poplar street, oakland california
$10-$25 sliding scale (cash & venmo accepted at door - order advance here)
ample parking! please park perpendicular when past the trees on poplar
:: late arrivals follow instructions on door to get buzzed in ::

JANUARY 19 2025  7pm

PHILIP GELB, after a long absence from the music scene has returned to performing and this is his first ensemble performance since the Pauline Oliveros memorial festivals where he came out of self imposed retirement to pay tribue to his mentor and dear friend. Due to dental reasons he had to give up the shakuhachi playing that he gained an international reputation for his innovation on the instrument. And thanks to a very generous present from an old friend/former student, he was given a Buchla Music Easel and some Buchla tip top modules, this past year. For the first time in over a decade he has formed a new ensemble featuring 3 of the major players of the bay area scene (KANOKO NISHI-SMITH, koto; KYLE BRUCKMANN oboe, english horn; THOMAS DIMUZIO synthesizer, sampler) and a newcomer/returnee to the bay area music community, FRED LONBERG-HOLM, cello. Besides being Phil's first ensemble concert in many years (he gave a solo Buchla set, last month) it is also Fred's first concert since relocating back to the bay area where he once lived as a student at Mills in the 80s.


CHRIS BROWN (composition, virtual piano and interactive electronics) and JOHANNA POETHIG (video) present RhythmiChrome (2023), a suite of 7 scored+improvised pieces in just intonation.

Synesthesia is “a perceptual phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway.” Although they occupy different ranges of the vibrational scale, pitch and rhythm are related by both being defined by their number of vibrations, or beats per second. In his book New Musical Resources the composer Henry Cowell theorized that associating pitch and rhythm by using the same whole number (integer) ratios of their beats can be an effective way compose relationships between rhythm and harmony. With the inventor Leon Theremin in the 1930s he created the Rhythmicon, an electric instrument that played rhythms in the same ratio proportions that define the simplest pitch intervals in the harmonic series. For my piece RhythmiChrome I wrote a Rhythmicon-like software that automatically generates rhythms in congruent ratios of the tuning of notes I play on a MIDI keyboard. Playing chords of these intervals generates polyrhythms that are bound to the pitch relations of the music. And these make attractive foils for improvisation, since for every note I play there is a response that changes both pitch and rhythm in a feedback-like process. The notes I play in RhythmiChrome are are all taken from the composer Harry Partch’s 41-tone tuning based on the numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11. The many different harmonies possible within this system provide unusual tone-colors, some very consonant and others dissonant; Partch painted the keys on his reed organ with colors he associated with each of those numbers, and named his instrument “Chromelodeon”. I wrote Occhio, a song cycle of 7 songs using different subsets or modes of his tuning, each with its own distinctive mood associated with the lyrics drawn from poetry by Italian poet Erika Dagnino. RhythmiChrome is an improvised music based on its score; it’s titles are from the poetry: Sguardo (The Gaze), Umidita (Humidity), Atmosferica (Atmospheres), Palpebre (eyebrows), Pianta (Plant), Pulsazioni (Pulsations), and Respiro (Breath). As a final step in the synesthetic development of the piece Johanna Poethig has composed videos in vibrant collages in response to the music and its themes, that in turn influence my improvising. --CB

JANUARY 19 2025  7pm

INTANGIBLE consists of GAMIN on Korean reed instruments, tenor saxophonist ROBERT REIGLE, bassist JEFF SCHWARTZ, and percussionist TIM FEENEY. A new ensemble, its members have toured and recorded internationally, testing the potential and limitations of experimental music as a means of cross-cultural collaboration, and examinations of the terms “folk,” “Western,” and “world.” The ensemble’s name reflects gamin's esteemed status as a bearer of an intangible cultural asset and the group's dedication to exploring complex acoustic phenomena and the mysterious essence of successful improvisation.


The concert also features the OAKLAND REDUCTIONIST ORCHESTRA, a supergroup of local musicians with a predilection for lowercase/fricative/reductionist acoustic improvisation that often sounds more electronic than acoustic. This ensemble grows out of a rich tradition of "American reductionist" music that emerged (re-emerged?) in the late 1990's and early 2000's. Previous projects like Tom Djll's Grosse Abfahrt and The Jack Wright Large Ensemble Eight By Nine document the Bay Area's contribution to the genre.

PERFORMERS
Monica Scott, cello
Danishta Rivero, voice
Cody Putman, bassoon
Kanoko Nishi-Smith, koto
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass 
Joshua Marshall, tenor saxophone
John Ingle, saxophones
Matt Ingalls, clarinets
Ron Heglin, tuba
Diane Grubbe, flutes
Tom Djll, trumpet
Kevin Corcoran, percussion
Chris Cooper, objects, electronics
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe, english horn

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