ASAC Presents Suzanne Thorpe & Phillip Greenlief, Fossils from the Sun, Holland Hopson

The Albany Sonic Arts Collective presents Suzanne Thorpe and Phillip Greenlief, Fossils from the Sun, and Holland Hopson.

Saturday, April 7
8:00 pm
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St.
Albany NY
$5 suggested donation

West Coast saxophonist Phillip Greenlief visits New York, and mixes it up with East Coast electroacoustic flutist Suzanne Thorpe. Together they explore what it sounds like when warm winds of the west meet cool breezes of the northeast, and the spaces in between, with electronics, singalongs, and improvisations.
Fossils from the Sun is Ray Hare’s way of moving our eardrums with guitar and/or voice and/or electronics.
ASAC will be unveiling new chairs for “enhanced listening comfort” (TM). To celebrate, I’ll perform 4 short pieces for amplified and processed folding chair.

Location Ensemble Catch-Up

Here’s the latest on all things Location Ensemble:

Location Ensemble at Saratoga Arts

On Saturday the Location Ensemble will premiere three pieces for multiple electric guitars, bass and drums at Saratoga Arts. 1983 (Jason Cosco) will provide live visuals.

Saturday November 12 @ 8pm
Saratoga Arts
320 Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY

Since joining to performing Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio last year, the group has been busy–writing and rehearsing new pieces and naming ourselves Location Ensemble. The group includes Tara Fracalossi, Howard Glassman, Eric Hardiman, Ray Hare, Holland Hopson, Thomas Lail, Jason Martin, Patrick Weklar and Matt Weston.

Here’s the score for my piece on the program: Six Chords Every Rock Guitarist Should Know, inspired by Michael Nyman’s “1-100” from Decay Music.

Bring hearing protection.

soundBarn presents A Thousand Fibers – Fossils From the Sun, Insect Posse, Holland Hopson, soundBarn

The soundBarn presents: A Thousand Fibers, an evening of long-form improvisations with members of Albany Sonic Arts Collective and the soundBarn.

Saturday March 26  8pm
The soundBarn
330 maple lane (south drive)
valatie NY 12184

Featuring: Insect Posse, Fossils From the Sun, Holland Hopson and soundBarn.

For this performance I’ll be premiering “2 out of 3”, a new piece for improvising quartet performed with Ray Hare, Thomas Lail and Patrick Weklar. I’ll also be performing Valerian Maly’s piece “Electric Guitar II” for solo performer with electric guitar and a bottle of champagne!

ASAC Presents DEEP FREEZE

The Albany Sonic Arts Collective presents their first concert of 2011 with performances by some of the Capital Region’s most exciting experimental musicians including Century Plants with Matt Weston, Holland Hopson, SoundBarn and Insect Posse.

DEEP FREEZE: Experimental Music for Snowy Times
Saturday, February 19
8:00 pm
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St.
Albany NY
$5 suggested donation

This will be my first Albany show of 2011 and my last performance before heading to the Atlantic Center for the Arts for a residency with David Behrman (more on that later…). I’ll be performing a set of music for soprano sax and computer. My current plan includes a piece using a DIY plate reverb as the primary electronic sound source.

More about the artists after the jump…

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Benjamin Britten is Dead, Long Live Benjamin Britten


I’m looking forward to playing with soundBarn and Albany Sonic Arts Collective this Saturday at an event called “Benjamin Britten is Dead.” Saturday is the 34th anniversary of Britten’s death, but outside of that coincidence I don’t expect there to be much else in the way of Brittenalia. Performers will include Eric Hardiman, Ray Hare, Holland Hopson, Thomas Lail and Patrick Weklar. Live visuals by Tara Fracalossi. Here are the details:

Saturday December 4 @ 8 pm
The soundBarn
330 Maple Lane
Valatie NY 12184
south driveway
Free

Read more at the soundBarn blog.

Swallowtail and Guitar Trio Recordings

Tara Fracalossi and Thomas Lail slide up the neck during Swallowtail. Photo: Larissa Tapler

Here are recordings from last week’s soundBarn and Albany Sonic Arts Collective performance at the Arts Center Saratoga Springs. It was a great show all around: a good space, enthusiastic audience and focused performances. This is the definitive version of Swallowtail, and I think we’re all pleased with the performance of Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio.

[audio:01_swallowtail.mp3]

Swallowtail

[audio:02_guitar_trio_pt1.mp3]

Guitar Trio Part 1

[audio:03_guitar_trio_pt2.mp3]

Guitar Trio Part 2

Guitar Trio at Arts Center Saratoga Springs

Guitar Trio unleashed again.

Saturday November 20 @ 8pm
The Arts Center
320 Broadway
Saratoga Springs, NY
$5
I’m looking forward to another great night with SoundBarn and members of the Albany Sonic Arts Collective. We’ll play Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio and my companion piece, Swallowtail. The ensemble includes the indefatigable Matt Weston on drums, Eric Hardiman on electric bass, and six electric guitars played by Matthew Ernst, Tara Fracalossi, Ray Hare, Thomas Lail, Patrick Wecklar, and myself.

Read more in The Saratogian preview article.

Bring hearing protection.

Guitar Trio at Flywheel, Swallowtail Premiere, Christoph Heeman, More!

Easthampton! Are you ready to rock?!

Saturday October 9 @ 8pm
Flywheel
Old Town Hall
43 Main Street (Rt. 10)
Easthampton MA

I can’t wait for Saturday night to play at Flywheel with SoundBarn and members of the Albany Sonic Arts Collective. We’ll play Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Trio and premiere my new work, Swallowtail. The ensemble includes the pummeling Matt Weston on drums, Eric Hardiman on electric bass, and six (!) electric guitars played by Matthew Ernst, Tara Fracalossi, Ray Hare, Thomas Lail, Patrick Wecklar, and myself).

If you’d like to follow along, you can bring your own copy of the Swallowtail score. The piece is the next installment of my glissando music series–in the tradition of glissando masters James Tenney, Alvin Lucier, Iannis Xenakis, Lois V Vierk.

And at the risk of sounding like a ginsu knife commercial…But wait, there’s more…

Surrealist noise legend Christoph Heeman will perform, as will Easthampton locals Son of Earth.

Bring hearing protection.

Shout Outs from Metroland: Best of the Capital Region 2010

Metroland Best of the Captial Region 2010; Cover photo by Alicia Solsman

Metroland’s Best of the Capital Region for 2010 came out last week and I am surprised and pleased to be included as the Best Retro-Futurist. Sure, it’s a made-up category, but it’s a good fit. Here’s what they have to say:

Composer and instrumentalist Holland Hopson has been a contributor to the region’s avant-garde music scene for the better part of 20 year—whether it’s vocal excursions that meld Gregorian chant and Dada, or soprano sax forays that come pretty close to “straight-up” jazz, the breadth and range of this iconoclast’s musical journey has always been intriguing, albeit way outside of the box. Hopson’s recent blending of traditional tunes (performed with vocals and banjo) and subtle electronics has turned him into one of the area’s most mesmerizing and memorable live performers. Catch him if you can, as his local shows tend to be few and far between.

Metroland has identified plenty of other (probably more deserving) best-of recipients including such friends and colleagues as Jason Cosco/Grab Ass Cowboys (Best Noise Wrangler); EMPAC (Best Music Curation) — this ought to read Micah Silver, in my opinion, since he is the Music Curator at EMPAC; The Sanctuary for Independent Media (Best Activist Community Arts Center); and Emily Zimmerman (Best Emerging Curator).

These accolades come on the heels of a conversation with a friend at the latest show presented by the Albany Sonic Arts Collective. We were talking about how important it is for a community of artists to receive some recognition from the local press and the concomitant pitfalls of letting it go to your head. A timely conversation for the former and hopefully we’ll avoid the latter. The ASAC event was a great set of performances, by the way, particularly from Fossils from the Sun (Ray Hare) and Family Battle Snake (Bill Kouligas).