Category Archives: Music

Goodbye Southern Harmony

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I’m so sad to hear about William Duckworth’s death. Kyle Gann has written an exceptionally poignant tribute. I first heard Duckworth’s music in the mid-1990s and have been coming back to his pieces regularly, especially his choral work Southern Harmony. Someone (Kyle? Neil Rolnick?) once told me about a connection to appalachian banjo in Bill’s works, particularly the Time Curve Preludes. The more I listen to Duckworth and play the banjo, the more I think I can hear the relationships. Maybe an arrangement of one of the preludes for banjo is in order?

Weekend Waltz Through Texas

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I’m playing two shows in Texas this weekend: Austin on Sunday and Houston on Monday. I can’t wait to reconnect with friends in both places, hear some great music, eat some great food.

Sunday, September 2 8pm
Austin Museum of Digital Art (AMODA) Performance Series
Bill Thompson, Holland Hopson, Rick Reed
Gates Ensemble
Waller Creek School
4100 Red River Street
Austin TX

This will be a treat. A reunion of the Gates Ensemble along with solo sets by Bill Thompson, myself and Rick Reed. Yowzer! It’s been 6 years since I last played an AMODA show and I have some great memories of the series: Stephen Vitiello, Phill Niblock, Olivia Block, Keith Fullerton Whitman. I’m happy to be part of the series again.

Monday, September 3 7pm
They, Who Sound
Holland Hopson
Sonia Flores
Avant Garden
411 Westheimer
Houston TX

Then on to Houston for the next installment of They, Who Sound with Sonia Flores.

I’ll be performing music for banjo and electronics in both places–my Redneck Tech schtick. Come on out; I’d love to see you there.

Listening as Creative Act

Aside

Allan Kozinn get’s it in yesterday’s NYTimes article about John Cage’s 4’33”.

…I sat back, closed my eyes and did what Cage so often recommended: I listened. I made no effort to separate the strands of conversation or to focus on what people were saying. I was simply grabbed by the sheer mass of sound, human and mechanical. It sounded intensely musical to me, noisy as it was, and once I began hearing it that way, I couldn’t stop.

ASAC Videos: Pump Organ and No Mule

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Thanks to Eric Hardiman for shooting and posting videos from Saturday’s Albany Sonic Arts Collective show.

This is the premiere of a soon-to-be-titled work built around the idea of treating a fader box as a set of pump organ pedals, rather than simple position sensors. Using Cycling ’74’s Max I can control the organ sounds with a variety of gestures: “pumping” the faders makes the sounds louder, rhythmic motion creates harmonics, sudden and abrupt changes add distortion and bite. The samples that appear at 5:30 are from a 2010 recording session with choreographer Jill Sigman (previous story here).

(Start at 1:32 to skip the embarrassing banter and the hopeless yet obligatory banjo tuning…)

“No Mule” is another brand-new tune. The rhythmic chopping effect is a kind of slow-motion walk through a live sample of the banjo. I add a few more live samples beginning at about 4:00 and get into full-on Steve Reich mode by 6:00.

ASAC Presents Ben Miller, Holland Hopson, Barn Owl, Claymation

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The Albany Sonic Arts Collective presents Ben Miller, Holland Hopson, Barn Owl and Claymation.

Saturday, June 16
8:00 pm
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St.
Albany NY
$5 suggested donation

This will likely be my last ASAC show as an Albany resident. I’m pleased to share the occasion with:

Ben Miller – alto sax, tapes, the zoo, voice and projection in support of a new release on Living Records. Ben has performed at ASAC a few other times, and was formerly a member of Destroy All Monsters, Sproton Layer, and other units. He’s one of the best out there, and you shouldn’t miss this performance.

Barn Owl – amazing trio of improvising musicians extraordinaire. Matt Weston on drums/percussion, Andy Crespo on bass, and Chris Cooper on prepare guitar/electronics. You’re always in for a treat with these guys.

Claymation – solo electric guitar improvisation from C. Baird Buchanan. We’re excited to have Baird bring his solo project to ASAC for the first time.

 

Wind Whistling in Overhead Wires: Soundtrack Companion to The Observers

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Wind Whistling in Overhead Wires is a collection of field recordings and outtakes from my work on Jacqueline Goss’s film The Observers.

This is a pay-what-you-wish (starting at free!), digital download release on Bandcamp. I made the field recordings during our two amazing shoots at the top of Mt. Washington in New Hampshire (see these previous posts). I processed some of the sounds using custom effects developed with Cycling 74’s Max software and added a few instruments in the studio. I chose my favorite sounds and sketches that didn’t make it into the final film and sequenced them to create a continuous 20-minute piece (though some of the tracks work well on their own, particularly Downslope Flow). Enjoy!