Category Archives: Music

The Universal Instrument: New Music for Voice

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The Universal Instrument

The Austin New Music Co-op is presenting a concert of new music for voice on Saturday, April 12 in Austin TX. The concert will feature music by Chris Cuellar, Brent Fariss, Holland Hopson, Keith Manlove, Josh Ronsen and Travis Weller performed by vocalists Ashley Gaar, Kathy Hatch, Deena Hyatt, Wendi Olinger, Anton Boyd, Brandon Young and Kevin Adickes.

The ensemble will be premiering my vocal quartet, Nine Tas (Download the score). I unfortunately won’t be in attendance.

NMC is presenting a number of related events beginning with an open rehearsal tonight, a radio broadcast tomorrow and a pre-concert talk on the 12th. More information about the concert and all the extras.

Best of ReSiDeNt: The First Two Months

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I’m excited to be playing again with the LEMURbots. This time it’s at Issue Project Room on Thursday, April 10 @ 8pm. I’ll be sharing the bill with Taylor Kuffner and Ben Neill. Here’s the rundown:

LEMUR storms Issue Project Room on Thursday, April 10th, with a night of special collaborations. Best of ReSiDeNt: The First Two Months showcases performances by January/February LEMUR ReSiDeNtS Taylor Kuffner debuting the GamelaTron robotic gamelan and Holland Hopson playing his customized MIDI banjo in an Appalachia-meets-robots performance. Then, Ben Neill presents the NYC premiere of new works for Mutantrumpet and LEMUR robots.

Thursday, April 10 @ 8 pm, $10
Issue Project Room @ The Old American Can Factory
232 3rd Street @ 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn

Maps Breaks $1. Maps is Free. Long Live Maps.

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The price for my Maps CD on amiestreet.com recently broke the $1.00 barrier (see below). To celebrate I’ve the posted the album in its entirety at grabrarearts.com. Go here for complete information or use the link below to get it all in one swell foop. This is part of my pledge to make more of my music available for download in 2008. I’ll have more coming up soon, so stay tuned.

Download the full album including artwork: hopson_maps.zip

Old Alabama

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Here’s a video from my recent performance at LEMUR. It’s the first outing for this brand new piece, complete with all the hesitations, misfires, fuzziness and fun of a premiere.

I’ll be playing with the LEMURbots again in early April–details to be announced.Thanks to Nicole Peyrafitte for grabbing this video on-the-fly. Check out Nicole’s new blog, Collectages. (Yum…spätzle.)

Matmos at Amiestreet

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At the risk of becoming a shill for amiestreet.com, I feel compelled to mention that Matmos has added most of their catalogue to the site. And the recordings are still at bargain prices. Yesterday I picked up three of their records I didn’t already own and the total price was under $7.00. Their Quasi-Objects CD (a fave of mine, but maybe the least popular in the Matmos canon?) is currently available for $0.30. The Civil War CD (gorgeous, bizarre music) is selling for under $2.00. Hurry–amiestreet.com uses a popularity pricing system, so the more people buying the music, the higher the price.

Has any other movie generated more band names than Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy? (It inspired my wife to name our compost pile Matmos. I’m sure the band would be pleased, as would Jane Fonda.)

ASAC Presents Yeh Eubanks Lafkas Clixby

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The Albany Sonic Arts Collective has announced their latest show: Saturday March 22, at the UAG Gallery. The lineup features

C. SPENCER YEH (solo violin, electronics)

BRYAN EUBANKS (saxophone) & ANDREW LAFKAS (bass)

MEG CLIXBY (bass, electronics)

The Upstate Artists Guild 247 Lark St.
Albany, NY: Saturday March 22, 2008
Doors at 7:30 pm: show at 8:00
$5 suggested donation at the door

C. Spencer Yeh Flyer

More on the musicians:

Continue reading →

Gates Ensemble on Austinnitus Audio Series

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I’ve posted previously about Josh Ronsen’s newly launched Austinnitus Audio Series. He’s recently added some great new audio including sounds from Alex Keller, Doug Ferguson, Thomas Fang and an incarnation of E.C.F.A sans myself. I’m particularly fond of the Gates Ensemble recording from a 2003 appearance at the Church of the Friendly Ghost that’s now online. Listen to it below.

[audio:http://ronsen.org/austinnitus/audio/GatesEnsemble_ChurchOfTheFriendlyGhost2003.mp3]

Monkey vs. Robot

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This month’s residency at LEMURplex is coming to an end which means the performance is coming up soon! Details are below. It’s been great getting to work with the robotic instruments. I’m looking forward to performing some new pieces for clawhammer banjo and robots, and hearing the other artists’ work, too. Lucky for us we get an extra day this month to work the wrinkles out, or at least to iron our monkey suits.

Friday February 29th, 8pm – 11pm
ReSiDeNt @ LEMUR: New Works, New Instruments, New Artists
461 3rd Avenue (between 9th and 10th streets)
Brooklyn NY
$5 at the door

  • Holland Hopson will bring Old-Time Appalachia to LEMUR by creating new pieces for the LEMURbots and Tru One, his clawhammer banjo/sensor interface.
  • Zach Layton will create a new work for improvising live trio plus improvising robots.
  • Percussionist Max Lord will perform on the Marimba Lumina with choreographer Ellen Godena in a work for robot percussion and spontaneous robot-inspired movement

Hope to see you there!