Sonic Frontiers Presents Holland Hopson and Justin Peake

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I’m excited to perform next week as part of the Sonic Frontiers season. I plan to play a set of pieces for banjo and electronics drawing from the material on Post & Beam, adding a few new twists, and hopefully including one or two “sound bug” pieces from my Radicans project.

Also on the bill is Justin Peake, a New Orleans based percussionist/composer known for his work as Beautiful Bells. Justin is a Tuscaloosa native, so this will be a homecoming performance for him.

I think it’s going to be a great night!

Thursday March 7 2013 at 7:30pm
Bama Theatre Greensboro Room
600 Greensboro Ave.
Tuscaloosa AL
Admission is Free.

Justin Peake – Workshop at Badabum Atelier from Michelle Ettlin on Vimeo.

Tracktion Lives Again

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I loved working with Julian Storer’s Tracktion–the single-screen DAW–when it was released in the early 2000’s. I thought it was the easiest DAW to get into and had the most productive workflow for me. I often recommended it to students who were interested in working with audio as an easy way to try out ideas. I eventually stopped using it sometime after Mackie purchased it in 2003 and then sadly stopped supporting the product. Julian and a few team members have left Mackie and are releasing a new version, Tracktion 4, next week. I think I’ll take it for a spin again.

Zicarelli Shout-Out for Post & Beam

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David Zicarelli (the main man behind Max) just wrote about Post & Beam on his Cycling ’74 blog.

Holland Hopson’s Post and Beam was released last year, but I stupidly didn’t fall in love with it until recently. I guarantee you’ve never heard anything like it — beautifully performed original and traditional folk songs set against an electronic dreamworld. I can’t think of a recording that provides a more powerful study in contrasts — heartfelt and alienating most of all. Check it out and see if you don’t think the Maxified banjo is not the up-and-coming instrument of the decade!

Cage/Gould

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Cage’s Inlets will be performed using his original shells

Saturday’s Cage/Gould concert at RPI’s EMPAC in Troy NY is the next in a long line of John Cage centenary tributes happening this year. Featuring the Rensselaer Contemporary Music Ensemble directed by Michael Century, the program includes works by John Cage juxtaposed with a recreation of part of Glenn Gould’s final piano concert.

Saturday, November 17 8pm
EMPAC Theater
Rensselaer Contemporary Music Ensemble
Cage Gould
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy NY

The french philosopher Elie During knits it all together in a pre-performance lecture (5pm) with the help of a vacuum cleaner (no kidding!) or at least the metaphor of a vacuum cleaner or the memory of the sound of a vacuum cleaner or the memory of the experience of the obliteration of all other sounds thanks to a vacuum cleaner… I guess we’ll have to go to the lecture to find out for sure.

I’ll be providing some electronic dialogues in the concert between Cage and Gould using recordings of their voices. I put together a Max patch to trigger the cues and quickly found that my old-school use of Max’s “coll” object wasn’t quite cutting it. I looked into Max’s new “dict” object as a replacement but hit a limit recalling nested hierarchical statements. So I delved into SQLite and Javascript to put together a relational database of cues and associated tags. Now I’m able to query and sort the cues at will. I can also change the content of the database (add cues, edit tags, etc.) without munging up the patch itself. Lovely!

Thursday in the Red Room: Holland Hopson, Khristian Weeks, Weed Tree

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I’m performing at Red Room in Baltimore on Thursday. Also on the bill are Khristian Weeks (creator of the video below)

and Weed Tree. The Jesse Stiles 3000 will make a special guest appearance.

Thursday, November 15, doors at 8:30pm
Holland Hopson
Khristian Weeks
Weed Tree
Red Room
Baltimore MD

PLAY – New and Improved Improv on Saturday

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Thollem McDonas, photo: Peter Gannushkin

LaDonna Smith has organized another jam-packed evening of improvised music with a host of special guests, featuring pianist Thollem McDonas.

Saturday, September 22 7:30pm
PLAY – New and Improved Improv
Homewood Community Center – CDF
1715 27th Court South
Homewood AL
$10/$5 students (sliding scale) kids free

Thollem will perform solo and with Stella Nystrom, dance; Davey Williams, guitar; Craig Hultgren, cello; Andrew DeWar, saxophone. Also on the bill are Hunter Bell, Si Reasoning, myself and LaDonna Smith. Dianne McNaron will preview her upcoming Marlene Dietrich retrospective and Caroline Karson will play Chopin. Come early and stay late, there’ll be lots to take in.

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.