About Ab Uno Pluribus

A monthly audio-visual event happening since 2014 in Manhattan, New York City, USA.

January 2016 Session

January 2016 session – 1/30/2016 – 7:30 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

BLOATER [lo-fi electronics & effects]
DYLAN NEELY [violin & digital sound processing]
YUSUKE YAMAMOTO [percussion & keyboards]
Live visuals by ALEX NATHANSON
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

Bloater + Dylan Neely + Yusuke Yamamoto + Alex Nathanson @ Ab Uno Pluribus – January 2016 Session – 1/30/2016 from WvS on Vimeo.

BLOATER is the banner for musical activities of Ken B who uses an array of simple electronics (oscillators, stompboxes, etc). Some primary interests are exploring the boundaries between abrasive noise & music, bass frequencies & acoustic pressure, and free improvisation in solo and ensemble formations.

Bloater was originally conceived as a duo, launched in late 2007 with Ken B on electronics and Steve Smith (End Result, Chicago) on noise guitar. An album “Radiac” was recorded in 2009 (self-released in 2011). In late 2011, Steve Smith departed, and other musicians have filled in: Marc Gaetani (objects), Dan Jones (guitar), Brent Landon (guitar), Gabriel Cruz (guitar) and Robert Pepper (synths, electric violin). Bloater continues as a solo project at present. Ken B has also been a member of the free-improv band Clutter aka “$50 Trumpet” with Brett Zweiman and Marc Gaetani, and has performed with the contemporary version of Chicago’s seminal noise-punk band End Result. He has performed in various contexts at Spectrum, The Tank, Wild Torus, Public Assembly, Silent Barn, Goodbye Blue Monday, Front Room Gallery, The Tarot Society, Theaterlab, Legion, The Charleston, Governor’s Island (Figment Fest), Beat Kitchen (Chicago) and others.

DYLAN NEELY is a composer and improviser whose work includes electroacoustic violin performance, opera, sound installation, and various multimedia collaborations. A Fulbright Fellow, Dylan received a B.A. from Bard College at Simon’s Rock and M.F.A. from Mills College. Recent projects include a live scoring collaboration with Marcel Dzama and Luscious Skin presented at MoMA PS1 and Nitehawk Cinema, a European tour with Fan Letters, performing with Zeena Parkins and TILT Brass Sextet at The Stone, and serving as assistant music supervisor and music arranger for the second season of Mozart in the Jungle. In March, Fan Letters will be premiering a new work on an intercity bus trip as part of Flux Factory’s Fung Wah Biennial.

http://www.dylanneely.com/

ALEX NATHANSON is an artist, curator, organizer, and educator whose work spans video, sound, performance, and interaction design. His collaborators include Dylan Neely, Kid Millions, Carina Kaufman, Kendall Williams and others. Currently, he is a long-term artist in residence at Flux Factory, in Queens, NY. As an educator, he works with students of all ages teaching skills related to sound, light, mechanics, and electronics through creative projects. He has been hyperbolically described as a “video effects guru” and poorly described as “difficult to describe.”

http://www.alexnathanson.com
http://www.fanletters.info

Born in Hyogo, Japan, YUSUKE YAMAMOTO began studying the organ at age 5, percussion at age 11 and joined a local symphony orchestra soon after. He majored in percussion at Kunitachi College of Music in Tokyo, and began his career as a classical percussionist while attending college. When his interests later turned to improvisation and jazz, he was awarded a full scholarship for further studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston. While in Boston, Yusuke studied the vibraphone with Gary Burton, Ed Saindon and performed in numerous concerts, in addition to composing, recording and publishing various works. In 1995, he moved to New York City, where he formed the “Golden Monkeys” and released its first self-titled album in 1998. Yusuke has played with a wide variety of musicians and at countless venues throughout the city. He has toured to Japan, Europe and around the U.S. with groups, including the Golden Monkeys, channel U, Dizzy Ventilators, Chimp Beams, Dub Nomads, Chin Chin, Chiara Civello, Sound of Village, Echo (Joy Askew) and The Beat Kids. Produced and released channel U’s albums, Ape-Man Talking(1st) and So Possible (2nd). Performed on Broadway musical, “FELA!” in 2010. Recorded various instruments with Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) on her produced track “Strange Love” which became the closing theme of Disney movie, “Frankenweenie” directed by Tim Burton in 2012. From 2014 to 2015, Performed with “Blue Man Group” at the special event and also on the TV show.

Living in NY, Yusuke is a multi-instrumental musician who performs on vibraphone, drums, percussion, flute, keyboards and bass. His unique sound is a blend of Asian, Brazilian and African music, as well as jazz, electronica, dub, rock and contemporary classical. He is currently active with his solo project, channel U, and collaborates with several groups, including Monica Lionheart, Vandana Jain, Elysian Field, Dizzy Ventilators and The Heathens.

http://www.yusukeyamamoto.net

December 2015 Session

December 2015 session – 12/12/2015 – 7:30 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

AL MARGOLIS [violin/viola + vintage synth]
DOROTHEA TACHLER [keyboard, autoharp + guitar]
MATT VERZOLA [sampler + synth]
Live visuals by KATHERINE LIBEROVSKAYA
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

Al Margolis + Katherine Liberovskaya @ Ab Uno Pluribus – December 2015 Session – 12/12/2015 from WvS on Vimeo.

AL MARGOLIS has been an activist in the 1980s American cassette underground through his cassette label Sound of Pig Music and was co-founder of experimental music label Pogus Productions, which he continues to run. Active under the name If, Bwana since 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition. Margolis often collaborates live with video artist Katherine Liberovskaya and performs as part of a laptop duo with Doug Van Nort and an electronic/acoustic duo with Tom Hamilton.

http://www.ifbwana.com/
http://ifbwana.bandcamp.com/
http://pogus.com/

KATHERINE LIBEROVSKAYA is a video/media artist based in Montreal and New York. Involved in experimental video since the 80s, she has produced numerous videos, video installations and performances shown at various events and venues around the world. Since 2001 her work predominantly focuses on collaborations with composers and sound artists notably in live video+sound performance where her live visuals seek to create improvisatory “music” for the eyes. Frequent collaborators include Phill Niblock, Al Margolis/If,Bwana, Zanana, Kristin Norderval, Hitoshi Kojo, David Watson, David First and o.blaat (Keiko Uenishi). Recent projects have involved: Anna Homler, Leslie Ross, Shelley Hirsch, Chantal Dumas, Richard Garet, Dorit Chrysler, Emilie Mouchous, Erin Sexton, Corinne Rene and Philippe Lauzier. Recent solo projects include the audiovisual installations “sonimaginations tissulaires” (2014), “NoizeBreeze” (2014), “Air-Play” (2013), “Amplifontana” (2012) and “Shines” (2008-09). Concurrently she curates and organizes the Screen Compositions evenings at Experimental Intermedia, NYC, since 2005 and the OptoSonic Tea series with Ursula Scherrer at Diapason, NYC, since 2006. In 2014 she completed a PhD in the Study and Practice of Art entitled “Improvisatory Live Visuals: Playing Images Like a Musical Instrument” at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).

DOROTHEA TACHLER is a Brooklyn based musician, singer and composer who was born and raised in Munich, Germany. After finishing her degree in classical music there, she played and sang around the world with German, Japan and American bands. Touring led her to New York where she started her band “My Favourite Things” as well as composing music for films, besides several other music projects. She is constantly exploring different genres and went from Classical over Avantgarde, Indie Rock, Experimental, Shoegaze, Surf, Jazz, Gipsy-Jazz, Country, Ambient to Folk, Reggae, Electronic Music and Improvisation, using different instruments or her voice, and she collaborates with many other talented musicians and singers worldwide.

http://dorotheatachler.com/
https://soundcloud.com/michikodoro

MATT VERZOLA is Brooklyn-based recording and visual artist best known for his musical creations under the name 2Beeps. He occasionally makes music for commercials, short films and personal projects, and has releases with popular record labels Fool’s Gold, Play Me and Dim Mak Records. A regular at the New York art event Share, he enjoys collaborative and open creative environments that emphasize experimentation and improvisation.

http://2Beeps.com/

November 2015 Session

November 2015 session – 11/21/2015 – 7:30 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

KYUNGMI LEE [flute + effects]
MICHAËL ATTIAS [alto saxophone]
CHRIS PENALOSA [modular synthesis]
Live visuals by JIM TUITE
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

Michaël Attias + Kyungmi Lee + Chris Penalosa + Jim Tuite @ Ab Uno Pluribus – November 2015 Session – 11/21/2015 from WvS on Vimeo.

Saxophonist/composer MICHAËL ATTIAS is a quietly fierce force on the international improvising scene. Born in Israel to Moroccan parents, he grew up in Paris and the American Midwest before settling in NYC in 1994. He has performed and recorded under the leadership of such great artists as Anthony Braxton, Paul Motian, Oliver Lake, Tony Malaby, and many others. With five critically-acclaimed albums as a leader, current projects include his long-standing trio Renku, the quintet Spun Tree, the Michaël Attias Quartet, and the solo saxophone and piano project, I’s. He has also composed live electronic scores and sound designs for theater including numerous collaborations with legendary director Robert Woodruff. Michaël Attias was named a 2000 Artists’ Fellowship Recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts, a 2013 NYFA Artists Fellowships Finalist, and was awarded MacDowell Arts Colony fellowships in 2008 and 2015.

http://www.michaelattias.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaël-Attias/702054359881919
https://soundcloud.com/michael-attias

KYUNGMI LEE is a flutist based in Jersey City. She received a diploma from the Juillard Pre-College and degrees from the Peabody Conservatory. As a classical flutist Lee has performed with the Washington Summer opera and appeared at the International Computer Music Conference, Society of Electroacoustic music in the United States, and the Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival. As am improviser she has played at ShareNYC, Grace Exhibition Gallery, Firehouse Space, 92nd St. Y, Front Room Gallery and Eonta space. Lee likes to incorporate ritualistic and theatrical elements to her musical performances. Her recent works with Liz Kosack (keyboard, mask maker) included puppetry, masks, and doughnut communion. Lee also practices improvised theater with Uncarved Block of Van Reipen Collective.

CHRIS PENALOSA is an artist based in Ridgewood, New York. His work focuses on real-time modular synthesis. He performs in an audiovisual duo with Sean Julian and has played at venues such as MoMA PS1’s Print Shop, Microscope Gallery, and Palisades. He also works with the record label Generations Unlimited.

http://chrispenalosa.com/

JIM TUITE is a VJ, media artist and curator based in the New Jersey/New York area. He has created videos and VJ performances for musicians from around the world. He also creates music videos and photographs. His videos have been featured at the Index Art Center, Spectrum, Panoply Lab, The Rotunda, (le) poisson rouge, Goodbye Blue Monday, ExperiMENTAL Music festivals, Omega Sound Fix festivals, Classwar Karaoke, Wild Torus and Certain Circuits magazine. He was been the curator for the ExperiMENTAL Music Festival 6 Film and Video event. His collaborators include: Pas Musique, TheUse, JOHN 3:16, Rasplyn, Anrrea Dune, Lauds, Billy Cancel, rawmean, [ówt krì], Damien Olsen, Pulcinella, Semisolid, Not Blood Paint, Trinitron, Richard Lainhart, Bloater, The Jazzfakers, David First, among others. His influences include interactive video artists such as Gary Hill, Toni Dove, Grahame Weinbren; video artists such as Stan Brakhage; filmmakers including Alejandro Jodorowsky, David Lynch, Bela Tarr, Jean-Luc Godard, and Japanese cinema of the 1950s and 60s, experimental music and soundscapes, 20th Century Modernism. He is an MFA graduate of School of Visual Arts and studied with Tim Druckrey, Grahame Weinbren and Ken Feingold among others.

http://tumeitejas.tumblr.com/

August 2015 Session

August 2015 session – 8/22/2015 – 7:30 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

LINDSAY TUTTLE [guitar]
DAMIEN OLSEN [keyboard/synth & sampler]
NURBSTREAM [synths]
Live visuals by DAMIEN OLSEN & MATT VERZOLA
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

Nurbstream + Surf Hair + Damien Olsen + Matt Verzola @ Ab Uno Pluribus – August 2015 Session – 8/22/2015 from WvS on Vimeo.

Tallahassee-to-Deep Queens transplant LINDSAY TUTTLE plays guitar and manipulates sound as Surf Hair. From eerie, melodic outsider-acoustic work to feedback-laden electric noise, Surf Hair centers on an immediate but strangely melodic approach to outsider guitar. Her releases, including 2012’s full-length Vicodin Closet and a number of splits and collaborations, also highlight her knack for atmospheric, unnerving production. Surf Hair’s live sets include noisy improvisation and Shellac-style audience Q&As. Surf Hair is working on new recordings including a split with Madison, Wisconsin project Judders.

https://serfhair.bandcamp.com

Brooklyn NY based Multimedia Artist DAMIEN OLSEN; Musician (guitars, keyboards, synths, piano, bass) and Visual Artist (Sculptor, Photographer, Painter, Video Artist). He specializes in the electronic music genres of Ambient, Post Dance, Cinematic, Acid/Psychedelic; Cocktail Music, Chillout, Trip Hop, with a notorious jazz, Folk and Musique Conrète influence.

Discography:
http://damienolsen.bandcamp.com

Visual Arts:
http://www.damienolsenarts.com

Video:
https://vimeo.com/damienolsen/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/DamienOlsen/videos

NURBSTREAM – electronic musical explorations, from nuanced and ethereal to dark and driven.

https://www.soundcloud.com/nurbstream
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/nurbstream
http://www.amazon.com/nurbstream

MATT VERZOLA is a Brooklyn-based recording and visual artist. Best known for his musical creations under the name 2Beeps, he has releases with popular record labels Fool’s Gold, Play Me and Dim Mak Records. He’s recently been exploring live visuals, projection mapping and motion graphics, with an emphasis on experimentation and improvisation. A regular at the NY art event Share, Matt enjoys collaborative and open creative environments.

http://2Beeps.com

June 2015 Session

June 2015 session – 6/27/2015 – 8:00 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

JOAN HACKER [guitar]
ROTHWELL [prepared autoharp]
PHILIP WHITE [electronics]
Live visuals by VISUAL HORN HONKING
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

Joan Hacker + Rothwell + Philip White + Visualhornhonking @ Ab Uno Pluribus – June 2015 Session – 6/27/2015 from WvS on Vimeo.

JOAN HACKER is a Brooklyn-based musician and artist. Working primarily under the name Factoria, as well as Heroine, her sound ranges from lo-fi folk to harsh noise. For Ab Uno Pluribus, Joan Hacker will perform an improvisational piece using a unique and personal way of playing guitar. Building on the tonic sound of hair clippers, she will use her hair, pulsating light and a can of pepper spray to produce sounds and overtones resembling sitar drone and Tuvan singing. Look for her forthcoming studio album of guitar improvisations.

joanhacker.com

ROTHWELL (Robert Hardin) is a visual artist who started making music in 1997. He co-curated an electronic music/film installation called “The Creamery” at the now defunct Tonic in 2002 and at Chashama in 2005. He also co-curated “Mending Near the Pole,” another electronic music/film installation at Office Ops in 2004. In 2007, he formed a band with Khristian Weeks and Richard Kamerman called Caledonian Laughing Bags—debuting at Monkeytown in Brooklyn in 2008. Since 2009, Robert has led the collective of accomplished performing artists/musicians known as Frogwell, renowned for their extremely conceptual live shows. Last year, Mr. Hardin performed a spoken word/musique concrete piece with Mariette Papic as part of the Paweł Althamer show at the New Museum in NYC.

www.facebook.com/frogwellnyc

Composer, performer and improviser PHILIP WHITE works with electronics at the intersection of noise, jazz and contemporary concert music. Current projects include R WE WHO R WE (with Ted Hearne), Colonic Youth (with James Ilgenfritz, Kevin Shea and Dan Blake) and duos with Chris Pitsiokos, Bob Bellerue and Taylor Levine. His music has been released on New Focus Recordings, Infrequent Seams and Tape Drift Records. It has been described as “utterly gripping” (Time Out Chicago), “bona fide evocative music” (Brooklyn Rail), and a “vibrant textural tapestry” (Wall Street Journal).

www.prwhite.net

May 2015 Session

May 2015 session – 5/30/2015 – 7:30 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

Ab Uno Pluribus - May 2015 session

LEILA BORDREUIL [violoncello]
HANS TAMMEN [tabla machine and live sound processing]
KEVIN WOODS [saxophone + processing]
live visuals by KURT RALSKE
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

https://www.facebook.com/events/829222217170519

LEILA BORDREUIL is a Brooklyn based cellist, composer and sound artist from France. Her cello playing is often improvised, and mainly focuses on texture variations and a collage of phantom overtones and pitched utterances. Through an original vocabulary of extended techniques, preparations, and imaginative amplification methods, her instrument is used as an abstract resonant body to challenge conventional cello practice. Her composed works draw from a similar texture-based musical aesthetic, but also focus on the relationship between sound and space.

Since moving to Brooklyn in 2012, Leila has maintained an active concert schedule performing with Marina Rosenfeld, Anthony Coleman, Chris Corsano, Eli Keszler, Richard Garet, Lea Bertucci, and Michael Foster among many others. Notable venues where she has performed include the Whitney Museum, Roulette, Issue Project Room, The Kitchen, and the Performa Biennale.

http://leilabordreuil.blogspot.com/

KURT RALSKE‘s video installations and performances enact a dialogue with history: an exploration of the past that proposes a new view of the future. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale in 2009 and 2015, the Guggenheim Bilbao, and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art.

Kurt is the recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Media Arts Fellowship, and received First Prize at the Transmediale International Media Art Festival in Berlin in 2003. Kurt programmed and co-designed the 9-channel video installation that is permanently in the lobby of the MoMA in NYC. He is also the author/programmer of Auvi, a popular video software environment in use by artists in 22 countries.

Kurt resides in New York City. He is Chair of the department of Media Arts (Digital Media / Video / Film / Animation / Sound) at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Alongside his art practice, Kurt is active as an improvising musician and composer.

http://retnull.com/

HANS TAMMEN: PERCUSSORES for tabla machine and live sound processing

“The celebrated automata (of the eighteenth century) were not only a way of illustrating an organism, they were also political puppets, small-scale models of power. Frederick (the Great), the meticulous king of small machines, well-trained regiments and long exercises, was obsessed with them”. (Michel Foucault)

Hans Tammen’s Iron Foundry is a name for projects that use electronic sound processing on various instruments to fragment, distend and otherwise transform their sounds, creating an alien world of bizarre textures and polyrhythmic machinations. Intended to portray live sound processing as an instrument rather than a row of effects, his software was originally developed about 15 years ago for the Endangered Guitar project, and it “listens” to the playing, to then determine the parameters of the live sound processing. By using a tabla machine as a sound source, two automata playing off against each other, creating an alien world of bizarre textures.

Hans Tammen creates sounds that have been described as a journey through the land of unending sonic operations. He produces rapid-fire juxtapositions of radically contrastive and fascinating noises, with micropolyphonic timbres and textures, aggressive sonic eruptions, but also quiet pulses and barely audible sounds – through means of his interactive software programming, by working with the room itself, and, as a critic observed, with his “…fingers stuck in a high voltage outlet”. Signal To Noise called his Endangered Guitar works “…a killer tour de force of post-everything guitar damage”, AllAboutJazz called the music of his Third Eye Orchestra “nothing short of breathtaking”, and “a masterpiece of musical evocation”.

http://www.tammen.org/
Iron Foundry YouTube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/mnpu2w8

As a player, KEVIN “BLUE” WOODS brings a depth of knowledge and experience to his craft that simply sets him apart. Having studied Jazz Performance on Saxophone at Mt Hood Community College as well as the prestigious University of North Texas; skill, technique, & education go hand in hand.

As a composer he draws from the Legacy of Jazz and R&B and then blends that with life experience to create a fresh and forceful new voice in Jazz, Pop, Avant Garde, and R&B. As a lyricist and vocalist he writes from the heart what he knows and expresses what he feels and his audience hears him. As an arranger for film and television scoring, visual emotion becomes musical emotion. He has played in countless New York bands and has worked with ELEKTRA Records as a touring musician.

Active in the Noise/New Music genre finds him performing adaptations of classic Jazz Standards in ways never imagined, specifically at the Ab Uno Pluribus Xperimental music series in NYC. Currently “Blue” is completing a new full length CD of original Pop R&B and an accompanying video for one of the album’s singles.

http://bluewoods.com/

April 2015 Session

April 2015 session – 4/25/2015 – 8:00 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

DAN GITLIN [12 string Chapman Stick + iPad]
MICHAEL DUREK [theremin]
DAVE KOENIG [electronics]
Live visuals by ANNA BARSAN
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

Michael Durek, Dan Gitlin, Dave Koenig + Anna Barsan @ Ab Uno Pluribus – April 2015 Session – 4/25/2015 from WvS on Vimeo.

ANNA BARSAN is a New York City-based artist and media educator working in film, installation and live video performance. She is the co-creator of SIGNIFIED, a documentary series and digital archive of LGBTQ testimony and founding member of Elektric Breakfast, a women’s visual arts collaborative working in video performance and multimedia installation. Barsan’s work explores concepts of identity, social control and artistic intervention.

http://annabarsan.com

DAN GITLIN (Heroine, 4th Sign of the Apocalypse) is a Brooklyn based Stickist, guitarist, sound manipulator, and audio enthusiast specializing in finding off-label uses for off-the-shelf devices. Dan has been making noise in various contexts around New York City for over twenty years.

http://www.facebook.com/heroinenyc
http://www.facebook.com/4thsignoftheapocalypse

MICHAEL DUREK is a multi-instrumentalist, sound designer and producer. He is “theUse” and also plays with Pas Musique and George Sand. He has recently performed in notable festivals including Upvan Arts, CoCArt Festival, Avant Garde Festival and Kunstzwerg Festival and also at the Queens Museum. He has appeared on approx 25 albums, and writes 10 listens series for The Brooklyn Rail.

http://michaeldurek.com
http://theusemusic.com
http://www.pasmusique.net/index.html
http://flyingmoonlight.com/artists/george-sand

DAVE KOENIG‘s music uses live percussion and vocals to trigger and change digital sound events. These events often involve recursive algorithms crafted to generate harmonies and rhythms modeled after either natural sounds or approximations of randomness. These autogenerative formulas are fundamentally altered with each new incoming trigger, resulting in constantly shifting patterns. The timing of the triggers is structureless and often blunt. Such juxtapositions of precision and carelessness can be found in much of Koenig’s work, on macro and micro levels.

Rhythmically, timbrally, harmonically, melodically, and in terms of density, Koenig’s music often makes use of the tension created by simultaneous, conflicting ideas. This can manifest as multiple ongoing meters, competing autonomous key centers, clashing macro song structures, or similar techniques. These methods of eliciting contrast do not serve as artistic endpoints, but rather as basic pieces of vocabulary with which to build. No relationship between conflicting musical ideas remains the same for long, nor does the rate at which said relationship changes. The contrasts between the contrasts are more valuable than the contrasts themselves.

Dave Koenig has spent 15 years composing and performing with the band Cesspool. He has composed for sound installations and films, performed at jazz festivals around the country, and toured in a van.

http://www.cesspool.bandcamp.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4L9trR3H7E

March 2015 Session

March 2015 session – 3/28/2015 – 8:00 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

TOM HAMILTON [synths + processing]
KEVIN BUD JONES [analogue synth + electronics]
JOHN DUNLAP [guitar + processing]
Live visuals by KATHERINE LIBEROVSKAYA
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

John Dunlap, Tom Hamilton, Kevin Bud Jones + Katherine Liberovskaya @ Ab Uno Pluribus – March 2015 Session – 3/28/2015 from WvS on Vimeo.

TOM HAMILTON has composed and performed electronic music for over 40 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis.

Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, participating in a residency at the foundation’s center in Umbria. Some of Hamilton’s performing and recording colleagues have included Peter Zummo, Connie Crothers, Bruce Arnold, Bruce Eisenbeil, Rich O’Donnell, Bruce Gremo, Thomas Buckner, Al Margolis, and id m theft able.

Hamilton has released 15 CDs of his music; his CD London Fix received an award in the Prix Ars Electronica, and a 2 CD set of his electronic music of the 1970s was named one of The Wire’s Top 50 Reissues of 2010. Hamilton co-produced the Cooler in the Shade/Warmer by the Stove new music series for 14 years.

Since 1990, Hamilton has been a member of composer Robert Ashley’s touring opera ensemble, performing sound processing and mixing in both recordings and concerts. His audio production can be found in over 60 CD releases of new and experimental music.

 

KEVIN BUD JONES played his first NYC gigs in 1981 as guitarist in the DIY dance band Dog Eat Dog, sharing bills with Sonic Youth, Swans, Three Teens Kill Four and DNA. More recently Kevin has been working with the trio Airport Seven, while continuing to release recordings of his own compositions. As the result of an injury in February 2014, Kevin put down his guitar and took up analog synthesis, samples, and electronics as his current instrument in the Band Collapsible Shoulder and other efforts. Newer work has involved improvisatory performances with Chris Cochrane, Kato Hideki, Brian Chase, Billy Martin, Jessica Lurie, and Ken of Bloater – among others.

http://airportseven.bandcamp.com/album/airport-seven-at-the-kitchen-112213
http://cochranejones.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-silent-barn-july-14-2014
https://kevinbudjones.bandcamp.com/

 

KATHERINE LIBEROVSKAYA is a video and media artist based in Montreal, Canada, and New York City. Involved in experimental video since the 80s, she has produced many single-channel videos, video installation works and video performances which have been presented at a wide variety of artistic venues and events around the world. Since 2001 her work predominantly focuses on collaborations with composers and sound artists notably in live video+sound performance where her live visuals seek to create improvisatory “music” for the eyes. Frequent collaborators include Phill Niblock, Al Margolis/If,Bwana, Leslie Ross, Zanana, Kristin Norderval, Hitoshi Kojo, David Watson, David First and o.blaat (Keiko Uenishi). Since 2003 she has explored improvised video with numerous artists including: Monique Buzzarte, Anne Wellmer, Tom Hamilton, Margarida Garcia, Manuel Mota, Anthony Coleman, Barry Weisblat, Mazen Kerbaj, murmer, André Gonçalves, Giuseppe Ielasi, Alessandro Bossetti, Andre Eric Letourneau, Jason Khan, Jim Bell, Doug Van Nort, among many others. Recent projects have involved: Leslie Ross, Shelley Hirsch, Chantal Dumas, Richard Garet, Dorit Chrysler, Emilie Mouchous, Erin Sexton, Corinne Rene and Philippe Lauzier, and Guy De Bievre. Recent solo projects include the audiovisual installations “NoizeBreeze”(2014), “sonimaginations tissulaires” (2014), “Air-Play” (2013), “Amplifontana” (2012) and “Shines” (2008-09). Concurrently she curates and organizes the Screen Compositions evenings at Experimental Intermedia, NYC, since 2005 and, since 2006, the OptoSonic Tea salons at Diapason, NYC, and in various locations in Europe and elsewhere with OptoSonic Tea On the Road. In 2014 she completed a PhD in Art Practice entitled “Improvisatory Live Visuals: Playing Images Like a Musical Instrument” at the Universite du Quebec in Montreal (UQAM).

January 2015 Session

January 2015 session – 1/31/2015 – 8:00 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

DANIEL CARTER [flutes, saxophones + trumpet]
MICHAEL JAY [gongs]
RANJIT BHATNAGAR [twitter/vine, self-made instruments]
Live film by JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

DANIEL CARTER, born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1945, is a musician and writer. Since coming to New York City, in 1970, he has sought out musicians and situations that encourage free expression. In the 1950s he sang in so-called doo-wop groups, took clarinet lessons, played in school bands (into the 60s), and the 49th Army Band (ca. 1967-69). When he first came to NYC, he played in soul bands as well as so-called avant-garde jazz groups. He has always tried to transcend genre-boundaries, which is, today, as daunting a challenge as ever, but he’s found that the many musicians he’s met and played with, and the invaluable treasure of a huge, ever-growing, number of recordings and videos (so many, readily available on the internet, cable t.v., and radio), have recharged and renewed him, all along the way. He lives in Manhattan with his wife, visual artist, Marilyn Sontag, and their two cats, Minnie and Sophie.

Some of his writing can be found in the following publications: The Tinker: Innovative Arts and Literature Magazine, 50 Miles of Elbow Room, Number One (2000), Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, Dyed-in-the-Wool (2000), Intervalsss: The Poems and Words of Musicians (2000), Sex Sells Magazine (1997), Wandering Archive One (1998).

He has performed, recorded, and/or toured, with many musicians, through the decades, since the mid 60s, including TEST, Other Dimensions in Music, Reuben Radding, Federico Ughi,  Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor,  Sam Rivers, Alan Silva, Ras Moshe, Jeffrey Shurdut, David Newbro, David Henderson, Sabir Mateen, Marianne Giosa, David Miller, Billy Bang, C. Spencer Yeh, ROTC, Rakalam (Bob Moses), Earl Freeman, Karl Berger, Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, William Parker, Earl Cross, David S. Ware, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Billy Martin, Margie Beals, Adam Lane, Miriam Atkins, Anne Waldman, Jair-Rohm Parker, Alfonia Tims, Don Cherry, Matthew Shipp, Hamiet Bluiette, Nate Wooley, Hamid Drake, Billy Bang, Federico Ughi, John Blum, Tom Bruno, Kurt Ralske, Demian Richardson, Jeremy Slater, Jonathan Wood Vincent, Andrew Cyrille, David Moss, D.J. Logic, LP, Connie Crothers, Joan Miller, Greg Fox, Medeski, Martin, & Wood, Ed Schuller, Spring Heel Jack, Ninni Morgia, Jade Dylan, Daniel Lavine, Margo Grib, Laurie Hockman, Steve, Dalachinsky, Rebecca, Schmoyer, David Moss, Jeff Platz, Vernon Reid, Margaret Beals, Bern Nix, Dissipated Face, Devin Waldman, Patricia Nicholson Parker, Sana Nagano, Jonah Rosenberg, Margaret Beals, Michael T.A. Thompson, Kevin Shea, Warren Smith, Joanna Mattrey, Larry Roland, Mike Wimberly, Ava Mendoza, Christopher Dean Sullivan, Charles Gayle, Kyp Malone, Ryan Sawyer, Ted Daniels, XBOP, Ryan Sawyer, Dewey Johnson, Thurston Moore, Roy Campbell, WAKE UP!, Earl Cross, Vernon Reid, Wilber Morris, Eri Yamamoto, Matt Lavelle, Atiba Wilson, Matthew Heyner,  The No Neck Blues Band, Yo La Tengo, Raphe Malik, Okkyung Lee, Denis Charles, David S. Ware, Steve Swell, Gunter Hampel, David Grubbs, Alan Silva, Susie Ibarra, Butch Morris, and many others.

Daniel Carter / William Parker / Federico Ughi: The Dream (2006):
http://www.allaboutjazz.com/the-dream-daniel-carter-577-records-review-by-troy-collins.php
http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/artist/Daniel+Carter/a/albums.htm
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Daniel+Carter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC2PGtDpGU8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkaN6wgHqb0

MICHAEL JAY has trained extensively in the healing arts. He is dedicated to helping others thrive through both his private wellness practice and volunteer work. Recently he has reinvigorated his commitment to using sound for its immense healing power and has been studying with the Grand Gong Master Don Conreaux. He performs regularly around the city, with the Brothers of the Gong and also with his collective SVAHA

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sound-Vision-Alchemy-for-Harmonic-Attunement/921267367889041
https://www.facebook.com/BrothersOfTheGONG

JOEL SCHLEMOWITZ is an experimental filmmaker based in Brooklyn who works in 16mm film, shadowplay, and stereographic media. His latest film project is a feature film 78rpm, an experimental documentary about the gramophone. His short works have been shown at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, New York Film Festival, and Tribeca Film Festival and have received awards from the Chicago Underground Film Festival, The Dallas Video Festival, and elsewhere. Shows of installation artworks include Anthology Film Archives, and Microscope Gallery. He teaches experimental filmmaking at The New School.

www.joelschlemowitz.com

RANJIT BHATNAGAR is a sound artist who works with technology, language, and found materials to create interactive installations and musical instruments.  His works have been exhibited across the United States and in Europe and appeared in performances as far away as Shanghai.  In an annual project, he creates a new homemade musical instrument each day of the month of February — the Instrument-a-day project is now in its sixth year.

Ranjit participated in phase one of Dithyrambalina, The Music Box, creating the Noise floor. Based on Japanese nightingale floors, this instrument allowed visitors to play tuned squeaks and creaks by jumping on floating floor boards. Ranjit is one of the sound artists who will be inventing more instruments of musical architecture for the forthcoming phases of Dithyrambalina.

This summer, Ranjit worked with the art collectives Flux Factory and Rabid Hands to build a large-scale musical installation at the Palais de Tokyo Museum in Paris this summer.  His interactive sound work Singing Room for a Shy Person, commissioned by Amsterdam’s Métamatic Research Initiative, premiered at NYC’s Clocktower Gallery this Spring, and moved to the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel, Switzerland in October 2013 for the exhibition Métamatic Reloaded. He’ll be performing in the Uncaged Toy Piano Festival and in Qubit’s Machine Music Festival this winter, and building an outdoor sound sculpture for the Caramoor Center’s sound art festival in the spring.

https://www.newmusicusa.org/profile/ranjitbhatnagar/
http://moonmilk.com/cv

December 2014 Session

December 2014 session – 12/13/2014 – 8:00 PM
The Three Jewels, NYC

SARAH BERNSTEIN [violin + electronics]
DYLAN NEELY [violin + electronics]
LOU ROSSI [guitar + electronics]
Live visuals by VJ FUZZY BASTARD
Curated by WvS / Produced by WvS & Miah Artola

Sarah Bernstein, Dylan Neely, Lou Rossi + VJ Fuzzy Bastard @ Ab Uno Pluribus – December 2014 Session – 12/13/2014 from WvS on Vimeo.

SARAH BERNSTEIN is a violinist, composer, improviser, vocalist and poet based in NYC. She leads projects ranging from minimalist/experimental duo Unearthish with Satoshi Takeishi, to avant-noise/poetry band Iron Dog with Stuart Popejoy and Andrew Drury, to improv strings Frikativ Quartet with Scott Tixier, Mat Maneri and Rubin Kodheli, to avant-jazz Sarah Bernstein Quartet with Kris Davis, Stuart Popejoy and Ches Smith. She also performs and records with Anthony Braxton, Adam Rudolph, Dave Scott, Joseph Daley, Anders Nilsson, Sara Schoenbeck, Stephanie Richards, Emilie Lesbros, Kid Millions and more. Originally from San Francisco, Sarah has lived in Brooklyn since the 1990’s. She holds a BFA in Violin Performance from the California Institute of the Arts and an MA in Jazz Studies from Queens College, City University of New York.

http://sarahbernstein.com

DYLAN NEELY is a composer/violinist/filmmaker/writer/sound artist with interests in multimedia collaboration, the intersections of music and politics, and the limits of meaning. He premiered A Hunger Artist, a one-act chamber opera based on the short story by Franz Kafka, at Mills College’s 2014 Signal Flow Festival. His music has been played by groups including Quartetto Indaco, Mills Contemporary Performance Ensemble, Ensemble Móbile, Caedmon Quartet, The American Composers’ Orchestra, and The Salome Chamber Orchestra. His film collaborations with Alex Nathanson (Letters to John Grisham; Appendix: A) have been presented at venues including Anthology Film Archives, The Museum of the Moving Image, and The Philips Collection. They have performed Fan Letters, a live interaction sound and video project described as “difficult to describe” by the Portland Press Herald, in cities across Europe and North America. Dylan has been a Fulbright Fellow to Serbia, ASCAP Plus Award recipient, and participant in residencies/programs through The Watermill Center, SiMN, The New York Youth Symphony, mpa-B, and highSCORE. He received a B.A. from Bard College at Simon’s Rock, M.F.A. from Mills College, and is currently based in Brooklyn.

http://www.dylanneely.com

LOU ROSSI creates ambient & textural sounds via baritone guitar, shortwave radio, pedals & loops. He credits his love of expressionism in the development of this style. Rossi received a degree in Film Scoring from Berklee & studied Microtonal Theory at NEC with Joe Maneri. Kristeen Young has recently featured him on the ‘The Knife Shift’. This was Rossi’s 2nd collaboration with Young and Producer Tony Visconti. Currently Rossi is recording a follow up to ‘liturgia’, a CD of his solo improvisation.

Performance highlights: AMDaT at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, Poetry Project’s New Year’s Day Marathon at Saint Mark’s Church, Rhys Chatham’s Crimson Grail at Lincoln Center, Elliott Sharp’s SyndaKit at the White Box Gallery, Urb Alt Festival at BAM

Rossi has also appeared at: Faison Firehouse Theater, Galapagos Art Space, Harlem School of the Arts, Harlem Stage Gatehouse, HopeStock Festival, issue project room, 92y, TONIC and many more…

http://www.reverbnation.com/lourossi

DANIEL MCKLEINFELD (a.k.a. VJ Fuzzy Bastard) does terrible things to innocent video clipsHe’s taught a VDMX master class in Russia, played live in Chicago, NYC, and Frankfurt, hs created live video projections for many theater and dance pieces, and currently runs the multimedia lab for Queensborough Community College. Besides nightlife VJ’ing, he performs regularly with psychedelic electronic free jazz ensemble The Azerbaijan A/V Club.

http://www.vjfuzzybastard.com
http://www.TheAzerbaijanAVClub.com