Home
/ News & Media / Overall
Program / Festival Schedule /
Musician Biographies
Y2K6 Team / Images
/ MP3 / Kyberjam /Poster
& T-Shirt / Links / Contact
Y2K6 International Live Looping Festival - USA 2006
Y2K6 Musician Biographies
| Musician / Picture / Bio | Instrumentation | email / website |
|
HEADLINERS
|
||
|
BILL WALKER (USA)
|
Guitar/Lapsteel | billwalker@baymoon.com |
|
Bill Walker is one of the most sophisticated guitar players active on the West Coast of the United States. His breadth of styles and wide technological range gives him a broad musical palette that he applies to every different musical setting with tremendous lyricism and taste. Armed with an array of electric and acoustic guitars, and utilizing state of the art looping and sound processing technology, Bill has taken the one-man-band concept in a bold new direction. State of the art digital live looping technology allows Bill to record himself as he is playing and create lush, multi-layered guitar ensembles, otherworldly sounds, and textures. He has an impressive range of style and timbre: From searing electric leads to beautiful lap steel slide guitar, guitar synthesizer, and finger picking steel and nylon string acoustic guitars, he runs the gamut of style and taste. He is renowned as a master of Digital processing, midi, guitar synthesizer programming, and guitar sound design. Bill is also a warm and engaging performer, blending humor with serious musicianship. As one of the San Francisco, and Monterey Bay Area's most versatile guitarists, Bill has enjoyed a 25 year performing, recording, touring and teaching career that has spanned rock, pop, jazz, RnB, blues, world beat, and a host of other genres, including stints with drum legend Babatunde Olatunji, RCA recording artist " Opafire" and New Wave provocateurs "Tao Chemical". He was a founding member one of the first world beat Bands to play in the United States, started in the late 70’s. The band 'Rhythmical' began fusing a polyglot of styles, including Africa, India, Indonesia, the Middle East, Celtic, and American roots. He later formed, with his brother Rick, the innovative successor to that band, 'Worlds Collide'., that toured Japan in the early 90’s. Bill Walker has shared the stage as a supporting act for many acts including the Tony Levin Band, Marotta /Griesgraber, the Neville Brothers, King Sunny Ade, Ali Farka Toure, Thomas Mapfumo, Youssou N Dour, Michelle Shocked, the Psychedelic Furs, the Thompson Twins, Missing Persons, Johnny Clegg, Kenny G, Cher, Huey Lewis and the News, and a host of others. In addition to a busy playing and recording schedule, Bill also works as a private guitar Instructor, and as a demo artist for Rick Turner and Renaissance Guitars, the Seymour Duncan, and DTAR companies, and The Bose Corporation. He is a representing artist for the latest state of the art hardware live looping device, the Looperlative, also using the device in his live shows and helping with ideas for design innovation. He has just recently completed his first film score and is completing his first solo CD of live looping based music. Bill lives with his wife , and songwriting partner, Nancy Milin, and dog Finny, in Santa Cruz, California. |
||
|
PER BOYSEN (Sweden)
Per Boysen's performance will be officially sponsored by Universal Audio |
Tenor sax, alto flute, electronics | http://www.looproom.com/ |
|
Per
Boysen is one of Sweden’s leading live-looping musicians.
The marriage between real-time interactive electronics and traditional
musician performing skills is his burning interest. Honouring
the improvisational approach by playing the live-looping meta
instrument made up by laptop, electronics, alto traverse flute,
tenor saxophone. As a consulting musician he is also working with a row of software developers to help out in the creation of tomorrows electronic instruments. Besides playing music he has also written expert studies for WIPO in Geneve, the Nordic Musician Union and The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs (Statens Kulturråd). Other works including books in Swedish on the music business as well as being a freelance journalist, editor and columnist for Scandinavia’s biggest guitar and studio magazines. Boysen is also frequently booked as a speaker. Former credits including leading the international quartet Boysen Network setting up a live-looping improviational multimedia opera in Italy (2006), arranging and playing Swedens 1st Looping Tour 2003 (covered by Swedish television as well as CSN’s The Music Room). Back in the nineties international major label releases with extremely visual punk-electronic dance-pop band Plastico (artist) as well as Swedish gold seller Peter LeMarc (studio musician). pBoy has also appeared in art performances directed by Swedish multi artist Dan Fröberg (Stockholm Art Show, “Nya Gärdesfestivlen” etc), created film music (4 channel Cube Screen format as well as 5.1 surround for DVD-v format), TV music and gallery exhibition sound installations. |
||
|
MIR-0 (Finland)
|
NO SYNTHS and NO SAMPLES - Most instruments are ethnic or self-made; others are conventional ones - percussion, flutes, tubes + guitars, bass and mandolin + speechless voice | |
|
Miro Mantere is an original recording and performing artist impossible to pin down into any category. Mir-0 is a multi-talented musician, who graduated of the Pop&Jazz Institute of Helsinki. Since his youth, Mir-0 has been involved with a wide range of musical projects, from rock, punk, glamour, folk, klezmer, world, trance, ambient music. In the 90's, he travelled the world collecting sounds, music and instruments, before starting creating his own music that can be seen as ethno-ambient, neo-folk, psycho-trance. On his album, all instruments are played by Mir-0 from the beginning to the end. Live performances are made possible with the use of live-looping technology that gives the impression of a whole band. -NO SYNTHS and NO SAMPLES- Most instruments are ethnic or self-made. Some others are conventional ones - percussion, flutes, tubes + guitars, bass and mandolin + speechless voice - The whole music is improvised and develops around several themes to end up in forming a whole piece of work without any pause. In his live shows, MIR-0 gives much space to other artistic expressions like dance, visual arts, acrobatics. Each show is a journey that takes the audience into varying musical and artistic territories. These are top-notch space voyages and sure to please fans of early 70's German electronica, ambient soundscape music, psychotrance and all things in the vein of organic ambient music. |
||
|
RAINER STRASCHILL (München, Bayern)
Rainer Straschill is sponsored by Goethe Institut and the Federal Foreign Office of Germany |
Laptop, borrowed guitar and keyboard, voice | |
| Rainer Thelonius Balthasar Straschill, born in and resident of München, Bayern, took classical training in piano (programme for highly gifted children at Richard-Strauß-Konservatorium München) at the age of five and studied composition (als at RSK München) paralleling grammar school. Apart from that, Straschill has learned to more or less master the trombone, alto and soprano sax, guitars and bass guitars as well as various devices and computer-based systems for the realtime generation and modification of sound. Starting in 2000, Straschill has focused on the creation of freely improvised material exclusively. In his solo shows, Straschill combines the input of synthesizers, drum machines, his signature "weirdbass" and saxophones and trombone with the processing of dedicated devices, computers and loop recorders (dubbed by Straschill as "whimsical electronics") to an output which defies any stilistic qualification. Audients at his shows found themselves confronted with a vast crossover of abstract experimental eletronica, singer-songwriter stylings and drum'n'bass breakbeats. In his other life, Straschill works as an engineering consultant in the area of automotive electronics. He holds a red belt in Tae-Kwon-Do and has participated in various competitions and tournaments in fencing, boxing and sailing. | ||
|
FEATURED
PERFORMERS
|
||
|
KRISPEN HARTUNG (USA)
|
Guitar, 6-string mandolin, electronics, voice effects, notebook computer | |
|
Krispen Hartung, creator of the Boise Experimental Music Festival, has been actively involved in the Boise (capital of Idaho) music and arts scene for over 18 years. His contributions include creating new ways for musicians to communicate with each other, such as Boise's first musicians web registry (1998) and the Boise Musicians internet discussion group. He has also supported and performed at many art and community orientated events and venues. His efforts have primarily revolved around raising awareness and appreciation of avant-garde music and art. Hartung's vision as a performing and recording musician locally is to push artistic boundaries, continue evolving, and celebrate artistic diversity. Krispen's 28-year music performance and recording background is an experimental and continuously evolving road trip marked by many excursions and detours - from classical guitar, progressive rock, and world-beat, to fusion, traditional jazz, and avant-garde. In 1993, after leading a series of traditional jazz and fusion groups, Hartung began studying the method of real-time looping, digitally recording live performance, playing it back in real-time, and repeating this process indefinitely to produce multiple layers of interweaving and complimentary guitar parts. Since then, he has become one of the North West’s (USA) most accomplished and prolific real-time looping artists and Idaho’s leading member of the international looping community Looper’s Delight. Hartung’s debut solo CD Places was released for sale in April of 2004 and consists of a series of colorful, innovative, and thought/mood provoking looping compositions that he improvised and recorded on the spot in one take. As a result of his diverse background and studies, Hartung now exhibits a dynamic and atypical performance style that integrates multiple genres and gives new meaning to the world of improvisational and experimental guitar. His discography includes 1) Places (described above), 2) a world fusion, free improvisational work entitled Live at the Kulture Klatsch, featuring didjeridu artist and percussionist Vincent Miresse, 2) his second solo CD, Descent to Self, a collection of improvised and computer-based avant-garde compositions, 3) Xperimentus, a collaborative project comprised of duo compositions of he and 13 other looping artists from around the world, and 4) Interstellar Delirium, a delightful entanglement of insane free-improvisation and experimental electronica inspired by imagery of a spaceman's last dying moments and twisted hallucinations in the vacuum of space, with Jared Hallock on electronic percussion, marimba, acoustic drums, sound effects. He is currently planning to release two new CDs in 2008, "Mandolin from Mars", a set of experimental and highly improvisational pieces performed on the 6-string mandolin, and another experimental/avant-garde guitar work, not yet titled, but probably involves x-rays of Krispen's teeth. Krispen currently lives in the beautiful historic neighborhood of Boise, Idaho, with his wife, Carissa, and 17-month old twins, Tristan and Kyra. He works for Hewlett-Packard as a corporate sales training manager during the day, and plays jazz every Monday night at one of Boise's finest restaurants, The Milky Way. |
||
| JEFF
KAISER (USA)
|
Quarter-Tone Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Electronics |
|
| Jeff Kaiser is a vegan and plays entirely too much chess on the internet. He is a big fan of yoga and green tea, as well as cigars and scotch. He also plays the quarter-tone trumpet with electronics and has performed with many groups and individuals including the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, Eugene Chadbourne, The Choir Boys (with Andrew Pask) and his own big band, the Jeff Kaiser Ockodektet. He owns and operates two record labels (pfMENTUM and Angry Vegan Records) while maintaining an active musical career touring, performing and recording for films, other people and his own music. For a full bio, visit: http://www.jeffkaisermusic.com | ||
|
ARTIS theSPOONMAN
|
Spoons | |
|
You
haven't got a commercial bone in your body" - Frank Zappa "...
best spoonplayer in the whole damn universe" - Pete Seeger |
||
|
ZOE KEATING (USA)
|
Cello, electronic sampling | |
| Cellist
and composer Zoë Keating uses live electronic sampling and
repetition to layer the sound of her cello, creating multi-layered
compositions which explore the boundary between the familiar and
the strange, the ugly and beautiful, the dark and the transcendent.
Her music has been featured on NPR's Day to Day, on Public Radio
International's Echoes and on the soundtrack to the award-winning
documentary "Frozen Angels".
"...combines cello and a looping laptop in a hypnotic cocktail. ""- San Francisco Chronicle "Alluring" - Toronto Eye Born in Guelph, Ontario, Zoë began her musical education in England and went on to study cello at the Eastman School of Music, Sarah Lawrence College in New York, and the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole in Italy. She moved to San Francisco in the mid-90's, and began a serious exploration of non-classical musical forms, working with modern dance, experimental theater, performance artists and both popular and improvised music. Zoë has recorded and performed with a variety of artists, including Tarentel, Rasputina, Imogen Heap, Charles Atlas, John Vanderslice, The Court and Spark, Michael Talbott and the Wolf Kings, Laughingstock, Moe!kestra, Jhno and Dionysos. Zoë also writes music for film, composing music for the documentary Frozen Angels, which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was best documentary winner at the 2005 Nyon Festival and the 2005 Toronto HotDocs. In 2005 she received an emerging artist award from the San Francisco ArtSFest and an artistic development grant from the Belle Foundation. In January 2006, Ms. Keating was introduced to British electropop chanteuse Imogen Heap. Instant admirers of each other's music, the two embarked on three back-to-back tours of North America and the United Kingdom, with Zoë both opening for Imogen and accompanying her during her set. From 2002 to 2006, Zoë was a member of the cello-rock ensemble Rasputina, founded by Nirvana cellist Melora Creager. With Rasputina, she toured the US and Canada countless times, opened for acts like Belle & Sebastian and The Legendary Pink Dots, and recorded two albums (Frustration Plantation, Instinct Records, April 2004; A Radical Recital, May 2005). Zoë records and produces all of her music in her San Francisco studio. Her self-released debut album "One Cello x 16: Natoma" was the number 2 album in iTunes Classical for the last week of May 2006, and was in the Classical Top 10 for 3 weeks. At the same time, her EP "One Cello x 16 (EP)" was number 3 in the iTunes Top Electronic Albums list. She is currently working on a new album to be released in late 2006. |
||
|
SPECIAL
GUESTS
|
||
|
MANDO MAN (Japan)
|
Mandolin | |
|
RYUSEI HATTORI (Japan)
|
Electric Bass | |
| Hattori
has been playing electric bass since the age of 15. He started his
unique unaccompanied electric bass solo act on the streets in Kyoto,
and expanded his performance venues to cafes, clubs, and temples!
With his 6-string electric bass and some digital delays, Hattori
continues to explore his art of solo performance - No PCs, laptops,
or any kind of harddisk-based devices are included in his set of
equipment. Hattori's works are made from pure electric bass sound.
Ryusei Hattori is currently living in Kyoto. |
||
|
AMY X NEUBURG (USA)
|
Voice, electronics |
|
| Amy
X Neuburg is best known for her wildly entertaining "avant-cabaret"
performances for voice and live electronics, in which she uses MIDI
drum pads, a real-time looping machine, and an array of sounds and
samples to construct finely crafted, emotionally intense songs and
stories. Her work is diversely influenced and sung in various styles
-- from rock to classical to avant-garde -- over a nearly four-octave
vocal range.
A resident of Oakland, California, Amy has performed at clubs, theaters, festivals, schools and museums nationally and internationally, including the Other Minds Festival (Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco), the Berlin International Poetry Festival, arts festivals and universities throughout New Zealand, New York venues (Bang on a Can Marathon at Symphony Space, Roulette, Joe's Pub, etc.), the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Chicago Arts Club, and college residencies and electronic music festivals throughout the U.S. Recently Amy has been expanding her looping experimentations to include chamber ensembles. She has received commissions from Present Music (Milwaukee) to compose for voice and ensemble with live looping of all the instruments, the San Francisco Jewish Music Festival for a song cycle for seven looped vocalists, the Christchurch Arts Centre (New Zealand) for a site-specific work for 15 "traveling" vocalists, and Santa Cruz New Music Works for chamber ensemble with looped voice and flute, among others. Her current project is an evening-length song cycle for voice, three cellos, live looping and electronic percussion (to premiere December 2006, San Francisco). A classically trained singer, Amy has been featured in numerous contemporary works and recordings. Highlights include tours throughout Europe and Japan with three Robert Ashley operas, a long-running musical comedy by Culture Clash, and the leading role of Simone Weil in Anne Carson and Guillermo Galindo's opera "Decreation." She has also composed extensively for modern dance, experimental film and video, art installations, and web animation, including Mondomedia's popular "Piki & Poko in Starland" series. Before embarking on a solo career Amy spent 10 years singing and drumming with her electronic band Amy X Neuburg & Men. Amy
studied music at Oberlin and Mills, and has received numerous
academic and arts awards, grants, and composer residencies. She
is included in the book "The Art of Digital Music: 56 Visionary
Artists & Insiders Reveal their Creative Secrets" (Backbeat
Books), and she has been profiled in music and trade publications
worldwide. Her most recent CD "Residue" (2004) is on
Other Minds records. Three previous CDs were released on the Racer
label. |
||
|
LOOP ! STATION (USA)
|
Cello / Vocal | |
|
Robin Coomer, Sam Bass. One woman, one man, one voice, one cello, multiple layered 'loops' hand tooled and shaped into lovely, cascading, provocative orchestral compositions with an immediate soul-rocking palpability..." |
||
|
OTHER
PERFORMERS
|
||
| BOB AMSTADT | ||
| CHRIS COHN | ||
|
PETER COR
|
Guitar / Keyboards | petercor@sbcglobal.net |
| Peter
Cor is a native of NYC,presently living in Santa Cruz,Ca,and previously,
has lived on both East and West coasts, as well as Europe. He has
performed with musicians from around the world.Playing both keyboards
and guitar, he is trained in both classical and jazz,but has also
been exposed to many other styles of music, namely funk/fusion/electronica/world/
afro-cuban/reggae/and latin.Altough he has worked with synth sequencers
extensively,this is his first effort doing "live" looping.
Peter Cor also heads his own band"The Jazzy Devils" that
have 2 CD's in distribution (www.jazzydevils.com)
and have played at numerous Festivals and Clubs on the West Coast |
||
|
UTE BONN
|
Voice | |
| Ute
Bonn, aka Voicedancer, started singing at a very young age. Having
been born into a musical family, she was exposed to mostly classical
music. Growing up in a rural German village, there was not much
of a creative outlet for her but the singing – which involved
a membership in a children’s church choir.
She remembers singing herself to sleep at night. Singing from the top of her lungs, barely able to follow the melodies coming through, she made up words to go along with her creations. At this time she did not know that what she was doing was called improvising. In her teenage years she was able to accompany herself on the guitar with a few cords and strung along and sang in a small ‘living room folk group’ consisting of a few friends. Her musical interest changed in her early twenties, when she discovered African and Caribbean music and started to take dance and drum lessons. Her evolvement included Middle Eastern Belly Dance and later Latin American dances like Salsa, Merengue and Cha-Cha. In 1992 she moved to California. The singing was on the back burner, but she found her voice again. Songs from all over the world caught her interest. Later she discovered her natural talent for improvisation and harmonizing and absorbed the music and rhythms surrounding her like a sponge, which becomes evident in her music. Her first original song came through in 2002. Many followed. Without planning it, she was guided to record and to release her debut album "On My Own" in 2004, which is all one voice – Voicedancer’s. This CD evolved during the same time when she was working on another CD with Debbie Nargi-Brown: “Into the Rhythm”. Her second solo album is called: "Heartaches & Other Pleasures" - all A Cappella as well, and her third album is expected to be released this summer. |
||
| MARK HAMBURG | Guitar | http://www.baymoon.com/~mark_hamburg/ |
| CRAIG McCOLLOUGH | ||
|
RICK WALKER (Y2K6 Festival Coordinator)
|
Percussion, Found Sound Percussion | |
|
Composer, multi-instrumentalist and master percussionist/drummer, Rick Walker has been on the cutting edge of music for the last 25 years. One of the original founders of the World Beat movement, and now an influential performer and promoter in the emerging international live looping movement, he incorporates a vast array of world music and pop styles in his repertoire combining instruments from the most primal to the most modern with state of the art digital looping and signal processing instruments. An exceptionally versatile and sensitive musician, he is eccentrically creative, finding rhythm and melody in hundreds of everyday objects. He is also the founder of the Y2K_ International Live Looping Festivals, the largest international live looping festival series on the planet and has been responsible for producing or directly inspiring 35 live looping festivals in 15 countries around the world as well as producing several creative new music festivals in Northern California (the Festival of Found and Invented Sound, The Festival of Voice and Electronics, the 1st Bass Looping Festivals, the Festival of Emerging Santa Cruz Electronica, the First Woman's Live Looping Festival, the Spirit of Africa and many more). He has also performed, toured and recorded with many master musicians from around the globe, collaborating and backing artists like Bob Brozman (USA), Debhashish Battycharya (India), Martin Simpson (England), Djeli Moussa Djawara (Guinea), Babatunde Olatunje (Nigeria), Amel Tafsout (Algeria), Rene Lacaille (La Reunion), Ali Farke Toure (Mali), Hamza El Din (Nubia),Takashi Hiryasu (Okinawa), Pajoe Amissah Aidoo (Ghana),Massimo Liverani (Italy) Familia Valera (Cuba), George Pilali (Greece), David Hidalgo (Los Lobos/USA), David Lyndley (USA), Michael Manring (USA), Steve Lawson (UK), Per Boysen (Sweden), Matthias Grob (Switzerland/Brazil), Ile Aye (Brazil), Olodum (Brazil), Luca Formentini (Italy), Sunao Inami (Japan), Phantasmagoria (Japan), Paul Marshall (Northern Ireland), Bernhard Wagner (Switzerland), Luis Angulo (Mexico), Andreas Willers (Germany), Andre LaFosse (USA), Titos Sompa (Congo), Abdoulaye Djakite (Senegal), Krispen Hartung (USA), Jeff Kaiser (USA), Henry Kaiser (USA) and many others. He has opened for acts such as Los Lobos, Santana, the Neville Brothers, Huey Lewis and the News, Cher, Kenny G, Todd Rundgren, the Residents, Youssou NDour, Thomas Mapfumo, Sly and Robbie, Steel Pulse, Wailing Souls, the Thompson Twins, Berlin and many others. He resides in Santa Cruz, California with his wife, singer/songwriter Chris Wedertz, where he teaches, performs, records and releases original recordings as: |()()p.p()()| (found sound/live looping), PurpleIHand (abstract electronica), nO thiN-g (dark ambient, noise, experimental), Ultra Violette (synth goth, industrial, ebm) and the RICK WALKER TRIO (modal acoustic jazz). Rick also was the first recipient of the Gail Rich Award for Service to the Arts, the Calabash Award for Excellence in the Ethnic Arts and served as Arts Commissioner for the City of Santa Cruz from 2002-2005. |
||
|
WARREN SIROTA (Greenwood Lake, NY, USA)
|
Nylon-String Guitar Synth, Voice, laptop | |
| Warren
Sirota is the author of the original Echoplex Digital Pro User Manual,
and holds an MFA degree in Electronic Composition from the Mills
College Center for Contemporary Music in Oakland, CA. He also wrote
the "Electronic Guitarist" column for Guitar Player magazine
for a number of years, and published the "MIDI Guitarist"
newsletter. He developed several of the demo programs that were
shipped with the very first release of MAX in the 1980s, and now
loops with a quirky custom multitrack looper that he created in
MAX/MSP (some of the quirks are actually intentional). He resides
in a rural exurb of NYC, and regularly collaborates with percussionist
Steve Rubin in the freeform duo, "The Sandbox", who had their NYC debut at the Dominic Frasca's The Monkey earlier this year. |
||
|
LUCIO MENEGON
|
Guitar | www.kingtone.com www.myspace.com/luciomenegon |
| Lucio
Menegon is a guitarist, composer, collaborator and sonic artist.
His work encompases rock 'n' roll, blues, country, punk and experimental.
Using a fiery, visually inspired brand of six-string sonic mayhem,
Lucio manufactures sheets of sound inspired by people places and
things.
Lucio has collaborated and performed with Glenn Branca, Moe! Staiano, Mark De gli Antoni, Anton Barbeau, Myles Boisen, Laurie Amat, Carla Kihlstedt, Gunnar Madsen, Matt Davignon, Luca Miti and has appeared on over 25 released recordings. Lucio is based in San Francisco, CA and performs with the experimental groups Lumper/Splitter and SPLIT LIP, 'Ameri-kinda' stars Val Esway & el Mirage and was a founding member of Ramona the Pest, Zebu and the HO. Film
projects include a live score to La Ent'ract by Rene Clair at
the 2005 Music on Film Festival in Prague, CZ, award winning score
for the short La Vie d'un Chien (2005) as well as live and composed
scores for the Overdub Club, Thad Povey, Alphonso Alvarez and
the Cinepimps. His work has appeared at the SF International Film
Festival, Sundance Film Festival and the SF Yerba Buena Center
for the Arts. |
||
|
JOE RUT
|
Guitar | www.joerut.com |
| Joe
Rut was born, and then later started playing guitar and writing
songs. Joe loves donuts, although he understands they are killing
him. Most donut shops have crappy coffee, and most good coffee shops
don't have actual donuts. Joe finds this sad.
In addition to his solo performances, Joe has been happy to collaborate with other humans over the years including, experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser, The Spikedrivers (bluegrass), 86 (Velvet Underground Jug Music), Loretta Lynch (weird-ass country), and Lucio "The Reverend Screaming Fingers" Menegon (as the experimental/ambient guitar duo Lumper/Splitter). Joe has been fortunate enough to play with these fine people in swell places such as UK's Glastonbury Music Festival, The Fillmore in San Francisco (opening for Richard Thompson), Nevada's Burning Man Festival, the Shoreline and Sleep Train Amphitheaters and an empty parking lot in Berkeley. All of these places were fun, but the only one that had a decent donut was Glastonbury. The Brits know how to make a donut. Joe is a member of the Immersion Composition Society, a group of upstanding citizens dedicated to QUANTITY songwriting. An obsessive tinkerer, Joe builds original instruments out of found objects and contact microphones, which he plays in addition to guitar, lap steel, mandolin, ukelele, charango, bass, drums, and Hammond organ. Joe still thinks College Music Journal (CMJ) sucks for replacing Loretta Lynch's legitimately charting (KALX) first CD with it's own pay-to-play compilation in the charts, even though they feebly claim it was a clerical error. Joe
lives in Oakland, CA, likes to write about himself in the third
person, and was bi-polar when bi-polar wasn't cool. |
||
|
GOH NAKUMURA
|
Guitar, vocals | www.gohnakamura.com www.myspace.com/gohnakamura |
| Armed
with an acoustic guitar and an active imagination, Goh Nakamura
strums to the beat of a processed drum machine, singing the minimum
wage, dial-up connection blues. Like Neil Finn gone broke or a male
version of Mary Lou Lord, Nakamura could be a patron saint for lonely
code warriors with good record collections. Geekdom doesn't get
any more pronounced than on 'N.P.', a wistful stalker anthem about
a girl in a Star Wars trilogy." - Todd Inoue (Hyphen Magazine) |
||
|
DANIEL ROBBINS
|
Fender
bass, double bass, six string bass, Moogerfoogers, and other electronics
and effects |
|
| Dan
Robbins has played or recorded in settings ranging from solo, duo,
trio, etc. to big band and orchestra, and is known for driving,
creative, harmonically and melodically rich background and lead
parts on bass. He doubles on both acoustic bass, and four, five,
six, and seven-string electric bass, in styles ranging from solo
electric jazz chord-melody arrangements, to hard-swinging jazz double
bass accompaniment, acoustic and electric funk, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban,
Carribean, rock, blues, tango, Indian, and fusion styles, as well as arco (played with the bow) classical and comtemporary interpretations of composed music. He brings a fiery improvisational spirit and energy to all the projects he is involved with. Dan
had performed or recorded with: Smith Dobson, George Marsh, Bruce
Forman, Mark Levine, Eddie Marshall, Kenny Stahl, Helcio Milito,
Weber Iago, Anton Schwartz, Wally Schnalle, Othello Molineaux,
Calvin Edwards, Jacinta, Eddie Mendenhall, Wes Anthony, Steve
Robertson, Paul Contos, James Zitro, Martann Mann, Deepak Ram,
Clauda Villela, Dori Caymmi, Eric Bolvin, Herb Geller, Red Holloway,
Rebecca Paris, Andy Weis, Martin Hedman, Dick Whittington, Vince
Lateano, George Young, Ace Hill, Chazz Mewhort, Lee Durley, Brian
Pardo, Leonard Thompson, Rob Roth, Dave Valdez, Aaron Parks, Alan
Jones, Akira Tana, Dave Ellis, Peter Horvath, Stefan Karlsson,
Cedar Walton, Randy Porter, Nancy King, Red Holloway, Tom Gastineau,
Ron Kaplan, Remy and Pascal Leboeuf and many others. |
||
|
LUMPER/SPLITTER (Lucio Menegon + Joe Rut)
|
Guitar duo |
www.kingtone.com/lumper_splitter.html www.kingtone.com
(Lucio) |
|
Lumper/Splitter
is the mind meld of two 'obsessive soundhounds' - Joe Rut and
Lucio Menegon. Combining their extensive experimental and improvisational
experience, the Oakland, CA based duo create sonic tapestries
using effects manipulation, looping, amplified objects, homemade
instruments, found sound, and even some honest guitar playing.
|
||
| CHRIS ROBERTS & ROSS ARTESE | ||
|
GENIE
|
Slide guitar, live-sampling, beat boxing | |
|
The
renowned pioneer of "scratch guitar", The Genie blends
blues, jazz, electronica, bossa nova, latin and middle-eastern
rhythms via slide |
||
| GARY REGINA | ||
|
WALLY SCHNALLE
|
Drums | http://www.itrhymes.com/ |
| 1984, Wally Schnalle decided to unburden himself from his Silicon Valley job and become a full-time drummer. Since then, he has performed at major festivals like San Francisco's Jazz In The City, Monterey Jazz Festival, The San Jose Jazz Festival and San Jose’s SoFA festival. Clubs in the SF Bay Area are also frequented by performances from Schnalle as both a leader and a sideman. From Yoshi's in Oakland, to Kuumbwa in Santa Cruz and beyond. A talented journalist also, Wally serves as music editor for DRUM! Magazine, where his transcriptions of the playing of such drummers as Max Roach, Joe Morrello, Dave Weckl and Dennis Chambers have served to enlighten and educate readers. Schnalle also teaches both privately and, as a recipient of an Artist-In-Residence Grant from the California Arts Council. He is also a clinician and adjudicator for the San Jose Jazz Society. Schnalle uses and endorses Zildjian Cymbals and D'Amico Drums. | ||
| WAYNE JACKSON | ||
| KIM FLINT | ||
|
STANOSAUR
|
Electric Guitar / Amplifier | stanitarium@earthlink.net |
|
TED KILLIAN
|
Guitar, electronics | |
| For over four decades Ted Killian has explored his own personal approach to guitar playing and music-making in both solo performance and in ensembles alongside such luminaries as John Bergamo, Dick Dunlap, Jim Connolly, Bob Sterling, Garen Horgen, Josef Woodard, Richard Fernandez, and Jeff Kaiser. . Ted's playing spans the distance from the tender to the brutal, and his CD Flux Aeterna has achieved a surprising amount of worldwide airplay and critical acclaim. | ||
| LARRY the O | ||
|
GHOST7 (DAN SOLTZBERG) with special guest vocal appearance by T
|
Bass guitar | www.envelopeproductions.com |
| Take a 4-string bass and mutate, destroy, and reassemble cascading layers of sound. It's the dream you had just before you woke. "I don't really have a genre-- how about "music for films that don't exist." ghost 7 draws from diverse sources including Jamaican dub virtuoso Scientist, the Durutti Column, and a Japanese improvisational wizard named Uchihashi. Pressed further, ghost 7 names Squarepusher, Nick Cave, DJ Shadow, Hood and John Coltrane as currently in heavy rotation around his house. | ||
|
BARRY CLEVELAND
|
Guitar | http://www.barrycleveland.com |
| Barry
Cleveland's
guitar playing combines psychedelic, ambient, progressive, funk,
and various "world" music influences with unusual sounds created
using unorthodox playing techniques and electronic processing.
Cleveland released his first commercial album on Larry Fast's Audion Recording Company label in 1986. Mythos combined layers of guitar with Bob Stohl and Kat Epple's woodwinds, synthesizers, and light percussion; and Michael Masley's otherworldly bowhammer cymbalom. The CD received glowing reviews in Option, Jazziz, Stereo Review, the Stereo Review Compact Disc Buyer's Guide, and numerous other publications. Voluntary Dreaming, released on Scarlet Records in 1989, also met with critical acclaim. The music had an electronic edge (Cleveland played samplers and synths in addition to electric and acoustic guitars), but also encroached upon world music territory with the addition of Michael Pluznick's African and Middle Eastern percussion. Michael Masley's bowhammer cymbalom, and Robert Powell's pedal steel guitar, added exotic harmonic and melodic touches. During the '90s Cleveland began a parallel career in journalism. Between 1996 and 2002 he worked in various editorial capacities and wrote dozens of articles and product reviews for Mix, Electronic Musicia, and Onstag magazines. In mid-2002 he joined the staff of Guitar Player magazine, where he continues to serve as an associate editor. Cleveland's first book, Creative Music Production: Joe Meek's Bold Technique, was published by MixBooks in the Fall of 2001.
The '90s were a busy time musically as well. Cleveland performed
with the improvisational quintet Cloud
Chambe, a group which included multi-instrumentalist Michael
Masley, bassist Michael
Manring, cellist Dan
Reiter, and percussionist Joe
Venegoni. Cloud Chamber performed throughout the San Francisco
Bay Area over a period of several years, and released its critically
acclaimed Dark Matter CD (produced by Cleveland)
in 1998. During this time Cleveland also recorded material that
would eventually appear on Volcano and Memory
& Imagination. Cleveland is currently recording new material (this time with lyrics) for an upcoming CD. Featured artists include bassist Michael Manring (bass), drummer Celso Alberti, pedal steel guitarist Robert Powell, and vocalist Amy X Neuburg. A rough mix of "Lake of Fire" is the current Free Download, available ... here. |
||
|
CARL WEINGARTEN
|
Electric slide guitar | http://www.mphase.com/weingarten.htm |
| Composer,
producer and slide guitarist Carl Weingarten first toured in the
mid 1980s performing loop-guitar shows along the east coast, and
once as the opening act for Bill Bruford's Earthworks in Boston.
Carl's current music reflects over two decades of experimentation
with world music, country, blues and progressive rock. Described
by some as "Ambient Americana," the arrangements combine
both roots-based and contemporary elements. The net result proffers
an sound rife with atmosphere; a meandering through rhythms from
America and beyond, while under the creative spell of modern studio
effects.
Drawing influence from a range of sources, Weingarten's hometown of St. Louis, laid the groundwork for his rhythmic pursuits, where, he attested, "Blues was part of the culture. "While it was certainly the starting point for my music, I became interested in jazz, electronic and world music, mixing them together to find my own voice," he said. In 1980, he founded Multiphase Productions, a collaborative label that continues today, boasting a medley of artists, including jazz guitarist Fareed Haque, bass guru Michael Manring and percussionist Brain Knave; the latter two also contributed extensively to his recent release, Local Journeys. Weingarten, having little prior exposure to Eastern music, recalled collaborating in 1993 with classical Indian musicians. "I was blown away," he said. "I saw so many similarities between Eastern and Western music. Rather than view them as different worlds I tried to blend these influences into the music I was writing." Such experiences embolden his persistent drive for innovation, evident in the CD Hand in The Sand, which includes assemblages from multiple genres in addition to experimentations with sound effects and the unconventional use of instruments such as the dobro, an early 20th century acoustic resonating guitar. "I follow the path of painters and sculptors," he stated. "You keep changing. You keep challenging yourself. You keep the music evolving." John Kelman of All About Jazz wrote, "Some artists view their instruments as ends unto themselves; others view them as means to an end. With Local Journeys, Weingarten clearly sits in the latter camp, more interested in the broader aural potential of his instrumental palette. An album that is as much about freeing the imagination as it is engaging it, Local Journeys is a graceful addition to Weingarten's gradually evolving body of work." For
more information on Carl Weingarten and his latest release, Invisibility
(Foundry Records, 2006) with synthesist Forrest Fang, visit www.mphase.com. |
||
|
DARK MUSE (aka Phyll Smith)
|
Voice | http://www.eyescreamjewelry.com/generic42.html |
| Dark
Muse is a one woman dream project offering sound 'splorations in
Haunting lush ethereal alchemy, minimal, experimental gothic, darkwave
& dark ambient noise flow into a dream near you...
Mostly I refer to it as somber tidings & the soundtrack to my haunted life... I have been creating sounds with voice, all my life & approach vocals in sound with pure emotion & raw power of experimentation ... While using my voice as an instrument, I am able to manifest textures & layers of patterns with depth. |
||
|
NIHIL
COMMUNICATION
|
Synthesizer/Effects | |
| Dark and droning sound sculptures that evolve slowly over time describe Nihil Communication: The brainchild of Andre Custodio. Custodio's solo semi-improvised electroacoustic music are meditative spaces that incorporate noise. Nihil Communication may be comprised of T-Rodimba, synthesizer/s, percussion and digital effects. | ||
|
JOHN HANES
|
Percussion | mail@purelovepower.com |
| Here's
a hastily-thrown-together, far-from-exhaustive, semi-reverse-chronological
list of people and bands I've played gigs and/or recorded with:
Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man" soundtrack, Doublestroke,
Bizzart, Oakland Opera Theater's production of “X, The Life
And Times Of Malcolm X” by Anthony Davis, Moe!kestra, Elliott
Sharp, The Pornorchestra, Whore, Myles Boisen's Past-Present-Future,
John Schott's Dream Kitchen, Henry Kaiser, Droneshift 2005, Guerrilla
Hi-Fi, Freddie Roulette, Barry Melton, Oakland Opera Theater's productions
of "Akhnaten" by Phillip Glass, and "Four Saints
in Three Acts" by Virgil, Thompson and Gertrude Stein, Floyd
Dixon, Brenda Boykin, Barbara Morrison, Oneness Rhythm Exercise,
Apes of God, Victor Krummenacher, Steve Kirk Pop The Voodoo Vince Band, John Hanes Trio, Scott Thunes, Orchestra Nostalgico, Engorged With Blood, Steve Kimmock, Bobby Vega, Harvey Mandel, The Mysteries, Fillmore Slim, Paris Slim, Otis Clay, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Boz Scaggs, Ronnie Montrose, Jorma Kaukonen, Chrome, Romeo Void, The Soul Rebels Pearl Harbor and the Explosions, Leila and the Snakes |
||
|
PATRICK CRESS (Oakland CA)
|
Bari saxophone | |
| Graduating with a bachelor’s in music at the University of Michigan in 1998, Patrick Cress was schooled by Donald Walden’s strict jazz theory and Donald Sinta’s brilliant classical mind. It was there that he conceived the concept for Telepathy (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, upright, drums), his brainchild, after heavy influences of Ornette Coleman and Tim Berne. Founded in March 2002, Telepathy has recorded three albums, as well as performed both nationally and internationally. Cress also has performed solo since July ’05. Using live loops and effects he creates textures as a backdrop to his twenty-one years of acoustic alto and baritone saxophone experience. Cress has helped form the BulkleyCress electronic duo which combines two very intuitive improvisers that have developed a unique language from their work in Telepathy since March, 2002. Cress also co-directs the Bay Area's own Odd Shaped Case Record Label releasing and promoting new recordings since 2001. Odd Shaped Case is an independent label, distribution, and production company based in San Francisco focusing on promoting new music derived from World Music, Electronica, and Indie Jazz through supporting new recordings, concerts, and publications. | ||
|
ROBERT EDGAR (The Duchamp Examinations)
|
Guitar
Synth, laptop, Boomerang Loop Pedal, vocals |
www.robertedgar.com |
| Robert
studied art and electronic music composition in the early 1970s
at Syracuse University. He has continued to compose and record electronic
music, songs, and (for the last six years) world and South Indian
music with the group RagaPhonia.
At the festival, he will play "The Duchamp Prelude" and "The Duchamp Examinations". Robert's "Duchamp Examination" is a demonstration of how a composer can dissect, examine and re-produce a precomposed (but not prerecorded) piece through a combination of analog and digital mastication and redigestion, in real-time solo performance before an audience. Duchamp might have said "Bob chews his cud". "The Duchamp Prelude" is a kind of electronic alapana, in which Robert explores the chordal sequence of the source piece "If Duchamp Drew Beautifully" through an overdriven Metasonix TM-2 bandpass filter. For "The Duchamp Examination" Robert plays and sings the source piece into the Boomerang section by section, further using the Boomerang as an insert editor to advance the composition by displacing the recorded segments with live musical phrases and lyric samples, not so much triggered as expressed and modulated in real time using the combination of MIDI guitar, synthesizer control pedals, and VSampler 3 software. |
||
|
PUSHING AIR
|
Voice, electronics | |
| Pushing
Air is a San Francisco-based live-looping project blending high-diva
vocals, jazz-based improvisation, beatboxing and extended vocal
technique. Conservatory-trained and bebop-schooled vocalist Diana
Thompson writes and performs all parts, all voice, all live, melding
jazz, blues, minimalist classical, and African musics into "avant
world bop."
As a vocalist, Diana has performed with acts as diverse as the Mystic Family Circus, André Custodio, and Scott Sterling. As a founding member of the experimental voice and electronics ensemble Rex Brulée, Diana worked heavily in improvisation, rhythm and extended vocal technique. She also explored the creative possibilities of working purely with voice and technology which has become the core of Pushing Air. Using digital looping, each performance is a live mix with transitions between songs, emulating the continuous flow of a DJ/Producer set. Pushing Air has brought its innovative music to a range of venues including 111 Minna, Epic Arts, and Encounter Studio. |
||
|
MATT DAVIGNON
|
Drum Machine | |
| Matt
Davignon is an experimental musician living in Oakland, California.
Since 1993, he has developed his own unique style of music, which
focuses largely on textures, arrhythmic patterns and musical imperfections.
His first experiments as a teenager were constructed using 2 boom
boxes, combining household objects, CD/tape samples and heavily
effected improvisation on a variety of “real instruments”.
Since then, he has spent time studying (in a non-academic sense)
bass guitar, live sound collage, consumer-grade electronics, prepared
acoustic guitar, real-time sampling/looping, experimental turntablism,
and field recordings on handheld cassette recorders. Since 2004, he has been working almost exclusively with a drum machine. Instead of using it as a rhythm device, he plays the pads manually while processing the sounds through an array of effects devices and samplers, improvising music made of organic-sounding textures, hums, gurgles and crackles. |
||
|
CYOAKHA GRACE
|
Noise toys, casio, harmonium & vocal effects | |
| Cyoakha
Grace O'Manion writes songs, poems & strange movie soundtracks
and sings with a lot of bands....She calls herself an artist, rather
than a musician, saying she paints with sound using instinct instead
of thought. Her first music writing partner was a member of the
Harry Parch Ensemble & her first vocal performance an acapella
solo in a gay musical about incest, so Cyoakha started out already
hell-bound for the far left lane. She formed & still performs with Tribal-Trance live looping duo LAND OF THE BLIND, producing 4 award winning albums & touring the world. (chosen as one of only two US bands for Adelaide Fringe Festival, Australia 06) She also formed Gothic Improv group BLACK ORCHID (Portland). Leaving Portland to join World-Prog-Fusion ensemble, AZIGZA (SF), she wrote and sang on both their critically acclaimed CDs that wowed the Prog-Rock world, plus she got to play and record with such avant greats as Daevid Allen of Gong. She sits in, whenever asked, with avant noise experimental group, BIG CITY ORCHESTRA, (SF), & performances have included an avant performance of Verdi's opera, The Troubadour, opening for Legendary Pink Dots, & The Illuminated Corridor Project /The Edgetone Summit (Oakland Opera & Edgetone Records).-festival ofCyoakha was asked to join world wide avant-noise female composers for the newly released (3 years in the making, 3 CD set) "WOMEN, BRING BACK THE NOISE. Her solo work includes 96 minutes of ground breaking compositions for "UNKNOWN MUSIC OF KADATH", the critically acclaimed soundtrack to indie movie DREAMQUEST OF THE UNKNOWN KADATH, the B & W animated version of H.P. LOVECRAFT's novel. Her only directorial instructions were "nothing could sound like it came from this world"....(& nothing futuristic keyboardy either, as the movie is set in a dream in the 30s) "L'onnipresente cantato di Cyoakha Grace eccellente.." Italian Review Arlequins CY's favorite review ever, (translated from Dutch) "There the excellent singer Cyoakha The Grace, who actually tears easy tendency & tension" Progressive Newsletter "The soundtrack by Cyoakha Grace O'Manion, is a fascinating blend of new age structure and sonic weirdness. The release (of Kadath) by Guerrilla Productions allows you to watch the film's 100 minutes without the voices or sounds, but just awash in the music and images. It's a surreal experience, distinctly unique, and Lovecraftian to the bone. O'Manion has captured another element so often lost in Lovecraft adaptations: the importance of music...." horrorchannel.com
She's very excited to be a part of the Looping fest and loves
to loop and play her cheesy casio. High Tech-Low Tech!!! |
||
|
DANIEL LEWIS
|
Electric Bass Guitar | |
| Daniel Vee Lewis's style is rooted in the fusion jazz of Jaco Pastorius, the melodic grooves of James Jamerson, and the eccentric fretless abandonment of Mick Karn. For this show, he'll be looping with the fretless bass. | ||
|
DARIN SHAFFER
|
Four-string piccolo bass | |
| When Darin Schaffer first takes the stage, audiences may be puzzled by what they see: a solo musician clutching an unusual fretted instrument; next to him on the floor, a chaotic assortment of electronica. But when Darin starts to play, the world never quite looks _ or sounds _ the same again. Darin Schaffer is a virtuoso on a vision quest, a composer/musician with a style unlike any before him. For proof, look no further than his new self-titled Clickpop Records cd. Playing his prized four-string piccolo bass while weaving in electronic loops and other sonic effects, Darin elevates the art of the instrumental to a new level. His hands puck, strum, bow and bang the bass. His feet press the pedals of the gear below. Bearing traces of jazz, classical East Indian, folk and ambient pop, the result leaves audiences in awe, clamoring for more. | ||
