San Francisco April 2009

Details now final for this exciting event!

23FIVE INCORPORATED & SFCINEMATHEQUE PRESENT TONY CONRAD

23Five Incorporated’s annual Activating The Medium festival for 2009 is a co-presentation with SFCinematheque, showcasing the work by the legendary minimalist and filmmaker Tony Conrad. The first evening is a lecture on Friday, April 3. The second features a performance from Mr. Conrad on Saturday, April 4 as well as a collaborative performance between filmmaker Paul Clipson and composer Brendan Murray. The final night features screenings of Mr. Conrad’s later video works on Sunday, April 5. All events will take place at the San Francisco Art Institute.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3
Tony Conrad: Lecture
Flickering Jewel – Window, Perspective, Shadows
presented in association with SFAI’s Spheres of Interest Lecture Series
5:00 PM
Free

SATURDAY, APRIL 4
Tony Conrad
Brendan Murray & Paul Clipson
sound and video performances
8:00 PM
$15.00 general admission
$10.00 members of SFCinematheque
free to SFAI students and staff

SUNDAY, APRIL 5
Tony Conrad
Flicker and Process Films/Works on Video
films include Redressing Down and Tony’s Oscular Pets
7:30 PM
$10.00 general admission
$6.00 members of SFCinematheque
free to SFAI students and staff

Tickets for the Saturday performance and the Sunday screening are available at http://www.23five.org.

San Francisco Art Institute
Lecture Hall
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94133

Elemental to Tony Conrad’s oeuvre is his work as a violinist, in which primal, enveloping drones create an oscillating ritual theater. In 1962 he co-founded the groundbreaking ensemble known as the Dream Syndicate. Wielding a drone both aggressively confrontational and subtly mesmerizing, he and his collaborators – including La Monte Young and future Velvet Underground co-founders John Cale and Angus MacLise – created some of the most revolutionary music of that (or any) decade. Utilizing long durations, precise pitch and blistering volume, Conrad and company forged a “Dream Music” that articulated the Big Bang of “minimalism.” With his return in the 1990s to recording, publishing and touring, Conrad engaged an entirely new generation of listeners with his unique and uncompromisingly antisocial, raging music. — Steve Polta / SFCinematheque

We hungered for music almost seething beyond control – or even something just beyond music, a violent feeling of soaring unstoppably, powered by immense angular machinery across abrupt and torrential seas of pounding blood. Walt Whitman wrote that ‘all music is what awakes from you when you are reminded by the instruments.’ So it must be my conscious blood, in my veins, that swells behind my eyes on the unstanchable tide of the music’s careening violence; a voicelessly shrieking glee, gushing and unfulfilled; anger coming from somewhere; sweetness of virulence, energy, heated eyes, tension unrelenting, shrill shuddering lust endlessly recalculated in its spasm; focus of power. – Tony Conrad

Founded in 1993, 23five Incorporated is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and increased awareness of sound works in the public arena, and to the support and education of artists working with and discussing the medium of sound. 23five Incorporated has remained at the forefront in bringing the most adventurous elements of sound art to the San Francisco Bay area. 23five has served as an important benefactor to artists such as CM von Hausswolff, Christina Kubisch, Francisco Lopez, Olivia Block, Matt Heckert, Zbigniew Karkowski, Atau Tanaka, and many more.

for more information:
http://www.23five.org
http://www.sfcinematheque.org

lots to talk about….

Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Kittery, ME for a special performance as part of Sean Reardon’s Unique States series. This is an exciting opportunity to play in another section of New England with some great musicians.  Here’s the deal:

“*- UNIQUE STATES -* an event series which investigates the strategies of group dynamic with music and sound, composition and improvisation. Each event will feature three artists who have lived or are living in one of three states – Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts; each of the artists will represent one of these three states. With an initial list of over fifty artists willing to participate, a list randomizing program from random (dot) org was utilized to curate a triad of performers for each event. Each group prepares to perform by sharing contact information, and is encouraged to communicate in the time before their event to create a conceptual framework. *UNIQUE STATES* could be considered a platform for artists to exchange information together, interacting in a way they might not have otherwise, and possibly emerging with creative and innovative ideas.”

The show will consist of three solo sets: myself, id m theft able and Nat Baldwin.  We will then play as a trio. If you are in the area, come by and say hello!

Details: Unique States at BUOY – 2 Government St. Kittery, ME 03904.  Should get going around 8.

Bhob Rainey and I played our first set as a duo at the Outpost in Cambridge last week.  Thanks to all who came out on a cold night.  Bhob and I were most pleased and you’ll be hearing from us again.

The 2009 release schedule is getting a little bananas. So be it.

I’m happy to announce that my duo cd with NYC sound artist Richard Garet is out now on Unframed Recordings.  Details are coming together for a March release show in Brooklyn as I type, watch this space for information.

My new, self-titled/untitled solo cd on Students of Decay is heading into production.  The first 100 copies are being offered with a bonus cdr for a special price.  The bonus is a live recording from the Swedenborg Chapel in Cambridge, MA last year called “The Cold Piano”.  Also out on Students of Decay in the coming months is a rethink of some soundtrack music I did a few years ago for the film Human Heart Explodes.  The cdr is called “Exploding Heart Mixes” and is an expansion of some of the cues I developed along with string players Vic Rawlings, Mike Bullock and Katt Hernandez.  I’m pleased that this music is seeing the light of day.

There’s lots of other stuff in the works.  I shouldn’t talk about it too much.

As mentioned previously, I will be making my first trip to the West Coast in April to be part of the Activating The Medium festival in San Francisco. Tony Conrad will headline the bill and  I’ll be collaborating with film maker Paul Clipson on what is shaping up to be an exciting piece for sound and video.

I’ll be in SF/Oakland for a few days.  It will be all about record shopping, burritos and omokase.  Pretty psyched.

Speaking of SF, Jefre-Cantu Ledesma had me do some Q and A for his great Root Blog recently. Check it out.

As always, get in touch if you like.  See you soon.