Experimental music concert with Mercury Fools the Alchemist, BSI+Pilesar, & Lost Civilizations
Tuesday May 15, 2012 at 8:00pm
Dynasty Ethiopian Restaurant
2210 14th St NW
Washington, DC
FREE show

Mercury Fools the Alchemist CD release show!

Mercury Fools the Alchemist (http://www.myspace.com/mercuryfoolsthealchemist): unlikely music from trio of avant classical bass (Daniel Barbiero of Nine Strings, etc), ambient guitar (Rich Sheehe of Field Shaman, The Hypocrites), and homemade "stone age synthesizer" the springamajig (Jeff Bagato, aka Tone Ghosting). Sound colors from previously parallel planes suddenly collide and become acquainted, producing chimerical cacophony for mystical journeys. New CD The Science of Unobtainable Results available now on Amazon.

BSI+Pilesar is an unholy alliance of Blue Sausage Infant and Pilesar, foreshadowing their duo East Coast tour plan to interact/interfere/intersperse their solo sets. Expect noise, psychedelic trance, weird beats, etc.

The Lost Civilizations experimental music project is a duo comprised of Mike Sebastian (bass clarinet; tenor sax; saxello) and T. A. Zook (basscello). It began in 2008 and has featured guests such as Larry Gomez (Tabla, Cymbals, Misc. percussion), Louie Rozier (Flute; Percussion), Jerry Busher (percussion), Aaron Martin (Alto Sax, Soprano Sax), Emre Kartari (Percussion), Doug Kallmeyer (bass), Emily Chimiak (vocals) and Angela Morrish (vocals).

2nite @ Pyramid Atlantic: Pygmy Jerboa, Andrea Pensado, Haleta & Wellins

Pygmy Jerboa
Pygmy Jerboa (Ivan Naranjo and Maria Stankova) is a Brooklyn-based duo focused on free and rule-based improvisation with live electronics and voice. Their music has been dubbed as "unclassifiable, and that's part of what is so exciting about listening to their newest release Top Secret Jazz...They create their compositions on an ever-changing aural landscape." (Unlikely Stories, NYC). The duo has performed in Bulgaria, Germany, Mexico and The United States at renowned experimental music venues such as Atelie Plastelin, ZKM Karlsruhe, CMMAS and Issue Project Room. Their first album "Top Secret Jazz" was released in 2011 by Abolipop Records and their second album is up for release on Mandorla Records. http://pygmyjerboa.info/

Andrea Pensado
Andrea Pensado is an Argentinian sound artist, performer, composer and teacher. She started studying music in Argentina and continued in Cracow (Poland) where she lived for 10 years. Her pieces then varied from pure instrumental to mixed genres (instrumental theatre, live electronics, text sound compositions). In 1997, Pensado moved back to Buenos Aires where she crystallized her interests in real-time interaction and interdisciplinarity by co-founding Qfwfq Duo along with Gregory Kowalski (in charge of the images). The duo channeled most of her artistic work from 1999 to 2009. Presently, she mainly plays solos and has performed with, among others: I'd M Thfft Able, Forbes Graham, Walter Wright, Jules Vasylenko, Audrey Chen, Dave Ross, Lou Cohen, Todd Brunel, Junko Simons and Luther Gray. She has been featured in Argentina, Brazil, Poland, Canada, Germany, Austria, France and the US where she currently lives.
http://andreapensado.com/

Slut Walk
Erica Fallin is a multi-instrumentalist whose tools includes flute, guitar (classical and electric), electric bass, and piano. Erica is a veteran of the Bay Area music scene, where she played with Vacuum Tree Head for almost two decades and also regularly participated in Moe! Staiano's Moe!Kestra!. Alex Braden's guitar-centered sound explores intricacy on both the tonal and rhythmic planes. His rhythms go well beyond western, obvious, or symmetrical patterns, delving into the mysterious realms of unconventional syncopation, intriguing juxtapositions of odd-numbered sequences, and swirling layers of pleasant melodic confusion. Thomas Stanley (a/k/a Bushmeat) is an assistant professor of Sound Art and Consciousness in the School of Art at George Mason University. Stanley has attempted to exploit the capacity of sound and music for anchoring, framing, and energizing our subjective experience of macrotemporal texture (history). Stanley is a founding member of Transparent Productions, a non-profit volunteer collective that has produced 100s of improvised jazz and experimental music concerts throughout the DC metro area since 1997. http://musicovermind.org/

Tag Cloud
Tag Cloud started in 2009 as a series of experiments with field recordings and has come to include analog electronics, fx, cheap keyboards, metal percussion, shruti box, etc. Best described as "electroacoustic sound sculpture and carpets of drone". Releases to date include Vol. 13 of the remix project "14 Versions of the Same EP" on the Front & Follow label (look for a follow up for the "Collision/Detection" series in collaboration with BLK w/Bear) and the album "Named Entities" on Zeromoon. http://soundcloud.com/tag-cloud

Saturday, February 18
Doors 7:00pm
Music 7:30pm SHARP
$10.00 all ages, Students w/ID: $5.00
Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD (map)
http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/
Free parking (limited spaces!) in gated lot outside
INFO: dc-soniccircuits.org

Nakatani Gong Orchestra live
at Millennium Stage at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
February 10, 6:00pm, FREE SHOW!

Gong Master Tatsuya Nakatani brings an arsenal of gongs and homemade bowing devices to Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, where he will unleash a torrent of intense gong drones, tones and phones. Nakatani usually plays a small “kit” of gongs, bringing flawless technique and intense energy to creating amazing sound worlds. For this show, he’ll be joined by four other local experimental musicians, including Keith Sinzinger, Jason Mullinax, Daniel Barbiero, Anthony Pirog, and Jeff Surak, each playing gongs from Nakatani’s personal collection.

More info: dc-soniccircuits.org

Sat., Feb. 4 @ Pyramid Atlantic: Alla Zagaykevych, Janel & Anthony & Violet, Myo

Alla Zagaykevych (Ukraine)
http://www.anm.odessa.ua/mic/Zagaykevych.html
http://www.myspace.com/allazagaykevych

Alla Zagaykevych began her formal music training at the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy in Kiev, where she studied composition and orchestration. Upon graduating in 1990, Alla continued with a year of post-graduate work in theory and in 1995-96 studied composition and music informatics at the Institute of IRCAM in Paris.

Alla has written works for a variety of forces, ranging from small chamber works to works for orchestra, as well as voice and instruments. A prominent part of her output is dedicated to works for electronics, either alone or with one or more acoustic instruments - such as the composition Heroneya, featured at the Classical Archives. In her earliest works, she tended to combine aspects of "intonation serialism" with the ideas of French spectral music; more recently she has adopted concepts of individualized algorithmic composition, as well as sound synthesis and instrumental sound processing within her music.

In addition to her activities as a composer, she has performed in the folk ensemble Drevo (Kiev, 1986-99), since 1998 lectured in computer music technology at the National Music Academy in Kiev and has served from 2003 as the artistic director of the International Electro-acoustic Project in Kiev. Zagaykevych's compositions have been performed by The National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Philharmonic Orchestras of Chernigiv, Kyiv Camerata (Ukraine), ensemble Court-Circuit (France), Ensemble Contemporain de Montreal, Kammersymphoniker (Austria) and ensemble Recherche (Germany).

Janel & Anthony + Violet (NoVA / MD)
www.janelandanthony.com/
http://violet.zeromoon.com/

Rupert Chapelle (MD)
http://www.myspace.com/rupert1manband

Myo (DC)
http://www.myosound.com/

Saturday, February 4
Doors 7:00pm
Music 7:30pm SHARP
$10.00 all ages, Students w/ID: $5.00
Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD (map)
http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/
Free parking (limited spaces!) in gated lot outside
INFO: dc-soniccircuits.org

Danapalooza! celebrates the music of double bassist Dan Barbiero and his contributions to the DC creative music scene. Three of Dan’s many projects will perform: nine_strings, Mercury Fools the Alchemist and Colla Parte. Presented by Sonic Circuits at the MiG Bar in Adams Morgan.

Mercury Fools the Alchemist--Chamber psychedelia/ambient surrealism from trio of Dan with Rich Sheehe (guitar/effects) and Jeff Bagato (homemade springamajig).

nine_strings--Daniel Barbiero - double bass/ preparations; Gary Rouzer - cello/preparations/ amplified textures). Graphic score / improv reductivism for double bass & cello.

Colla Parte--Perry Conticchio, Rich O'Meara and Daniel Barbiero present spontaneous mind jazz.

Sunday, October 9
Music at 7:00pm
$5.00 cash money

MiG Bar
2226 18th Street NW (upstairs)
Washington, D.C.

FREE SHOW--Sunday nite, Sept 25, at the Clarendon CD Cellar, three local free improv groups will perform: Anthony Pirog + Lost Civilizations + Mercury Fools the Alchemist!

6:00pm - 9:00pm
CD Cellar
2607 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA

Here’s more band info:
Anthony Pirog (Janel + Anthony, Skysaw, a million other projects and collaborations) A jazz guitarist by training (he graduated from Berklee School of Music), Anthony has proven his abilities as both a composer and an instrumentalist to excel in a variety of genres from various jazz ensembles to straight-forward rock bands. Improvisation and Experimentation pervade much of his work, but as a soloist, he focuses almost entirely on those aspects of his playing style, carefully layering and adjusting guitar loops with carefully drawn out guitar tones mixed with various electronic glitches from a massive array of effects pedals and then finding a melody within the cacophony over which the guitar rings through. Merch will be available including brand new solo tapes, the recently released debut LP from Skysaw (Jimmy Chamberlain's "progressive symphonic pop band), CDs and DVDs from Janel + Anthony (electric guitar and cello experimental compositions), and a 45rpm record from his indie rock trio/sextet.

Lost Civilizations began as a project of Mike Sebastian (Tenor Sax, Saxello and Bass Clarinet) and T. A. Zook (BassCello and Misc. Instruments) playing purely improvised ambient free-jazz. More recently, they have been joined by Larry Gomez (Tabla, Cymbals, Misc. percussion) and Louie Rozier (Flute; Percussion). Performances also feature Aaron Martin (Alto Sax, Soprano Sax), Emre Kartari (Percussion) and other friends as guests. Past recordings available at archive.org.

Mercury Fools the Alchemist-- "Chamber psychedelia" from trio of avant classical bass (Daniel Barbiero of Nine Strings, Mindbreath Trio, etc), ambient guitar (Rich Sheehe of Field Shaman), and a homemade "stone age synthesizer" dubbed the "springamajig" (Jeff Bagato, aka Tone Ghosting) produces chimerical cacaphony for mystical journeys. As with all other acts performing tonight, this is strictly free improv.

Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music continues tonite with headlining performance by Swiss “noise music” legend Sudden Infant, his first show in the DC area since an incredible show at SC fest two years ago. Plenty of other great acts also on the bill, with artists from Norway, Germany, Spain, Basque Country, Netherlands, NYC, and of course, WDC.

At 5pm, there’s a special free performance of Terry Riley’s minimalist composition “In C,” featuring a large ensemble of local musicians lead by guitarist Anthony Pirog. The concert takes place in Silver Spring, MD’s Veterans Plaza. See the Sonic Circuits website for more info.

Sudden Infant
N Ensemble - (Bjornar Habbestad - flute, electronics, noise, Nicolas Field - drum kit, Jeff Carey - the usual, Will Redman - drum kit, Marc Miller - guitar, John Dierker - Sax)
Prehistoric Horse
Rinus Van Alebeek
Miguel A. García
nine_strings_trio + movement
Ezramo
Safe, Fast & Effective

7:00 pm Saturday, September 17
$15.00 all ages
Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD (map)
http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/
Free parking (limited spaces!) in gated lot outside
INFO: dc-soniccircuits.org

Legendary Los Angeles-based noise artist Jupitter X. Larson brings his long running Haters project to Silver Spring, MD, TONITE for the third nite of the Sonic Circuits Festival!

Sonic Circuits continues through Sunday nite with lots of great events. See the website for complete schedule of events, including FREE shows in Veterans Park, one featuring a performance of Terry Riley’s “In C” on Saturday, the other featuring a massive sound art sculpture on Sunday. TOMORROW NITE’S show with legendary Swiss noise artist Sudden Infant is a must see as well.

TONITE”S PERFORMERS::

ELENA AITZKOA [SPAIN]
Elena Aitzkoa is a sculptress, painter and poet born in the Basque Country. Physicality is very important in her sculptures, texts and living. In dance she uses her body as image of the earth. Trans attitude. Feminine posture. As cofounder of Club L´larraskito (Bilbao), she loves improvising. Currently she is lives and works in Madrid. She has made exhibitions and performances in places like: Artium, Museum of Contemporary Art in Vitoria; Azala creation space in Araba; El Tanque Gallery in Santa Cruz de Tenerife; Sala Rekalde, Carreras Múgica Gallery or Bulegoa in Bilbao; DT scenic space in Madrid. kreared.com/en/proyectos/elena-aitzkoa

THE HATERS [CALIFORNIA]
Artist/writer GX Jupitter-Larsen is based in Hollywood, California. During the 1990's he was the sound designer for the performances of Mark Pauline's Survival Research Laboratories, the premiere self-destructing mechanical performance art spectacle of its' time. His best known work is as the founder and only constant member of the noise act The Haters. The current Haters performance is a piece entitled "Loud Luggage / Booming Baggage", in which amplified suitcases burst, crackle and explode with sound. Underlying much of Jupitter-Larsen's work is a self-created lexicon of personalized units of measurement such as the polywave, the totimorphous and the xylowave. The Loud Luggage performance is a sonic reference to the xylowave, which he defines as "the distance between nothing and something". The Haters have performed all over America and in 15 nations across Europe & Asia, appearing on over 400 CD, vinyl or cassette releases. http://jupitter-larsen.com/

INFANT FACTORY [DC]
Insect Factory is music from Silver Spring, Maryland musician Jeff Barsky. Insect Factory generally focuses on texture and mood, building layers of sound that slowly evolve into hypnotic and atmospheric drones. Insect Factory has recently released a split 7-inch with RST (New Zealand). For Sonic Circuits 2011, Jeff will collaborate with Chester Hawkins's Blue Sausage Infant project, as Infant Factory.
Since the 90's, Barsky has continuously played in bands and improvisational collectives, and has performed frequently on the east coast of the U.S., as well as in Canada, throughout Europe, and Japan. His first proper release, Air Traffic Control Sleep, was released on Insect Fields in the late summer of 2007, to acclaim from the likes of The Washington Post, The Wire (UK), and Terrascope. Barsky's various projects have shared the stage with acts as diverse as Bardo Pond, Richard Pinhas, Nels Cline, Acid Mothers Temple, and Carla Bozulich, and he has performed at Suoni Il Per Popolo festival in Montreal, previous Sonic Circuits festivals/events, and Terrastock 7 in Louisville, Kentucky. Insect Factory has recently released a split 7-inch with RST (New Zealand), and also recorded a follow-up full-length for release in later 2011. http://www.insectfields.org

Les Rhinocéros [DC]
"Hailing from the Washington, DC area, the young band Les Rhinocéros delivers a crazy world in sound, blending aspects of rock, world music, noise, ambient and jazz. The trio of teenagers was formed in 2008 while the players were still in high school, and has developed since then into an intense and wildly imaginative group that takes music to its extremes. Emotional, minimalistic, intense and grooving, this is music that goes beyond imagination to the edges of sanity. The group continues their sonic experiments by adding unusual instruments into the traditional rock band setting." (Tzadik) https://www.facebook.com/LesRhinoceros

RIND [DC]
Rind is the ambient, melodic, brash and occasionally noisy collaboration between cellist Doug Stailey (Sansyou, Field Shaman, The Plums) and guitarist Beau Finley (Destroyer of Worlds, Monitor), who also runs Fuzzy Panda Recording Company.

Valentina Vuksic [Switzerland]
Valentina Vuksic is a computer artist and programmer based in Zürich. Her work is a personal exploration of the possibilities afforded by articulated hard- and software mediation. She approaches computer systems via inductive microphones for magnetic fields, so-called "telephone adapters." With choreographies for software and computer elements, she utilizes these as actors in software/noise pieces for, and in, computers.
Vuksic considers time and space of computer processor and memory as levels of reality. Software being processed creates own temporal and spatial dimensions, which are staged for a public. She aims for a sensual experience of the analytical sphere becoming concrete, where logic encounters the physical world. The mechanic noises serve as mediators to a public. They reveal in an immediate way the activities taking place between computer processes in the widest sense and the computer electronics they are running on.
http://harddisko.ch/

Friday, September 16
Doors 8:00pm
Music 8:30pm SHARP
$12.00 all ages
Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD (map)
http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/
Free parking (limited spaces!) in gated lot outside
INFO: dc-soniccircuits.org

The 2011 Sonic Circuits Festival of experimental music gets started Wednesday night at the AFI Silver theatre in Silver Spring with all-turntable ensemble Stylus creating live soundtracks to two silent films, “Lot in Sodom” and Man Ray’s “Emak Bakia.” A supergroup of musicians from the DC experimental music scene, Stylus performs exclusively on vintage Califone turntables, the kind used in elementary schools across the country. The Sonic Circuits Festival continues through Sunday, Sept 18. For a full schedule of concerts, check out the Sonic Circuits website.

DC’s premiere festival for experimental music starts next week, on Wednesday, Sept 14, and runs through Sunday, Sept 18. Highlights include rare DC performances by internationally known noise artists Sudden Infant and The Haters, European Free Improvisors John Butcher and Keith Rowe, Ecstatic Peace recording artist Okkyung Lee, and Tzadik records recording artists (and local group) Les Rhinocerose. Local all-turntable ensemble Stylus kicks things off on 9/14 performing cut-up soundtracks for two black and white silent films [“Lot in Sodom” and the Surrealist masterpiece “Emak Bakia”] at the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD. Lots of local performers and other out of towners too. Check the extensive festival schedule!

Lots of 9/ll Commemorative events going on this weekend, but if you’re looking to combine some challenging music and left wing politics in your observation, check out this concert at George Mason University: “The Cost of War”

From the organizer, Thomas Stanley: “The Cost of War…is enormous in every possible way. As an investment, its returns are gruesomely consistent: death and disfigurement, environmental degradation, and economic ruin. With the events on that September morning, ten years ago, this society entered a period of seemingly interminable war. There is apparently no off-switch for this state of affairs, no condition of victory or compromise that would allow us to pause and step back from this dismal project. So the creeping web of war metastasizes according to its own logic – secret war, proxy war, war declared and undeclared, war whose nefarious targets shift and morph as if on cue. We who work are the financiers of all of this. It is we who must carry its heavy cost.

“Please join Mason students, alumnae, and members of our creative community for our 9/11 remembrance – a chance to steel ourselves through music, and prepare for a day when this costly cycle of organized violence has been finally interrupted. When the wars have ceased, the healing can begin. “

Performances by:
Borborgymus (Andrew McCarry)
Erdén Zikibay
Jelly Gums & the Comfy Guts (Rachel Foley and Ben Cassidy)
Erica Fallin, Mark Cooley, and Thomas Stanley
Brian Wentz

September 11, 2011
5:00 pm/Admission is free
George Mason University
School of Art | Art & Design Bldg | 1007

The next installment of the open air art market Marcatus happens this Sunday, August 7, at the new waterfront Yards Park in SE, DC. This one features two stages of DJs playing fresh jams and one rock stage. Tents throughout the park will house crafters, artists, clothing designers, and food vendors representing local wares. Check link for full list of musicians and directions. Free event! 11am-6pm, Yards Park, 10 Water St SE Washington, DC.

Kingdom of Sharks, FUN, and Soft Pieces at Bella Cafe & Bar in DC

Saturday, July 23, 8:00 pm
Bella Cafe
900 Florida Ave., Washington, DC 20001
202-705-2020

Amazing electronic noise performer Soft Pieces (pictured) in rare appearance with two other noise acts!

KINGDOM OF SHARKS
Kingdom of Sharks (named after the ocean) is the moniker of Virginia resident, Christopher S. Feltner (b. 1978). Noise synths, effects pedals, voice, breath, plastic and metal objects, didgeridoo, microphone, guitar, samples, vibrator, and imagination are the current tools utilized to manipulate sound, and study its ability to shape emotion. Opinions vary, but the most common word used to describe KoS pieces is "dark."

FUN
"group comprised of 2 carbon based lifeforms, show glimpses into a literal, brutal & TRUE world. Sounds with heavy concepts behind them, mostly focused around the lack of “true fun” interpreted in various ways and/or various sources. Some maybe uncomfortably naked, bare, raw. Others smushed up in the crowded subway car, rush hour. Post Non-Music.

SOFT PIECES
Zach Mason (b. 1977) created the Soft Pieces project to join organic, improvisational performance with the versatility of modern tools, pairing spectacle with subtlety to create a memorable experience for each audience member. Soft Pieces has shared bills with performers as diverse as Blevin Blectum, Caustic Castle, Tim Hecker, Jandek, Matmos, and Reuben Radding. Zach currently lives in Maryland.

Incredible scene today at Bridge Spot, with a brand new Albus Cavus mural on one wall, and a Tabi Bonney video shoot, along with the business as usual of skating and ramp building. Otherwise known as Garfield Park in Capitol Hill, under the 295 overpass, Bridge Spot is a semi-sanctioned skate spot in SW DC, and a great spot for street art. On this visit, a brand new mural covered one wall, the result of an Albus Cavus workshop lead by Tim Rogers and Peter Krsko, with contributions from Decoy, Wyze and Ster. The angel holding the skull is also a Decoy piece. Lots of cool stuff painted by the kids in the workshop, along with big pieces by each of the leaders. Local hip hop artist Tabi Bonney must have liked the mural, because it was forming a key backdrop for the video he was filming for his new single “Hip Hop in Love,” complete with a troop of dancers. They also seemed to like the skaters (including the crew I was with), because they got dragged into the photo shoot with some of the dancers/models. DC-based artist Rosina Teri Memolo was one of the photographers documenting the shoot, and sticker artists Jaws and Panic were lurking around, adding some slaps to the environs. Meanwhile, some older skaters, including Stan Karbine (Stop Fakin skate video, and Convoy team rider) and Manny Law interrupted their ramp construction efforts to coach some of the models in the fine art of skateboarding for the cameras.

Check out some experimental music tonite! Local electronics artists Violet and supertrio Fast, Safe & Effective play along with Taiwan via NYC vocal improvisor Jen Shyu. Artist bios etc: INFO: dc-soniccircuits.org

Tuesday, July 12
Doors 8:00pm
$5.00
Bella
900 Florida Avenue NW
Washington, DC
http://www.belladc.com
INFO: dc-soniccircuits.org

As part of this Saturday’s Indonesia Festival on the National Mall, the Indonesian Embassy is organizing an attempt at the world record for most angklung players performing at once. Angklung is a bamboo instrument, a bit like an Indonesian equivalent of handbells; everybody has a single note and you play it whenever it's time for your note to happen. To watch a video demonstration of the angklung and learn more about the event, check out the Indonesia Festival website.

According to the Indonesian ambassador to the US, Dino Patti Djalal, those interested in joining the event “can simply show up on Saturday, July 9 at Washington Monument Grounds around 4 pm (the world record attempt event begins at 5 pm), but they are strongly recommended to register beforehand at indofest2011@embassyofindonesia.org.” Participants are asked to wear a red or white shirt. In return for participating, you will get a certificate stating that you have set a world record, and also a Balinese udeng hat (for men) and a scarf (for women). Plus you will get to keep the angklung you play.

Get ready for five days of weird sounds when this year’s Sonic Circuits Festival rolls around, Sept 14-18. Highlights include international noise “stars” Sudden Infant and The Haters; British free improvisors John Butcher and Keith Rowe; young local dudes Les Rhinoceros, who scored big cred with their recent Tzadik release; and Ecstatic Peace recording artist Okkyung Lee, among many others. Check out the Sonic Circuits site for more details, natch. This year also marks the debut of their Kickstarter campaign for some needed funding.