|
Artists
| Performer(s)
/ Website / Bio |
Instrumentation |
email
/ website |
|
Krispen
Hartung -
Festival Coordinator (BOISE, ID, USA)
|
Mini
jazz archtop guitar, voice, laptop computer (MAX/msp, Reaktor,
etc) |
Website
Myspace
|
| Founder
and artistic director of the Boise Experimental Music Festival,
Krispen Hartung has been actively involved in the Boise
music and arts scene for over 18 years. His contributions include
creating new ways for musicians to communicate and collaborate
with each other, such as Boise's first musicians web registry
(1998), Boise
Musicians internet discussion group, and now for the third
year, the Boise Experimental Music Festival. He has also sponsored
and performed at many art or community orientated events and
venues, such as the Y2K
International Live Looping Festival (three year performer),
Jazz Saturdays, Boise's Arts in the Park, the Sage Brush Arts
Festival (Pocatello, Idaho), the Hyde Park Festival, the Boise
Arts Museum, the Idaho State Fair, and various art gallery exhibitions
and events. His efforts have primarily revolved around raising
awareness and appreciation of avant-garde and creative music
in Boise, Idaho.
Krispen
Hartung's 25-year musical 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.
However, Hartung's musical identity and creative direction
came to fruition when, in 1993, he began using the laptop
computer to process the sound of his guitar, either by looping
it in creative ways or by radically altering its tone. Krispen'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 improvised compositions. Since
then, Hartung has produced and released eight additional CDs,
including his most recent improvisational release "Mojo
at the Dojo" with Ted Killian. View his entire discography
here.
During
the last year, Krispen has been recording and performing primarily
creative electronic and free jazz music, focusing more on
the tonal character of the guitar, accompanied by his looping
techniques with Cycling
74's MAX/msp. His most recent projects, soon to result
in CDs this year, are with Jeff Kaiser (trumpet), Robert Sterling
(percussion), and Brian McFadin (sax) / Jared Hallock (drums
and marimba). At this year's festival, he will be debuting
a new custom instrument built by luthier, Bobby Warren. The
instrument is one-of-a-kind miniature jazz archtop guitar,
only 29 inches long, but full of amazing tone and punch. View
more details here.
Krispen
lives in the North
End Historic District of Boise, Idaho with his wife, Carissa,
and 2 1/2 year old twins, Tristan and Kyra. He has worked
for Hewlett-Packard
for 19 years and is currently a Global sales training manager.
He loves science fiction movies of the 50s and 60s, philosophy,
the classics (books), and fine Belgium beer.
|
|
Rainer Straschill (München,
Bayern, Germany)
With
financial support by the Federal Foreign Office and the Goethe
Institut
|
|
Website
|
| 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. |
|
The
Choir Boys (San
Diego & Los Angeles, CA, USA)
|
Jeff
Kaiser: Quarter-Tone Trumpet, laptop computer
Andrew
Pask: Sax, laptop computer
|
Website
|
| Jeff
Kaiser
is a musician and the founder of pfMENTUM, a record label dedicated
to the documentation of new music in California. He is a prolific
composer, performer and programmer, who performs regularly in
the United States and abroad. He is currently living and working
in San Diego on a music PhD in Critical Studies and Experimental
Practices at UCSD.
Andrew
Pask is a New Zealand born musician and audio/video programmer.
He worked for years as a professional musician throughout
Asia and New Zealand before moving to Los Angeles in 1999.
He performs regularly in Los Angeles in the new music scene.
At the same time, he has a career as a computer programmer,
working for Cycling 74, a California corporation dedicated
to creating advanced audiovisual computer software.
We
see ourselves as inspired by Los Angeles legends John Carter
(clarinet) and Bobby Bradford (cornet), We are trying to carry
on and
pay homage to this great duo, and to the music they were part
of, and at the same time take the music to a unique space
by incorporating
newly designed audio and video software.
This
performance will be part of the premier tour of our new intermedia
work "Helicopter."
This
project is part of our ongoing exploration of improvisational
musical space and the interaction of acoustic instruments
with live processing by software of our own design. This will
be the fourth work in the series. The first was a collection
of duo performances culminating in our first album. The second
was "The Choir Boys with strings," which included
Steuart Liebig, (Los Angeles based contrabass guitarist) and
G.E. Stinson (Los Angeles based electric guitarist). The third
was an interactive work with the 1929 avant-garde film, "Tusalava,"
by New Zealander Len Lye. This was performed in Los Angeles,
Ventura, and was featured at the University of Minneapolis'
Spark Festival of Electronic Music in 2007.
This
new work, "Helicopter," like our "Tusalava,"
will be continuing our exploration of music and video software
in an improvisatory
environment.
Based
on the idea of memory and expectation, the moment of take-off
is a point in time we expand on, that the sounds and sights
which are present at the moment the machine becomes light
enough to lift off are explored and stretched out. The point
of take-off is now, no longer a moment, but an expanded period
of time. Our musical focus in this piece is this moment of
lightness, or of effort, or of resolution, or commencement,
or all of it at the same time...
|
|
Jim
McAuley (Los
Angeles, CA, USA)
|
Guitar |
Website |
Once
described as “the only guitarist who has played with both
Frank Sinatra and Nels Cline”, Jim McAuley has been integral
to the LA creative music scene for over 30 years.
After a brief stint as a commercial session musician in the
early 70’s, he began focusing on his original solo material,
quickly landing a contract with John Fahey’s Takoma label
in 1976. In the eighties he gravitated toward “outside”
jazz improv and was honored to perform and record with such
LA legends as John Carter, Horace Tapscott and James Newton.
He earned his MFA at CalArts in ‘91 (mentored by Frederick
Rzewski, David Behrman and others) and in ‘94 formed a
collective called Gongfarmer whose revolving roster included
Alex Cline, Jeff Gauthier, Marty Walker, David Johnson and other
new music stalwarts. 2001 saw the release of “Acoustic
Guitar Trio”--Nels Cline, (the late) Rod Poole and Jim
McAuley--on Derek Bailey’s Incus imprint. Wire Magazine
hailed the album as “displaying the range, strength, boundary
crossing and genre-melding fertility of contemporary improv”
and “high on the list of favourite releases for this year.”
McAuley’s first solo outing, “Gongfarmer 18”
(Nine Winds Records) received a similarly warm reception from
critics, landing on the “Best of 2005” lists in numerous
major publications. Cadence Magazine called it “a mood-altering
and mind-bending album...He makes his instrument hum with excitement
while stepping away from rigidity and into an open and free
world of music” , while the Wire simply declared it “great
stuff.”
A double-CD set of duets is scheduled for a June ‘08 release
from Canada’s Drip Audio. It features (the late) Leroy
Jenkins, Nels Cline, Alex Cline and Ken Filiano. Like all of
McAuley’s music, it promises to deliver what the LA Times
has called “genuinely evocative and refreshingly cliche-bashing
work.”
|
|
The
Deep End Ensemble (Philadelphia,
PA, USA)
|
Guitar,
percussion, upright bass, clarinet |
Website |
The
Deep End Ensemble utilizes a wide array of risk taking musical
elements and unpredictable personalities to fuse experimental
sound structures. The organizers and creators of these eclectic
sound structures include Bruce Eisenbeil on guitars, Wilbo Wright
on bass, Eddy Rollin on wind instruments/sonic toys, and Ian
Ash on percussion.
Bruce Eisenbeil is an innovative guitarist and composer from
New York City. His projects can be heard on the CIMP and NEMU
labels. He has collaborated with Cecil Taylor, William Parker,
Wolfgang Fuchs, Andrew Cyrille, Lukas Ligeti, Klaus Kugel, and
many other experimental musicians throughout the United States,
Europe, and Asia. Bruce contributes unpredictable textures of
surprise and raw energy when he performs with the Deep End Ensemble.
Wilbo Wright is a risk taking bassist from Princeton, New Jersey.
He has toured with Yo La Tengo and is currently involved with
the Car Music Project (A music ensemble that uses car parts
for musical instruments). Wilbo creates comical and interactive
provoking sound forms when he performs with the Deep End Ensemble.
Eddy Rollin plays oboe, English horn, alto saxophone, and home
made sonic toys. Eddy is from Easton, PA. via New York City.
He has performed with Lukas Ligeti, Bruce Eisenbeil, and Ty
Cumbie. Eddy has also recorded with various projects on Artichoke
and Maitre'd records. Eddy engages in emotional passages of
exotic unpredictability when performing with the Deep End Ensemble.
Ian Ash plays mallet and percussion instruments. Ian is from
Philadelphia, PA. ?He has performed and recorded with Sonny
Fortune, John Blake, Christian McBride, Bruce Eisenbeil, Bill
Watrous, Randy Brecker, and Dave Middleton of the Sun Ra Arkestra.
Ian is the architect behind the Deep End Ensemble. He blends
21st century music theory, harmony, and counterpoint with global
rhythm, exotic harmony, and spontaneous improvisation to form
the evolving sounds of the Deep End Ensemble.
The Deep End Ensemble performs throughout south eastern Pennsylvania
is touring throughout the mid west in conjunction with the Boise
Experimental Music Festival. |
|
Emily
Hay & Motoko Honda
(Los Angeles, CA, USA)
|
Flute
(Emily) / Piano (Motoko) |
Website
(Emily)
Website
(Motoko)
|
| Emily
Hay is a flutist, vocalist and pianist who extends
the traditional roles and capabilities of her instruments. She
combines complex contemporary classical technique with the spontaneity
of improvisation from the amygdala to form startling interpretations
of sound and intense ensemble interaction. Her explorations
on the flute and alto flute embody unusual tone colors and soaring
rhythmic structures, augmented by electronically generated effects
and often overlapped by unusual vocalizations ranging from primal
to operatic with lyrics and sounds from the stream of consciousness.
Hay
is an active member of the Los Angeles and "left coast"
music communities, and has performed in avant garde, art rock,
free improvisation, electro-acoustical and contemporary classical
ensembles such as U Totem, The Motor Totemist Guild, The 5
UU's , Otherparts, I Am Umbrella, Adam Rudolph's Go Organic
Orchestra, The Emily Hay Collective, The Rich West Ensemble,
The Jeff Kaiser Okodektet and The Vinny Golia Large Ensemble.
Recordings of her work have been released on Cuneiform Records,
Recommended Records, Nine Winds, Meta, pfMentum, Public Eyesore
and Dragnet Records. She has toured and performed throughout
Europe, Canada and the U.S. with concert highlights at the
Bimhuis/Amsterdam, the Ottomat/Italy, New Music America Festival/Montreal,
Art Rock Festival/Frankfurt, Kulturni Dom/Yugoslavia, Staion
de Art Sankt Peter/Cologne and the Reithalle/Switzerland.
Hay
has also worked in music business and legal affairs with a
specialization in contract and copyright law. She has represented
prominent music talent as a paralegal for several top Los
Angeles entertainment law firms, supervised film and television
soundtracks and held executive positions at major film studios.
Emily
Hay co-hosts the radio show, "Trilogy", on KXLU
88.9FM Los Angeles (and at www.kxlu.com) which features music
of the avant-garde, free jazz, improvisation, experimental
and electronic music genres. Hay was formerly music director
for the Beyond Baroque Foundation in Venice, CA where she
curated and promoted live experimental music events for many
years.
Born and raised in rural Virginia, Emily Hay received a BFA
in music from Bard College in New York and an MFA in music
from California Institute of the Arts.
Motoko
Honda
was born in Yokohama, Japan, moved to Sendai, Japan, and
began studying both piano and transcription at age four. She
showed interest in anything artistic, and received the first
silver medal from the city for her painting, as well as the
national government prize for the Japanese Calligraphy, and
numerous awards for music compositions. She transcribed by
ear many folk and pop songs and made arrangements for her
school ensembles, also organized the theater group called
“Aozora” which had public performances of her first
musical theater script while she composed and improvised all
the sound effects and music live.
Motoko
currently lives in downtown Los Angeles, CA, she is a founding
member of Los Angeles Piano Unit, a group dedicated to perform
all kinds of piano music from classical to experimental. She
is also a member of M. Rare Trio, and a founder of Okiro music
Series and Ensemble. She is currently working on the “Sound
Escape Project", an experimental collaboration with some
of the greatest improvisers in the world.
|
| Jim
Connolly/Colter Frazier/Rob Wallace Trio |
Sax,
percussion, upright bass |
|
| Having
played together in Santa Barbara, California for several years
now, this trio brings together disparate backgrounds of music
to create a unique setting for collaboration. Connolly, Frazier,
and Wallace draw on classical chamber music, free improvisation,
post-bebop jazz, and various "world" musics to create
a rich pallet of improvisations. They also like to try to make
each other crack up.
Connolly's
most recent recording, on the pfMentum label, is entitled
"Jim Connolly and the Gove County String Quartet",
and features his original compositions for string quartet.
Frazier and Wallace have also released an eponymous album
on pfMentum.
|
|
Robert
Price, David Grollman, & Lucio Menegon (New
York, USA)
|
Guitar,
drums |
Website
(Rob Price)
Website
(Lucio)
Myspace
(Lucio)
|
| Guitarist
and composer Rob Price has worked with John Zorn, Joey
Baron, Anthony Coleman, Zeena Parkins, Andrea Parkins, Reuben
Radding, Kenny Wollesen, Elliott Sharp, Mr. Dorgon and many
others. He was a founding member of the band Dim Sum Clip Job
which released a CD on John Zorn’s Avant label. In addition
to his duo with David Grollman and trio with David and Lucio
Menegon, he leads his own quartet featuring Ellery Eskelin,
Trevor Dunn and Jim Black.
David
Grollman scrapes, bows, slaps, hits and rubs very small
drums and cymbals. He is best known for drumming in the underground
bands Uncle Gut and The Penny Regime. Once found in a German
restaurant playing drums in lederhosen with Ben Folds. He
can most often be found in the East Village of NYC doing percussion
duets with his four year old daughter.
Lucio
Menegon is a guitarist, composer improviser and sonic
artist. His work centers around the creative use of melody
and dynamics, combining a judicious use of effects, live looping
and found sound to sufficiently mangle his rock, blues, pop,
punk and experimental background.
Lucio
appears on thirty-plus albums and has performed all over the
globe from dingy bars to fancy theaters with the likes of
Amy DeNio, Jon
Brumit, Moe! Staiano, Laurie Amat, Mark De gli Antoni, Glenn
Branca, Carla Kihlstedt, Gunnar Madsen, Myles Boisen, Suki
O’Kane, Anton
Barbeau, Wayne Grim, Val Esway, Luca Miti and Mark Growden.
Film
credits include an award winning score for John Harden's short,
'La Vie d'un Chien', live and composed scores with the Overdub
Club, Thad Povey, Alphonso Alvarez and Cinepimps. His work
has appeared at the SF International Film Festival, Sundance
Film Festival and the SF Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and
Music on Film Festival in Prague, CZ.
Lucio
is a member of the Immersion Composition Society, has a BA
in Economics, a sharp eye for photography and never tires
of travel.
|
|
Tom
Baker (Seattle,
WA, USA)
|
Guitar |
Website |
|
Tom
Baker has been active as a composer, performer and music producer
in the Seattle new-music scene since arriving in 1994. His
compositions have been performed throughout the United States,
in Canada and in Europe. He has studied composition with Chinary
Ung and John Rahn, and received his doctorate in composition
in 1996 from the University of Washington, where he currently
teaches theory and composition.
Tom
has appeared as guest conductor for the Seattle Creative Orchestra
and as composer-in-residence for the a cappella vocal ensemble
The Esoterics, and has received awards and grants from several
organizations including the Meet the Composer, the Jack Straw
Foundation, the Washington State Arts Commission, Artist Trust,
Seattle Arts Commission and the King County Arts Commission.
As
the artistic director and curator of the new-music concert
series, the Seattle Composers' Salon, Tom is dedicated to
producing and promoting the new and adventurous music which
is being created in the Pacific Northwest. He is co-director
of the Seattle EXperimental Opera (SEXO) and co-founder of
the new-music recording label Present Sounds.
Tom
began playing the guitar at age four, and that instrument
has been a constant through every phase of his creative life.
He played rock, jazz and bluegrass throughout his childhood,
and eventually began studying classical guitar during his
college years. He received his Master's degree in classical
guitar performance from Arizona State University in 1993,
after finishing his Bachelor's degree in music from Boise
State Univeristy in 1988.
In
1996, Tom started to play the fretless guitar, mostly to explore
the microtonal implications that the instrument offered. After
several years of learning this new and rather enigmatic instrument,
he started performing again. He released a solo fretless CD
in 2002, and another is forthcoming in 2005. He performs on
both fretted and unfretted instruments, and is the leader
of the Tom Baker Quartet (TBQ), a band featuring clarinet,
guitar, bass and drums.
Tom
lives in Seattle with his wife Alissa Rupp, who is an architect
and a painter. They work on many projects together, including
the upcoming opera The Gospel of the Red-Hot Stars. Tom is
also an avid fly-fisherman, and has fished in rivers in Washington,
Oregon, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia.
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|
The
Transhumans (Ventura,
CA, USA)
|
BOB
STERLING: Acoustic and electronic drums, hand percussion,
sampler, Effects
PATRICK RODRIGUEZ: Synth, sampler, Effects
JUSTIN CASSIDY: Synth, sampler, Effects
|
Myspace
Website
|
|
Justin
Cassidy and Patrick Rodriquez are the synth/FX/loopers who
have teamed-up with Acoustic drummer Bob Sterling to form
The Transhumans. Over the last year and a half they have performed
at various underground venues and New Music Festivals in California
and have produced two CD efforts culled from their prodigious
collection of live, in-studio recordings. The first, "Five
Stories," is a five mini-disc compilation that includes
a small booklet of "stories" based on their music.
Their latest effort, "Into the Maelstrom," has just
been released on the pfMentum label.Their music is spontaneous,
improvised and uninhibited.
|
|
Ted
Killian (MEDFORD,
OR, USA)
|
Guitar,
electronics, looping |
www.pfmentum.com/flux.html
|
| 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. |
|
Thorrific
(Seattle, WA, USA)
|
Didgeridoo
and Moog synth
|
Website
Myspace
|
| |
Lucio
Menegon
|
Guitar,
electronics |
Website |
| Experimental
noise, sounds with a groove. If the strange matter hypothesis
is correct, and a strangelet comes in contact with a lump of
ordinary matter, it could convert the ordinary matter to strange
matter. An 'Ice-9' chain reaction scenario commences and In
The End, the Earth is reduced to a hot, large lump of strange
matter. |
| Brian
McFadin |
Soprano,
Alto, Tenor and Baritone saxophones |
|
|
Studied
at Los Angeles City College, Cal State LA, Cal Arts. Featured
composer and soloist on the annual Cal Arts Jazz CD project,
recorded at Capitol Records.
Performed with James Newton, Leo Smith, Charlie Haden, Tony
Malaby, Joe Lovano, Roscoe Mitchell (of the Art Ensemble of
Chicago) and Muhal Richard Abrams.
Inspired by jazz, free and all kinds of composed and improvised
music. Has two recordings under his name. "Succulent"
is an acoustic jazz effort of all original compositions released
in 2000, and "Out of Sight, Out of Mind", a duet
recording of free music originals with the great tenor saxophonist
Tony Malaby (of the Paul Motian Quintet) released in 2007.
Born in Hollywood, California in 1959, Brian moved from there
in 2005 to Boise where he now resides with his Muse, Joy.
|
|
Jared
Hallock (BOISE,
ID, USA)
|
Electronic Percussion |
email
|
|
Jared
Hallock's years
as a performer have led him down many roads. Holding a degree
in Percussion Performance from the University of Idaho, he
has shared many a stage. From jazz combos to funk bands, orchestral
work to the avante garde, he thrives on exploring all avenues
of performance art. Recently Hallock has created theatrical/musical
stage shows, acted in plays, and performed with a variety
of musical groups. Using a grant from the National Foundation
for the Arts, Hallock also works with the community to help
nurture young artists.
One
of his current projects is exploring the world of experimental
music. Following in the footsteps of Phillip Glass and John
Cage, he creates music using both traditional and non- traditional
instruments. Some of his compositions include the use of cups,
body percussion, spoons, electronic percussion, and anything
else within reach. As a result of his eclectic explorations,
Hallock has become a regular performer as a drummer, marimba
player, composer, and clinician in the Pacific Northwest.
|
|
Unicorn
Feather (BOISE,
ID, USA)
|
Found
Sound, looping |
Website
|
| Unicorn
Feather is a sound project. Our current focus is "Arbitrary
Composition", our guide and conductor being a set of non-descript
billiard balls. |
|
Gretchen
Jude (BOISE, ID,
USA)
|
Laptop
computer and Max/MSP |
email |
| Gretchen
revels in new noise. After starting her musical life on a rubberband
stretched over two chair legs, she moved on to piano, guitar,
shamisen (Japanese banjo), koto (Japanese zither), and iBook.
Gretchen has an undying love for the organic viscerality of
the human voice. |
|
Craig
Green (Idaho
Falls, ID, USA)
|
Guitar,
laptop |
Website |
Composer,
guitarist Craig Green spent the last 20 years doing extensive
travels throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe,
Asia and
North Africa as both a leader, backup musician and student of
sound.
He
has studied and shared the stage with a global cast including
French/Algerian guitarist Pierre Bensusan, violinist Eyvind
Kang, Jazz vocalist Jacqui Naylor, singer/songwriter Michael
White, Brazilian drummer Emilano Benivides, North Indian tabla
player Sadip Berman, multi percussionist George Grant, electronic
composer Michael Jones, visual artist/musician Nelson Soucek.
Jazz musician Pat Martino, North Indian vocalist Krishna Shukla,
Cuban composer Louis Aguirre, Spanish composer Rafeal Reina,
1/4 tone trumpet player Jeff Kaiser, drummer Dave King and
the Violent Femmes. Craig has scored music for stage, film,
ballet and chamber ensembles.
With
collaboration and improvisation as the focus, He continues
to work with visual artists, dancers and other musicians from
around the world.
|
|
Mike
Blomquist (Boise,
ID, USA)
|
Steel
guitar |
|
| Mike
Blomquist is a local Boise musician whom is originally from
Gotehnburg, Sweden. He moved to the states at age 10. He has
atteneded Boise state university for classical guitar, and also
Berklee School of Music for contemporary guitar. A lover of
all styles, he leans to folk and prewar blues styles in the
delta and piedmont tradition and of course experiemental and
ambient music. The most common instruments used are acoustic,
resonator and lapsteel guitars, but occasionally other instruments
are used as well. The experimental music he creates alludes
to the prewar tradition, and stretched with semi-tones slides,
some prepared guitar and chromaticism. |
|
