On Wednesday, July 25th, 2018 Sound / Simulacra featured drummer and composer Davu Seru at Jazz Central Studios. Davu started off the evening with three improved solo pieces. We followed that up with four pieces as a trio with myself and Cody McKinney joining in.
Please enjoy this recording of Sound / Simulacra featuring Zosha Warpeha on violin, voice, and electronics, John C.S. Keston on piano, Rhodes, synthesizers, electronics, and Cody McKinney on bass, voice, synthesizer, electronics. Recorded at Jazz Central Studios on Wednesday, June 27th, 2018.
Sound / Simulacra is a monthly series produced by John C.S. Keston and Cody McKinney which explores musical improvisation as a “faithful and intentionally distorted” representational process. Sound / Simulacra brings together some of the Twin Cities most unique voices to “recreate, distort, and create the hyperreal.”
Zosha Warpeha is a genre-crossing violinist, vocalist, and composer from Minnesota, currently based in New York. Steeped in improvisation, her music draws inspiration from a wide range of folk traditions and contemporary music. Her approach to blending voice and five-string violin brings an unique dimension to her sound. She also performs regularly on the hardanger fiddle, a traditional instrument of Norway, fully embracing the resonance and shimmering qualities of its sympathetic strings. Current musical projects range from the contemporary chamber ensemble Stratus Quartet to the ambient electro-acoustic duo visible worlds. Recent multidisciplinary collaborations include improvisatory performances with the Joffrey Ballet School and the experimental theatre group Exquisite Corpse Company. She has performed in many musical contexts at festivals and venues across the US, as well as internationally at the Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland, and has been a recipient of artistic awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
This video is one of the six generative, animated, graphic scores that I have composed for Parking Ramp Project. The music was performed live and recorded while the screen was being captured. This piece is called Connected. Colored circles are generated on the screen with connecting lines. One of the three colors is randomly selected to change the color of circles with which it collides. Once all the circles are the same color they fade away and a new set is generated with a different color as the changer. This continues for seven minutes.
Musicians respond to this score by producing a sound event when circles of their assigned color collide with another circle or the boundaries of the screen. This process produces phrases with arbitrary yet continuous rhythmic patterns. The dimensions, velocity, x-axis, and y-axis of each circle serve as parameters that can be interpreted and applied to the frequency, timbre, dynamics and/or duration of the sound event. This interpretation is left up to the discretion of the musicians.
Purple = Peter Hennig (Drums)
Grey = Cody McKinney (Bass / Electronics)
Green / Cyan = John C.S. Keston (Rhodes / Synths)
Bloodline will be performing the music live for the piece, directed by Aniccha Arts choreographer Pramila Vasudevan, with nearly fifty dancers at a parking ramp near the Mall of America, September 29th and 30th, 2018. Learn more about Parking Ramp Project below: Continue reading
Please enjoy these recordings from our second set at Sound / Simulacra featuring Lucas Melchior, May 23, 2018.
I performed this version of Vocalise Sintetica at on Friday, June 8, 2018 at Studio Z for the Nada showcase. The recording was captured by Mike Hodnick. In addition to the improvised elements, what makes this different from previous versions of the piece is that Studio Z is close to home, so I was able to bring my favorite instrument, the Moog Sub 37 for lead lines, melodies, drones, and arps. All the sound heard in this piece was generated by the AVGM (Audiovisual Grain Machine) controlled by an iPad, a Novation Circuit with custom samples and patches, a Minifooger Delay, and the Moog Sub 37.
This was an amazing evening of performances. The sets from Michael Flora, Mike Hodnick (Kindohm), and Spednar were all excellent. Mike also shared video of his own set of “tightly coupled audio and visuals” that he premiered at the event, which is definitely worth checking out:
Read on for the the official press release: