On Wednesday February 22nd, 2017 Sound / Simulacra featured Graham O’Brien at Jazz Central Studios. This was only the second event in the series and somehow these recordings captured by Dave Kunath slipped through the cracks. Fortunately I came across them recently so I can share them now. This concert was shortly before Graham and I performed for Merce Cunningham: Common Time at the Walker Art Center. During this period we were trying a lot of things with aleatoric techniques. This included graphic scores with chance elements, randomized digital sounds that Graham triggered from his acoustic drums, and randomized sound design I was triggering from the PreenFM2.
Flora is a Minneapolis based artist working with sound in various contexts. Within the intersections of art, science, music, and mathematics, he creates work that examines sonic morphology, spatialization, and human perception. Flora’s practice includes installation, performance, recording, and curation as well as numerous collaborations with artists in the fields of transdisciplinarity, visual arts, dance, and performance art. His work has been presented at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), St Cloud State University (Minnesota) as well as clubs, galleries, theaters, warehouses, and universities throughout North America. His latest recording “Xi” was published by Minnesota based label Sympathy Limited.
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.”
Set 1: Michael Masaru Flora solo performance
Set 2: Michael Masaru Flora with John C.S. Keston and Cody McKinney
This time around my work is entirely rooted in FM synthesis. Particularly around my explorations of the amazing PreenFM2. I have designed a Max for Live patch that allows me to degrade, morph, and/or scramble sets of parameters on the synth. This is similar to a device I designed for the Yamaha TX81Z. This process creates an algorithmic approach to the sound design.
I have titled this series MODULATOR and recently made an album (unreleased) of material based on the technique. There is a lot to mine here, so I am finding that while I prepare for ISSTA a whole new range of material has emerged. These new compositions developed through a sequence of stochastic, deliberate, and arbitrary processes. Through algorithmic and improvised methodologies textures evolve beyond aesthetic considerations allowing peculiar, harsh, and even grotesque sounds to emerge. Have a listen to this series of clips I recorded while practicing for the upcoming performance:
This October 24, 2018 Sound / Simulacra will feature Martin Dosh. Both me and Cody have had the pleasure and privilege of collaborating with Dosh over the years. Marty and me have bonded over our love of the Rhodes electric piano, DIY electronics, and similar musical ideals. This is bound to be a quite special performance in the intimacy of Jazz Central Studios, 407 Central Ave SE. Minneapolis, MN 55414. Please do join us for this event on October 24, 2018. Music starts at 8:30pm. Or checkout the Facebook event.
Dosh’s work with Andrew Broder in Lateduster and Fog gave him an experience that helped him begin to perform solo. In 2002, Dosh released his first album Dosh. He had recorded it himself, mostly in his basement. The album developed a following in the local Twin Cities scene. After playing many shows, City Pages voted him second on their annual “picked to click” list. Dosh was re-released internationally on Anticon in 2003. It was reviewed in Village Voice, URB, Flaunt, XLR8R, The Big Takeover and a number of online magazines. Dosh has toured extensively with Andrew Bird. He contributed significantly to Andrew Bird’s albums, Armchair Apocrypha and Noble Beast. Dosh is a member of The Cloak Ox, a four-piece band featuring Andrew Broder, Jeremy Ylvisaker and Mark Erickson. — Last.fm
Set 1: Martin Dosh: Drums, keyboards, electronics
Set 2: Martin Dosh: Drums, keyboards, electronics +
John Keston: Keyboards, synthesizer, electronics +
Cody McKinney: Bass, Voice, electronics
On Wednesday, July 25th, 2018 Sound / Simulacra at Jazz Central Studios will feature Davu Seru. This monthly series in collaboration with Cody McKinney 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.”
Set I – Davu Seru (percussion)
Set II – Davu Seru (percussion) + John Keston (piano, Rhodes, synthesizers, electronics) + Cody McKinney (bass, voice, synthesizer, electronics)
Improvising musician, percussionist, and award-winning composer, Davu Seru, performs regularly in the Twin Cities and abroad as a jazz musician. Like many jazz-rooted musicians influenced by “new music” experiments with extended technique, his approach to the drum set is as much nostalgic as it is technophilic. Consequently, his style is striking for its attending to sound, silence and melodic line as much it does rhythmic pattern—and as a skilled ensemble player he is known for his “big ears.” In the past fifteen years those ears have afforded Davu the opportunity to perform and record with musicians such as Milo Fine, Anthony Cox, George Cartwright, Dean Magraw, Paul Metzger, Jack Wright, Douglas R. Ewart, Evan Parker, Donald Washington, Nicole Mitchell and Rafael Toral.
Beside any number of spontaneous ad-hoc groupings, Davu currently leads No Territory Band and works in a trio with French clarinetist Catherine Delaunay and French bassist Guillaume Seguron. He has also curated concerts series for improvised music (in Chicago and Minneapolis) and collaborates in multi-media performances with dancers and visual artists.
