If you want to see me making instrumental manoeuvres in the dark, plus tune in to my short set tonight at 8:30PM on Nick’s International Virtual Garage! It’ll be slow and quiet—the perfect way to wind down for a three-day weekend!
Was delighted to play a streaming set on Nick’s International Virtual Garage, a fantastic channel where electro-acoustic performers play in the diasporan space we’ve been working in throughout the pandemic (and thanks, Nick, for inviting me!).
I did an hour set of music and stories, with a top-down video showing my instruments as I improvised my set, after which I edited and mastered an album version of the set, which is available via Bandcamp:
Played another joyous live set with alternating.bit at the National Electronics Museum Electronica Fest 2018. Just simple rigs and plenty of well-practiced rapport.
Showed up with my increasingly stable rig (details below) for another run with the Baltimore SDIY Group‘s concerts at the Electric Maid Community Exchange in the Takoma neighborhood of DC (and MD). It’s always a bit of a mystery of what I’ll come up with in these experimental improvisational episodes, and I followed a nice melodic, relaxed modular set from Hovercraft, so I felt like I could delve into slightly glitchier, pulsing, wavelike territory as a counterpoint. I think it came out quite well.
Played a meditative set in a rainstorm at Electric Maid on Saturday. Simple rig, nothing prerecorded or prepared—just my monosynth and a few pedals, improvising in a great listening room.
Played a nice ambient set last night at The Electric Maid Collective in the Tacoma neighborhood of DC (directly adjoining Tacoma Park) as a part of an ensemble show curated by the Baltimore SDIY Group (thanks, Logan!).
I was using a five-tone equal temperament tuning, which is a tuning that, instead of dividing the octave into twelve equal steps, divides it into five steps. It’s a really lush harmonic landscape for drones and massed sounds, with a sort of exotic feel, but not necessarily one tied to any particular ethnic tradition. Amusingly, I got started with alternative tunings back in college, when I wanted to take some independent study sessions in the music department, but didn’t want my professors to know that I’m absolutely pig ignorant of traditional music theory. Work in 5-TET or 7-TET or another off-the-beaten-track tuning and you’re freed from the mass of conventional theory on how tonality is supposed to work. And yes, that is absolutely cheating, but key and chords and all that related stuff make my head spin.
Nothing prerecorded—everything was composed on the fly.
Listen, preferably with the volume lowish and speakers with some bass: