Author: catsynth

room: PIPES

On Sunday, I attended the room: PIPES featuring Polly Moller, Pamela Z and Jane Rigler. The Room chambre series, hosted an produced by Pamela Z, take place in the Royce Gallery, an “intimate performance gallery” in the Mission District of San Francisco. The room: PIPES performance featured performances that incorporated flutes.

Before the start of the performance, we were treated to a welcome by “Ellie”, the freight elevator in the building that houses the Royce Gallery. While some music purists might be appalled to have a freight elevator included in a performance, I found it quite charming to incorporate an element of the industrial setting.

Polly Moller presented a new work, Three of Swords. The performance included an arrangement of Tarot cards, a timer and a series of candles to mark sections of the piece. In each selection, a card was drawn, and the music was an improvisation based on that card. The music focused on extended flute techniques; for example, the first draw led to an improvisation with the head of a bass flute using microtones, overblowing, whistles, clicks and other inspiring sounds. The one section of the performance that stood apart from the others was the drawing of the Three of Swords, illustrated to the right, which launched a very detailed but very expressive description of the human heart.

Pamela Z‘s playful and energetic performance did not feature flutes, but instead focus on voice. It began with live looping of tonal and harmonic singing (look up “live looping” here on CatSynth for a primer if you’re not familiar with the technique), and gradually moved to more extended vocal techniques, including clicks, screeches (with electronic processing), whispers, etc. The video in the background displayed an interior of an old industrial or loft space, empty except for a trunk that appeared and disappeared at various times. Sometimes it was open, to reveal drawers and messy clothes.

Jane Rigler opened her set with a virtuosic flute and electronics piece and the welcoming statement “Do not fear the microphone and piccolo.” She then performed her piece A la pintura, inspired by Robert Motherwell’s paintings, which were in turn a response to Spanish poet Rafael Alberti’s poems celebrating painting. Motherwell’s paintings, both as stills and as animations, were projected during the performance, and there were also moments where text was projected, presumably excerpts from Alberti’s poems. Motherwell’s paintings are quite abstract, focusing on textual elements and geometry. To have these images along with strong flute-and-electronics music (a favorite instrumental combination of mine) was a treat.

The performance concluded with a trio improvisation of all three performers. In addition to the flutes and voice, Polly Moller broke out her “tone nut” (doughnut-shaped wind instrument), and Pamela Z played the popular Ocarina iPhone instrument. It’s always interesting to hear how such disparate musicians play off of one another, and this group improvisation could have kept going on for a bit longer…

Weekend Cat Blogging #206

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by…wait, it’s us! OK, reboot…

We at CatSynth are delighted to be hosting Weekend Cat Blogging #206!

We are ready to go, and unlike the special election here in California next week, we are looking forward to a large turn-out. To participate, please leave a link to your post as a comment, and we’ll add you to the round-up as the weekend progresses. As always, new cats and first-time participants are always welcome!

And so, let us begin.

We see Jules in silhouette in this photo from Judi’s Mind Over Matter. We at CatSynth are of course partial to black cats, but the window and the brick walls beyond also give this image a modern, urban feel.

Meanwhile, the M-Cats Club is having a birthday party for Mr. Tigger. Join us in wishing him a Happy 9th Birthday! Looks like quite a party, with friends, and sushi, but I’d watch out for that blue punch.

At the House of the (Mostly) Black Cats, Pepi is being a helpful mancat, helping his mom by keeping her calendar. This of course “shows off his midnight furs nicely, too.”

when she curls up to sleep on the back of a dark sofa. If it weren’t for her eye opening, it would be hard to tell her from a dark cushion. And as winter approaches in Australia, a warm kitty pillow can be quite welcome, a great substitute for a hot water bottle.

sidewalk shoes presents a portrait of Smudge, quite detailed and expressive, along with a quote about the consequences of scolding a cat.

Salome joins us from Vienna. “The Ladey” (aka Astrid) has been taking lots of photos, but hasn’t been helping the cats much with their blogging. But Salome does give a bit of a status update for Kashim and Othello as well.

We all know that cats can express their discontent through hissing and clawing. But so can humans. Indeed, the kitties at our family cat-a-blog found their mom fuming over a blog post demonstrating human irresponsibility in caring for pets.

We at CatSynth have a deep interest in mathematics, and so we were delighted to see Arthur and Rosie engaged in mathematical pursuits. More specifically, they are counting butterflies and apples, respectively. Of course, numbers can’t compete with a dangling tail for a cat’s attention. Follow the link to see what happens…

Maruschka is enjoying a lazy Sunday at Rosa’s Yummy Yums. It seems like a good plan, as our own Sunday morning unfolds.

Over at Cuisine Guylaine, it has been raining quite a bit, and the cats do their best to enjoy the garden from indoors. But Mr. Oliver does enjoy some time outside during a moment of brief sunshine.

We will continue to post entries as we receive them throughout the weekend, so do join us.

CatSynth pic: DJ Kikovas, with DJ Vivi Pedraglio

Today we feature recent photos from our friends in Argentina, DJ Kikovas and Vivi Pedraglio.

A self described “lady-beatmaker”, Vivi Pedraglio continues to create her live electronic music (with Kikovas’ assistantance) and perform in Buenos Aires and elsewhere. She has also been using an intriguing instrument, the kaolimba. You can hear more of her music at her website or MySpace.

May 9 at Bluesix: Aaron Novik’s Thorny Brocky and Sqwonk

Last Saturday, I went with friends to the Bluesix Acoustic Room. As the name suggests, this small venue in the Mission District of San Francisco presents acoustic acts. I have seen several interesting shows here, including some experimental ensembles, dance and avant-garde jazz. This show tended towards the latter, with Aaron Novik’s Thorny Brocky ensemble and special guests Sqwonk.

Sqwonk are a bass clarinet duo consisting of Jon Russell and Jeff Anderle. By their own admittance, there is not much of a repertoire for two bass clarinets. But they were able to put together a full set of composed pieces, including one by Novik. Much of their performance was quite harmonic and consonant, including power chords (check out the selection on their MySpace for an example). But there were also interesting microtones and multiphonics that one can do on a clarinet. They also played with the effects of playing unison or near unison or similar lines out of phase. Towards the end, things got quite loud (especially for such a small space as Bluesix), demonstrating the power of these instruments. I am quite partial to the clarinet family, having played the instrument in my youth and composed for Bb and bass clarinet quartet.

Aaron Novik’s Thorny Brocky began their set with bass and light percussion – drummer Jamie Moore definitely has a very light touch that several of us noticed and remarked upon. The bass and percussion were matched by Novik’s bass clarinet key clicks, and eventually by the strings. The odd-time rhythms and phrases of the first two pieces had a strong roll and undulation that was easy to get lost in. There were other moments throughout the set that caught my attention, such as the unisons between different the bass clarinet, violin and accordion, and a bass solo with ethereal accordion tones. A rhythmic moment where the ensemble switched from their syncopated rhythms into a straight swing. There were sections that evoked classical and dramatic music of the 19th century, and some softer “show-tune-like” harmonies. The set ended with what Novik described as their “metal project” – it actually sounded quite familiar, and made me recall that I had seen them at Bluesix before.

CatSynth pics: Carbon111, Studio Revamp

From carbon111, via matrixsynth:

Spot the kitty in the picture?

Carbon111 is the author of the CatSynth motivational posters we presented back in February.

In the studio revamp post, they also have a “comfy chair” picture that reminds me of Luna curled up in her favorite chair here at CatSynth HQ.

And it looks like carbon111 recently completed a track entitled Luna.

Weekend Cat Blogging #205

Luna can be quite talkative and affectionate, as can be seen in this video:

She is always quite eager to greet me when I arrive home after work or a day out.

Weekend Cat Blogging #205 is being hosted by LB and BreadChick. LB isn’t lonely when BreadChick goes to work right now, because he has “mama breadchick” to keep him company. I sometimes think Luna might enjoy some company, as I am out and about so much these days.

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos will be hosted by Samantha and Mr. Tigger at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at…wow, it’s also Samantha and Mr. Tigger! Go figure.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Full Moon Concerts – Flower Moon.

On Thursday, I attended the Full Moon Concerts – Flower Moon, part of the Thursday Outsound music series at the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco (which I have played at many times). The series, which occurs on the Thursday closest to the full moon of every month, is curated by our friend Polly Moller.

The first half of the concert featured a duo by Theresa Wong and Kanoko Nishi. The set began with pitch extremes, high “harmonics” on the koto and low tones on the cello, at first quite distinct but converging and becoming more melodic over time. There were in fact three lines rather than two, as Wong’s vocals provided a counterpoint that was sometimes completely blended with the sound of the cello to form a chord, at other times a separate instrument. The overall sound moved from extremely percussive, with Nishi’s sometimes violent bending, striking and stretching of the strings and use of external objects such as styrofoam packing, to calm, almost “harmonic” drones. The transitions were not abrupt, but they did sometimes come unexpectedly, the listener suddenly finding himself in a completely different set of sounds. The last of these transitions went from a very loud section featuring the styrofoam and mallets set against a cello drone, and then suddenly fading out as quiet harmonics and blending into the city sounds outside.

The second half of the concert featured the ensemble Vorticella, which included Krystyna Bobrowski on horns, Erin Espeland on cello, Brenda Hutchinson on aluminum tube and vocals, and Karen Stackpole on percussion. The ensemble takes its from the vorticella, bell-shaped single-cell life forms that exist in colonies but can break off on their own at any time, an apt metaphor for group improvisation.

In taking notes for this review, I ended up drawing the following graph while listening, and I think it describes the initial section of the performance as well as any full text:

I particularly noticed how Hutchinson’s vocals as amplified and resonated by the tube sounded “electronic”, and my attention was focused on this as well as Stackpole’s metallic percussion, which ranged from conventionally “metallic sounding” to unusual squeaks and bubbling. Espeland’s cello and Bobrowski’s french horn and visually interesting kelp horns filled in the space, with either long drones or “pointed sounds” that matched the texture of the percussion and the vocals.

A later section that caught my interest were a smoother and more “linear” piece anchored by bowed gongs, with drones on the cello and horns, ending with the resonances of the gongs fading naturally. This was followed by a relatively soft section of discrete notes and hits, which came a sudden end and concluded the concert.