Music

Surplus 1980 and Fred Frith Trio, Brick and Mortar

A couple of weeks ago, Surplus 1980 joined the Fred Frith Trio at the Brick and Mortar in San Francisco from a night of energetic avant-rock and jazz. It was a show we have all been looking forward to for quite a while.

Surplus 1980 went on first, with a set that combined songs from our recent album Arterial Ends Here with older selections. In addition to Moe! Staiano and myself, the band includes Bill Wolter and Melne Murphy on guitar, Thomas Scandura on drums, and Steve Lew on bass.

Surplus 1980
[Photo by Michael Zelner.]

For this set, we expanded our Fred Frith cover “Cap the Knife” into a full medley featuring excerpts for some of his other songs. In a brief exchange back stage, it sounded like he appreciated the gesture, and even suggested that his group perform a “Moe! Staiano medley”, which would have been fun. But overall, it was our strongest performance as a band to date, with rhythms and phrasing much tighter as well as more sophisticated use of all parts.

After Surplus 1980 was done, Fred Frith took the stage with his trio that included Jordan Glenn on drums and Jason Hoopes on bass.

Fred Frith Trio
[Photo by Michael Zelner.]

It was quite a contrast, going from post-punk to avant-jazz. The trio played through longer pieces that moved between fast intricate sections and more familiar idioms with ease. The polyphonic sections were certainly impressive, but I do find when technically strong musicians play in unison or at least synchronous rhythms, it leaves a more memorable impression. Frith deftly filled up the otherwise sparse texture of the music, but not so much that one would get lost or overwhelmed.

Overall, it was a successful show, with a good turnout. Surplus 1980 is now looking forward to our next show in December, but I hope we get to play with the Fred Frith trio again.

CatSynth in New York

It’s time once again for the annual pilgrimage to New York. In addition to family and friends, there will be much art-seeing and urban exploration, and two electronic-music performances. If you are in New York over the next two weeks, I invite you to come check them out.

Tuesday, November 26, 7:30
Ambient-Chaos presents Schyuler Tsuda, Amar Chaudhary (San Francisco), John Dunlop, RMA Trio
121 Ludlow St, Second Floor, New York

Robert L. Pepper (PAS) presents a night of Ambient-Chaos featuring Schyuler Tsuda, Amar Chaudhary (San Francisco), John Dunlop, RMA Trio. THE EVENT STARTS EARLY!. So please be there by 7:30 to settle in and enjoy the frequencies.

Saturday, November 30
Rachel Mason, The Use, and Amar Chaudhary at Harvestworks
Harvestworks, Broadway&Houston, New York

5.1 Surround surround performance at Harvestworks with Rachel Mason and The Use (Michael Durek), additional A/V element from Jay Van Dyke; and a set from Amar Chaudhary a.k.a. CatSynth.

I did want to include some analog modular elements in these performances, so I put together a miniature version of the rig featuring a cross section of modules, with an emphasis on live processing (Make Noise Echophon) and chaotic oscillation.

The best way to keep up with CatSynth in New York is via Twitter @catsynth. But you can also follow us on Instagram. And of course we will continue with periodic blog posts.

APAture 2013 Music Night

The 2013 APAture festival concluded with a diverse evening of music, ranging from avant-garde jazz to metal to rap. The event took place at SUB/Mission in San Francisco. Featured artist Karl Evangelista opened the evening with a group that included Francis Wong, Margaret Rei Scampavia, Cory Wright, and Jordan Glenn.

The music was a frenetic style of avant-garde jazz, which moved freely in and out of more conventionally harmonic sections. Many of the pieces were inspired by Evangelista’s own personal history and his Filipino heritage. It was also fun to see Francis Wong, whom I usually encounter in more rarefied venues, at punk club in the Mission.

The Evangelista group was followed by something completely different both sonically and visually. Bestiary, a solo project of Rai Yin Hsu featured experimental noise guitar and a rather unique black-and-white suit.

There were a variety of long sounds processed through effects, with a few sharper elements as well.

Some of the evening’s entertainment happened in between the official musical acts, with our hosts Rupert Carangal Estanislao and Jennifer Chu keeping the crowd energized.

Next up was The Residuals, a self-described “hardworking, Do-It-Yourself metal band.”

As expected, they were quite loud, and Joshua Lykkeberg provided vocal fry. But the group, which also featured brothers Anand Jobanputra and Rohan Jobanputra was quite tight, with unisons and fast syncopations.

From metal we then moved to rap, with a set by Joal Vargas that focused on community issues as well as his experience as a teacher.

The diversity of the evening continued with a cabaret style performance by Bellows, featuring chanteuse Kyle Casey Chu and Rachel Waterhouse on keyboards.

After the fast energy of the previous two sets, the mellow and expressive style was welcome, and their stage presence was a lot of fun.

Bellows was followed by Little Sister, an East Bay rock trio featuring Erica Benton, MonBon and Nada Diaz.

They had a contemporary rock sound that was quite moody and a bit melancholy at times, but they still had a warm stage presence. Benton and MonBon traded off guitar and bass duties during the course of the performance.

There was still more music to come in this rather long event. I unfortunately had to depart after Little Sister, but glad I had the opportunity to be there for most of it and hear such a cross section of music in the Bay Area.

(For a review of the APAture opening-night event and gallery show, please visit this link.)

APAture 2013 Opening Night

After a four year hiatus, Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture festival is back. The previous APAture in 2009 was my first look into the Bay Area’s vibrant scene of emerging Asian Pacific American artists. This time around, I not only attended the festival and gallery exhibition opening, but participated as well as one of the featured musicians. I created a set that featured the dotara, a South Asian folk instrument, as well as a sketch box, DSI Evolver, and analog modular.

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The presence of blue and purple in the setup is not an accident, as the color blue was central to this performance. It was part of my costume and the lighting as well.

The piece unfolded with the usual black-cat-blue-light opening, followed by a gradual swelling and fading of sounds from the modular. The dotata and sketch box were fed into the Make Noise echophon for effects reminiscent of old studio tape delays, alongside more modern noisy elements from the other modules. Overall, the performance was well received. For some, it was their first experience with electro-acoustic improvisation, and expressed to me their curiosity about it afterwards.

The opening night also included an opportunity to see the work of the visual artists participating in APAture. There was quite a range of work, and several pieces were quite strong both technically and conceptually. Jessica Tang covered an entire wall with panels connected by strands of red string. A closer look revealed that the panels were successive runs of Google translator on a block of text. The view can observe the decay of meaning and language through her piece:

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Yuki Maruyama’s wooden blocks function as 3D versions of manga (comic) frames. The blocks can be assembled into new comic narratives, i.e., an “exquisite corpse”. Having three dimensions, however, allows for more combinations and interpretations of the assembled comic.

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More traditional artistic media were represented as well. Wenxin Zhang’s presented stark versions of portraiture and architectural photography.

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One of the more amusing pieces was an interactive conceptual work by Alison Ho, in which she invited visitors to stick gold stars with various Asian stereotypes on a blown up image of her face. Her piece was intended to challenge the notion of Asian American’s as a model minority. Clearly, many people were having fun with it.

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Other works that piqued my interest was Mido Lee’s starkly beautiful photographs of dead/forlorn trees, including some from desert landscapes; and a minimalist ring of light presented by featured artist Michael Namkung.

APAture has continued throughout October with events focus on different media, including writing, performance, and comics/zines. The next event will be music night on Friday, October 25, at SUB/Mission (2183 Mission Street, San Francisco). If you are in San Francisco, do check it out.

New Podcast: World of Wonder with DJ CatSynth, Final Episode

My final show for the World of Wonder on San Francisco Community Radio aired last Thursday (10/10). The podcast is now online.

For a full playlist, please visit Spinitron.

It was a lot of fun to do this show for a year, but as my own musical work expands and other responsibilities continue, it is no longer sustainable. I hope to start a more modest podcast series next year, though, and don’t rule out returning the SF Community Radio in the future. Please visit SFCR’s website to find out more about the work they are doing and the great shows that will be continuing.

A Tale of Two Duos

Today we look back at duo performances from the middle of September: an electro-acoustic spoetry performance with Polly Moller, and a punk-themed Pitta of the Mind performance at Bay Area Ladyfest. Musically, conceptually, and socially, these were contrasting experiences, but both very rewarding. Both duos combined voice with live electronics, and both involved my feminine persona . They also provided opportunities for different styles of playing and collaboration.

Ode to Steengo is a piece based on spoetry (spam poetry) derived from Harry Harrison’s “Stainless Steel Rat” series. Polly Moller and I performed it several times as an electro-acoustic duo in 2008 and 2009, and then later in our band Reconnaissance Fly. We reprised the piece for our duo performance at The Nunnery in San Francisco on September 15. It was a more expansive interpretation, with more instrumental breaks and live processing of voices. It was also different in that I used the analog modular for the electronic parts. The Make Noise Echophon was great for processing Polly’s vocals and wind instruments. And overall, I thought this was our best performance of this piece to date. The technology, timing and overall musicianship were strong, and we both had a good time while playing. You can enjoy it in its entirety via the video below:

Amar Chaudhary / Polly Moller Duo: Ode to Steengo, The Nunnery 9-15-2013 from CatSynth on Vimeo.

The performance by Pitta of the Mind at Bay Area Ladyfest in Oakland was something altogether different. Maw Shein Win and I interpreted several classic punk-rock songs as “art-damaged” music and spoken word performances. Musically, this involved a mixture of idiomatic and freeform improvisation on electric piano, mixed with some odd synth sounds. As with Steengo, the performance itself was a lot of fun, and in this case we made that a deliberate and overt part of the show. This was especially apparent in our final piece, an interpretation of The Ramones’ “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” where we invited the audience to sing along with us.

Pitta of the Mind at Bay Area Ladyfest: The Ramones “Sheena is a Punk Rocker” from CatSynth on Vimeo.

Both performances were well received by the audiences, which filled their respective venues, and of course I hope to do both again. Pitta of the Mind already has two more performances scheduled this year, and of course Polly and I perform together quite often. It is a good reminder to make time for duos as a specific performance format even while spending much time on solo work and on full-size bands.

New Podcast: World of Wonder with DJ CatSynth, September 26, 2013

The latest, and second-to-last, episode of the World of Wonder is up and posted for your listening pleasure.

For a complete playlist, please visit Spinitron.

This show will be coming to an end soon, with a final show on October 10. It has been a great experience, but no longer sustainable given an increasingly frequent performance schedule, maintaining this site, and making sure to set aside enough time each week to take care of myself and Luna. It is possible that I will start up an independent podcast in 2014, so stay tuned…

Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Listening Intently.

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During yesterday’s rainy morning, Luna sat with me as I listened to the final master for Reconnaissance Fly’s new album. I snapped this close-up with the iPad. She was so calm and poised. And she did listen to the music. I think her favorite track was Oh Goldfinch Cage, not just because of the subject matter, but because its timbral texture is quite different from anything else on the album, with more isolated percussion and sound effects. Lots of things to perk up both cat and human ears.

Wordless Wednesday: The Letter (Analog and Virtual Synths)

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But this wordless visual also has wordless sounds to go with it:

Cats (and Music) of Syria

One of the ways to empathize with a place, and by extension its people, is through the things that touch you strongly. So we at CatSynth present images of cats and traditional music from Syria.

[Photo by Arbo Moosberg on Flickr. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)]

The picture above is from Aleppo. Apparently a woman off-frame is feeding them. The next cats are enjoying quite the view of Damascus while having dinner.

[Photo by delayed gratification on Flickr. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)]

These young cats in a garden in Damascus seem quite healthy and contented in their verdant surroundings.

[Photo by Jose Luis Canales from Flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)]

Back in Aleppo, we meet a cat named Lulu playing outside.

[Photo by Ali Qasmo from Flickr. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)]

The photographer of the above image, Ali Qasmo, is from Syria – the others were taken by various visitors. Indeed, he has taken quite a few pictures of local cats, which you can see on his Flickr page.

[Photo by Ali Qasmo from Flickr. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)]

Cats do have to cope with the effects of the civil war there, just as humans do. Here we see a cat sitting amongst debris in the city of Homs:

[Photo from Freedom House on Flickr. (CC BY 2.0)]

Syria (like many countries in the region) teems with cats. But it also has a rich tradition of music. String instruments are particularly prominent in traditional music, including the bazuq:

[Photo by xlynx on Flickr. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)]

The above photo comes with a story of the chance encounter between the photographer and the musician, which ultimately included a bit of improvisation together. Here is a video of the musician playing solo:

Channeling my inner music-geek for moment, I found myself looking in detail at the arrangement from frets, which are not monotonically decreasing in distance towards the body as they would on modern Western fretted instruments.

This photo of a traditional musician was taken in the town of Palmyra:

[Photo by James Gordon from Flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)]

If anyone knows the name of the instrument in the picture, I would be curious to know, as it reminds me a bit of the Indian ektar that I sometimes play.

And we conclude with an image of a cat and kitten together at the Der Mar Musa monastery in western Syria (near Lebanon):

[Photo by Stijn Nieuwendijk from Flickr. (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)]