December 2022
Friday 9 Saturday 10
Rubber Gloves
Denton, TX
The Molten Plains Fest is a two day festival that will celebrate the end of the first year we started the Molten Plains monthly series, fostering the spirit of adventurous music and further sounds.
21 artists from 13 cities, a convergence of inestimable musical nourishment.
Artists
(click name or photo for more info)
Susan Alcorn One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics.
Though known for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisors Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, George Burt, Evan Parker, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others. In 2017 she received the Baker Artist Award and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, the Instant Award in Improvised Music. Her album “Pedernal, released in 2020, was included in several “Best of theYear” lists.
As an improvisor and composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.” – Manchester Guardian
The pedal steel player Susan Alcorn is one of the finest on the instrument of her generation. – Chris Richards, Washington Post
Wild and beautiful and disturbing and downright bloody odd in turn. Frankly, trying to describe Alcorn’s music is bit like trying to paint wind: you’re better off just turning it on and letting it happen – Bob Fitzpatrick, The Guardian
Baltimore pedal-steel guitarist Susan Alcorn occupies a world unto herself in numerous ways that make the sounds she creates unlike anything else out there. – Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
Alcorn is one of the world’s finest instrumentalists — don’t miss her. – Ed Hurt,
Nashville Scene
A pioneer of the pedal steel guitar in improvised music. – Bill Milkowski, Downbeat
Susan Alcorn pulls an energy out of the pedal steel that feels both ancient and otherworldly. – Lars Gotrich, NPR
Alcorn is a mesmerizing pedal-steel player whose work can sound like the nexus of Indian classical music, John Fahey’s acoustic guitar explorations and outer-limits free improv. – Time Out New York
photo: David Lobato
Susan Alcorn One of the world’s premiere exponents of her instrument, Susan Alcorn has taken the pedal steel guitar far beyond its traditional role in country music. Having first paid her dues in Texas country & western bands, she began to expand the vocabulary of her instrument through her study of 20th century classical music, visionary jazz, and world musics.
Though known for her solo work, she has collaborated with numerous artists including Pauline Oliveros, Eugene Chadbourne, Chris Cutler, the London Improvisors Orchestra, the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra, Joe McPhee, Ken Vandermark, Nate Wooley, Ingrid Laubrock and Leila Bourdreuil, George Burt, Evan Parker, Michael Formanek, Zane Campbell, and Mary Halvorson among others. In 2017 she received the Baker Artist Award and in 2018, along with saxophonist Joe McPhee, the Instant Award in Improvised Music. Her album “Pedernal, released in 2020, was included in several “Best of theYear” lists.
As an improvisor and composer, Alcorn has proven to be visionary. Her pieces reveal the complexity of her instrument and her musical experience while never straying from a very direct, intense, and personal musical expression.” – Manchester Guardian
The pedal steel player Susan Alcorn is one of the finest on the instrument of her generation. – Chris Richards, Washington Post
Wild and beautiful and disturbing and downright bloody odd in turn. Frankly, trying to describe Alcorn’s music is bit like trying to paint wind: you’re better off just turning it on and letting it happen – Bob Fitzpatrick, The Guardian
Baltimore pedal-steel guitarist Susan Alcorn occupies a world unto herself in numerous ways that make the sounds she creates unlike anything else out there. – Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader
Alcorn is one of the world’s finest instrumentalists — don’t miss her. – Ed Hurt,
Nashville Scene
A pioneer of the pedal steel guitar in improvised music. – Bill Milkowski, Downbeat
Susan Alcorn pulls an energy out of the pedal steel that feels both ancient and otherworldly. – Lars Gotrich, NPR
Alcorn is a mesmerizing pedal-steel player whose work can sound like the nexus of Indian classical music, John Fahey’s acoustic guitar explorations and outer-limits free improv. – Time Out New York
photo: David Lobato
Baltimore, MA
The virtuoso musicians of Bitches Set Traps push the boundaries of improvisation by exploring current events, feminism, misogyny, and performance taboos, in theatrical and comedic performances. Using instruments, voices, and common household items, BST recycles and questions everyday tropes of American culture, from tampon commercials to heavy metal power ballads, Eminem to Supreme Court briefs, Joan Didion to Frank Sinatra.
The Bitches crossover venues and genres bringing together ideas between subcultures; they set traps in concert halls, nightclubs, theaters, and galleries with equal intensity. As an improvising group they sometimes collaborate with additional guest musicians. BST formed in 2018 as the North Texas Feminist Improvising Group, inspired by the original Feminist Improvising Group of the late 1970’s.
Sarah Ruth is a diverse musician and artist – a multi-instrumentalist, she employs hammered dulcimer, harmonium, electroacoustic sound art, and extended vocal techniques. She performs frequently both solo and with multiple bands and improvisational ensembles in the North Texas area. She is a University of North Texas graduate where she focused on vocal studies and electroacoustic composition. She has also studied with Meredith Monk and members of her vocal ensemble. She enjoys varied collaborations and has worked as a sound artist for art and photography installations and an accompanist for modern dance. She tours nationally and her recent albums have been released on Obsolete Media Objects, Pour le Corps Music and Tofu Carnage Records.
Flutist Elizabeth McNutt is a recitalist who primarily performs contemporary music. She has premiered hundreds of new works and performed widely in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Her recordings include the solo CD pipe wrench: flute and computer and tracks on numerous other releases; her writing has been published in Organized Sound, Music Theory Online, and the Flutist Quarterly. Her chamber music activities include the Calliope Duo and the Tornado Project; she is also director of the Sounds Modern series at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. McNutt holds a DMA in contemporary music performance from the University of California San Diego. She is on the faculty at University of North Texas, where she teaches flute and directs the new music ensemble Nova.
Kourtney Newton is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in cello performance at UNT where she studies with Professor Nikola Ruzevic. As a fervent supporter of new music, she has been a featured performer at several prestigious festivals and conferences, such as New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2018, NY PHIL biennial at National Sawdust in Brooklyn 2016, SEAMUS 2016, International Computer Music Conference 2015, Electric LaTex 2014, New Music on the Point 2015, Sounds Modern Recital Series 2015-present, and Aquilla Contemporary Music Recital Series 2012-2013. Kourtney has also performed with orchestras internationally at venues in Thailand, Austria, Germany and England. She is particularly passionate about improvisation and is a founding member of the Colorado Soundpainting improvisation ensemble. She also enjoys performing as a member of the Amorsima String Trio and UNT’s contemporary music ensemble Nova.
photo: Julie McKendrick
The virtuoso musicians of Bitches Set Traps push the boundaries of improvisation by exploring current events, feminism, misogyny, and performance taboos, in theatrical and comedic performances. Using instruments, voices, and common household items, BST recycles and questions everyday tropes of American culture, from tampon commercials to heavy metal power ballads, Eminem to Supreme Court briefs, Joan Didion to Frank Sinatra.
The Bitches crossover venues and genres bringing together ideas between subcultures; they set traps in concert halls, nightclubs, theaters, and galleries with equal intensity. As an improvising group they sometimes collaborate with additional guest musicians. BST formed in 2018 as the North Texas Feminist Improvising Group, inspired by the original Feminist Improvising Group of the late 1970’s.
Sarah Ruth is a diverse musician and artist – a multi-instrumentalist, she employs hammered dulcimer, harmonium, electroacoustic sound art, and extended vocal techniques. She performs frequently both solo and with multiple bands and improvisational ensembles in the North Texas area. She is a University of North Texas graduate where she focused on vocal studies and electroacoustic composition. She has also studied with Meredith Monk and members of her vocal ensemble. She enjoys varied collaborations and has worked as a sound artist for art and photography installations and an accompanist for modern dance. She tours nationally and her recent albums have been released on Obsolete Media Objects, Pour le Corps Music and Tofu Carnage Records.
Flutist Elizabeth McNutt is a recitalist who primarily performs contemporary music. She has premiered hundreds of new works and performed widely in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. Her recordings include the solo CD pipe wrench: flute and computer and tracks on numerous other releases; her writing has been published in Organized Sound, Music Theory Online, and the Flutist Quarterly. Her chamber music activities include the Calliope Duo and the Tornado Project; she is also director of the Sounds Modern series at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. McNutt holds a DMA in contemporary music performance from the University of California San Diego. She is on the faculty at University of North Texas, where she teaches flute and directs the new music ensemble Nova.
Kourtney Newton is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in cello performance at UNT where she studies with Professor Nikola Ruzevic. As a fervent supporter of new music, she has been a featured performer at several prestigious festivals and conferences, such as New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival 2018, NY PHIL biennial at National Sawdust in Brooklyn 2016, SEAMUS 2016, International Computer Music Conference 2015, Electric LaTex 2014, New Music on the Point 2015, Sounds Modern Recital Series 2015-present, and Aquilla Contemporary Music Recital Series 2012-2013. Kourtney has also performed with orchestras internationally at venues in Thailand, Austria, Germany and England. She is particularly passionate about improvisation and is a founding member of the Colorado Soundpainting improvisation ensemble. She also enjoys performing as a member of the Amorsima String Trio and UNT’s contemporary music ensemble Nova.
photo: Julie McKendrick
Denton, TX
Houston, TX
Henna Chou is a sound explorer with experiences living in Tucson, AZ; Overland Park, KS; Berkeley, CA; Ames, IA; Beijing, China; and Montpelier, VT.
Previous participations include work with COTFG, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Paper Chairs Theater, BLiPSWiTCH, Collide Arts, The Blanton Museum of Art, The Contemporary Austin, New Music Co-Op, Peter Stopschinski, Stop Motion Orchestra, Go: Organic Orchestra, Phonography Austin, Golden Hornet, Heloise Gold and The Resonant Lung.
photo: Leon Alesi
Henna Chou is a sound explorer with experiences living in Tucson, AZ; Overland Park, KS; Berkeley, CA; Ames, IA; Beijing, China; and Montpelier, VT.
Previous participations include work with COTFG, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Paper Chairs Theater, BLiPSWiTCH, Collide Arts, The Blanton Museum of Art, The Contemporary Austin, New Music Co-Op, Peter Stopschinski, Stop Motion Orchestra, Go: Organic Orchestra, Phonography Austin, Golden Hornet, Heloise Gold and The Resonant Lung.
photo: Leon Alesi
Austin, TX
CNCPCN, Sound designer, audiovisual producer and photographer. She studied Audiovisual Media from 2006 to 2010. Her sound exploration is through recordings of everyday objects (foleys) and instruments, which when reproduced and manipulated with recorders and processed tapes, create atmospheres based on elements of ambient and noise. She creates sound narratives, which rather than being inserted into a specific musical genre, approach the construction of a story that is invisible – however – imagined.
She has played in VOLTA, Meditatio Sonus, Desbordamientos,Traslaciones II, Articulaciones del Silencio, UMBRAL, Aural, REMANENCIA, Center 4 New Music (C4NM San Francisco), ENSMBL, Anxrmal, MUTEK, NRMAL, No idea Festival, Bucarelli 69, EXT, The Forgotten, AUDITUM, Laboratorios Sonoros UNAM, Poesía en Voz Alta, Rewire, Roter Salon, Cafe OTO, Beboerhuset, among others.
CNCPCN, Sound designer, audiovisual producer and photographer. She studied Audiovisual Media from 2006 to 2010. Her sound exploration is through recordings of everyday objects (foleys) and instruments, which when reproduced and manipulated with recorders and processed tapes, create atmospheres based on elements of ambient and noise. She creates sound narratives, which rather than being inserted into a specific musical genre, approach the construction of a story that is invisible – however – imagined.
She has played in VOLTA, Meditatio Sonus, Desbordamientos,Traslaciones II, Articulaciones del Silencio, UMBRAL, Aural, REMANENCIA, Center 4 New Music (C4NM San Francisco), ENSMBL, Anxrmal, MUTEK, NRMAL, No idea Festival, Bucarelli 69, EXT, The Forgotten, AUDITUM, Laboratorios Sonoros UNAM, Poesía en Voz Alta, Rewire, Roter Salon, Cafe OTO, Beboerhuset, among others.
Mexico City, Mexico
Aaron Gonzalez plays all kinds of bass, he is a composer, a musical teacher and a performance artist. Elder son of Dennis Gonzalez and older brother of Stefan. Together, the three of them, they are Yeels At Eels (beautiful melodies, explosive rhythm fluxes and bursts of dynamics that borders and passes through countless possibilities in contemporary jazz), with just Stefan they are both Akkolyte (an intense experimental grindcore duo) and both of them plus Gregg Prickett are Unconcious Collective, an avant fusion maximum-power trio. Also with Stefan but adding the extraordinary portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes and saxophonist Rodrigo Amado they have been Humanization Qtet.
Lately he has been developing the intense vocal performance solo Deflowered Electric Flesh Bride and, along with Wyatt Rosser, Sarah Ruth Alexander and Stefan sometimes become Asukubus, a haunting, cold blooded and blunt affair.
You can listen to Yells at Eels here.
You can listen to Unconscious Collective here.
photo: Sarah Ruth Alexander
Aaron Gonzalez plays all kinds of bass, he is a composer, a musical teacher and a performance artist. Elder son of Dennis Gonzalez and older brother of Stefan. Together, the three of them, they are Yeels At Eels (beautiful melodies, explosive rhythm fluxes and bursts of dynamics that borders and passes through countless possibilities in contemporary jazz), with just Stefan they are both Akkolyte (an intense experimental grindcore duo) and both of them plus Gregg Prickett are Unconcious Collective, an avant fusion maximum-power trio. Also with Stefan but adding the extraordinary portuguese guitarist Luis Lopes and saxophonist Rodrigo Amado they have been Humanization Qtet.
Lately he has been developing the intense vocal performance solo Deflowered Electric Flesh Bride and, along with Wyatt Rosser, Sarah Ruth Alexander and Stefan sometimes become Asukubus, a haunting, cold blooded and blunt affair.
You can listen to Yells at Eels here.
You can listen to Unconscious Collective here.
photo: Sarah Ruth Alexander
Dallas, TX
Stefan Gonzalez is a drummer, percussionist, and vocalist from Dallas, TX. They are most known for his work with his family bands Yells at Eels (with brother Aaron Gonzalez and father Dennis Gonzalez) and Akkolyte (with brother Aaron). Stefan also performs regularly in Europe with Ingebrigt Haker Flaten’s super group The Young Mothers featuring Texas-based musicians Jonathan Horne, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, and Amsterdam-based drummer Frank Rosaly. They perform solo under the moniker Orgullo Primitivo.
Gonzalez aims to constantly push musical boundaries and blur the lines of genre through dabbling in many extreme genres and sub genres of music ranging from hardcore punk, industrial, black metal, and grindcore to improvisational music, jazz, and ambient music. They frequently perform at the Ochre House Theater in Dallas, often providing live soundtrack for plays and musicals.
Past groups, collaborators, and recording projects include Unconscious Collective, Asukubus, Jandek, Mike Watt, Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet, Curtis Clark Trio, Ariel Pink With Added Pizzazz, Renegade Spirits Ensemble featuring Famoudou Don Moye, Aram Shelton, Damon Smith, Tom Carter, Louis Moholo-Moholo, German Bringas, Remi Alvarez, Arturo Baez, Cojoba and many more.
photo: Dawid Laskowski
Stefan Gonzalez is a drummer, percussionist, and vocalist from Dallas, TX. They are most known for his work with his family bands Yells at Eels (with brother Aaron Gonzalez and father Dennis Gonzalez) and Akkolyte (with brother Aaron). Stefan also performs regularly in Europe with Ingebrigt Haker Flaten’s super group The Young Mothers featuring Texas-based musicians Jonathan Horne, Jawwaad Taylor, Jason Jackson, and Amsterdam-based drummer Frank Rosaly. They perform solo under the moniker Orgullo Primitivo.
Gonzalez aims to constantly push musical boundaries and blur the lines of genre through dabbling in many extreme genres and sub genres of music ranging from hardcore punk, industrial, black metal, and grindcore to improvisational music, jazz, and ambient music. They frequently perform at the Ochre House Theater in Dallas, often providing live soundtrack for plays and musicals.
Past groups, collaborators, and recording projects include Unconscious Collective, Asukubus, Jandek, Mike Watt, Luis Lopes Humanization 4tet, Curtis Clark Trio, Ariel Pink With Added Pizzazz, Renegade Spirits Ensemble featuring Famoudou Don Moye, Aram Shelton, Damon Smith, Tom Carter, Louis Moholo-Moholo, German Bringas, Remi Alvarez, Arturo Baez, Cojoba and many more.
photo: Dawid Laskowski
Denton, TX
Princess Haultaine III, from North Texas. Obsessive, chaotic noise as primary method for processing trauma, grief, and despair. Combat veteran turned vehement anti-imperialist. Do what you have to do to enjoy your life, read more.
Princess Haultaine III, from North Texas. Obsessive, chaotic noise as primary method for processing trauma, grief, and despair. Combat veteran turned vehement anti-imperialist. Do what you have to do to enjoy your life, read more.
Denton, TX
Alma Laprida (1985, San Miguel, Argentina). She works with trumpet marine, field recordings, synthesizers, lyre and other non-conventional objects, exploring the territories among composition, improvisation, performance and installation. After living and working in Buenos Aires for ten years, she’s been based in Maryland, USA, since 2021.
She played, performed and set installations in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Italy, Mexico and the United States. She released two solo albums, two collaboration albums and several pieces in compilations. In Buenos Aires, she created the series of concerts Ciclo Hertz and a project for collaborations between visual and sound artists named Estrépito y contemplación. She was Curator-In-Chief at the Centro de Arte Sonoro, which depends on the Ministry of Culture (Argentina), and Assistant Professor at the BA in Electronic Arts of the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero.
photo: Samuel Sahlieh
Alma Laprida (1985, San Miguel, Argentina). She works with trumpet marine, field recordings, synthesizers, lyre and other non-conventional objects, exploring the territories among composition, improvisation, performance and installation. After living and working in Buenos Aires for ten years, she’s been based in Maryland, USA, since 2021.
She played, performed and set installations in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Italy, Mexico and the United States. She released two solo albums, two collaboration albums and several pieces in compilations. In Buenos Aires, she created the series of concerts Ciclo Hertz and a project for collaborations between visual and sound artists named Estrépito y contemplación. She was Curator-In-Chief at the Centro de Arte Sonoro, which depends on the Ministry of Culture (Argentina), and Assistant Professor at the BA in Electronic Arts of the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero.
photo: Samuel Sahlieh
Buenos Aires / Maryland
Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary artist/abstractivist, with a focus on electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, performance, painting, sculpture, video, film, and installation, who spent much of his creative life in Chicago, and then Brazil. He currently lives and works in Marfa. In1994, formed the Chicago Underground Collective, an ensemble that ranges in size from duo to orchestra, with guitarist Jeff Parker and a cast of revolving players including Robert Barry and Joshua Abrams. Isotope 217 (conceived by Jeff Parker) was consequently born at this time and also began Mazurek’s fascination with incorporating electronics/computer music into his compositions and improvisations.
Mazurek founded the Exploding Star Orchestra in 2005 to investigate the city’s avant-garde musical traditions. He brought together a group representing the diversity of the city’s contemporary music scene including musicians from the often-segregated communities of Chicago’s North, West, and South-sides, from the burgeoning post rock scene to the highly influential AACM and Northside Improvisation Scene. The group has featured luminaries Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Dixon, and Fred Anderson alongside a stellar cast of musicians including: Nicole Mitchell, Damon Locks, Jeff Parker, Chad Taylor, John Herndon, Tomeka Reid, Jaimie Branch, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Ken Vandermark, Mike Reed, John McEntire, Jim Baker, Jason Ajemian, Steve Swell, Hamid Drake, Matthew Lux, Matana Roberts, Kevin Drumm, and more!
Has released 70+ recordings on various labels including Astral Spirits, International Anthem, Aesthetics, Corbett vs Dempsey, Cuneiform, CleanFeed, Delmark, El Paraiso, Family Vineyard, Harmonipan, Mego, Northern Spy, Rogue Art, Submarine, Thrill Jockey, and his own label, Infinity Dogs. Beyond his ensemble efforts, Mazurek’s solo endeavors reflect his interest in musique concrete, sound installation, and electronic sound manipulation, with releases on Astral Spirits, Cleanfeed, Bottrop-Boy, Delmark, Mego, and Moikai that document his compositions utilizing modular synthesizers, computer programming, electronic effects, and keyboards.
photo: Britt Mazurek
Rob Mazurek is a multidisciplinary artist/abstractivist, with a focus on electro-acoustic composition, improvisation, performance, painting, sculpture, video, film, and installation, who spent much of his creative life in Chicago, and then Brazil. He currently lives and works in Marfa. In1994, formed the Chicago Underground Collective, an ensemble that ranges in size from duo to orchestra, with guitarist Jeff Parker and a cast of revolving players including Robert Barry and Joshua Abrams. Isotope 217 (conceived by Jeff Parker) was consequently born at this time and also began Mazurek’s fascination with incorporating electronics/computer music into his compositions and improvisations.
Mazurek founded the Exploding Star Orchestra in 2005 to investigate the city’s avant-garde musical traditions. He brought together a group representing the diversity of the city’s contemporary music scene including musicians from the often-segregated communities of Chicago’s North, West, and South-sides, from the burgeoning post rock scene to the highly influential AACM and Northside Improvisation Scene. The group has featured luminaries Roscoe Mitchell, Bill Dixon, and Fred Anderson alongside a stellar cast of musicians including: Nicole Mitchell, Damon Locks, Jeff Parker, Chad Taylor, John Herndon, Tomeka Reid, Jaimie Branch, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten, Ken Vandermark, Mike Reed, John McEntire, Jim Baker, Jason Ajemian, Steve Swell, Hamid Drake, Matthew Lux, Matana Roberts, Kevin Drumm, and more!
Has released 70+ recordings on various labels including Astral Spirits, International Anthem, Aesthetics, Corbett vs Dempsey, Cuneiform, CleanFeed, Delmark, El Paraiso, Family Vineyard, Harmonipan, Mego, Northern Spy, Rogue Art, Submarine, Thrill Jockey, and his own label, Infinity Dogs. Beyond his ensemble efforts, Mazurek’s solo endeavors reflect his interest in musique concrete, sound installation, and electronic sound manipulation, with releases on Astral Spirits, Cleanfeed, Bottrop-Boy, Delmark, Mego, and Moikai that document his compositions utilizing modular synthesizers, computer programming, electronic effects, and keyboards.
photo: Britt Mazurek
Chicago, IL / Marfa, TX
Philadelphia, PA
Monte Espina is an electroacoustic free improvisation duo, consists of Ernesto Montiel and Miguel Espinel, both Venezuelan-born and North Texas-based. They explore the possibilities of sinuous sonic environments amid amplified sounds and signal processing, and have collaborated with a long list of local and regional artists, their recordings have been published by Marginal Frequency, Elevator Bath and Round Bale Recordings. A year-long/site-specific project in collaboration with Sarah Ruth, cuatro estaciones, has just been released by Full Spectrum Recordings.
photo: Devin De Leon
Monte Espina is an electroacoustic free improvisation duo, consists of Ernesto Montiel and Miguel Espinel, both Venezuelan-born and North Texas-based. They explore the possibilities of sinuous sonic environments amid amplified sounds and signal processing, and have collaborated with a long list of local and regional artists, their recordings have been published by Marginal Frequency, Elevator Bath and Round Bale Recordings. A year-long/site-specific project in collaboration with Sarah Ruth, cuatro estaciones, has just been released by Full Spectrum Recordings.
photo: Devin De Leon
Denton/Mesquite, TX
EBONICS NATIVE LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: DEEP PHONOLOGY @ Molten Plains
At Molten Plains on December 9, 2022, Music Research Strategies will perform an archival experiment for solo percussion (kick, snare, hi-hat, cowbell) with the projected text of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)1 as a score to a soundtrack of a recorded artifact of processed sound/noise generated from the first iteration of this investigation. The initial recording utilizes the composition practice of Alvin Lucier’s “sound art piece composed in 19692” “I am sitting in a room”3 to process a recording of a public reading of UNDRIP in a 10,000 sq/ft, former cotton mill in Oakland, CA in 2021. The initial track was repeatedly recorded in that space until “the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves4” transforming the sound completely.
The audience is invited to read along aloud during the performance.
This performance will be the 6th in the series of responses to Candice Hopkins and Raven Chcacon’s conceptual visual score Dispatch #255. The response requires three phases: immersion, documentation & the organizing of a gathering at an ecological site in solidarity with Indigenous Justice.
The work has been performed in Oakland, CA (Thanks to Pro Arts COMMONS), Oslo, Norway (Borealis Festival), NYC (Amant Foundation), Valparaiso, Chile (Acéfalo Festival – online), with thanks to support from the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum, and Black Fighting Formations in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC.
Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement: Deep Phonology is part of the Black Amnesia & Indigenous Justice investigation series.
1 www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Sitting_in_a_Room
3 Alvin Lucier “I am sitting in a room” – www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho16dPi_WKU
4 ibid.
5 disclaimer.org.au/contents/unsettling-scores/dispatch
photo: Mark Datter
EBONICS NATIVE LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: DEEP PHONOLOGY @ Molten Plains
At Molten Plains on December 9, 2022, Music Research Strategies will perform an archival experiment for solo percussion (kick, snare, hi-hat, cowbell) with the projected text of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)1 as a score to a soundtrack of a recorded artifact of processed sound/noise generated from the first iteration of this investigation. The initial recording utilizes the composition practice of Alvin Lucier’s “sound art piece composed in 19692” “I am sitting in a room”3 to process a recording of a public reading of UNDRIP in a 10,000 sq/ft, former cotton mill in Oakland, CA in 2021. The initial track was repeatedly recorded in that space until “the resonant frequencies of the room reinforce themselves4” transforming the sound completely.
The audience is invited to read along aloud during the performance.
This performance will be the 6th in the series of responses to Candice Hopkins and Raven Chcacon’s conceptual visual score Dispatch #255. The response requires three phases: immersion, documentation & the organizing of a gathering at an ecological site in solidarity with Indigenous Justice.
The work has been performed in Oakland, CA (Thanks to Pro Arts COMMONS), Oslo, Norway (Borealis Festival), NYC (Amant Foundation), Valparaiso, Chile (Acéfalo Festival – online), with thanks to support from the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum, and Black Fighting Formations in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC.
Ebonics Native Land Acknowledgement: Deep Phonology is part of the Black Amnesia & Indigenous Justice investigation series.
1 www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Sitting_in_a_Room
3 Alvin Lucier “I am sitting in a room” – www.youtube.com/watch?v=ho16dPi_WKU
4 ibid.
5 disclaimer.org.au/contents/unsettling-scores/dispatch
photo: Mark Datter
Oakland, CA
Warren Realrider is a Pawnee/Crow multidisciplinary sound artist based in Norman, Oklahoma. He utilizes elements of harsh noise, sound art, and indigenous music in improvisational response to location, context and space. His piece IIII Katapaatu presented at the Tulsa Noise Fest in 2019 is featured in the documentary ‘Love and Fury’ by Sterlin Harjo.
photo: Grant Carfer/Fierce Deity
Warren Realrider is a Pawnee/Crow multidisciplinary sound artist based in Norman, Oklahoma. He utilizes elements of harsh noise, sound art, and indigenous music in improvisational response to location, context and space. His piece IIII Katapaatu presented at the Tulsa Noise Fest in 2019 is featured in the documentary ‘Love and Fury’ by Sterlin Harjo.
photo: Grant Carfer/Fierce Deity
Norman, OK
Kory Reeder is a performer and composer whose music is meditative and atmospheric, investigating ideas of objectivity, place, immediacy, situation, and interaction; drawing inspiration from the visual arts, nature, astronomy, and history, translating their structural or philosophical elements into musical form. His music has been released and published on Another Timbre, Edition Wandelweiser Records, Sawyer Editions, NCTMMRN, Petrichor Records, and has been performed in concerts and festivals across North and South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. He collaborates frequently with opera, theater, and dance programs, including the American Music Theatre Project. Has a performer, he frequenly plays with noise, free-improv, and new media artists in addition to his own compositions. He has been artist-in-residence at Arts, Letter, and Numbers, The Kimmel, Harding, Nelson Center for the Arts and has been Artist in Residence in the Everglades. Kory is from Nebraska and currently resides in Texas where he is an active performer and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of North Texas where he has taught courses in composition, electronic music, and vaporwave and has directed the University Electornics Ensemble, and the Free Improv Ensemble. Kory runs/operates Sawyer Editions, a small-batch label specializing in contemporary, experimental, and improvised music, especially of new and unreleased artists.
Kory will be performing a new quintet with Alaina Clarice, flute; Brian Do, bass clarinet; Grace Remmer, viola; Nico Clark, cello.
photo: Anton Lukoszevieze
Kory Reeder is a performer and composer whose music is meditative and atmospheric, investigating ideas of objectivity, place, immediacy, situation, and interaction; drawing inspiration from the visual arts, nature, astronomy, and history, translating their structural or philosophical elements into musical form. His music has been released and published on Another Timbre, Edition Wandelweiser Records, Sawyer Editions, NCTMMRN, Petrichor Records, and has been performed in concerts and festivals across North and South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe. He collaborates frequently with opera, theater, and dance programs, including the American Music Theatre Project. Has a performer, he frequenly plays with noise, free-improv, and new media artists in addition to his own compositions. He has been artist-in-residence at Arts, Letter, and Numbers, The Kimmel, Harding, Nelson Center for the Arts and has been Artist in Residence in the Everglades. Kory is from Nebraska and currently resides in Texas where he is an active performer and is currently a PhD candidate at the University of North Texas where he has taught courses in composition, electronic music, and vaporwave and has directed the University Electornics Ensemble, and the Free Improv Ensemble. Kory runs/operates Sawyer Editions, a small-batch label specializing in contemporary, experimental, and improvised music, especially of new and unreleased artists.
Kory will be performing a new quintet with Alaina Clarice, flute; Brian Do, bass clarinet; Grace Remmer, viola; Nico Clark, cello.
photo: Anton Lukoszevieze
Denton, TX
Luke Stewart is a DC/NYC-based musician and organizer of important musical presentations, and has a strong presence in the national and international Improvised Music community. He is noted in Downbeat Magazine in 2020 as one of “25 most influential jazz artists” of his generation. In New York City, Luke collaborated with Arts for Art in hosting the first ever “Free Jazz Convention” to share resources and strategies among the community. He has also performed in a myriad of collaborations and performances in venues such as the Kitchen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pioneer Works, Roulette, and Issue Project Room.
His regular ensembles include Irreversible Entanglements, Heroes are Gang Leaders, and Ancestral Duo, Six Six featuring guitarist Anthony Pirog, and experimental rock duo Blacks’ Myths. As a solo artist, he has been compiling a series of improvisational sound structures for Upright Bass and Amplifier, utilizing the resonant qualities of the instrument to explore real-time harmonic and melodic possibilities.
As a scholar/performer, he has performed and lectured at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Medgar Evers College, George Mason University, Wayne State University, University of Montana, New Mexico State University, and the University of South Carolina.
photo: Jake Meginsky
Luke Stewart is a DC/NYC-based musician and organizer of important musical presentations, and has a strong presence in the national and international Improvised Music community. He is noted in Downbeat Magazine in 2020 as one of “25 most influential jazz artists” of his generation. In New York City, Luke collaborated with Arts for Art in hosting the first ever “Free Jazz Convention” to share resources and strategies among the community. He has also performed in a myriad of collaborations and performances in venues such as the Kitchen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pioneer Works, Roulette, and Issue Project Room.
His regular ensembles include Irreversible Entanglements, Heroes are Gang Leaders, and Ancestral Duo, Six Six featuring guitarist Anthony Pirog, and experimental rock duo Blacks’ Myths. As a solo artist, he has been compiling a series of improvisational sound structures for Upright Bass and Amplifier, utilizing the resonant qualities of the instrument to explore real-time harmonic and melodic possibilities.
As a scholar/performer, he has performed and lectured at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Medgar Evers College, George Mason University, Wayne State University, University of Montana, New Mexico State University, and the University of South Carolina.
photo: Jake Meginsky
DC / NYC
Weasel Walter (first name, last name) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser best known for leading the seminal punk-jazz/no-wave/brutal-prog band The Flying Luttenbachers on 16 full-length releases from 1992 to present. Seamlessly uniting the intensity and abstraction of improvised music with the nihilist aesthetics of extreme rock forms, Walter is committed to violent momentum, idiomatic unpredictability and rapid articulation. Walter appears on more than 215 commercially released recordings and tours internationally as the guitar player of Lydia Lunch Retrovirus since 2012.
photo: Peter Gannushkin
Weasel Walter (first name, last name) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer and improviser best known for leading the seminal punk-jazz/no-wave/brutal-prog band The Flying Luttenbachers on 16 full-length releases from 1992 to present. Seamlessly uniting the intensity and abstraction of improvised music with the nihilist aesthetics of extreme rock forms, Walter is committed to violent momentum, idiomatic unpredictability and rapid articulation. Walter appears on more than 215 commercially released recordings and tours internationally as the guitar player of Lydia Lunch Retrovirus since 2012.
photo: Peter Gannushkin
New York, NY
Andrew Weathers (b.1988) is a composer and improviser originally from Chapel Hill, NC and currently based in Littlefield, TX. His work engages with notions of place, tradition, repetition, and spirit, splitting the difference between folk music and Land Art. Weathers studied composition at UNC-Greensboro and electronic music at Mills College in Oakland, CA.
A consistent presence in the underground music scene over the past decade, Weathers’ work covers a wide spectrum from solo acoustic guitar to electronic noise.
photo: Andrew Marino
Andrew Weathers (b.1988) is a composer and improviser originally from Chapel Hill, NC and currently based in Littlefield, TX. His work engages with notions of place, tradition, repetition, and spirit, splitting the difference between folk music and Land Art. Weathers studied composition at UNC-Greensboro and electronic music at Mills College in Oakland, CA.
A consistent presence in the underground music scene over the past decade, Weathers’ work covers a wide spectrum from solo acoustic guitar to electronic noise.
photo: Andrew Marino
Littlefield, Texas
Schedule
Friday, December 9, 2022
8:00pm – Rob Mazurek + Aaron Gonzalez + Stefan Gonzalez
9:00pm – Kory Reeder + Alaina Clarice, Brian Do, Grace Remmer, Nico Clark
9:30pm – (Solo/Duo) Susan Alcorn + Tom Carter
10:50pm – Luke Stewart
11:40pm – Music Research Strategies
Saturday, December 10, 2022
6:30pm – Bitches Set Traps + Monte Espina
7:15pm – Warren Realrider
8:00pm – Alma Laprida
8:55pm – Henna Chou + Christian Mirande + Andrew Weathers
9:45pm – (Solo/Trio) CNCPCN + Alma Laprida + Luke Stewart
11:20pm – Weasel Walter
12:10am – Princess Haultaine III
Location
Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios
411 E. Sycamore St.
Denton TX 76209
Early December weather in Denton typically ranges from 60°F during the day and 40°F at night. Please prepare accordingly.