HurdAudio Rotation: Water, Earth and Psycho Killer

Satoko Fujii/Myra Melford: Under The Water: Piano Solo and Duo. 2009. Libra: 202-024.

Satoko Fujii: piano
Myra Melford: piano

Recorded live at the Maybeck Studio, September 14, 2007.

Satoko Fujii and Myra Melford are pianistic talents worthy of the prestigious jazz piano traditions recorded at the Maybeck Studios. Each of them is a tidal force creating strong currents when their creative energy collides. Under the Water provides an ear full of the collaborative qualities found when Fujii and Melford work both inside and outside of their instruments. Melford's solo take on "Be Melting Snow" offers a glimpse of the solo piano recording I keep hoping is in store. While Fujii's "Trace A River" reveals the contemplative spaces lurking beneath her energetic flow of ideas. Together, in their duo performances, there is an intuitive grasp of compositional balance that never impedes their spontaneous discourse as they weave a language of texture. Sadly, the dynamic range occasionally overwhelms the engineering with distortion toward the later moments of this dialogue. A scratch along the surface of an incredible performance and promising collaboration.

Various Artists: Earth Music: Ten Years of Meridian Music: Composers in Performance. 2009. Innova: 751.

Steps (excerpt) - Vinny Golia
Vinny Golia: bass clarinet

Quarter Turn (excerpt) - John Bischoff
John Bischoff: electronics

Improvisation (excerpt) - Matthew Sperry
Matthew Sperry: contrabass

Lines For Trio (to Paul Klee) - Damon Smith
Damon Smith: contrabass
Hugh Livingston: cello
Carla Kihlstedt: violin

Pauline's Solo (excerpt) - Pauline Oliveros
Pauline Oliveros: accordion

All Chords Stand For Other Chords (excerpt) - Ben Goldberg
Ben Goldberg: clarinet
John Schott: acoustic guitar

Improvisation - Shoko Hikage
Shoko Hikage: koto

Improvisation - Frank Gratkowski
Frank Gratkowski: alto saxophone

Improvisation - Schoenbeck/Burr
Sara Schoenbeck: bassoon
Ellen Burr: flute

Improvisation (with San Francisco sounds) - Viv Corringham
Viv Corringham: voice, electronics, field recordings

Sonic Coordinates - Jon Raskin
Jon Raskin: baritone saxophone

Microtonic meditations for endings and beginnings, mvmt II: Scherzo - Mickley/Marsh
Tom Bickley: recorder, voice
Bob Marsh: accordion, voice

Composition 40 N and Composition 110 A - Anthony Braxton
Philip Gelb: shakuhachi
Jie Ma: pipa

Nightwatching - Theresa Wong
Theresa Wong: cello, voice

A survey of sounds curated by the Meridian Gallery in downtown San Francisco over the past decade. Each passing track offering a small taste of an entire universe of personal sonic language. The collective beauty of these different expressions giving a sense of place. The Meridian is a unique gallery that finds roots in an urban center. With a garden miraculously carved in a small patch of outdoors behind the building, this venue provides a same sense of rugged beauty through the compositional and improvisational arts. Each performance exhibiting and drawing from vulnerability. Vic Corringham folds the sounds of the city itself into his vocal improvisation. The unpredictable-yet-periodic car horns and familiar trolley bells running in counterpoint to his voice. The deliberate brush strokes of bassoon and flute exposing a startling texture with Sara Schoenbeck and Ellen Burr's improvisation. The incredibly beautiful and intricately structured song by Theresa Wong that concludes this disc. The excerpted brevity of so many ideas giving way to a blur and celebration of an aesthetic from a time and place.

Talking Heads: Talking Heads: 77. 1977. Sire Records: 6036-2.

David Byrne: guitar, voice
Jerry Harrison: guitar, keyboards, voice
Martina Weymouth: bass
Chris Frantz: drums

I bonded completely with this record many years ago. Throwing it into the rotation is levity bordering on nostalgia. Every detail of the music frozen for all time on this recording is well known. The CD doesn't do justice to the way "No Compassion" used to straddle the A and B sides of the vinyl. And while "Psycho Killer" was the runaway hit, "Don't Worry About The Government" will always be my favorite song of all time. As the recording debut of Talking Heads, this was the first in a sequence of records that continues through David Byrne's solo career that has often served as my personal soundtrack of summer.

Extended Notation and Interpretation Strategies

sfSound: Matthew Sperry Memorial Festival @ 21 Grand, Oakland, California
Saturday, June 5, 2010

Matthew Sperry: Wadadaism (1991)
Cornelius Cardew: Autumn 60 (1960)
Matthew Sperry: Veins (1995)
James Tenney: Swell Piece #1 (1967)
Anthony Braxton: Composition No. 292 (2001)

Tom Dambly: trumpet
Tom Djll: trumpet
Shayna Dunkelman: percussion
Heather Frasch: flutes
Philip Gelb: shakuhachi
Matt Ingalls: clarinets
James Fei: saxophones
Angela Hsu: violin
John Ingle: saxophones
Christopher Jones: bassoon
Dylan Mattingly: cello
Hadley McCarroll: keyboard
Kjell Nordeson: percussion
Emily Packard: violin
Tim Perkis: electronics
Dan Plonsey: saxophones
Gino Robair: percussion
Monica Scott: cello
John Shiurba: guitar
Damon Smith: bass
Scott Walton: bass
Sarah Willner: violin
Theresa Wong: cello

Any concert that concludes with an hour-long interpretation of an Anthony Braxton ghost trance piece is already an above average experience. The 12-tet assembled to plunge into Composition 292 brought exactly the right mix of understanding, feeling and Braxtonian spirit to keep the trance-state bristling with the multiplicity of layers that walk a fine line between structural intent and collective improvisation. The initial sound that erupted from the ensemble sounded so much like Anthony Braxton's recordings (particularly compositions 290 - 299 found on the 9 Compositions (Iridium 2006) box set) that I nearly expected Braxton and his hourglass to appear at the conductor's position before the ensemble. The absence of a conductor facilitating and coordinating the inter-ensemble structures became a prominent quality of this particular performance as sub groups tended to form where players had easy proximity to each other or when good sight lines could be established between performers. The ability of the collective working together without a social hierarchy was a testament to just how well organized anarchy can sound. The pulse structure of the piece remained clear through the swinging lines delivered in remarkable rhythmic unison while still allowing for plenty of deviation and the inclusion of materials from other Braxton compositions to keep the overall texture fluid.

The first half of the concert presented works that draw upon wide interpretive freedoms through the use of alternate notation. The co-mingling of music from Matthew Sperry, Cornelius Cardew and James Tenney tracing a clear outline of sonic ideas from three composers sadly missed. Swell Piece #1 offered up a dynamic outpouring of sustained sounds from a large ensemble that revealed startling details over the course of the simple shape of its overall form. Likewise, Veins offered up a similar transparency of construction that erupted into a beautiful din of joy. The feeling of love for the composer being remembered was clearly audible. The lineage connecting Sperry's music to that of Cornelius Cardew giving a sense of continuity between creative minds.

Placing these particular works along side each other made this concert something more than a collection of "new music" compositions. This music was played with a lot of heart without softening the edges of a sonic world that embraces both consonance and dissonance. These were pieces that invite the performers to collaborate both with the composer's intentions and with each other. And on this particular evening many of them brought their best.

Sonic Sleep Cycles

O SLEEP @ Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Saturday, May 23, 2010

Theresa Wong: composer, cello, voice
Michael Carter: electronics
Luciano Chessa: dan bau
Shayna Dunkelman: drumset, percussion
Ellen Fullman: long string instrument
Dohee Lee: Korean percussion, voice
Heike Liss: video
Alice Wu: costumes

O SLEEP is an improvised opera inspired by the drama, science and conundrum of sleep and dream life. This multi-dimensional piece focuses on the synthesis of improvised and composed music, text, movement, video and use of architectural and natural space in performance, challenging to throw the blueprints of a large scale piece to the blenders of improvisation and chance. - Theresa Wong

The tension between improvised music and a formally composed multi-media structure finds an ideal subject in the cyclical quality of sleep. The regular and necessary passage into an unconscious state between the hours of wakefulness finding a natural ally with the materials and process of improvisation. The stages of sleep providing a formal, non-narrative arc of its own that lends itself to multi-media adaptation and interpretation.

The use of a nearly transparent white veil between the performers and audience provided a soft haze as well as a surface area to gently capture video images and text as it projected through the gallery space at Southern Exposure. The creative, white costumes created by Alice Wu worn by the performers completed the sense of sleep space that would be punctured at key moments when performers would step between the two worlds separated by the membrane. The concrete support that neatly divided the stage - and obstructed the center - offering a sense of right brain/left brain sharing the same journey through sleep.

The performance space appeared deceptively sparse. With Ellen Fullman's 50-foot long string instrument necessarily filling the back and leaving room for drums, electronics and movement. The incorporation of instruments both familiar and wildly inventive only adding to the dream-like quality of the theatrics.

Sonically there were episodes of sublime beauty. Particularly when Theresa Wong and Dohee Lee sang a vocal duet behind a white curtain as images of an open window were projected onto them. The voices exploring the beating frequencies between sustained tones tuned very close together as an expression of brain waves slowing down toward sleep. This harmonic richness later returned and expanded with the sounds of the long string instrument as Ellen Fullman walked forward and backward using her hands to coax a sound world of incredible dimension.

O SLEEP deftly manages to avoid cliche and pretense with its subject material. It explores the quality of sleep without sounding sleepy. It incorporates dream state without becoming dreamy. This particular performance began with a startling loud burst of percussion as an introduction to the timbral variation of the experience in store.

If anything, the abundance of materials and ideas that swirl through O SLEEP left the feeling that 90-minutes wasn't nearly enough time to absorb the many qualities of this work. Compared to the longer performance at the Marin Headlands a year ago this felt abbreviated. So many of its strongest ideas presented and edited - and yet I missed the sense of development that more time would allow. An ambitious, fantastic work that invites the indulgence of "sleeping in." It should be interesting to see how O SLEEP continues to evolve in future incarnations.

The Exquisite Improvisation of Dream States

O Sleep - an improvised opera and work in progress directed by Theresa Wong @ The Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin Headlands, Sausalito, CA
Sunday, May 24, 2009

Performaners: Theresa Wong, Ellen Fullman, Kanoko Nishi, Dohee Lee, Luciano Chessa, Michael Carter, Shayna Dunkleman, Heike Liss
Alice Wu: costumes

Structured along the stages of sleep, O Sleep features a range of dream-state inspired improvisations, movement and creative staging. At times, one could be tempted to close the eyes and drift along with the percussive textures.

O Sleep has its visual highlights as well. The projected video of a curtain by an open window onto a sheer curtain suspended in the middle of the room by a wire was striking. Theresa Wong stood behind this projected image with another performer standing behind her as their vocals twisted within one another's critical band. One of many moments that left an indelible visual and aural impression.

At one particular sleep stage, the room itself became an instrument as performers worked within the low light, exploring the sounds of frictions along the walls, floor and windows of the old gymnasium at the Marin Headlands. The dance-like kinetic motion of the performers, the vibrations that nearly engulf the observer and the spatial dynamic of this moment captured the essence and mystery of sleep in a uniquely familiar and unsettling manner.

Occupying the core of the stage and sound of O Sleep was the droning and harmonically dynamic sounds of Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument. Stretched along the entire length of the gymnasium with wires tuned to just intervals, Fullman walked forward and backward with fists full of strings like a human bow. Coaxing a room-sized, tamboura-esque sound. The addition of percussion, drums, voice, koto and electronics filled out the dreams of this work.

O Sleep incorporates the instruments and performers into a cohesive whole. Musicians move with the grace of dancers. The staging realizes the corporeality of performance and drama as part of a cohesive whole. Improvisation allows the collective ears to focus upon the realization of sleep states. The result is fantastic. As a work "in progress," O Sleep holds enormous potential.