Saturday, May 21st, 2011 - Rick Reed / Matt Shoemaker / C A Sheffield @Pyramid Atlantic
Rick Reed
Rick Reed (b. 1957) is an entirely self-taught composer/visual artist who has been working in the Austin music underground for the past 25 years. Using old battered electronic devices like sine wave generators, short wave radios and a vintage EMS analogue synthesizer, Reed has performed solo and with various electronic/noise groups including Frequency Curtain, Abrasion Ensemble, FTC and many others. He has toured with Keith Rowe (ex-AMM) three times now and his name even appears in an AMM album title. Since the mid 90s, Reed has released several LPs and CDs on labels such as Ecstatic Peace, Beta-Lactam Ring, Pale Disc Japan and Elevator Bath. Among other projects, he's been host of a long running otherworldly music radio program called Commercial Suicide, as well as serving as musical director of a concert series called Toneburst, which is dedicated to promoting unheard, or underexposed musicians from the Austin experimental music scene. Since 2004, he has worked closely with New York filmmaker Ken Jacobs on three soundtracks for his Nervous Magic Lantern displays, one of which, entitled "Capitalism: Child Labor," had it's world premiere at this year's Rotterdam Film Festival. Reed has a new compact disc release slated for 2011 on Elevator Bath.
Matt Shoemaker
Matt Shoemaker's (b. 1974) art focuses upon the treatment of sonic phenomena. Shoemaker manipulates sound, sourced from both natural and electronic means, in an affected and often grotesque manner, so as to convey compositions that uniquely imagine a space encrypted to the point of vanishing definition. His essential technique is one of obsessive artifice and rigorous arrangement. It is the clarity of nuance and attention to detail that contrasts and balances any intended obscurities. It is from humility, a strategy for freedom, and a personal view of an ideal aesthetic that Shoemaker proclaims: "Obviousness is my art's antithesis." Shoemaker is a self-taught artist, employing microphones, digital and analog recorders, computers, modular synthesizers, acoustic instruments, and assorted signal processors. His work has been published throughout the world on such esteemed labels as Trente Oiseaux (Germany), Helen Scarsdale Agency (USA), Elevator Bath (USA), and Ferns Recordings (France). In 2007 he was awarded an Artist Trust Gap grant in the field of emerging and cross-disciplinary arts, and was a participant in the Mamori Sound Project, an annual residency under the direction of Francisco López that convenes in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. He has also received commissions for radio works from across the globe and presented his work at universities, dance halls, rock clubs, and art galleries.
C A Sheffield
Colin Andrew Sheffield (b. 1976) hails from El Paso and has lived in various cities in Texas prior to 2004, when he relocated to the Seattle area. He is a self-taught drummer, playing in various collaborative situations in his home state before eventually making a total transition to electronic music. After initially working with exclusively digital sources, in recent years, Sheffield has refined his approach and now focuses on the strict re-contextualization of other commercially available recordings. His aim is to distill the essential qualities of these works and to then utilize that essence for new recordings. Usually only very brief sections of the original works are selected. These raw components are then contracted, expanded, layered, and/or otherwise processed until something new is forged. The resultant music is an atmospheric soundscape, gradually shifting and unfolding, offering subtle nuance and quiet restraint. His recordings often seem to have much in common with ambient electronic music, though are equally akin to "plunderphonic" audio collage. In 1998 Sheffield founded the Elevator Bath recording label which has continually issued experimental works from a variety of artists from the United States and abroad. Sheffield has released a number of solo recordings since 1998, including 2005's "First Thus," his debut long-player, as well as 2009's very well-received "Signatures" (via San Francisco's Invisible Birds label).
Saturday May 21st 2011 8 p.m.
$8.00
Pyramid Atlantic
8230 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD
(map)
http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org/