SONIC CIRCUITS: OFF THE GRID
A Clamorous Exhibition of Acoustic and Battery Operated Brouhaha!
Featuring performances by:
Neil Feather
Mike Tamburo
Pilesar + special guests
Avocado Happy Hour
Layne Garrett
Ize B. Pickin
Saturday, August 29th
Doors at 6:30, Music at 7:00 SHARP
$8 gets you in the door!
All Ages Show
Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center
8320 Georgia Ave
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Off the Grid is the first of hopefully many Sonic Circuits related events that will showcase various local talents creating unusual and exciting music with only acoustic and battery operated instruments. Participants aren’t allowed to use any equipment that requires being plugged into a wall socket but creativity and ingenuity are encouraged.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Sound Mechanic Neil Feather has been creating radical and unusual musical instruments for thirty years, and is increasingly known outside of Baltimore as one of the most original musical thinkers of his day. His instruments each embody uniquely clever acoustic and engineering principles, and are visually arresting. The music he plays on the instruments is equally original, embodying new principles and resulting in a nearly alien idiom of music. A founding member of THUS and THE OFFICIAL PROJECT, as well as the leader of AEROTRAIN, he has a long history of collaborative projects and solo concerts.
Neil will be debuting a new instrument called the Futura Ultra-Retro, which is a mechanical synthesizer that is powered by 19th century science. It is comprised of bicycle parts, batteries and highly modified speakers. The Futura will be played by Neil Feather and Bob Wagner and they advise you to sit close because the sound is very localized and shaped.
http://www.neilfeather.org
Mike Tamburo is a 21st century Renaissance man who has forged his way into the consciousness of the American underground music community. For the past 13 years, Tamburo has been relentlessly releasing records (31 releases and counting) under different monikers and projects including Meisha, Arco Flute Foundation & various imprints under his own name. He has performed over 500 shows all over the United States, traveling to every nook and cranny, searching for some kind of an understanding of what America truly is.
Tamburo is a man who continues to reinvent himself, recently finding his new musical passion in the hammered dulcimer; building upon his own unique compositional styling, he has developed a voice for the instrument that is very much his own. He is greatly inspired by American folk and minimalist music traditions as well as Indian classical music, but often expands outward to include influences from avant-garde to noise to modern compositional music. A Tamburo performance is always a very transportive experience.
http://www.myspace.com/tamburo
Pilesar (pronounced pie-LEE-zur) is a percussionist and songwriter who specializes in creating quirky soundscapes and rhythmically dense improvisations. Instrumentation includes drums, voice, toys, electronics, broken effects pedals, borrowed instruments, thrift store finds, tapes and various environmental factors.
As both a soloist and collaborator, Pilesar has released dozens of fiercely independent recordings on his DIY label, Chameleon Dish Archives. For fans of Black Dice, Boredoms, Mothers of Invention, Renaldo and the Loaf, Ruins, Tom Waits and Ween.
http://pilesarmusic.com
Avocado Happy Hour is a minimalist pop duo from Baltimore. Their music incorporates Rhodes piano, vibraphone, vintage keyboards, live percussion and loops.
http://www.myspace.com/avocadohappyhour
Layne Garrett works with found objects, found sounds and guitars, among other instruments. Recorded output ranges from songs drenched in sound collage to a new CD of improvisations on guitar and prepared guitar.
Recent activities include organizing a large-scale tape-loop intervention in Rock Creek Park and completing several construction projects, including a version of Glenn Branca’s harmonics guitar, a set of hanging car-metal gongs in the shape of a map of the USA, and a large freestanding playable structure about which it has been said: “Man, I would really love to play that big baby for 12 hours straight. It is obviously a meditation key.”
http://www.questionthetruth.com/noise
Mike Fuel is a self taught musician who is influenced heavily by Bach, Chopin, Monteverdi, Mozart, Led Zeppelin, The Cure, Medeski, Martin and Wood, and Kelly Joe Phelps. As the Grandson of composer and organist Carol Marvin Fewell, Mike approaches music as a vehicle to deep meditation.
http://www.myspace.com/izebpickin
[...] Sonic Circuits: SONIC CIRCUITS: OFF THE GRID A Clamorous Exhibition of Acoustic and Battery Operated [...]
[...] p.m. The Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music presents “Off the Grid”, a showcase in which performers use only acoustic instruments or electronic equipment not requiring [...]