Performing with the late Jim Ryan and Darien Baiza at Rhizome DC, June 2022
A Synesthete's Atlas
Real time cartographic improvisations using projected, manipulated digital maps, in collaboration with
local musicians. A visual wash of street grids, land masses, water bodies, and curiosities from built and
natural environments. Orphaned labels and free-floating symbology. Auditory roundabouts. Saturated colors
and the subtlest of tints. Acoustic cul-de-sacs. Jittery zooms, pans, and traversals. Glitches in
crowdsourced data.
A Synesthete's Atlas is my performance cartography project. It's maps as experimental
film, as environment, as light show with letterform experimentation. What began life as a rapid prototyping
design tool evolved into a platform that allows me to manipulate projected digital maps in real time, in
conversation with improvising musicians. The maps, the locations, the instrumentation, and their trajectory are
never the same twice.
A Synesthete's Atlas premiered in Lisbon, toward the end of a two month residency at Hangar: Centro de
Investigação Artística in April 2022, as a 50 minute improvisation with cellist Helena Espvall. Since that time
it's had dozens of performances across North America. Performances occasionally introduce strobing effects that may affect photosensitive viewers.
For deeper treatments of this project – performance excerpts, technologies, motivations & inspirations –
please take a look at
13 Mar 2024; 11a-12:30p with Mat Muntz, primorski meh (Croatian bagpipe) & electronics (lecture & performance)
UC Berkeley GIS & Mapping Community of Practice at the Center for New Music and Associated Technologies, 1750 Arch St, Berkeley, CA
I’ll be speaking about the cartography behind my Salesforce Tower project & my A Synesthete’s Atlas performances, and I’ll go into more detail than usual about how I use OSC (the protocol) and open-stage-control (Jean-Emmanuel Doucet’s open source software).
I’ll collaborate with composer & multi-instrumentalist Mat Muntz for a short improvisation on primorski meh (Croatian bagpipe) and electronics. Muntz' Phantom Islands was nominated for a 2023 German Jazz Prize for International Debut Album of the Year.
3 Mar 2024; 7p with Unpopular Electronics (Gino Robair & Tom Djll)
West Oakland Sound Series, Dresher Ensemble Studio, 2201 Poplar St, Oakland, CA
Gino Robair has performed and recorded with Tom Waits, Anthony Braxton, John Zorn, Nina Hagen, Terry Riley, Lou Harrison, John Butcher, Derek Bailey, Peter Kowald, Otomo Yoshihide, and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet. He is one of the "25 innovative percussionists" included in the book Percussion Profiles (SoundWorld, 2001), as well as a founding member of the Splatter Trio and Pink Mountain. His opera, I, Norton, based on the life of Norton I, Emperor of the United States, has been performed throughout North America and Europe.
Tom Djll (trumpet & electronics) is a composer, improviser, and occasional writer on music, educated at the Colorado College, the Creative Music Studio and the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. His performances feature a unique musical language combining analog synthesis and processing with microtonal and split-tone trumpet improvisations.
Unpopular Electronics and I share the evening with Ann Callaway playing her Three Existential Postcards for Piano and Char: Six Poems by Shinjiro Kurahara with Richard Mix, bass; plus works for solo voice by John Cage, Morton Feldman, Henri Pousseur, Elliott Carter, troubadors, trouveres & minnesingers.
2 Mar 2024; 8p with Sean Ocean
Other Cinema, ATA Gallery, 992 Valencia St (@ 21st), San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Techno stalwart Sean Ocean has performed as DJ and Live act since 1997, is a leading figure in his techno community, and will be exercising his artistic breadth with a unique Musique Concrète hardware live set.
Also on this Optronica program – Other Cinema's semi-annual celebration of Live A/V – is Drone Poet, the visionary twosome of Alan Korn & Daniel Konhauser, Carl Diehl & Negativland visualiste Sue-C, Craig Baldwin's double-system media-massage on Secret Squirrel, Russ Forster live theremin-busking on ATA's sidewalk, and much, much more.
6 Dec 2023; 8p with John Ingle, saxophones John Davis performs Loan Agreement; Dave DeFilippo performs a set of improvised electronic music
LSG New Music Series, Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market St (@ 6th), San Francisco, CA
Saxophonist/composer/improviser John Ingle is originally from Memphis, TN and now resides and works in San Francisco. His music is informed and influenced by contemporary concert music, improvised music, electronic music, jazz, various Asian folk music traditions, and the blues and gospel of his native Southeast US. He collaborates with electronics innovator Laetitia Sonami, and in duo with NYC-based composer/dulcimerist Dan Joseph and is a founding member of the sfSoundGroup. John's solo saxophone music emphasizes multiphonics, vocal harmonics and subtle control of extended saxophone techniques, while his chamber music explores such musical parameters as spiral time, linear pulse, and non-linear harmony, and indulges in both simple resonance as well as complex timbre and auditory sleights-of-hand.
1 Dec 2023; doors: 7:30p, performance: 8p with Santomieri-Farhadian Duo
Shapeshifters Cinema, 567 5th St, Oakland, CA
Thea Farhadian is a performer/composer based in the San Francisco Bay Area and Berlin. Her projects include solo violin and interactive electronics, acoustic improvisation, solo laptop, radio art, and video. Her solo pieces for violin and electronics combine a classical music background with extended technique and digital processing using the program Max/MSP.
Dean Santomieri composes and performs using electric resonator guitars in non-standard tunings. Stylistically his playing is most closely associated with the modern classical avant-garde, and is characterized by a loose compositional framework that allows for improvisatory explorations. He also regularly performs as a spoken word artist, usually with musical accompaniment. His stories and poems are inspired by music, dreams, the visual arts, word games and intentionally misheard / misread items from radio and newspapers.
Farhadian and Santomieri have been playing and recording together since 2011.
23 Oct 2023; doors: 8p, performance: 8:30p with percussionists Darien Baiza and Paul Neidhardt; Max Gong opens
Red Room/High Zero, 6950 Maple St NW, Baltimore, MD
Darien Baiza is an exploratory multi-percussionist, currently residing in the Baltimore area. Baltimore-based percussionist Paul Neidhardt has been a member of High Zero and the Red Room Collective since 2004. He works locally as a drum instructor and dance accompanist. His performance work focuses on improvisation using extended techniques to create non-traditional drum sounds and textures. He currently plays in the percussion ensemble Umbilicus and hosts the monthly Volunteers Collective improvisation workshop at the Red Room.
Maxwell Gong is a Chinese American composer, improviser, and bandleader. His composition reflects his interests in movement and stasis, human imperfections and non-hierarchical collaboration. His works often engage with intensity and absurdity in electronic and acoustic environments.
14 Oct 2023; 8p with Trē Seguritan Abalos
Creative Coffee & Supply, 309 Smithfield St, Pittsburgh, PA
Trē Seguritan Abalos is a Filipina-American improviser and collaborative flutist with the Pittsburgh Sound Preserve. She collaborates with spoken word artists, beat makers, dancers, and visual artists.
I'll be in Pittsburgh from 10-15 Oct, presenting at the NACIS Annual Meeting on the 12th, and elsewhere.
8 Oct 2023; doors: 7p, performance: 7:30p with Darien Baiza (drums) and Abe Mamet (French horn); Tangent Universes opens
Rhizome DC, 6950 Maple St NW, Washington, DC
Darien Baiza is a drummer and improvisor based in the Baltimore area. Abe Mamet, aka Abram Wolfe, is a jazz musician and writer based in Washington, DC. He plays the French horn, and writes about incarceration, cities, and music. He was recently named one of 17 musicians to watch by DCist.
Carolyn (Zaldivar) Snow creates immersive compositions from her Mid-Atlantic context exploring collective memory in science and nature. Carolyn is a recent addition to the Mystery Circles label performing as Tangent Universes. Her sound installation Brittle Geometries/ Delicate Feedbacks will be included in the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Sound Scene Festival Summer 2023.
7 Oct 2023; 8p with Veronica Mercedes Jurkiewicz and Carlos Santiago Jr (strings)
Fire Museum Presents at The Perch, 2321 Emerald St, Philadelphia, PA
I'm excited to be appearing on this benefit performance for Philadelphia's Fire Museum Presents, in Fishtown. Looking forward to hearing the music of the many new-to-me performers on the bill, in particular, my collaborators Veronica Mercedes Jurkiewicz and Carlos Santiago Jr.
2 Oct 2023; 6:30-8p with The Asthmatic
Russell Hall Theatre, University of Southern Maine, Gorham, ME
This evening features a presentation about my work, followed by a short performance and Q & A with The Asthmatic the day after our full-length performance at The Apohadion Theater (see below). The evening is generously sponsored by the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education, and the Department of Theatre at the University of Southern Maine.
1 Oct 2023; doors: 7p, performance: 7:30p with The Asthmatic; Kerry Laitala opens
The Apohadion Theater, Portland, ME
The Asthmatic (A.K.A. Sigrid Harmon) has been a fixture in the Maine underground music scene for ten years [now]. She is a self-described one-woman band/sound collage that utilizes vaudevillian stage theatrics, synthesizers, and avant-vocal singing styles to communicate. Her obsession with phonetics, cadence, the formation of thoughts and language has grown into a visceral performance style that strays from speech into what could be described as sounds only found in the animal kingdom.
Kerry Laitala grew up on the Maine coast and considers her approach to making art–an array of media including films, videos, installations, photographic works, performances, and kinetic sculpture–a type of media archeology. She'll open tonight's program with a presentation of 16mm film, digital video, and her 3D Chromadepth treatments.
17 Apr 2023; 8-10p with Tamarisk
Jazz Gallery Center for the Arts, 926 E Center St, Milwaukee, WI
Tamarisk is and will continue to be: Christina Carter, David Menestres, & Andrew Weathers. Additional performances by Ghost Dance & Normal Rituals (Eli Smith & Peter J. Woods).
13 Apr 2023; 3-4:30p solo (lecture & demo)
American Geographical Society Library, Golda Meir Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
I'm honored to be speaking at the American Geographical Society Library. I'll present excepts of past performances, and talk about my motivations, inspirations, and technologies. This event will be presented in-person at the AGSL as well as online. If you wish to attend via Zoom, please register here to receive a link. For more information, email agsl@uwm.edu.
7 Apr 2023; 7p with multi-instrumentalist/composer Ben Zucker
Block Cinema, Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, 40 Arts Circle Dr, Evanston, IL
Ben Zucker is a composer and performer whose work thrives on juxtaposition and speculation. He has contributed to experimental music scenes across North America and the UK with concert works, albums, scores for media, and frequent performances on brass, percussion, voice, and electronics. They currently live in Chicago, finishing doctoral studies at Northwestern University while working as a performer, teacher, administrator, and organizer.
5 Apr 2023; 7p with upright bassist Ari Smith
Mills Folly Microcinema, Arts + Literature Laboratory, 111 S Livingston St, #100, Madison, WI
Ari Smith is an improviser, composer, and bassist active in the Madison experimental music scene, whose work draws on an academic interest in relational notions of agency, particularly with respect to technology and performance.
4 Apr 2023; 7p solo (lecture & demo)
Sector67, 56 Corry St, Madison, WI
I'm going to give a ten minute presentation about my work during Sector67's monthly open meeting. Sector67 is a hacker/makerspace or, more formally, a non-profit collaborative space dedicated to providing an environment to learn, teach, work-on, build, and create next generation technology; including software, hardware, electronics, art, sewing, metalwork, apps, games, etc.
23 Mar 2023; doors: 7:30p, performance: 8p with Carl Ritger on prepared lap steel guitar & modular sampler
Counterpath, 7935 East 14th Av, Denver, CO
Carl Ritger, fka Radere, is an improviser, composer, and sound artist hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Currently living and working on Colorado's Front Range, his work spans the shadowy gulf between drone, noise, and musique concrète, compositing guitars, electronics and location recordings into densely textured sonic environments. His recordings have been published via many independent labels, including Great Circles, Full Spectrum, Moodgadget, and Going In, among others.
The evening will open with Jose Villarán reading from his recently published Open Pit.
18 Mar 2023; 8-10p with noise magician Brett Darling (aka Spider Lights)
Noise Floor 8, Art Lab Fort Collins, 239 Linden St, Fort Collins, CO
Brett Darling, aka Spider Lights, is a Fort Collins based sound artist working primarily in the realm of modular synthesis and field recordings. Employing a variety of experimental techniques, Spider Lights takes sound out of context, feeds it to the machines, and transforms it into an infinitely undulating aural landscape for third-ear explorations.
With additional performances by Healing and MisTimer.
12 Mar 2023; 7p with Bob Marsh's Spontaneous Combustion Arts Performance Ensemble (SCAPE)
Blo Back Gallery, 131 Spring St, Pueblo, CO
Bob Marsh: Invading Space with Sound Line Color Words Shape Voice Motion since 1944
10 Mar 2023; doors: 6:30p, performance: 7p with cellist Daniel Zamzow
Radical Open Science Syndicate (ROSS) and the Geospatial Centroid, Wolverine Farm Publick House, 316 Willow St, Fort Collins, CO
Daniel Zamzow is a musician and audio producer who most frequently performs on cello in collaboration with Cloud Cult, Tyler T, and Crispy Watkins. Daniel's career began in the Minneapolis music scene, and expanded to include years of work in community radio, podcasting, and music education. He now lives in Northern Colorado with his family of musicians.
I'm honored that my March 9th noontime presentation in Colorado State University's Morgan Library, Room 203, is being billed as a Special Geospatial Centroid Event. I'll present excepts of past performances, and talk about my motivations, inspirations, and technologies.
2 Mar 2023; doors: 7:15p, performance: 7:30p solo
Prelinger Library, 301 8th St (@ Folsom), #215, San Francisco, CA
This will be the first solo performance, with maps being manipulated to a soundscape inspired by the Library's cartographic and geographic holdings. Once you arrive, scroll left through the arrow keys to reach “Prelinger Assoc”, then press the CALL button to be buzzed up to the second floor.
1 Mar 2023; 8p with Headboggle
LSG New Music Series, Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market St (@ 6th), San Francisco, CA
Derek Gedalecia's Headboggle project, active since 2006, has been performing electronic keyboard-based soundscapes around the Bay Area and around the U.S. The project incorporates art, music, and comedy into a modern electronic form.
Sharing the bill with Gonzalez/Ellestad: Lenny Gonzalez - electric guitar/effects, Erik Ellestad - tenor saxophone.
13 Nov 2022; 7p with instrument builder Krys Bobrowski on Gliss Glass and Sliding Speaker
sfSound's Mosswood Sound Series, Mosswood Chapel, 3630 Telegraph Av (@ 37th), Oakland, CA
Sharing the bill with pianist Anne Rainwater.
5 Nov 2022; 8p with Kevin Corcoran’s textural percussion & manipulated field recordings
Other Cinema, ATA Gallery, 992 Valencia St (@ 21st), San Francisco, CA
Kevin Corcoran works with an open interest in sound as medium as it moves through contexts of music, art, communication and place. He improvises and arranges sounds and objects while collaborating across disciplines and borders.
22 Oct 2022; 7:30p with upright & electric bassist Liz Draper
MirrorLab Studios, 3400 Cedar Av S, Minneapolis, MN
25 Sep 2022; 7p with oboist/composer Kyle Bruckmann
Shapeshifters Cinema, 567 5th St, Oakland, CA
Oboist Kyle Bruckmann tramples genre boundaries in widely ranging work as a composer/performer, educator, classical freelancer and New Music specialist.
15 Sep 2022; 8p with composer/performer Carl Stone
Indexical
Tannery Arts Center, 1050 River St. #119, Santa Cruz, CA
Carl Stone's Santa Cruz debut: new solo work in the first set, the premiere of our new collaboration in the second. Santa Cruz / Oakland trio MAXX GYORKEL opens with a new project. During his Bay Area visit Carl will also perform with Amma Ateria at The Lab as part of the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.
30 Jun 2022; 7:30p with multi-instrumentalist Jim Ryan and drummer Darien Baiza
Rhizome DC, 6950 Maple St NW, Washington, DC
Jim Ryan is a jazz inspired, free-form multi-instrumentalist who has performed for several decades in Paris, France, The San Francisco Bay free improv scene, and currently in the Washington D.C. Area. He plays winds, brass and small percussion. While living in the Bay Area he formed Green Alembic, an eight piece chamber group that improvised to projections of art and poetry. Darien Baiza is an exploratory multi-percussionist who is currently residing in the Baltimore area.
28 Jun 2022; 8p with saxophonist/clarinetist/shakuhachi player Ned Rothenberg
Millennium Film Workshop, 167 Wilson Av, Brooklyn, NY
Composer/Performer Ned Rothenberg has been internationally acclaimed for both his solo and ensemble music, presented for the past 40 years on 5 continents. He performs primarily on alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and the shakuhachi – an endblown Japanese bamboo flute. His solo work utilizes an expanded palette of sonic language, creating a kind of personal idiom all its own.
23 Jun 2022; 7:30p with saxophonist/flautist/composer Ken Field
Mass Audubon Magazine Beach Park Nature Center, 668 Memorial Dr, Cambridge, MA
Ken Field is a saxophonist, flautist, and composer. He leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, an experimental & improvisational brass band, and is a longtime member of the electronic modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. His solo releases document his work for layered saxophones and his soundtracks for dance and film.
21 Apr 2022; 8p with cellist/guitarist/vocalist Helena Espvall
Hangar: Centro de Investigação Artística, Rua Damasceno Monteiro, 12, Lisbon, PT
Helena Espvall is a Swedish-American musician noted for her participation in the post-millennial psychedelic folk and free improv scenes. Her early career included work with Arabian music ensemble Sumer and with Projektor 7, a silent movie orchestra formed by members of Swedish pop group Komeda. After relocating to Philadelphia she became a member of Espers and of The Valerie Project, and formed the duo Anahita with Tara Burke (a.k.a. Fursaxa). Collaboration with Masaki Batoh (of Japanese psych band Ghost) produced two albums released by Drag City. She has been a member of touring bands for Vashti Bunyan, Damon and Naomi, Ghost, and Marissa Nadler; she has made guest appearances on records by Bert Jansch, Arborea, and Charalambides, among others.
