June 14th - Mikronesia, Jesse Kudler & Park-Kane
Michael McDermott (Mikronesia) is a Philadelphia based composer, musician and producer. His musical tentacles extend into eight sound disciplines: ambient/soundscape recordings and performance, music for dance, music for films, interactive and static sound/media installations, playing keyboards in musical ensembles, composing music for electro-acoustic ensembles, producing other musicians in the studio and the creation of musical/sound design software.
Since the early 2000s Michael has been an active member of the Philaelphia electronic music scene. He has hosted a recurring open forum improvisational electronic music event (now called SHARE Philly) at various venues for the past 10 years. He has played keyboards in live electronic music based bands such as Gemini Wolf and Robots in Disguise.
Michael is a co-founder of the Philadelphia based label and music collective, earSnake. He also performs, writes and produces in the electronic music ensemble Gemini Wolf with Megan Cauley. Since its inception in 2005,Gemini Wolf has performed throughout the US and Europe and released five albums on earSnake. As a solo performer, Michael performs under the moniker Mikronesia on piano and electronics. He has performed in major cities around the world including New York, Toronto, Berlin, Paris and London.
Michael has scored music and sound design for dozens of choreographers over the years. He has created original music scores for movement-based artists such as Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd, Here Begin Dance, Ring Dance Theater, Jaamil Kosoko and Nora Gibson Performance Group.
Jesse Kudler- Born 1979, improvises on guitar, electronics, radios, and tapes and makes solo performance pieces and the occasional sound installation.
Kudler lives in Philadelphia. Current and "recent" projects include: live music with film; sound installation; a duo with Chandan Narayan; a duo with Ian Fraser; HZL, an environmental electronics duo with Tim Albro; duos with Chris Cogburn and Christian Weber; Benito Cereno (with Dustin Hurt, Chandan Narayan, Tim Albro, and Ian Fraser); Tweeter, a treble-intensive noise trio with Alex Nagle and Eli Litwin; and various ad hoc groupings. Kudler is the co-founder and co-Director (with Ian Fraser) of the Philadelphia Sound Forum.
He performed as part of the 2012-13 Cage: Beyond Silence festival, 2011 Sonic Circuits Festival, 2010 No Idea Festival, 2008 Dartmouth Festival of New Musics, and the 2007 Phoneme Festival.
NB: "Kudler" rhymes with “muddler.” Many friends refer to him as "the Kud."
PAST EVENTS:
May 24th - Tim Motzer, Melting Transistor, Kohoutek
Tim Motzer - After 14 years of international touring, stunning collaborations, and over 60 albums of credits—this Philadelphia-based guitarist continues to traverse manifold territories in music and has developed a distinct textural guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques ala Cage. He has worked with David Sylvian, Burnt Friedman, Jaki Liebezeit, Ursula Rucker, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, KIng Britt, Markus Reuter, Anthony Tidd, Ari Hoenig, and Theo Travis to name a few. He releases his music on his 1k Recordings imprint and webcasts sessions from his studio at 1ksessions.com. He also continues to score for the world of modern dance and film.(Live projections by Dejha Ti and Erik Silverson)
Melting Transistor - Juan Garces - synths, effects, mixing, percussion
Gethin Lewis - guitar and Floyd Bledsoe - synths, effects, complaining
Kohoutek - Improvised Psych with Noise Tendancies and Abstraction
April 26th 2013 - The Great Quentini, Genetique
At 8pm, at The Rotunda, Event Horizon will host performance artist The Great Quentini and the solo electronic musician Genetique. The concert is open to the public, free of charge and will begin at 8:00pm.
The Great Quentini Quentin Davis is The Great Quentini. He is a sculptor and a performance artist who makes his costumes and musical sculptures out of found materials. He has shows in which he wears costumes, plays these musical sculptures, and tells humorous stories; acting out the parts that defy words. These stories are often from his life experience.
Genetique - Aaron Todd is from the Philadelphia area and has been composing electronic music for five years under the name Genetique. Recently, he has performed at Electro-Music 2011 & 2012. A major part of Aaron's music is live manipulation and deformation of rhythmic elements. Many of his themes evoke the feeling of travel by the use of textures that slowly evolve throughout the song. Aaron utilizes both hardware and software instruments, and tends to write music in a minor key that does not conform to a particular genre. His influences include Aphex Twin, Autechre, Tipper, and Cex.
Mar8ram (pronounced Mar-bram) - An electroacoustic duo featuring Bill Marconi on various percussion and Wyman Brantley on computer electronics & electric guitar. Working in the elecroacoustic free improvisation lineage, mar8ram creates a music with space, echoing the classic lineage of this music while leaving room for new innovations to take root. Their most recent CD is entitled Antemeridian.
December 7th 2012 - Chuck Van Zyl & Terry Furber, William Fields
Chuck Van Zyl and Terry Furber - Creating layers of space out of pumping sequencer patterns, strident lead lines and harmonies warm and golden Chuck van Zyl & Terry Furberexplore the inner darkness of electronic music, yet out on the verg of ethereality their music gleams like new. Existing on a plane outside the oppressive rush of modernity this music quotes the classics of Spacemusic without mimicking them. Their musical sensibilities evoke a sense of discovery, with each concert marking a new frontier of sound.
Best known as host of STAR'S END (WXPN's renowned radio program of spacemusic dreamscapes) and as coordinator of The Gatherings (Philadelphia's premiere concert series of innovative music), Chuck van Zyl has also been making his own unique style of electronic music since 1983.
During the mid-90's Centaur Discs of Scotland released "Celestial Mechanics" (1993) and "The Relic" (1995). These albums compiled many of van Zyl's early cassette releases onto compact discs. It was during this same time period that Synkronos Music released "Regeneration Mode" (1994), the famous collaboration between Chuck van Zyl and The Nightcrawlers member Peter D. Gulch.
In 1992 Chuck van Zyl founded the group The Ministry of Inside Things. Along with guitarist Art Cohen they performed dozens of live concerts in various venues and unique spaces and released three live CDs on the Synkronos Music label: "Everlasting Moment" (2003), "Contact Point" (2006) and "Ambient Elsewhere" (2008).
"Cenotaph" is the forthcoming solo CD by Chuck van Zyl. The follow-up to "MemorySpace" (2010), "Cenotaph" is scheduled to be released by Synkronos Music on 17 November 2012 to coincide with his collaborative performance with Terry Furber at The Gatherings Concert Series.
Listening to the music of Terry Furber one would believe that digital synthesizers had never been invented. Furber demonstrates a masterful grasp of the vintage gear around which the spacemusic genre gravitates and explores the past in a new way. His music is discovered in the act of its making - with Furber perceiving the music as it is being realized.
Terry Furber's collaborative effort with guitarist Scott Watkins is the well-known duo Orbital Decay
. They have created several self-released CDs of music produced out of their lengthy jam sessions, as well as the acclaimed studio album "Solar Maxima" (2006).4 Orbital Decay has performed live at E-Music, Soundscapes, Gate to Moonbase Alpha, The Whitaker Center, The STAR'S END 30th Anniversary Concerts and The Gatherings Concert Series as well as on several significant broadcasts of STAR'S END Ambient Radio.
Currently Terry Furber is exploring his own solo studio electronic music - as well as the possibilities of the live performance space with collaborator Chuck van Zyl on Saturday 7 December 2012 as part of the Event Horizon series. Both efforts will feature the many classic synthesizers Furber has acquired and restored over the years, including the classic full sound of his 1969 Moog 1P modular system.
William Fields - William Fields has been creating electronic music for almost 20 years – from textural ambience to hard-driving dance tracks, and everything in-between. He recognizes no boundaries of genre or style, always exploring the vast potential afforded by making music with computers. He is also a student of sound and acoustics, working to present the music in its best possible light.
William has released music on various record labels around the world such as: Audiobulb, Gears of Sand, earSnake,Hippocamp, tbtmo, and Kikapu. He has performed and DJ'd throughout the northeastern USA and Canada at events of various scales: from bars and small clubs to festivals with thousands of people. His composition Indra was featured – and choreographed for modern dance – at the 2006 International Computer Music Conference.
William is based in Wilmington, DE, just outside of Philadelphia, PA, USA.
November 9th 2012 - Mayakara, Gina Ferrera, Twyndyllyngs
Mayakara - Mayakara, Sanskrit for Conjurer of Illusions, is the acoustic/electronic duo of Bill Fieger and Mike Hunter. They weave the acoustic elements of Bill’s custom built instruments and Mike’s electronic instruments and processors. Their unworldly sound invites the listener to join the shaman’s dance and see through the illusion that is “reality.” Bill also performs with Stairs to Nowhere and solo as Oblivious Solitude. Mike performs solo as Ombient, with Brainstatik and hosts the Ambient/Electronic/Experimental music show, “Music with Space” on WPRB 103.3 FM Princeton University Radio.
Gina Ferrera - Gina fuses folkloric polyrhythm with electronic music using a multi-dimensional MIDI drum controller, called the trapKAT and a 4-octave MIDI mallet keyboard, called malletKAT. Triggering live loops in a style termed, IDD- “Intelligent dance-drumming”, her live hybrid set-up is comprised of traditional percussion, improvised loop control, vocal effects and drumming on her custom Alternate Mode MIDI trapKAT to create electro-organic ethno-techno.
Twyndyllyngs (Howard Moscovitz and Bill Fox) Two long time solo electronic music artists
combine to form a unique sounding electronic music duo. Also part of the trio, xeroid entity, these musicians have together and individually played concerts in England, The Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Canada, Poland, Italy, Canary Islands in Spain, Berlin, Croatia, Romania, Montana, California, Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, upstate New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Atlanta. Twyndyllyngs may be heard on a weekly internet concert called Chez Mosc on electro-music radio. They play improvised experimental music which has been aired on Star's End (WXPN), Galactic Travels (WDIY), Thought Radio (WMUH), Music with Space (WPRB) and many internet-only programs
September 29th 2012 - PYXL8R, Groupthink, Bernhard Wöstheinrich & Tim Motzer
PYXL8R - Ken Palmer is the man behind the PYXL8R name and is an active musician and graphic artist. Ken creates ambient and electronic music as PYXL8R, and is also a member of the prog rock band Brainstatik.
Bernhard Wöstheinrich and Tim Motzer - Bernhard started in about 1987 to intensely experiment with his own sounds and tunes after he found out that drawing and painting simply weren’t enough to adequately express himself. He went about to find something that might had a more “performing” approach. Inspired by the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten and other informal and experimental music, he finally began to work in a very personal way to compose and record some early tapes. The rest, as they say, is history.
After 12 years of world touring, stunning collaborations, and over 60 albums of credits—this Philadelphia-based guitarist Tim Motzer continues to traverse manifold territories in music and has developed a distinct textural guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques ala Cage. He releases his music on his 1k Recordings imprint and webcasts monthly sessions from his studio at 1ksessions.com. He also continues to score for the world of modern dance and film.
June 2nd 2012 - ThadClar, Hunter and Harrison & Thin Air
ThadClar -ThadClar is musician Roycee Martin who has been playing music for over 30 years. Most of that time he was a Bass player playing Blues and Top 40 music. Now days Roycee is very much inspired by ambient/space music. For his latest project “ ThadClad” he draws from elements of analog sequencers and live looping with the ChapmanStick and some effects processing, all mixed and tweaked live. The music comes from the space at the edge of consciousness just before a deep sleep. Let the hypnotic sound take you on a relaxing journey through space.
Hunter and Harrison This duo consists of guitarist Mike Hunter (of Ombientand the host of the WPRB radio program Music With Space) and guitarist Harrison McKay (of The Tangent Project.) The perform guitar based ambient electronic music using loopers and guitar synthesizers. Synphonic levels of sound are achieved. (photo credit: Hong Waltzer)
Thin Air is the solo project of Steve Bowman (of Delicate Monster.) His sounds ranges from ambient and dreamy to raucous noise. Harmonies from atonal to modal. Melodies from chromatic to singable themes. Sometimes all in the same composition.
April 27th 2012 - Joo Won Park & Ace Paradise
Joo Won Park is a composer/researcher of music within several genres. His music and audio
applications have been featured in several conferences such as the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States Conference, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, and International Computer Music Conference, as well as in print in Electronic Musician and The Csound Book. He received M.M and Ph.D. in composition at the University of Florida, where he studied with James Paul Sain, Paul Richards, and Paul Koonce. He graduated from Berklee College of Music majoring in Music Synthesis and Contemporary Writing/Production under the direction of Richard Boulanger. Dr. Park was an associate director of Florida Electroacoustic Music Festival, and currently serves as an assistant professor of music at the Community College of Philadelphia. His music is available on the ICMC 2004 DVD, Spectrum Press, and Computer Music Journal.
Ace Paradise - "A native of southern New Jeresy, Ace Paradise's enduring fascination with Electronic Music has led him to a number of diverse situations. From the nightclub and rave dancefloor as veteran Techno DJ to the deep space chill of STAR'S END as live performer, Ace Paradise understands and embraces the many genres of EM. Using his influences and inspirations, Ace Paradise creates music which is at once cerebral yet accessible" - Chuck Van Zyl, Host of Stars End on 88.5 WXPN Philadelphia, PA. You can visit his soundcloud page here.
March 31st 2012 - Onewayness, Benjamin Miller & Jason Sloan 8pm - Graphic Score/Found Sounds Workshop from 2pm - 4pm
onewayness is Adam Holquist, an experimental electronic musician from Erie, Pennsylvania. He uses hardware and software synths, spoken word and field recordings, and a variety of acoustic and electric instruments to create atmospheric compositions which draw influence from vintage Berlin-school electronic music, minimalism, post-rock, and contemporary electronic ‘listening music'.
Ben Miller uses alto saxophone as source material in combination with tape deck abuse, arcaneelectronics, analog synthesis and fkt-up drum loops. He sets up a wall of dense, varying frequencies through feedback and incidental improvisation.
Jason Sloan is an electronic musician, composer, new.media, sound and net.work artist working from Baltimore, Md. His work explores aspects ofimmateriality and it’s connection in life, death, memory, systems and the virtual world. Through his performances, installations, audio environments, videos net.work actions and sound recordings, he examines the need for transcendence beyond the body through a vehicle of visual ritual and sonic stimulation. With this dialog, Sloan feels an urgency to evoke a collective experience between the viewer, listener and artist that can bridge the gap between the physical and non-physical world. The focus of this transcendence is not to conform to any current trends or systems, but to take a non-dogmatic approach of artistic and intellectual inquiry that explores the basic human need for some type of spiritual alignment or wholeness.
At 2pm - 4pm, Benn Miller will be conduting a workshop of Graphic Scoring and Found Sounds. A donation is humbly suggested ($5-$10)
“A demonstration and exchange of ideas on creative scoring and improvisation using graphic scores, found sound and external operations.”
- Students learn, perform and record Sound using Found Sound via simple Graphic Scores]
- Students record found sound onto various lo-budget Tape Decks and a Casio SK1 8-bit sampler
- Students create, perform and record a collaborative Graphic Score using live sound and music concrete.
November 3rd 2011 - The Great Quentini, Northern Valentine and Delicate Monster
At 8pm, at The Rotunda, Event Horizon will host performance artist
The Great Quentini, Northern Valentine and Delicate Monster in the main performance space. The concert is open to the public, free of charge and will begin at 8:00pm.
The Great Quentini Quentin Davis is The Great Quentini. He is a sculptor and a performance artist who makes his costumes and musical sculptures out of found materials. He has shows in which he wears costumes, plays these musical sculptures, and tells humorous stories; acting out the parts that defy words. These stories are often from his life experience.
Northern Valentine Northern Valentine is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based ambient/drone collective anchored by husband and wife, Robert and Amy Brown.Their music is largely improvisational and is often set to original films that the collective has created.
Coaxing sounds from electric and acoustic sources, they weave meditative drones and soundscapes with "barely there" post-rock instrumentation to create a tapestry that Phil McMullen (Terrascope Online) refers to as "minimalist ambiance at its best. Heartfelt, soulful and affecting, like gazing into a scrapbook of memories".
Delicat
e Monster Both Art Cohen (guitar) and Steve Bowman (synths) love to arg ue about what makes g ood music-with each other and with anybody else who feels as passionat ely as the y do. Through Delicate Monster, they make their arguments
in sound.
When Art and Steve disagree with each other, it's a consequence of their divergent musical backgrounds. Art is rooted in psychedelic guitar,Berlin-school spacemusic, and American folk. He's been a fixture on the
Philly music scene for 25 years-you may know him as half of the duo The Ministry of Inside Things (with Chuck van Zyl). Steve has a musty degree in Music from Harvard, where he first encountered the Buchla. He draws his influence from classical music and radical composers like Ives, Stockhausen, Subotnick, Monteverdi, Bach, and Ligeti. (Their musical tastes do overlap with the Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart). Art pushes Steve to let the music be clear and simple and to groove on the repetition. Steve pushes Art to surrender to his weird side and luxuriate in the complexity of counterpoint and the thrill of abject dissonance. Playing together off and on for 20 years, Art and Steve have managed to merge their stylistic differences into a novel musical language that is Delicate Monster.
September 22nd - Electronic Memory, Twyndyllyngs and Richard Lainhart
At 8pm, at The Rotunda, Event Horizon will host Electronic Memory, Twyndyllyns and Richard Lainhart in the main perforance space. As always, the concert is free and will begin at 8:00pm.
A slideshow of pictures from this past event can be found here
About the artists:
Electronic Memory (Ken Palmer and Mike Hunter) Members of the Space Rock outfit Brainstatik
step away from space/ambient/electronic/rock/prog/world music and dive into pure electronic music in a compelling way. Ken also performs solo under the PYXL8R name and Mike Hunter under theOmbient moniker.
Twyndyllyngs (Howard Moscovitz and Bill Fox) Two long time solo electronic music artists combine to form a unique sounding electronic music duo. Also part of the trio, xeroid entity, these musicians have together and individually played concerts in England, The Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Canada, Poland, Italy, Canary Islands in Spain, Berlin, Croatia, Romania, Montana, California, Arizona, Florida, New Jersey, upstate New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Atlanta. Twyndyllyngs may be heard on a weekly internet concert called Chez Mosc on electro-music radio. They play improvised experimental music which has been aired on Star's End (WXPN), Galactic Travels (WDIY), Thought Radio (WMUH), Music with Space (WPRB) and many internet-only programs
Richard Lainhart (rlainhart@otownmedia.com) is an award-winning composer, author, and filmmaker - a digital artisan who works with sonic and visual data. Since childhood, he's been interested in natural processes such as waves, flames and clouds, in harmonics and harmony, and in creative interactions with machines, using them as compositional methods to present sounds and images that are as beautiful as he can make them.
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