12/18/10

2 Lous + Greg Kowalski

Video by Greg Kowalsky.  He is manipulating projections in real time as 2Lous performs off to the side.  The sculptures seen were constructed out of salvaged materials by Peter Donovan and myself. 

12/16/10

Performance Audio from Oct. 23 2010

   As has been their tradition Lou Bunk and Lou Cohen who host Somerville Massachusetts' Open Sound Series, have posted a recording of my set on October 23rd.  This is the first time I've been able to listen back to a live performance.  Interesting.  Here's the LINK to listen.  This performance was in stereo.  However, my home stereo currently is mono so I can't attest to the stereo effect on this recording.  Enjoy...

11/22/10

Sun Worship VII on the Horizion

   Sun Worship no. 7 is coming up in less than four weeks!  I have to admit, the Winter Solstice one is my favorite.  And just days after this event, we will be treated to a full moon on the solstice.

The Sun Worship is going to be a bit more work than usual but I'm looking forward to the results.  Based on the collaborative participation effect Laura Lulof's installation had on the previous Sun Worship event, it seemed like it just wouldn't be the same to go back to the same old Buoy Gallery for the next one.  So I have enlisted area artists Peter Donovan, Al Mead, and Greg Kowalski to help transform the space once again into another collaborative installation.  Performers  that evening will include Peace, Loving from Jamaica Plain, after a very heavy year of touring.  Also appearing will be Maine's veterans of improvisational sound, Mystic Out Bop Review, Walter Wright's Loup Garou, Lou Bunk and Lou Cohen from the Open Sound series in Somerville will bring 2Lous, and of course, an installation of the Offset Needle Radius.  Greg Kowalski (previously of Qfwfq Duo) will be returning to add beautiful improvised projections throughout the evening.  Come one come all to another convergence of the Sun Worship! 

Copies of the poster on heavy semi-gloss paper will be available for purchase at the event or get in touch with me.

10/25/10

Balloons, Bicycles, and Bodies::: Offset Needle Radius opening for Judy Dunaway Dec. 4th

  When::: Saturday December 4th, 8pm
  Where::: Andrew's Loft, 381 Congress Street Boston

Andrew Eisenberg has extended a great invitation to me which I thankfully accept.  I'll be performing on a bill with internationally known  Judy Dunaway at Andrew Eisenberge's loft on Saturday December 4th.  The theme of this event is "Balloons, Bicycles, and Bodies".  Fulfilling the Bodies portion will be Bodydrama - movement by Joe Burgio , Rachael Rosner, Betty Wang; sound by Lou Cohen, Matt Samolis, Walter Wright. 

   Judy Dunaway has explored New Music utilizing balloons as primary sound source since the late 1980's.  She's perfomed with many vetrans of New York's New Music movement since the late 80's and has written over 40 pieces of music for balloon.


Find more artists like Judy Dunaway at MySpace Music
  Judy is currently a visiting lecturer for the Massachusetts College of Art in the Art History department. 
   Andrew's loft is at 381 Congress Street in Boston.  This space used to be the Mobius offices.  Show up around 8.


View Larger Map

Come and Gone::: Octoer 23rd at THird LIfe STudio Union Square SOmerville

   THe long awaited Offset Needle Radius Somerville premier has happened.  My sincere thanks to Lou Cohen and Lou Bunk for hosting the series and inviting me to participate.
   Weeks prior to found me in the studio after work, casting into the night's dark embrace working on the expanded vocabulary of my untrue cast of spoked hoops, new movement, new sounds, new dialogue.  
    The night concluded with the participants packing gear, brief conversations, and hauling equipment out to vans and cars parked outside on Somerville Avenue.  It was probably around 11pm.  The last performance was birdorgan, accompanied by Laurie Amat on vocalizations and Lucio Menegon a.k.a. Kingtone on prepared guitar.  Diedre was off on an island off the Maine Coast creating her own mayhem for the evening.
   Prior to birdorgan and friends was Shawn Greenlee of Providence.  He triggered sounds utilizing a lit sensor picking up color and shape drawn on a piece of paper at close range, fed into a laptop and then amplified on a fender 212 Combo and GK solid state amp into some stacked 6/10 speaker cabinet.  The computer screen lit with waves of distorted color accompanying a shrill distorted scream of tones in unison.
   After my set and a brief repose the duo of Noell Dorsey and Brendan Murray performed a piece for two voices , crash symbol, tom drum and synths.  
   I built a few new piezo contact mics and taped them down good to 50cm x75cm plastic sheets Dei Xrist had bestowed upon me weeks prior.  Bicycle wheels were rolled on the floor like boomerang yoyos try as they might to return to the Master's warm hand, lose momentum until succumbing to a slow motion wobble dance until a crescendo of metallic death cry ends in still silence the wheel looses all vibration.  The hand grabs and returns it to life to repeat this ritual again, again, with the others rolling and crashing.  Plastic contact sheets on the wall and floor a wheel finds its way and rests there with aggressive hisses now amplified the metal scrapes along the plastic sheet.  A metal rod produced assists in each spoke speaking its harmonic identity.  They rang and hissed each with its own 11/32nds out of tune with its neighbor.  Subtle input from two other wheels resting aside the A/V cart which was also amplified.  Onto the Aalpa Wheel, the First and Best of them, atop the TS 2.  It blobbered, trickled, cackled and swooned in a outpour of emotions for nearly 10 minutes.
   In all performed for about 30 minutes.  It felt good, complete, not rushed nor bullied from the switch in the line up from third position to first.  After my eminent start was announced I stood bent in half holding my charges silently at my side until the room settled down to a pre dawn hush of 60Hz.  THen they began to roll and tumble as I described.
   It was the first test of a pair of JBL Eon 15 G2's I picked up in Woburn on the way down. I met George in a large ballroom linened for a wedding party of 95.  Staff milled about the empty room making small adjustments to the setting.  George was the wedding D.J. that night and he had some Rock Classique howling threw them.  I didn't need the demonstration.  I knew what I was getting.  Setting them up at the THird Life Studio I noticed one of the volume pots was seriously fucked up scratchy.  It was a little annoying at the time but I don't mind in the long run.  I'll fix it when I've finally had enough.
   Eli and I opted to leave the van where it lay, a block away on Bow Street.  Might as well as I've already gotten the parking ticket, a reward for not feeding the meter that hid in complete dark blackness beneath the tree beside the van.  I had no idea those meters were nocturnal.
   After circling the globe over and over in tighter offset radii until we were circling around Union Square looking for a landing, getting off course, righting ourselves, and finally exiting the vessel.  That's when I wish I had noticed the unreadable writing on the shadowed toll troll demanding rent on the curb I had taken.  But I didn't . Instead Eli and I crossed the street and walked, in search of food.  In a window was Marc Bisson, Mike Daily, and their friend and a third of Prehistoric Horse, Lucio Menegon.  
   They were eating large fresh looking sandwiches full of stuff.  Food friendship and information all in one stop.  Birdorgan was just off a week trip down to NYC for a few performances and Lucio had just performed at 119 Gallery the previous evening. 
   I failed at Boston navigation once again, guessing in leu of street signage as seems to be the tradition.  I think it may be necessary to mature there or at least drink the water for an extended period to gain the homing pigeon extra sense of locality to efficiently navigate the paved cow paths Boston is built on.  No matter the hassle of hunting for signs denoting our current and desired location I am always glad to be in the heart, just a curb away from being swept along with the trash in the street.  It is eye opening alive and complex.  Next time I'm bringing along a map.  THat will be December 4th at Andrew Isenberg's loft at 381 Congress Street in Boston propa.  See you then.

   If you're lost and looking for a specific location in Boston, just remember::: it's right next to the Dunkin Donuts. 

10/8/10

10----------10----------10----------

Our favorite stressed out fish Crank Sturgeon has put together a last minute celebration to mark the coming of the Three Wise Tens, this Sunday October 10th, 2010.  Wait, if I'm correct, the date on that very day will be 10/10/10!  How could it be!  It must surely be a universal convergence.  But what does that date really represent?  It's been ten years, ten months and ten days since Y2K!  2000, a new era of stuff that, well, is a lot like stuff before but more faster and techier.
   Performing their interpretation of the significant convergence of 10's will be

Offset Needle Radius
Galen Richmond
Mystic Out-Bop Review
Id m theft able
Andrea Pensado
Walter Wright & Setheyney (Satan)
Crank Sturgeon
Skinny Vinny

     I am sharpening 10 bicycle wheels to be wielded as ancient weapons to defend the Trifecta of 10's from outside subvergence.  Come see me spin, scatter, roll and tape these ten beasts of sacrificial offering.This will take place at Apohadion Theatre

107 Hanover St
Portland, ME


Crank Sturgen metamorphosizes

Crank's 10 Heartbeats

Andrea Pensado lets out the demons


Offset Needle Radius hones in on some bicycle wheel magic

All the players played

Pictures by Elizabeth Thompson
Things will(didn't) begin promptly at 8pm so don't fuck around.  

9/3/10

Sun Worship VI Taking(taken::) Shape

   Hot on the tails of another Frantasia Festival is the 6th edition of Sun Worship Series.  This time Mercury will still be recovering from a retrograde session of confusion and adding to that sensation is an installation at our host gallery Buoy.  The installation is by Brooklyn artist Lauren Luloff.  The space is broken up with colorful walls of laminated fabric with occasional windows and portals.  Should be interesting- and I like interesting.


Photos by Elizabeth Thompson

   On the bill was Id M Theft Able, Skinny Vinny, some such configuration of Birdorgan, and the post accident return of Offset Needle Radius, Improvised projections by Greg Kowalski.  At the conclusion of Id M Theft Able's set, a chorus of mayhem ensued created by all of the evening's participants. 
   This was first Sun Worship not to occur on a SUNday.  Instead, it will be happening on SATurday September Eighteenth.  SO no more excuses.   Come experience fringe sound art in an otherwise well hemmed arts community.

8/26/10

Frantasia 2010, Still Maine's Largest Festival of "OUt" Music

   Just a day before Frantasia 2010 was to begin, I called curator Fran Szostek to tell him Offset Needle Radius would not be performing.  With my hands still battered from a bicycle accident on June 23rd, I was not prepared physically or mentally to perform.  My spirit was damaged in that crash, debilitating my hands, making everything I do difficult or impossible.  After six weeks of physical therapy the hands have improved, at least the right hand has.  The left is still not much better than it was soon after the accident.  Self pity aside, I do feel lucky that I still have five fingers on each hand and they each can do at least a little something.
    I was rolling into Livermore Falls at about 6 on Friday August 19th under grey velvet skies.  I love turning the corner and crossing the bridge into Livermore Falls, the lonely little town seemingly unaware of the annual festival that takes place here, drawing talented performers of fringe music from all across the Northeast. 
   At Fran and Kathleen's house, I found Walter Wright, Joe Burshio, Kathleen, Noel Walsh, as well as meeting a few new people on the walk down to the Livermore Falls public library that would host this year's festival.
   Nights full of a wide range of music, primarily consisting of experimental free improv, New music, performed by exceptional musicians dedicated to this fringe form of creative expression.  Crank Sturgeon Andrew from Skinny Vinny, Audrey Chen and her son Ivan, Walter Wright's Apocolypso Trio with Id M THeftable, all Friday night, here in this small auditorium beneath the library, just off the main drag in this small paper mill town.
   Inside there are sounds created in the moment, some that will only be heard in this fleeting moment.  People sit quietly in folding chairs witnessing this performance carefully watching, noting how these objects sing when in the hands of the performers.  Each year returning performers return with further reaching, intentional depth learned from the previous year.  We come and learn how to be free from the confines of popular music.  We come and share the results of our work, to show how far we have come in twelve moths. 
   Outside dimly lit by a street lamp, below street level parking lot tucked behind the post office and library, walled in by a jungle of overgrown August weeds and trees.  People are talking, catching up, reuniting after having not seen each other since last year's Frantasia.  They are missing something happening inside, or watching through the open door to the stage.
   One can not or at least shouldn't try to absorb every sound wave emanated in a night, over-taxing one's ability to really hear what is happening.  Breaks and rests are necessary to recharge.  There is too much going on in each moment to take it all in. My ears take in the masters, performing sets I wouldn't want to miss for anything, live music that will be unlike anything I've experienced.  Other sets are performed by the learners, the listeners, studiers, still finding their sound, still learning how to hear, not quite having yet learned to let go, to channel.
   Showing up a day late to the beginning of this year's Frantasia leaves me feeling not quite fulfilled at the conclusion of the weekend.  Where as last year I was present for the entire event, this year I felt as if I could have benefited from just a little more.
   Spending those three days together at meals, workshops, nightly performances, a feeling of belonging to a sort of extended family sets in.  Sharing a devotion to and appreciation of fringe sound has found us together each year here at this unlikely venue.  Frantasia is a festival, a musician's retreat, a family reunion, brought together by a special person Fran Szostek with the help of his wife Kathleen.  For more information and sign up, follow link HERE>>>

7/3/10

Sun Worship V, The One That Almost Got Away

   Feverishly trying to keep up with springtime work volumes at the bike shop took precedence over creative endevers.  That meant that planning for the fifth Sun Worhsip event suffered. So I was even more grateful for the performers who were able to rally with only two weeks notice.  Eric Dhalman was able to enlist a friend on guitar and bass to accompany him on horns, whistles, and various light treats. Although Joshua Jefferson was not in the area to join in, Steve Norton and Angela Sawyer were up for a performance and brought their elaborate collection of bird calls, horns, electronics.  They performed an extensive and dynamic set moving through various textures and intensities.  Birdorgan was complete again with percussionist Mike Daley who incorporated his crutches in the first performance since he crashed his scooter.  Lighting up their set was Greg Kowalski from Qfwfq Duo, projecting real time abstract images across the group and wall behind.  I brought along the bicycle wheel, electronics, etc., for a performance of Offst Needle Radius that was somewhat eclipsed by bunq's implosion of various objects, crumpled paper, balancing sticks, toys, etc.
   In all, the evening was another great night of free improv performance.  September will bring Sun Worship VI, will be the first Sun Worship event to take place on a Saturday, and will no doubt be great.  So write it on your calender, September 18th: Sun Worship VI!

3/29/10

Sunday April 11th:::Ecco Fatto, Speet Silex from France, Coming To Buoy Gallery

   Ecco Fatto is a year old duo comprised of Emmanuel Lalande and Jean-Paul Buisson.  Their sound is comprised of improvised material derived from a piano sound board and the inner workings of an electronic piano.  Examples of the results sound sparce, dark, dream-like sound/wave patterns, as a soundtrack to the moving waves of color one sees after minutes of being conscious with one's eyes closed.  Click on one of the blue bars to hear examples.
 Ecco Fatto photo by Elizabeth Thompson
 Ecco Fatto photo by Elizabeth Thompson
 Frank of Mystic Out Bop Review, photo by Elizabeth Thompson
 Skinny Vinny photo by Elizabeth Thompson

   Accompanying Ecco Fatto on this visit to the United States, will be Speet Silex, which was a late addition and unfortunately, I have no information to offer other than THIS.
   Also on the bill will be Mystic Out Bop Review, a trio of musicians from Maine who have just celebrated a 10-year anniversary.  Plus Joshua Jefferson from Skinny Vinny and Duck That! will bring his group Hospice for the 300.
   Again, this will be on Sunday, April 11th.  Doors are at 7:00PM and I hope to get the show started around 7:30.  Donations are requested to offset the costs to performers and the gallery.  

3/24/10

Offset Sounds with Marc Bisson Friday Apr. 2nd, 119 Gallery


   Prepared guitarist Marc Bisson of birdorgan and I will collaborate for a set at 119 Gallery on Friday April 2nd.  The evening will feature a performance by Stutter Inst. from Switzerland.  Marc and I have collaborated on three occasions now, most recently at the Buoy Gallery in Kittery as part of Sun Worship IV.  Each time we come together, our communication evolves as it twists and turns around our contrasting sound vocabularies.  Come listen to the resulting sounds combined.
   119 Gallery is at 119 Chelmsford St. in Lowell, Massachusetts.  The gallery will open its doors around 7 pm.  Donations are requested to offset costs to performers and the gallery.
   In addition to performing with Marc Bisson, I will be premiering a new visual time-based art piece at 119 Gallery.  The work has just been completed, titled, Spring Trim, and features sculpted hair atop my head.  This will be the first public showing of this piece, which will be an ongoing work as the hair grows thus slowly changing over the weeks and months to come.  

3/8/10

Sun Worship IV IS Coming: Sunday March 21st

   Thriving on the deadline, the flier is in the works. A great line up once again with diverse sets from New England Phonographers Union, Warewolf, Crank Sturgeon, Marc Bisson, bunq, and of course, Offset Needle Radius.

   The New England Phonographers Union
is a fluid congregation of sound artists and field recordists who work with untreated and unprocessed recordings of the rich and varied sounds around them. Through the exploration and documentation of urban and rural public spaces, sound objects and events, the Union captures auditory phenomena otherwise lost, and re-interpret the particularity of individual places as a newly idealized sonic environment. Within a focused listening environment the members present their recordings, both individually and as collaborative improvisations.  Performing at Sun Worship IV will be Rick Breault, Mike Bullock, Linda Aubrey Bullock, Ernst karel, and Jed Speare.
  
   Crank Sturgeon
has been freaking out audiences around New England and the world for longer than I can tell you about. His combination performance art/noise creation is always unique and completely unignorable.  Utilizing during various performances, nudity, inflatable sculptures, masks and costumes, contact mics, intense square wave generators and high volume.  Crank Sturgeon was unable to participate in Sun Worship III having just come off yet another European tour and down with a case of the travel bugs.  I'm really excited to bring him back to Kittery this time around.

 Loup Garou (Warewolf)
is collaborative group consisting of Walter Wright of Apocalypso Trio on electronics, Setheyny Pen of Ralph Eats Dynamite on toy pianos and objects, Mike Daily of birdorgan on prepared guitar and whatnot, Kit Demos of Mystic Out Bop Review on electronics.  The pairing of sound sources can at first seem unlikely or perhaps unsettling. The introduction of melody from the damaged primitive sounds of the toy piano jars some peoples idea of free improv sound.  The result is playful and disarming at times, conflicting and challenging other moments.  This event will see Mike Daily hurting his drums, accompanied by Walter Wright and Kit Demos on electronicas.  Sadly, Setheny and her toy pianos won't be able to make it...

   Marc Bisson
is one quarter of birdorgan, utilizing prepared guitar, electronics, synths, wind up toys, and many other objects to create sort of a one man improv band of unique sound that moves easily through varying textures and intensities.

   bunq
has been appearing at area free improv sound events for some time, usually accompanying sound performers with his creative stacking and balancing performances.  Always with different elements to create teetering towers with, challenging his own sense of balance and the limits of structural gravity resistance, until the inevitable climax of a crash scattering objects across the floor.  Each time David's performances are an exercise in tension building, structure rendering, release, and rebuilding.

   This is happening at Buoy Gallery at 2 Government St in Kittery just over the bridge from Portsmouth.  We'll get things started around 7pm.  Donations requested.  Please bring $$ or gas cans full of petrol to help offset the cost to performers and the gallery for bringing you this event.  It is truly a labor of love and oobe.

2/24/10

Review of Offset Needle Radius -vs- nickname: Rebel Album

Cheshire Cat Sez: Who needs form and void when you can float out into the nether regions of the ether? Imagine the track -IONS- from Tool's Aenima stretched across an entire album.   See it in it's original context HERE>..

1/4/10

January brings sounds from across the Atlantic Ocean to the Maine Seacoast.

  Hey, listen up friends:  Coming up are a few rare chances to catch Wouter Jaspers, Bram Stadhouders, and Bas Verbeek all on tour from Tilburg in Noord Brabant, The Netherlands. For a few exclusive dates around the Eastern Seaboard, including three events this week here in Maine.  Each performing a unique solo improvised sound set, you might hear collages of motors and vocal sounds, infinite reverb drone, classical guitar, words, swoops, and sighs among other things.  Upcomming dates are below.   
  Sunday night January 3rd in 2010, Marc and Dei opened their house to friends to hear sounds and music from these three distant travelers.  They had food and refreshing beverages to share in a pot luck setting.  The food was great tasting, healthy, and satisfying, just right for getting ready for some noise.  People drove in from an hour away on snow covered roads to be in that basement that night.
   Offset Needle Radius combined sounds with Marc Bisson and Dei Xrist of birdorgan.  We ripped and crunched and scraped and wiggled guitar strings, looped SK-1,s droaned dropped vocals and other tongue sounds.  Then Bas Varbeek sat down on the red cloth, lit the candle, and emitted a deep drone from a black Les Paul, beginning softly and rising to fill our minds.  Vocal layers of drone eventually overtook the Les Paul, dominating the thick reverb heavy sound.
   Next was Wouter Jaspers who had performed in 2008 at Ello Gallery in Portsmouth,with Staplerfahrer .  Sitting at the card table strewn with stomp boxes, mixer, laptop, cables, and piles of other things, Jaspers slowly began to interweave tones and textures; a drifting piece incorporating speech, small electric motor radio frequencies, microcassette sounds. 
   Closing the evening was Bram Stadhouders.  He brought out a beautiful classical nylon stringed guitar.  With an internal mic running into an IBook, Verbeek improvised three pieces.  Beginning with subtle foley sounds and then incororating classical runs up and down  the neck.  His playing embraced more of the classical style that has won Verbeek awards at competetions as his set progressed.
   These three artists have traveled far to share their sound visions with us here.  Please get out and see them at one of the upcomming events around the Eastern Seaboard.

17-12 Zebulon – New York, NY
19-12 Pyramid Atlantic - Washington DC
20-12 Robin's Bookstore - Philadelphia, PA
22-12 Ghost Print Gallery - Richmond, VA
23-12 Bobo Gallery - Asheville, NC
26-12 Ed's - Hickory, NC
27-12 TBA - Charlotte, NC
28-12 Badgerhouse - Raleigh, NC
29-12 Nightlight - Chapel Hill, NC
30-12 Garfield Artworks, Pittsburgh, PA
03-01 The House of Goings - Manchester, NH
05-01 Daileyville - Lowell, MA
06-01 South Side Grill - Lewiston, ME
07-01 Memorial Library, Main Street - Livermore Falls, ME
08-01 Strange Maine - Portland, ME
09-01 Buoy Gallery, 2 Government St. - Kittery, ME
10-01 Sunday coma series - New York, NY
11-11 Douglas Street Music Collective, New York, NY.