Sun Worship 8 at BUOY March 19th

   I am very excited for the 8th in the Sun Worship Series.  Not only because the line up consists of performers whose work I truly hold in high regard, and that some of these performers have become my friends.  But Sun Worship 8 concludes two years of the series.  Two years is not so long to be doing something.  But in the early days I really had no idea if I could pull something like this off.  Now it's two years later.  Thank You BUOY!
   This Sun Worship takes place of the night of the Super Moon, a full moon while the moon passes above the closest it's been in 18 years.  Scientists studying the moon's influence on our planet report an increased incident of earthquakes, unusually high tides, and volcanic activity during a Super Moon occurrence.  This will obviously have an affect on the energy on Saturday night which will be intense.  Come experience some intense energies at BUOY!  If you're unsure about coming out to be at a public occasion, wear a mask or costume.  Or stand out under the intensity of the super moon light watch through the window.  But please if you can donate a buck or two for out of town performers its much appreciated...

Andrea Pensado has ventured off into solo and occasional collaborative performance since the disbanding of her previous duo QUFUQ DUO.  Overheard recently at XFest where she performed with guitarist Dave Ross and Lou Cohen, a comment about the brief description of Andrea's work: laptop.  Her performance goes vastly beyond what comes to mind when imagining a performer behind the laptop generating sound.   Andrea uses her voice and passion with screams, screeches and subtler sounds to create sound pieces that range from static and gentle vocalizations to harsh high decibel intensity.

Crank Sturgeon for those uninitiated, earned himself a reputation for public nudity and being a nonsensical nut over the 20 years he has been performing.  I know him as an extremely approachable fellow that transforms into a half fish half human sound scientist who has assembled some unpredictable experiments to share with his audience.  His performances are constantly changing incorporating various props and special effects as well as audience participation. 

Steve Norton is an expert player of many horns who has been tooting around Boston for a stack of decades.  He partakes in many Boston area groups such as Duck That!, and Metal And Glass Ensemble.  He has enlisted floutest Matt Samolis who is credited with founding Metal And Glass Ensemble among many other great honors.

Eric Dahlman is a Boston area horn player who incorporates various other acoustic sound elements to his improvised performance.  Horns, some common some strange like the two headed horn, wind up toys, aluminum foil, all thrown into the mix.  Performances I have seen of Eric's I would describe as gentle, playful at times.  Sometimes angular and generative.

Dave Seidel spent 10 years playing electric guitar in New York's New Music scene, and playing some killer gigs at that.  Now he lives in Peterborough and performs primarily on computer using CSound to generate compelling drones of sound that hook one's attention and then pulls the listener through a transformative listening experience.  Is it magic?  Is it hypnotism?

Joshua DeScherer was granted his PhD for music composition from Buffalo University in 2009.  I first heard him perform an unusual piece written for voice and double bass at Frantasia Festival that same year.  He's been teaching music in Portland and working on repurposing electronic toys and studying the sound qualities of dismembered vinyl Lp's.  I am looking forward to finding out what he might bring to his first Sun Worship event.  

Art from the 2011 Art-PM Challenge will be showing in BUOY Gallery at the same time. 

This will be the second consecutive Sun Worship event which I will not be performing at.  Offset Needle Radius will be back for the following two Sun Worships.  June will be the Divisible By 3 Sun Worship  9 on 06/18, comprised of all trios with the live projections of Greg Kowalski.  I will be performing with Steve Norton and birdorgan's Marc Bisson.
Sun Worship 10 will be all acoustic in which I will perform a duo with trumpeter Forbes Graham.

Stay tuned and thank the Sun.

Self Torture Mental Sickness

Yesterday was the first day of XFest, a mash up of musicians from the area with some visitors from NYC and Montreal.  Each set is comprised of two regional and one visiting performer.  Nothing is predetermined, all music or sound pieces created on the spot.  As with last year I performed in the first set of the festival with a trumpet player from Boston I really admire and a guitarist from NYC. 

All day I was tearing myself up, wondering what the hell I was doing devoting my time for creative expression to performing these sound collages on bicycle wheels.  Is it any good?  Is there some relevance to what I'm doing?  Or is it misguided garbage just pissing away the energy into the dumpster?   I was really being hard on myself.  Then we got down to the 119 Gallery where it all takes place and I saw Walter who curates the festival. And Skot Id M from Portland.  Eli came with me too.  I set up and then came Forbes and the guitarist. 

Anyhow, we played and there were some truly magic moments there and all my self torture just melted away.  I have a posse and they were all there.  Later in the evening another fellow sound explorer performed on a couple of small cardboard boxes bound together with rubber bands and a coffee can hanging from his mic stand by a piece of wire.  It's good to have community, even the nuts need it.