So this will be a loaded post. There are recordings and many images from the last event of May the 24, plus an extra recording from a recent studio session that happened on the 10 of June. The latter inaugurates a new blog category dedicated to the “closed doors sessions”. More information on this below.

Let’s start with the event of May the 24 – Ian Fraser, Jesse Kudler and Tim Albro were in town, giving us a great opportunity to have their trio to play here before Tim’s relocation to Rhode Island. Second set had Kyle Bobby Dunn and Michael Vincent Waller playing guitar over the video of Nick Zeig-Owens (not projected, but presented instead as a boxed picture in an old tv set). For a third set I joined (as mpld) Audrey Chen and percussionist Luca Marini who were just back from having toured Europe together in the previous weeks.
.
.

Download zipped files: lossless ogg [208.6MB]; 320 kbps mp3 [142.4MB].
Recorded at Fotofono by Jesse Kudler on May 24, 2010.
Many thanks to Jesse for recording and mastering help.
.
.

Set 1: L to R Jesse Kudler, Ian Fraser, Tim Albro.

Set 2: Kyle Bobby Dunn.

Set 2: Michael Vincent Waller

Set 2: Nick Zeig-Owens

Set 3: Audrey Chen (foreground), Luca Marini’s shadow, mpld slide.

Above are a few photos of the 3 sets (by Theres Wegmann and myself). Also, to document the party before the concert I had asked our daughter Vera to ‘unobtrusively’ handle the camera duties for us – so here is an exclusive album of her fine portraiture. Thanks Vera! (now, I just hope to find out how the ‘album’ button works…)

.

.

.

As announced above, in the second part of this posting we introduce to the blog a new category: sessions is an area of the archive set to collect the recordings from the less formally convened meetings. Since much of the action at Fotofono happens besides the concert series, there is a growing accumulation of recordings stacking up. They document the evolving dynamics of an active community of artists and sometimes offer unexpected surprises, like interesting first-time meetings and assorted chance encounters that usually happen spontaneously and go unannounced.
I have been thinking for a while about pulling out of storage this material, and this looks like the right time to set up a new blog category dedicated to these ‘regular’ sessions..

I am not even going to fret about choosing what to post here first, as the latest recording matches pretty well all the requirements. Here goes the background story: Tucker Dulin’s old friend Patrick Crossland was visiting for a few concerts in town with Swiss-based Ensemble Laboratorium. Tucker summoned Andrew Lafkas and myself for an improvised session with three of Laboratorium’s members: trombonist Crossland, trumpet player Nenad Markovic and percussionist Rie Watanabe.

It turned out to be a great match. As no photos were shot to document the meeting, the picture above shows the setup that I was using during this take – radio feedback over the piano soundboard.

Session participants:
Andrew Lafkas – double bass
Nenad Markovic – trumpet
Patrick Crossland – trombone
Rie Watanabe – percussion
Tucker Dulin – trombone
Gill Arno – radio transmitter/receivers, piano soundboard

Download zipped files: lossless ogg [125.3MB]; 320 kbps mp3 [77.9MB].
Recorded by Gill Arno at Fotofono, June 10 2010.

.

.

And for the announcements section -
coming up next at Fotofono:

Thursday July 15 9:00pm
Richard Francis
o.blaat and ben owen
Fyxzis (Steve Flato, Richard Kamerman, Corey Larkin)

Friday, July 23 9:00pm
Mike Bullock (bass + electronics), C. Spencer Yeh (violin/voice)
Andrew Lafkas (bass/electronics), Bryan Eubanks (soprano sax/electronics), Todd Capp (drums)
Vic Rawlings  (cello, electronics), Tim Feeney (percussion)

.
.
.
Fotofono

440 Broadway #2L
Brooklyn NY

Subway:
JM Hewes St.
G Broadway

Next week Bryan and Eleanor Eubanks will be packing up and relocating to Florida. Looks like a great pretext to throw a Fotofono party and get to play together again. So — Theres bakes some pita bread, ice tea and wine flow, and after the dinner party the studio gets filled up almost over capacity with a small crowd of friends, for the most part artists themselves. The first set has Bryan with Andrew Lafkas, Tucker Dulin and myself (as mpld).
Second set is the first time as a duo for Aki Onda and Margarida Garcia. Margarida plays her electric double bass while Aki instead of the compact cassette table has a minimal setup with one tube amp, a Line Six and a hand-held radio.
Byron Westbrook ends it all with a gorgeous Corridors set. Using  multiple speakers and video projections he builds up a multidimensional space in which the perception of time becomes supple, and the audience is transfixed.

.

.

.

.

Download zipped files of all three pieces: lossless ogg; 320 kbps mp3.

The three images above are from the mpld projection.
Special thanks to Byron Westbrook for bringing down his recording equipment and documenting the concert.

The last event here was the kickstart of an East Coast tour by Chris Cogburn, Bryan Eubanks and Vic Rawlings. The three have been friends and collaborators for some time now, however the two improvisations that they recorded last week document their first time together as a trio. As Bryan wrote, “Building on lengthly playing relationships as duos and in larger groups, we’ll be discovering common ground and developing our music throughout [the tour] through improvisations”.
See the tour page for the trio here.

The evening was opened by Daniel Neumann who presented his piece titled “The Sound of 500 Speer 9 mm. Luger Shells & O Between Fans plus Modular Extensions”, a concert for stereo speakers, room microphone, computer and tape or other extensions.

In Daniel’s own words: “In the electroacoustic live concert The Sound of 500 Speer 9 mm. Luger Shells & O Between Fans two initial sounds are played back. The playback is recorded with a room microphone on to a multitrack sampling tool. From there it repeatedly processes through different modules, one being the room itself, which functions as a filter and is used as an instrument. Other Modular Extensions are carefully added as simultaneous external processes, which influence the narrative. As the two initial sounds are both very aggressive, but in opposite ways, the process of the concert is the struggle between those two sounds about which one gets established in the room. Daniel Neumann leads this struggle between The Sound of 500 Speer 9 mm. Luger Shells Dropped from a Height of 119 Inches at 550 West 21st Street New York, NY, 10011, on April 8th, 2009, 10:37 p.m. – an installation by Ben Turner and a recording of Zilvinas Kempinas’ sculpture O Between Fans.”

Daniel Neumann
.

.
Download zipped files of all three pieces: lossless ogg; 320 kbps mp3.

Shimpei Takeda/Bruce Tovsky, from the performance of last December 17, 2009
.

.

Also, I am happy to announce that the next event at Fotofono will be in the old ‘open doors’ style! Organized by Bryan Eubanks, this concert will kick off the Lucre trio’s tour. Just come early because space is limited, and doors will be closed the moment we reach full capacity.

Saturday March 13th, 2010
studio door opens at 9:00
first set at 9:30

Lucre
A new, yet familiar, trio grouping of Vic Rawlings (amplified cello, electronics, from Boston, MA.), Chris Cogburn (percussion, Austin, TX.), and Bryan Eubanks (electronics, Brooklyn, NY).

Daniel Neumann
“The Sound of 500 Speer 9 mm. Luger Shells & O Between Fans plus Modular Extensions”.

“blind monks examining an elephant” by itcho hanabusa. (found here)
.

.

here finally is the second part, documenting the event of last january 30.
barry chabala and michael pisaro in this recording perform pisaro’s composition rapport abstrait at the winds measure event that ben owen organized to celebrate their new release, black, white, red, green, blue (voyelles) (wm 17).

the dynamic of the evening moved through a long arc, introduced by alessandro bosetti’s dramatic sound and poetry-based compositions (see pt. 1 of the event in the previous post); as the evening progressed the music got very quiet, and the subtle sounds of the space and the audience became more pronounced, becoming a part of the musical experience. my recording equipment, perhaps sensing the delicacy of the situation and strained to its limit, decided to shut off before the performance was finished.

luckily, i thought, other recorders were at work… but as we later listened through the various recordings, we quickly realized that none of them could possibly bring back the specificity of the moment and the subtle feelings that we had individually experienced.
in a way, each recording had an element of truth that was missing to the others, or perhaps a unique atmosphere approaching to varying degrees each one’s own idealized recollection of the event. at the end, the more one tried to bring back an absolute essence of truth, the more such documenting wish ended up in frustration.

how to bring back through a recording the complex experiences that we all went through in that small room? how to give an account of each individual perspective? the sounds themselves, their physical presence, the time passing by and how we later situated ourselves in that rich and yet subtle continuum.. there was something that no recorder could capture, a failure to remembering.

i have found myself fascinated and excited by the different perspectives surrounding the event. they seem to converge, and yet never completely overlap. ultimately, an old question seem to linger – are the documents that we produce a reflection of a generative moment, or are they new entities that will unfold in their own right and say things that escape our initial intentions? how much control do we have over the way we appear to the external world? to me, that doubt in itself means a world of possibilities.

.

.

a  zip archive contains the three recordings that were made respectively by james connell, ben owen and myself in ogg vorbis lossless format. be advised, it is a 350.1 MB download.

january 30, 2010 -  to celebrate the release of michael pisaro’s composition “black, white, red, green, blue (voyelles)” (wm 17), ben owen has assembled an interestingly contrasting lineup. the event featured pisaro himself, performing together with barry chabala, and alessandro bosetti, who presented a new piece titled “campanas”.

the choice – or chance? – of this gathering suggests a range of philosophical implications which i can only assume and vaguely hint at, presenting here only the first part of the concert – the second part will follow in a soon to come installment. enjoy…..

Three pieces recorded during a session held last December. Participants were Paul Devens, visiting from Maastricht and meeting up with old friend Keiko Uenishi (o.blaat) and Richard Garet, plus the much acclaimed (and yet, rarely spotted) sound-video duo of Bruce Tovsky and Shimpei Takeda – all introduced by the charming and understated tones of Kamran Sadeghi. Perfect human chemistry, resulting in three fantastic recordings.. you really know that something special was going on. Luckily, the whole event has been recorded by Bruce Tovsky using his state-of-the-art binaural microphone head, which means the guarantee of a blissful headphones listen. I swear, that head is quite a presence – but for friends, it’s just “Bernardo” …

This is what Bruce says: “This recording was made with a homemade binaural head, using two high quality omnidirectional microphones placed at the dummy’s ears, so when played back and listened to on headphones the listener perceives a 360 degree soundstage – with sounds coming from above, below and behind in addition to directly in front. Binaural recordings translate very well on conventional stereo systems, with an enhanced feeling of depth to the soundstage. Another advantage to the omnidirectional mics used in this process is the excellent bass response that they provide, and this recording features some deep sub-bass tones that might not be audible on computer speakers or normal stereo systems not equipped with a subwoofer or speakers with exceptional bass response. The recording was made to a Olympus LS-10 compact flash recorder at 96k/24bit, and then dithered down to a 48k/16bit master for the video.”

Anyway – the video will require some more work before it can be posted here, so that will have to go with the next blog post. But all sound recordings are available for streaming (through the Flash players below), and for download as free, open source, lossless ogg Vorbis files, or as 320 kbps mp3 files.

(Stills from Shimpei Takeda’s projection)

Play the recordings with the flash player below, or click on the links to download zipped ogg files and zipped mp3 files.

Tucker Dulin – solo trombone

Andrew Lafkas – solo double bass

Dave Gross – solo alto sax

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .
Finally, an announcement – next to come is the last planned session for 2009 – Paul Devens will meet with Keiko Uenishi (o.blaat) and Richard Garet, plus the sound-video duo of Bruce Tovsky and Shimpei Takeda – hopefully we will also post a video recording. Highly recommended!

Steve Flato and David Kirby
Eric Laska and Reed Evan Rosenberg
Richard Kamerman, Tom Mulligan and Ben Owen
Bryan Eubanks and mpld.

Click to download:  mp3 or ogg file format.
Also, added a few images from the event – scroll below to see them.
Thanks to Andrea, Ben, and Theres for  the photos.

Vera's graffiti on fotofono door (photo: Ben Owen)

David Kirby and Steven Flato #1 (photo: Ben Owen)

Steve and David #2 (photo: Andrea Sanders)

Eric Laska setting up (photo: Andrea Sanders)

Eric #2 (photo: Ben Owen)

Reed Evan Rosenberg (photo: Gill Arno)

Richard Kamerman's setup (photo: Theres Wegmann)

RK in action (photo: Gill Arno)

Tom Mulligan (photo: Gill Arno)

Tom's sculptural instrument (photo: Andrea Sanders)

Bryan Eubanks gets ready for the final set (photo: Andrea Sanders)

mpld's projection (photo: Ben Owen)

.