SATURDAY FEBRUARY 18, 2006 AT 4PM. FREE.
INMO GALLERY 114 W. FIFTH STREET, LOS ANGELES, CA.
CTRL+ALT+REPEAT
CTRL+ALT+REPEAT is an experimental music series that focuses on cutting-edge electronic music, improvisation, contemporary classical music, and sound art. The Winter 2006 concert will feature works by Los Angeles based performers: Mark Trayle, Kraig Grady, David Rothbaum, and the curators of the series, Mem1. Mark Trayle will present some “sonic data mining”; bits and bytes extracted from his laptop, and maybe the listener’s credit cards, will be looped, mangled, and twisted into sonic fragments and then reassembled into “something like music.” Kraig Grady will be performing a solo on the largest of his self-made Meta Slendro Vibraphones. David Rothbaum will be performing a solo set with modular synthesizers. mem1 will perform an improvised set of cello and live signal processing.
MARK TRAYLE
Mark Trayle works in a variety of media including electronic music, installations, improvisation and compositions for wireless chamber ensembles. Performances and installations over the last five years include Metronom (Barcelona) and Mex (Dortmund), Resistance Fluctuations (Los Angeles), net_condition (ZKM Karlsruhe), Pro Musica Nova (Bremen), format5 (Berlin), and Donaueschinger Musiktage. He has been commissioned by Champ D’Action, California Ear Unit, Ensemble Zwischentoene, and Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin. Collaborators include Koji Asano, David Behrman, Nels Cline, Vinny Golia, Toshi Nakamura and Wadada Leo Smith. He is a member of the computer network band The Hub, now playing again after a 10 year hiatus.
He has been the subject of interviews and articles in Strumenti Musicali and Virtual (Italy), Keyboard and The Leonardo Music Journal (USA), and “Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century” (Grove/Atlantic). He has recorded for the Artifact, Atavistic, CRI, Inial, Elektra/Nonesuch, and Tzadik labels. He teaches in the Experimental Sound Practices program at the California Institute of the Arts School of Music.
KRAIG GRADY
Kraig Grady is a composer who uses microtonal just intonation. Kraig Grady has presented his work at the Norton Simon Museum of Art, the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, the Pacific Asia Museum, the Chateau de la Napoule – France, California Institute of the Arts, Pomona College, Pierce College, Villa Aurora Foundation for European American Relations, the Schindler House, Beyond Baroque, the Brand Library, New Langton Arts, as well as numerous live performances on KPFK, KCRW, and KXLU. His work was also presented as part of the LA Philharmonic’s American Music Weekend as well as New Music America. He has been nominated 4 times for the L. A. WEEKLY Music Award best uncategorizable artist and was chosen by BUZZ Magazine as one of the 100 coolest persons in Los Angeles.
Born in Montebello, Ca, in 1952. While still in his teens, he realized he had an overwhelming urge to be a composer. After studies with Nickolas Slonimsky, Dean Drumond, Dorrance Stalvey (all briefly) and Byong-Kon Kim (longer) he produced his earliest compositions. Since meeting Erv Wilson in 1975, he has composed and performed in alternative tunings of Wilson’s. In the 80’s Kraig Grady (along with Keith Barefoot) became one of the first to revive the combination of live music with silent film. He was responsible for the films as well as the music. In 1990 with the opera “War and Pieces” film retreated to a background for live performers. Soon afterwards was his first exposure to the music of Anaphoria Island where he took up residence, on and off, for a period of three years. On his return he found himself being asked to act as a liaison between Anaphoria and North America. In this role he has produced numerous solo and ensemble works and seven shadow plays; Ten Black Eye I-II, Black Eye Meru, Her Stirring Stone, Their Ventures Beyond The Horizons, The Stolen Stars, Frenzy At The Royal Threshold, and The Quiet Erow.
DAVID ROTHBAUM
David Rothbaum is a Los Angeles-based composer and improviser who performs primarily on analog modular synthesizer and contralto and Bb clarinets. Both his acoustic and electronic work focus on some of the same basic principles: micro sounds, atmosphere and attempting to seamlessly blend the electronic and acoustic timbres. Some of his recent works include combining these audio elements with digital and analog video synthesis, multiple speaker arrays and super 8 films and projectors. He also performs in various improvisational settings, mainly focusing on electro-acoustic music. He also runs a record label, experimental musical research (emr), and co-organized the weekly new and improvised music series line space line for three years with musicians Jeremy Drake and Chris Heenan. He has released seven recordings thus far and has numerous planned releases on various record labels, including Reify, Rasbliutto, emr and Alienation.
Recent collaborations/groups/bands include: A duo with Joseph Hammer on tape loops; a duo with Bryan Eubanks on open circuits; a duo with Jessica Catron on cello; Mizzly, a duo with Mitchell Brown on analog synthesizer and various electronics; Cube of Force, a duo with Kyle Bruckmann on oboe and french horn; Gort, a duo with Jeremy Drake on guitars; DDD, a trio with David Kendall on computer and Doug Russell on electric guitar; The Kentucky Knobs, a trio with David Kendall on computer and Jonathan Zorn on modular synthesizer and The Davids; this group consists of performers named David which changes for each performance and has included David Kendall & other people named David.
MEM1
Mem1 is a collaborative venture between cellist Laura Thomas-Merino & laptop artist M. Cera. They are the curators of the quarterly experimental music series CTRL+ALT+REAPEAT. In their improvisation-based performances, the cello is manipulated using custom software built by Cera in Max/MSP. Extended cello technique is magnified by live signal processing, which is in turn influenced by the sounds produced by the cello. The result is a subtle electroacoustic hybrid that culminates not in a duet between two individuals, but in a single performance by a fused and cohesive instrument. Utilizing a limitless palate of sonic possibilities, Mem1’s sound is a constant evolution of textures ranging from sparse to dense, ambient to beat-driven tranquil to volatile…the listener is submerged in layers of distinctive, complex patterns which provide a focus not on melody or lyricism but an opportunity to listen beyond such structural confines. There is a sense of narrative, but one that unravels organically, almost in slow motion.
Mem1 has performed with the renowned Penderecki String Quartet and have recently been invited to play at CEAIT 2006 by media artist Kadet Kuhne. They have also performed as part of the Definiens Project, the LA ArtFest 2005, and SoundWalk 2005 (Long Beach). In March 2006 they will take part in An Evening of Improvised Music at the Orange County Museum of Art.