The Event Horizon concert series takes place at The Rotunda, on the University of Pennsylvania campus. It features Electronic, Avant Garde, and Experimental music along with the work of live video, laser and analog projection artists. The concerts are always free and open to all.
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Upcoming Shows:
Past Performances:
Friday November 22nd – Walmort Portrait Studio, Hypnagogue, Jair-Johm Parker Wells & Jeff Synder
Walmort Portrait Studio – The music of Walmort Portrait Studio explores the relationship between the tyranny of aging and copycat violence. With influences as diverse as Scarlatti and Poppy, new variations are manufactured from both mundane and transcendent structures.Ever since WPS met as children we have been fascinated by the unrelenting divergence of the human condition. What starts out as a triumph of artistic interrogation soon becomes corrupted into a carnival of lust, leaving only a sense of chaos and hope for a new order – “Daughter of the Regiment”. As subtle derivatives become reconfigured through diligent and academic practice, the listener is left with an epitaph for the edges of our world.
Hypnagogue is the solo project of New England based sound artist and musician James Rosato. With Hypnagogue, Rosato aims to create dynamic soundscapes using magnetic tape, processed guitar, and other source material. Rosato has been performing and recording under the name Hypnagogue since 2014 His latest release, “lying in a cold field, staring up at the sky”, reflects a minimalizing of style, and like Hypnagogue’s live performances, serves to hold space for the listener away from their immediate surroundings.
Jair-Rohm Parker Wells & Jeff Synder – Jair-Rohm Parker Wells is an American electric bassist and experimental music artist. He is a pioneering figure in the world of free jazz and improvised music,
with a career spanning over four decades. In the 1970s, Wells played with the seminal German band Embryo, solidifying his presence in the avant-garde music scene. Over the years he has collaborated with prominent experimental musicians like Bob Belden, Jaron Lanier, Tony Scott, Eugene Chadbourne and Karl Berger, and was a founding member of the improvising band Machine Gun. Wells also founded the Meeting Interdisciplinary Arts Festival in Stockholm, Sweden and the band Doom Dogs with Reeves Gabrels. Born on October 13, 1958 in Tacoma, Washington USA and raised in southern Germany. He moved to New York in 1978, where he attended Tulane University in New Orleans, performing with local jazz and rhythm and blues musicians. He also studied with Richard Payne and discovered the music of Harry Partch. In 1980, he moved to New York and began work-study with saxophonist.
Jeff Snyder (b. 1978) is a composer, improviser, and instrument designer living in Princeton, New Jersey, and active in the New York City area. As founder and lead designer of Snyderphonics, Jeff designs and builds unusual electronic musical instruments. His creations include the Manta, which is played by over
150 musicians around the world; the JD-1 Keybard/Sequencer, which was commissioned as a specialty
controller for Buchla synthesizers; and the custom analog modular synthesizer on which he regularly performs. Jeff is a member of experimental electronic duo exclusiveOr, avant jazz group The Federico Ughi Quartet , improvisatory noise trio The Mizries, and laptop ensemble Sideband. He fronts the band Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves as his electro-country alter-ego, Owen Lake. He also composes alternate-reality Early Music for an ensemble of his invented instruments. In 2009, Jeff co-founded an experimental music record label, Carrier Records , which continues to release strange and exciting experimental music. In 2011, he received a doctorate with distinction in Music Composition from Columbia University. He is the Director of Electronic Music at Princeton University, and the Director of PLOrk , the Princeton Laptop Orchestra.
Saturday October 19th – TR7- Sonic Celestial Terrain, Heron and Neil Cippon
TR7 (aka Taji Ra’oof Nahl) – TR7’s Sonic Celestial Terrain is an electronic experimental music project that morphs cinematic jazz, ambient, & experimental hiphop abstract dynamics. His The Other Sounds of Philadelphia project has shared projects, stages & collaborated with George Lewis, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Hprizm, G. Calvin Weston, Shawn Walker, Jair-Rohm Parker Wells, Nate Totusheck, Julius Masri, 52 Street Planetary Ensemble, Universal Rhythms, Totally Automatic, June Lopez, Mark Dilks, Jerry Kaba, Chaka Benson, among others. Furthermore he is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow for his interdisciplinary art.
Heron (aka Johnny Lancia) realizes blissed-out ambient works and concerts under the name Huron. His music is filled with heady drones and intriguing rhythms that reflect the natural world – filtered through a variety of modular synthesizers, analog electronics and digital manipulation processes. Lancia’s synthesizers, a paradise of hidden synergies, conspire with the composer to realize a beautiful, untouchable sonic realm – as electrical currents spill out into the world with a charged dreamy glow.
Neil Cippon – Philadelphia based Neil Cippon is an electronic bassist, composer and multimedia artist. Inspired by blues, rock and roots music, Neil toured and recorded with No. 6 records’s King Carcass, an industrial rock band. Carcass took and refined the combined concepts of noise, rock and industrial music. Neil has since taken his music in the direction of ambient, textural, meditative soundscapes. He uses his electronic bass, a collection of pedals and sequenced synthesizers to produce layers of music that allow the listener to relax into their own journey.
Bent Noise (AKA Scott Armstrong), emanating from the Philadelphia region, creates glitchy circuit bent soundscapes with an Electronic Wind Instrument (EWI) and a saxophone case filled with Eurorack Synthesizer modules plus supporting electronic gadgets. Bent Noise first performed live at NEEMFest 2019 in Homer, NY. Since then he has performed at synth meetups in Philadelphia and at Smithville Synth Night (Smithville, NJ). He has also live streamed on Electrozone (Ithaca, NY), Nick’s Virtual Garage (NJ), Algorave and Bent // Broken Circuit Bent festival streams since 2022. He also pops up at Modular on the Spot (MOTS) Philly and open mic venues. His obsession is experimenting in circuit design and circuit bending to generate interesting sounds. The Noisy Alien Communicator (NAC) circuit he has used in past performances is documented and illustrated in a science fiction short story collection entitled The Noisy Alien Communicator: and The Visible Spectrum. Past performances are available at here.
Dan Malloy loves music….sometimes too much. Having been a Philadelphia based guitarist for 30 years, he waited 10 years before ever performing out live for he wanted it to be just right. He also feared he would embarrass himself for not being able to tune by ear. Ironically enough dan still can’t tune by ear nor does he wish to play like how others play. Always on a quest for new sound, dan has never taken the easy route. Instead of learning guitar proper through schooling dan went to over 2900 shows in 30 years and watched, studied, chatted and learned from his heroes. In that time he picked up the pieces he needed to teach himself the craft he so desperately wanted to learn. What will tonight’s show sound like we won’t know til dan takes the stage. Cause for over the last year plus dan no longer plays with an agenda but with his heart.Will it be acoustic? Will it be electric? What tunings will be incorporated? All to be decided that night. Won’t you join us for this adventure?
www.youtube.com/@dan79malloy
www.danmalloy.bandcamp.com/
Under the pseudonym ST∆ER, the work of Ian R. Staer juxtaposes analogue synthesizer textures with spare acoustic piano melodies, conjuring vast aural landscapes from a concise tonal vocabulary:
“…a rich, fully formed musical environment we will want to visit over and again.” — Chuck Van Zyl, Stars End Radio
ST∆ER‘s latest album “Equilibrium”, mixed by Grammy award winner and recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails, Tweaker), is currently available at https://staerbandcamp.com.
Guest Visualist – Mike Hunter
Most people know of Mike as the man behind the mic on the WPRB 103.3FM radio program, Music With Space, or the man behind the sythesizers and guitar as Ombient, and from his association with The Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project. In this case, Mike is the man behind the lasers. Fulfilling a life long obsession with lasers shows born from a Pink Floyd show at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, during his formative years, Mike leverages a modern laser projection system that mimics the old analog laser controller consoles of the distant past.
Notions Department is the solo electronic music project of Thomas Patteson. Thomas has played in a number of groups over the past several years, including Argyle Torah (a duet with Aaron Pond), Borbs, and the Green Plums Ensemble. As a scholar he has published a book on the very early history of early electronic music (Instruments for New Music, University of California Press, 2016) and taught for 10 years at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2023, he co-founded the People’s Music Supply, a musician-led platform for improvisation, research, and education.
Northern Valentine is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based ambient/drone-rock collective – anchored by Robert Brown, Amy Brown, Matt Primak and Jeffrey Bumiller. Their music builds on thematic improvisations that are set to original films and visuals that the collective has created. Coaxing sounds from electric and acoustic sources, they weave meditative drones and soundscapes with post-rock instrumentation to create a tapestry that Phil McMullen [Terrascope Online] describes as “soulful and affecting, like gazing into a scrapbook of memories”. Formed in 1997, Northern Valentine recorded a string of self-released albums that are largely out of print. In 2008, their ambitious field recording project – “Leopard’s Mouth” (2005) – was released by their long time friend and musical collaborator, Ben Fleury-Steiner, on his Gears of Sand label, along with an album that they recorded with P.D. Wilder – “Northern Valentine & P.D. Wilder” (2008). They partnered with Silber Records and released two albums – “The Distance Brings Us Closer” (2008) and “Fin de siècle” (2012) – three Eps – “Stars Whisper” (2008), “Ribbons” (2012), and “Juno” (2012) – and a handful of songs on compilations. After touring for eight years throughout parts of the United States and Iceland, they took a break. In 2023, they reemerged with two new albums – “The Infinite Bleed” (2023) and “Dance of The Ragged Spirits” (2023) – as well as a reissue of one of their self-released albums – “The Unblinking Eye” (2006). In 2024, they reissued their first self-released album – “Pictures from the Lake” (2004) – as an expanded edition that celebrates the album’s 20th anniversary and features previously unreleased music.
Philadelphia-born composer George Wallace delivers a crafted fusion of deep trance percussion, primitive atmospheres and electronica carefully melded into soundworlds of timeless, tribal magic. His music is characterized by spellbinding ensembles of soaring harmonics, voices, and tribal drums, simultaneously borrowing from the celestial future and the primordial past. Here are worlds of wild, dream-soaked sound, sometimes tender, always intense, of-and-for the spirit – quite literally soul music, presented as a bona-fide auditory happening, a cinematic experience of exotic places and times well beyond this one. He has recently released ‘Etherica Blue’, his ninth ambient album to date – adding to that are his more progressive-rock albums. True to Wallace’s inimitable style, ‘Etherica Blue’ offers over an hour’s worth of drifting, dreamy soundworlds that sing to the inner core of our very soul.
Michael Victor has been experimenting with synthesizers since the early 1980’s mostly at home .
He is a member of Fringe Element , The Bob and Brian Orchestra, Think Tank, and a solo performer. He has played the Electro-Music festival , Richochet Gathering Yellowstone , PMAF ,The Philadelphia Fringe Festival and other gatherings.
His music ranges from Dark Ambient, Noise, Techno, Found sound soundscapes, and experimental electronics improvising on the spot with very little preparation.
wormlogo (a subset of Errant Space) is a project of sound artist and composer Craig Chin. Focused on synthesis and electronics it explores strange soundscapes via minimalism and drone. Based in Beacon, NY, Craig performs regularly in the North East as part of the experimental and improvised music scene. He has produced the monthly Errant Space Podcast for over eight years, which often features interesting experimental and electronic musicians. He also produces a weekly radio show, The Space Program, for the Vassar College station, WVKR. Recent projects include the soundtrack for the documentary film Baato, and game soundtracks for Battle of The Ancients and Dark Venture.
LINKS:
The Cherenkof Radiators is a trio consisting of musicians Juan Garces, Dan Gray and Mike Hunter.
Juan Garces is an experimental and improvisational musician and electronics and synthesizer enthusiast. He uses vintage and contemporary synthesizers, sequencers, live looping, and a laptop computer to take his listeners on a unique, imaginative journey. He has been playing experimental music since the late 1970s. He was also a member of The Melting Transistor, The Equinox Project and Black Thujone among others.
Dan Gray, aka WeirdSmith is a retired Navy Aviation Electronics Technician who repaired audio technology, amongst many other systems, involved in the hunting of submarines, now seeks to provide journeys of aural crevasses he calls “Sonic Spelunking”. He looks for interesting sonic spaces and shares the exploration of them. Having never played the same thing twice, each journey is a new and hopefully enjoyed shared experience.
Mike Hunter, the fimal member of the trio, aka Ombient, focuses on ambient/drone/experimental music that is improvisational in nature, representative of the feeling of the moment in which it is performed and of the subtle feedback between the audience and the performer. He uses various vintage and contemporary analog synthesizers, modular synthesizers, and occasionally computers running Ableton Live with various synth plug-in’s. Most of the older music of Ombient features 6 string guitar and/or 12 string Warr Touch Guitar which is processed and layered using digital looping equipment. Mike is also the host of the radio show Music With Space on WPRB 103.3 FM out of Princeton, NJ and the current President of the Board of Directors at The Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project based in Montgomery County, PA.
d/a73 impresario Wright Lagrone has said, “Beard Farm is both
the best and the worst name for a band that d/a73 has ever
encountered”. Players Tom Bruce and Karl Fury play stringed
instruments, hardware and software synthesizers, Linnstrument
controllers and iPads — all processed through laptop computers,
thickness planers, and nuclear reactors. They combine jazz, classical, and a wide variety of ethnic and electronic music influences to create improvised journeys through expanded soundscapes. Spoken word,
noise and notes come together to create a unique body of recordings. Karl Fury is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from central New Jersey. His musical background ranges from rock and blues to jazz-rock, world music, ambient, electronic and free improvisation.. Karl performed and recorded for several years in the world music duo Near East. He currently has releases with The Melting Transistor, The
EquinoxProject, Quantum Elf and solo works under his own name and as Tars Obscura. He is often heard in well-known electro-music venues and on radio programs throughout the Northeast. Tom Bruce is a musician and sound artist living in Ithaca, New York. He works with a number of collaborators, including Karl Fury, James Spitznagel, Charles Shriner, and Rob Snyder. He has performed solo at the Northeast Electro-Music Festival, at the Mountain Skies festival in Asheville, NC, at MEME in Indianapolis, the Cosmic Crossings series in New Jersey, and at WPRB radio in Princeton, as well as at many events
in the Ithaca area. In 2022, he and Rob Snyder took 4th place in an international competition for electronic music created via Internet collaboration. You can find out more than you want to know about him at https://linktr.ee/tbruce0
Ace Paradise is an Electronic Musician, DJ/Producer and Live Performer, who has been specializing in the production of many forms of Electronic Music since the early 1980′s. Ace, having a background of 45 + years in traditional music as a multi-instrumentalist, both acoustic and electronic, has merged his years of traditional music training, with his talents for both Electronic Music and as a seasoned DJ. He is known in many circles, as one of the early pioneers to develop techniques for combining and mixing several elements Live, using hardware synths, looping and samples and various DJ Gear, combined with live musical performance, enabling him to produce a spectacular and unforgettable live sound.
- www.beatport.com/artist/ace-paradise/322442
- www.djrankings.org/DJ-ACE_PARADISE/
- soundcloud.com/ace-paradise
- mixcloud.com/ace_paradise
KaLi embodies the transcendent power of time and change, producing a music of joy, courage, and hope. Undulating rhythms and patterns of melodies infused with the sensual side of harsh noise are core to their sound, rewarding the listener with inspiration and renewal. Bonnie Kane – saxophone, flute, electronics Tracy Lisk – drums A conductor of energy, dedicated improvisor, Bonnie Kane, is a pioneer in electronic processing for saxophone and flute. She is fascinated by the moment of creation and compelled by the focus required to be in that moment, because of the purity found there. To be a master improvisor, is to really tell the truth. Tracy Lisk is a drummer, painter, and curator who resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. An internationally renown percussionist, her background in painting and Brazilian percussion inform the substance of her improvisations while maintaining a fluid, suspended continuity. Find Kane/Lisk (KaLi) Duo recordings @ – bonniekane.bandcamp.com
Jair-Rohm Parker Wells is an electric bassist and experimental music artist known for hiswork with Embryo and prominent experimental musicians. Drawing inspiration from Lockwood,
Feldman, Braxton, and Cage, Wells’ pursuits encompass the Chapman Stick, computer aided
composition, and ambisonic mixing. Compositions from his “Liberation” cycle are featured as
part of res·o·nant, the light and sound installation by artist Mischa Kuball at the Jewish
Museum Berlin. He graces stages across the world, performing at renowned venues such as
Vahdat Hall in Tehran, Iran, the Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou, China, the
Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York, the iconic Globen Arena in Stockholm, Sweden,
the vibrant Saxophone Jazz Pub in Bangkok, Thailand, the avant-garde Cafe Oto in London,
England, and the prestigious Domicil Jazz Club in Munich, Germany, among many others.
Wells’ commitment to innovation shapes the trajectory of experimental music.
Elliott Sharp (e#) is a composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who leads Orchestra
Carbon, SysOrk, Tectonics and Terraplane and whose compositional strategies encompass
fractal geometry, chaos theory, algorithms, genetic metaphors and new graphic notation
techniques, catalyzing a synesthetic music making approach. In 2015, he won the Berlin Prize
and Jahrespreis from Der Deutscher Schallplatten Kritiks. Sharp received a Guggenheim
Fellowship and a Fellowship from the Center for Transformative Media in 2014. He’s been
featured in such festivals as Darmstadt, Huddersfield, and the Venice Biennale. His book, “IrRational Music” published in 2019, blends memoir, cultural discussion and music theory. Sharp’s works include a composition for Hilary Hahn’s Grammy-winning album “In 27 Pieces” and operas “Filiseti Mekidesi” and “Port Bou”. Collaborators include Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Cecil Taylor, Debbie Harry, Hubert Sumlin and more.
Janene Higgins is a NYC-based video artist and graphic designer who explores diverse creative realms. Her portfolio encompasses video performance in experimental music, projects for Saks Fifth Avenue and CD package designs for major labels like Sony, BMG and PolyGram,
as well as for independent labels. Her collaborators include such luminaries as Ikue Mori, Mari Kimura, Zeena Parkins, and Christian Marclay. Her work has graced prestigious events including the Venice Biennale, New York Video Festival, Documenta and Ruhr Triennale in
Germany, and the Impakt Festival in the Netherlands, showcasing her talent on a global stage.
Lyle Holdahl has been writing and performing progressive pop and symphonic rock for over 50 years. First known to the 1970s prog world as a writer/member of Harlequin Mass. Since those early days, he had gotten involved with numerous musical styles, and projects. As a multi-instrumentalist, he has played with many other artists, and written music for some of them. His compositions can also be heard in movies and as movie soundtracks. In the ’80s, he was a member of the Band Stubborn Puppet. He currently composes for three different music acts. FireMonkey: Euro-synth-dance-pop, art+science Projekt: ambient / instrumental / experimental music and Lyle Holdahl: symphonic / progressive rock and movie soundtracks. As far as influences are… you name it, and it will probably be listed (in all forms of music). His music shows this as well. It is very hard to place him under a small umbrella.
onewayness is Adam Holquist, a composer, musician, sound designer, and multimedia creator from Erie, Pennsylvania. He uses guitars, pianos, analog and digital synthesis, spoken word and field recordings, and a variety of hardware and software tools to create atmospheric and textural music which draws influence from a variety of sources. These may include: ambient, drone, minimalism, post-rock, and vintage and contemporary electronic ‘listening music’.
Adam performs and tours regularly, appearing at festivals, galleries, cafés, dive bars, art spaces, basements, and the occasional laundromat throughout the US and in Canada. Since 2011, he has given hundreds of live performances, and has released over 40 albums and EP’s between various creative entities. His work has been featured on a number of both terrestrial and streaming radio stations, has charted on Zone Music Reporter’s weekly Top 100 ambient music airplay charts, and has been positively reviewed by a variety of publications both in the US and abroad.
In addition to recording and performing as onewayness, Adam is a member of the duo embral, with longtime collaborator Charles Shriner [dRachEmUsiK], and also regularly performs in both composed and improvised group settings with a variety of local and global collaborators. Adam has created original music and sound design for theatre, independent films, and art installations; serves as curator of the ElectroFLUX Experimental Music Series, which presents creative music from local, regional, and international artists at various Erie venues; and has served as the producer and co-host of Social Distancing Variety Hour, a weekly live streaming video program and podcast focused on the arts, politics, and current events.
Christopher McNulty is a multi-instrumentalist, designer and composer from Princeton, New Jersey. His arrangements, largely ambient, produce thematic soundscapes using field recordings, modular synthesizers, stringed instruments and found sound via improvisational and automatic techniques. He works mostly alone in a basement next to the washer and dryer and sometimes one cat.
Planet Y is completely improvised space music. Yanni Papadopoulos (Stinking Lizaveta, WAIL) relies heavily on his Casio DG20 guitar synth and a handful of effects pedals to create the space scape. There is no sampling involved, all sounds are created in real time. Yanni is joined by Pete Wilder (EDO, WAIL), who also adds Casio DG20 guitar synth, as well as electric guitar and Theremin.
BioMechanical ShapeShifters (or BioMeSS for short) is the project of Floyd Bledsoe from Ewing, New Jersey. He has been using this name for his electronic experimentations since the early 1990s. Starting in 2010, BioMeSS began releasing works on the internet and now has over 100 albums available on the Bandcamp website with many of the releases containing several hours of material each. Mainly experimental in nature, the sound of BioMechanical ShapeShifters covers a broad spectrum stylistically. Genres from such diverse categories as harsh noise to ambient drones and many other territories are explored. There is an aim to showcase various electronic devices and fully explore their capabilities and features. Floyd is also a member of The Melting Transistor group and has recorded several dozen albums with them as well as many live appearances. BioMeSS has performed previously at the Cosmic Crossings Concert Series, as well as several festival appearances and various radio programs. Currently, the focus is a DAWless setup incorporating semi-modular synthesizers and other unique devices in an improvisational setting.
Austin, Texas experimental musician, composer, artist and record label owner Jesse Beaman has more than a decade of performing under his belt starting at an early age of 20 years old, Jesse toured across 25 countries in Europe, Latin America, Australia and North America. He has shared the stage with important acts such as Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, CocoRosie, This Will Destroy You, Julianna Barwick, White Denim, Efterklang and Silver Mt. Zion. In 2021 Jesse released his brilliant album ‘MIRA’, produced by Brandon Curtis of Interpol / The Secret Machines. In 2022 he toured Europe, Mexico and the US
while releasing singles off his 2022 Mixtape. Known for his cult followed project My Empty Phantom, Jesse now performs under no moniker while recording and taking the stage with a more minimal approach resulting into something more blissful and more impactful. His journey in music continues with him exploring orchestral, classical piano, ambient, electronic and percussion in his new solo works.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/jessebeamanmusic
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/jessebeamanmusic
SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Al104ourQIJ2giG2jozYp
BANDCAMP: https://jessebeaman.bandcamp.com/music
May 20th 2023 – Tackless, Electronic Memory and KaneLoggiaHYPOTHESIS
Electronic Memory is a duo consisting of Ken Palmer (PYXL8R, Brainstatik) and Mike Hunter (Ombient, Proteus-3, Mayakara, Black Thujone, Brainstatik and host/ producer of the WPRB radio program, Music WIth Space.) They utilize various electronic and electro-acousti instruments to take the listener on an aural journey through endless soundscapes.
Close your eyes and surf the waveforms…
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
.
Tackless is the music of John Piatkowski, a composer and keyboardist from New Jersey, USA. Often electronic and at turns, orchestral, there is no route untaken to arrive at the destination of exalted emotion within a given soundscape. John Piatkowski draws from years of genre-crossing playing with groups such as The Roadside Graves, Fun Machine, and Ari Why and the Invisible College.
These interactions have generated multiple albums, recordings and tours which further inform the sonic areas that Tackless seeks to access. Currently, Tackless is performing live on upcoming dates through 2023 in the northeastern US as work on the new, debut album is underway.
KaneLoggiaHYPOTHESIS are an experimental duo of master improvisors burning through the realms of noise, psych, free jazz, and avantgarde, bringing you out of your brain and into your heart where the sound is felt and does it’s most needed work…
Their electrifying music can rock like crazy, making you dance and giving you what you need…like a slice at midnight….
The glorious joy of their music can send your spirit soaring, and it’s endlessly deep textures will challenge your ears to stay alert and inquisitive.
April 15th, 2023 – Berhard Wostheinrich (with special guest Tim Motzer) and Proteus-3
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. Bernhard Wöstheinrich is a sound artist, improviser and painter living in Berlin. Bernhard elicits meaning from abstraction in electronic music and painting. He has studied graphic design and has created an eclectic body of work in both graphics and music.
Proteus-3 is an NJ/PA based improvisational electronic music trio consisting of multi-instrumentalists Juan Garces (also of The Melting Transistor, The Equinox Project, Black Thujone, Liquid Science Division), George Bley (also of Liquid Science Division), and Mike Hunter (also of Ombient, Black Thujone & host of the WPRB radio program Music With Space). The combined synthesizers, new and vintage/digital and analor, guitar and weird sound machines.
March 18th Iron Gump, Travis Woodson and Chaka Benson
Travis Woodson is a composer, arranger, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist who has collaborated and performed with various musicians and dancers. You may have seen him perform in Make a Rising, Sonic Liberation Front, Electric Simcha, Split Red, David Fantasy & Adult Content, Kohoutek, Big Plastic Finger, Machuco’s Trabuco, his own group Live Like a King, and/or Pyramid Minds. During the summer of 2012, he premiered a series of compositions and arrangements for three guitars, as a part of the Archer Spade Performance Series, and has performed at the Improvisational Music event, the Nowhere Festival in 2015. He has also performed in a guitar ensemble of Julius Eastman’s work during a retrospective festival presented by Bowerbird in 2017.
“It’s like a movie for your ears and an experience for the imagination.” Iron Gump is a mind-body guide that utilizes vibrational instruments, gentle movements and breath-work to guide explorers into deeper states of relaxation.
For over 10 years years he has been creating imaginative soundscapes for people in Philadelphia and has traveled around the world as a sound journey guide. He has led corporate retreats, worked with boutique hotels and has been a private guide for small groups and one on one experiences.
His intention has always been to create a more imaginative space of exploration for people to unwind and simply breathe.
Chaka Benson, grew up in Philly in the hey-day listening to local music ranging from Schooly D to Sun Ra. He’s brought those learnings to various projects across a multitude of genres. He’s well known on the Philly Space Music circuit, having done live sets on the radio shows “Star’s End”, and “Music With Space”, but has lately adopted a more raucous Drum and Bass style. Check his IG @chakabenson
Visual Artist – Gralin Hughes, Jr. (aka Television Sky) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia, working at the intersection of sound and visuals. He merges visual art and sound design through projection mapping, audio/visual live performances, and installation art. His work explores the manipulation of fragmented textures through modular synthesis, field recordings, and software. His artistic practice is rooted in collaboration; he uses technology to activate and elevate work by visual artists, musicians, galleries, and museums. He is a member of PhillyAV, an artist-led experimental multimedia collective, and a founding member of blkpatches, a collective of Black modular synthesizer artists. He is also a co-owner of Multiverse (opening in the spring of 2023). His recent collaborative work has activated spaces at the Barnes Foundation, Franklin Institute, International House, Philadelphia City Hall, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Swarthmore College, and Taller Puertorriqueño. Gralin holds an MFA in Museum Exhibition Planning and Design from the University of the Arts.
November 12th, Michael Victor, Matthew Lo Re, Errant Space + Irman
Michael Victor – Since the early 1980’s he has been creating spontaneous improvisational electronic and experimental noise and ambient music Performed as a member of Fringe Element from 2003 to 2008 at the electro-music festivals in Cheltenham PA and Huguenot NY among other spaces.
Matthew Lo Re – A creator on a quest of self progress. Designing , soldering , constructing my own instruments. In a few words, dreamy cerebral dinner music.
Errant Space is a project of composer/recordist Craig Chin from Beacon, NY. Its goal is spatio-temporal dilation through sound. Performances are site-specific, spontaneous compositions influenced by both the physical characteristics of the space they are performed in and the occupants of that space. Recent Errant Space projects include the soundtrack for the documentary Baato, and a soundtrack for the tabletop adventure card game Dark Venture. Craig has also produced the monthly Errant Space Podcast for over seven years, which often features interesting experimental and electronic musicians. Additionally, Craig has curated several music series, including a monthly electronic and experimental night and the Space Out, Outside series. He also has a weekly radio show, The Space Program, on Vassar College’s Station WVKR.
Irman Peck – is a conceptual cellist/bassist/improvisor from Philadelphia, PA.A 40 + year Improvisor/Composer/Performer, Irman is a veteran of various East Coast Underground, No Wave and experimental music scenes. Peck plays both electric and acoustic Bass and Cello as well as other Strings, often using electronic processing. Irman is a founding member of Greg Weaver’s Los Dominos, Brian Kelly’s Suns and Wormhole Superette with Tracy Lisk. Irman also presently performs in the duo Fronds & Fringe with R. Waleski
Juan Garces first started working lights in the 1970’s for progressive rock bands in the Philadeliphia area. Notable lighting credits include Tank (later to become Mastermind), Mastermind, Gong, Fish, Bon Lozaga, and others.
His most recent lighting projects involve experimenting with overhead projectors, inks, and other materials to create an always-unique, ever-evolving experience.
Recent projects:
Liminal Qualia (of which Juan is a member) for the Philladelphia Fringe Fest here: https://fringearts.com/event/liminal-qualia-experiential-light-sound/
Live from the Rotunda in Philadelphia, PA. The Event Horizon Concert Series live broadcast
https://youtu.be/cs7KMkZdM5E?t=3202
December 2nd The Quantum Eraser Experiment, THe Equinox Project and William Fields.
The Equinox Project is the meeting of acoustic and electronic, with the electric guitar representing the nexus of both. It was conceived on the autumnal equinox, the day of meeting for the summer and winter halves of the year, the day of equal parts darkness and light.
William Fields (b.1977) is an artist and musician from the Philadelphia area whose work explores the intersection of algorithmic composition, improvisation, and audio-visual correspondence.
William graduated from the University of Delaware with degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy. He has been making electronic music for over 30 years and generative visual art for more than 10 years.
Recently William has focused on developing his own unique audio-visual performance system. This system can instantly generate music using a set of custom algorithms. This process of “augmented creativity” facilitates the discovery of new and interesting musical possibilities. William steers the system in real time, sculpting the music through improvisation. A visual representation of the music is also generated by the system, creating a synesthetic experience through tight correspondence between music and visuals.
William’s music has been released internationally on labels such as Conditional (DE), SUPERPANG (IT), Tokinogake (JP), ding\ndents (KR), Kaer’Uiks (DE), 3OP (FR), and New York Haunted (NL). He has performed live throughout the United States and Canada. His work was selected and choreographed for dance as part of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). His recent project FieldsOS, an algorithmic music radio show consisting of 24 hours of original computer-generated music, received wide acclaim within the electronic music community.
The Quantum Erasure Experiment aka Dan Hamilton, grew up in a house where his mother and sister played the piano day and night. Without any formal training he began to emulate what he heard. It was due to his lack of musical training that he was forced to learn how to play by ear. In doing so, his ability to pick apart the sounds that he heard grew over time. In the early 2000’s he was able to combine his love and knowledge of electronics with his love of sound. With the resurgence of modular synthesizers, he was able to acquire the hardware tools he needed to be able to carve up and manipulate different sounds at will. It was at this point that The Quantum Eraser Experiment was born. Playing under this persona, he eliminated all predefined genre rules and instead plays completely improvisational and reacts to what he is hearing instead of playing something predetermined. This makes every performance unique and completely unexpected to him and the audience. The outcome of playing this way could turn out great or terrible, but it’s always interesting. He has played live shows in NYC and is a regular performer on WLFR 91.7 FM Stockton University and WPRB 103.3 FM Princeton,
October 15th 2022 – Harrison McKay/Ascendant Sound, Dreamware and The Time Merchant
Harrison / Ascending – A collaboration from Philadelphia based father/Son duo of Harrison McKay (Tangent Project, Guitar Pilots) on Guitar, Looping & Electronics and Kyle McKay (Ascending Sound) on Himalayan Singing Bowls, Flute & Electronics. Together they weave darkness and light into a haunting and familiar ambient landscape.
Dreamware is the ambient music project of Todd Skinner in Alexandria, VA. He is interested in creating atmospheric soundscapes that are both intimate and melancholic, often incorporating organic elements such as his own field recordings and tape loops. He draws inspiration from a diverse range of artists including Steve Roach, William Basinski, Hotel Neon, and many others. Todd has performed at Cosmic Crossings with 80 lb. Test (Doug Llewellyn) and is a member of the Electronic Music Production Society based in Maryland. In 2019 he released his first album, Ephemeral. He has appeared on several compilations, including The Ambient Files and Ambient Online, and has collaborated with Karl Fury as ‘T N K’.
https://dreamware.bandcamp.com/
https://tnkmusic1.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/c/dreamwaremusic
The Time Merchant – Bathed in obscurity, little is known of The Time Merchant apart from the music.
Genres explored include: experimental, dark ambient, atmospheric. pure electronic, and various combinations.
May 7th – Ritchie DeCarlo, Taji Nahl and Cowboys from Uranus
Ritchie DeCarlo has been playing drums for 50 years and started playing live in the Philadelphia area in 1982 with various bands and singer songwriters. He has released many albums with artists such as Percy Jones, Markus Reuter, Michael Manring, Scott McGill, Michael Bernier, Tony Levin and many others! 2009 he found the world of modular synthesizers and his music hasn’t been the same since. Today he is combining drums, electronic percussion and synthesizers to present music that takes you on a journey like no other you’ve experienced.
Taji Nahl
Taji Nahl is an American; Philadelphia based interdisciplinary conceptual audio/ visual artist & composer. TR7’s vocabulary delves into social commentary via historical & futurist aesthetic. Installation, video, soundesign, sculptures, essays, are utilities that embodies poetic & abstract narrative for his oeuvre. TR7’S sonic exploration travels from drone , noise, free jazz & experimental hip hop traditions
The Cowboys From Uranus
The Cowboys From Uranus are:
Bruce Leitch(Hopalong Horus Heisenberg/ the Drugalos) makes sounds and noise with various electric and electronic instruments.
“Bucky Asahara” aka john whitney jr improvised vocalizations hydrophone and percussion. Their newly formed duo iIs inspired by dadaism and experimental music.
Proteus-3 is an improvisational electronic music trio consisting of multi-instrumentalists Juan Garces (The Melting Transistor, The Equinox Project, Black Thujone, Liquid Science Division), George Bley (Liquid Science Division), and Mike Hunter (Ombient, Black Thujone & host of the WPRB radio program Music With Space).
WeirdSmith, aka Dan Gray, is a retired Navy Aviation Electronics Technician who repaired audio technology, amongst many other systems, involved in the hunting of submarines, now seeks to provide journeys of aural crevasses he calls “Sonic Spelunking”. He looks for interesting sonic spaces and shares the exploration of them. Having never played the same thing twice, each journey is a new and hopefully enjoyed shared experience.
PYXL8R is the ongoing musical project of Cosmic Crossings co-founder and visualist Ken Palmer. Atmospheric, otherworldly, and always dense with unusual sonic textures, PYXL8R’s long-form synthesizer compositions are always performed completely live with no backing tracks. To achieve all of this on stage, Ken is joined by his talented spawn, Kyle and Sage. His wife Ruth provides the live visuals, so the whole clan has come to embrace the nickname “the Partridge Family of Electronic Music,” so c’mon, get happy!
Saturday April 9th, Proteus-3, WeirdSmith and PYXL8R
Saturday November 13th, The return of The Event Horizon Concert Series!
Neil Cippon
Neil Cippon is a Philadelphia based musician, playing in bands since the late 80’s. Played and recorded with King Carcass, Hoist and Mark’s Blues Band.
Neil Cippon’s current project explores the ambient textures that are possible with six string electric bass modified by pedals, filters and loopers combined with synthesizer sequencing.
Karl Fury
Karl Fury is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from New Jersey. His musical
background ranges from rock to jazz, world music, ambient, electronic and free improvisation.
He has performed at numerous venues including the Trenton Avant Garde Festival, Artworks,
the Cosmic Crossings and Event Horizon concert series, NEEMfest, EEEMfest, Mountain Skies
19, Columbia and Princeton University and live radio broadcasts from WPRB, WTSR ,
WDVR and WLFR. He performed and recorded for several years in the world music duo Near
East and the electronic music trio The Melting Transistor. He continues to collaborate and
record with the Equinox Project an improvisational electronic music trio. Karl collaborates
with Dr Brad Garton from Columbia University on an irregular basis. Karl is also involved in
three new musical duos, Beard Farm with Tom Bruce, Oblique Strategists with Mario-enrigue
Paoli and Quantum Elf with Floyd Bledsoe. He also records and performs solo as both Karl
Fury and Tars Obscura and currently has a solo release on the da/73 label. Karl plays a number
of different stringed instruments, electronic controllers such as the Linnstrument and the Sensel
Morph, homemade noise boxes, and utilizes computers and the Ipad as sound sources and
processors in his music.
Don Slepian
Don Slepian is a true pioneer of electronic music. He started composing in 1969 and released his first compilation cassette in September of 1978. He left Hawaii and came to Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, NJ, where he was “Artist in Residence” in computer music for the next two years. In 1980 he released three more cassette tapes on the Hawaiian record label Plumeria Productions: The Sea of Bliss, New Dawn, and Open Spaces. In 1981 he self-released his first LP, Computer Don’t Breakdown. In 1982 he signed to Fortuna Records, who brought his music to a much wider audience with several releases throughout the ’80s. The same year he released a collaborative tape with Lauri Paisley as Synarios called Uncontrolled Voltage in a classic electronica style. Slepian combines unique skills in music and electronics with a lifetime of improvised keyboard music performance. Born into a scientific family, Slepian showed both musical and technical talent early in life. In 1968, he programmed computers and built electronic music circuitry, sculpting sound with classic electronic music studio tape techniques. Starting in 1972, he was a tester on the early internet as a member of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He was also a synthesizer soloist with the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra, Music Director of Honolulu Theatre for Youth, and ARP Synthesizer Sales Rep for Hawaii.
Visuals
Niel Cippon will provide his own video artwork. Old school Spirographic Laser Illuminations by Mike Hunter (aka Ombient.)
Click here for the Facebook Event Page for this concert
ROTUNDA COVID POLICIES AND BEST PRACTICES
- 50 people MAX will be permitted in the venue during an event. This includes audience, staff, and performers.
- Everyone over the age of 2 will be required to wear masks indoors, regardless of vaccination status.
- Performers and attendees will be asked to stay home if they feel unwell or have been in contact with someone diagnosed with Covid within 10 days of the event.
- We will engage in contact tracing. We will register attendees at the front desk, and will require them to alert us if they become sick after the event.