December 04, 2008 photos: Martin Back, Father of the Flood

December 04: Martin Back, Father of the Flood play the Spectre Series

The SPECTRE SERIES Presents MARTIN BACK and FATHER OF THE FLOOD. Thanks to all who came out for the first show last week. You'll find photos below. We are lucky to have Martin Back and Father of the Flood with us for the upcoming December 4th show.

Doors are at 7:00 PM, with the first performance starting by 7:30 PM.

Where: ARTS Lab Garage - 131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, just north of Central and one block west of University
When: 7:00 PM
Cost: $5-10 sliding scale
Web: artslab.unm.edu/where.html


ARTIST BIOS:



MARTIN BACK
Martin Back (b. 1978 Opelousas, La.-the Zydeco capitol of the world) is a media artist, composer, and musician living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

His work explores graphic score procedures, noise, random and stochastic methods, custom circuitry, and musique concrete.

He studied for a B.A. in Moving Image Arts at the College of Santa Fe where he was a student of pioneering media theorist, historian and author Gene Youngblood and renowned media artist David Stout.

He has performed at festivals and venues in New Mexico and his video works have been shown in festivals in the United States and Canada.

Martin is also the director of the Ancestral Groan Liberation Orchestra, a collective of musicians from diverse backgrounds and abilities,which he formed in August of 2008 in order to explore unconventional composition systems, improvisations, and scores by the collective members and himself.

He is currently, when their busy schedules allow, privately studying composition with composer and sound artist David Dunn.

For his appearance at the second Spectre Series Martin will present several new and old works, including:

'Rancid Perfume' for Two Voices, Percussion, Theremin, and Ocarina

'Live Radio Evil' for live radio and sampling software

'Fire Suppression' live acousmatic music

'Malfunctioning Circuit Study No. 1' for unstable circuitry and computer

more info: http://moongasm.blogspot.com/



FATHER OF THE FLOOD
Due to the chaotic nature of our everyday lives and the violent consequences of our actions - we exist in an unrelenting crisis of values. Yet, upon any instinct we can grasp escape in a tangible form that has been formulated to directly tranquilize or keep us consumed in that spectacle, whether through synthetic drugs that sometimes "find" their way into our drinking water if we haven't already sought them out for our own discretion, or simply televisions selling us insecurities and enticing our emotional being with scripted "living", all the while laying the foundation for learned behaviors in just how much attention and ultimate control we allow towards our imaginations.

This project was created primarily as a means of coping with the psychological assaults we are confronted with by our civilization and ourselves, whether the dangers of self-introspection or the traditions and practices we have accepted and continually participate in. I embrace and encourage a vegan lifestyle and actively support the struggle for animal liberation and intend for this project to promote cruelty-free living, compassion, and the direct participation of abolishing all that forsake an autonomous existence.

These pieces are intended to allow space and encourage contemplation or self-abandonment at will, they are composed largely by actual sounds from our urban environments that offer the listener an opportunity for a naive ear and a more self-focused position of judgement. These sounds are bleak and consuming. Swells of densely layered soundscapes and imposing drones contrasted with various cold and vacant bowed acoustic instruments/objects, sparse piano movements, and integrated field recordings.

more info: www.fatheroftheflood.blogspot.com

November 06, 2008 photos: William Fowler Collins/Raven Chacon, Luperci

Experimental Music Series begins November 06

The SPECTRE SERIES

ARTS Lab presents the first in a series of experimental music concerts featuring composer-performers who work inside (and outside) the musical fields of Electroacoustic, Acousmatic, Noise, and Free improvisation.

The first evening features a collaborative performance by Raven Chacon and William Fowler Collins and a set by Luperci. Doors are at 7:00 PM, with the first performance starting by 7:30 PM.

Where: ARTS Lab Garage - 131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, just north of Central and one block west of University
When: 7:00 PM
Cost: $5-10 sliding scale
Web: http://artslab.unm.edu/where.html

ARTIST BIOS:

RAVEN CHACON
Raven Chacon (b. Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation, Arizona, United States, 1977) is an American composer and artist. He is known for being a composer of chamber music as well as being a solo performer of experimental noise music. As an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, he is also one of the few American Indian classical composers and educators of "New Native Art."

Chacon has recorded many works for classical and electronic instruments and ensembles and has had many performances and exhibits of his work across the U.S. as well as Europe and New Zealand. He has received commissions from the University of Mary Washington and the ERGO Ensemble.

He was a student of James Tenney, Morton Subotnick, and Wadada Leo Smith while he was studying music at the California Institute of the Arts.

He lives in Albuquerque, NM and has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Native American Composers Apprenticeship Project.

for more information please visit:
http://spiderwebsinthesky.com/

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WILLIAM FOWLER COLLINS
Originally from rural New England and now living in New Mexico, William Fowler Collins (b.1974) is a musician whose work explores and synthesizes both musical and extra-musical elements. Improvisation, field recordings, electric guitar, lap steel guitar, laptop computer, processed recordings, micro-cassette tape recorders, and home-made electronic devices all play roles in the creating, performing, and recording of his music.

In 2004 Collins graduated from Mills College ( MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media) where he studied with Fred Frith, Annie Gosfield, Alvin Curran, Maggi Payne, Chris Brown, and Pauline Oliveros.

for more information please visit:
http://www.williamfowlercollins.com
http://www.myspace.com/williamfowlercollins

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LUPERCI
Luperci is the aural work of New Mexico based artist Joseph Angelo. This work can be primarily categorized as drone noise with an emphasis on texture and repetition. All pieces are intuitively arranged with a focused intent. Thus far, general themes revolve around opening the currents of primordial chaos, acknowledgment of the cycles of destruction/creation, and the faint whisper of hope amidst despair.

Joseph holds a BFA from the University of New Mexico, and has been performing experimental music since 1999. In the fall of 2006 Joseph adopted the moniker Luperci to reflect the new style and approach that was beginning to emerge. Notable performances as Luperci took place at the Minima per Maxima Festival at L'an Vert gallery in Liege, Belgium, Salon Bruit in Berlin, Germany, and a live radio performance on "the no other radio network" show in Berkeley, California.

Live performances utilize organic sounds such as sitar, harmonium, tamboura, chinese hammered dulcimer, bass guitar, and human voice. These sounds are electronically treated, manipulated, layered, arranged, and designed to provide the audience access to introspective and/or trance-like states.

for more information please visit:
http://www.luperci.net
http://www.myspace.com/luperci