THE SPECTRE SERIES

SPECTRE SERIES on HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

2010-01-10T08:40:00.002-07:00

No shows are planned... other local action: http://wunderkindcollective.blogspot.com/

THIS THURSDAY NOVEMBER 19: SUN CIRCLE, OSKER MERRILL

2009-11-17T06:56:00.003-07:00

SUN CIRCLE

PERSONNEL: GREG DAVIS, ZACH WALLACE

SOUNDS: ECSTATIC HIGH VOLUME DRONES, LONG FORM TRANCE MUSICS AND PEACE NOISE.

LABELS: LICHEN, MUSIC FELLOWSHIP, IMPORTANT

OSKER MERRILL

Osker Merrill is a New Mexico native born on the checkerboard side of the Navajo Nation reservation. Having moved often though currently living in Albuquerque for several years now studying psychology and religious studies to piece together what drives people and for introspective research as well. In addition interested as well in the role media has to play upon the psyche of a person. Whether it be a favorite book, movie or even commercial for a certain type of cereal the media plays a large part in ones life no matter how sheltered one can aim towards. This is a study on life’s ritualistic order and playing the role of creator, sustainer, and destroyer.

Brought forth in the last quarter of the twentieth century under a waxing gibbous moon and observing life as if an alien from another world and sometimes going back to that divergent dimension Osker Merrill has found himself piecing together life from its entrails using recordings. Having captured them on micro cassettes, digital recorders, phones or any other available means they are then woven together in a web. This web is the piecing together of current events, long deep-seated regrets, mythos from yesteryear, and sometimes cotton candy rearranging to bring forth the chaos and calm behind it all.

Thursday, November 19, 2009
7:30 PM
ARTS Lab Garage
131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque
http://artslab.unm.edu/where.html
$5/10 donation requested

NOVEMBER 16: MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN

2009-11-05T06:45:00.003-07:00

Malcolm Goldstein (b. March 27, 1936, Brooklyn, New York). American composer, now resident in both Canada and the USA, of mostly chamber and electroacoustic works that have been performed throughout the world; he is also active as an improviser and violinist. Mr. Goldstein attended Columbia University from 1952-59, where he studied composition with Otto Luening for one year and where he earned his BA and MA. He later studied violin privately with
Antonio Miranda in New York City from the mid- to late 1960s. As a performer of new music, he has been active as an improviser, violinist and vocalist and has also played various found and natural objects, as well as other instruments. As a violinist, he performed with the Judson Dance Theatre in New York from 1962-64, the New York Festival of the Avant Garde in the 1960s and the Experimental Intermedia Foundation in New York in the 1960s. Since then, he has performed primarily as a soloist, both in improvised and notated music. With Philip Corner and James Tenney he co-founded the Tone Roads Chamber Ensemble in 1963, a new music group that performed until 1970. He later served as director of the New Music Ensemble of Dartmouth College in the 1970s and of the Hessischer Rundfunk Ensemble für Neue Musik in Frankfurt/Main in the 1990s. As a writer, he has contributed articles about improvisation to various journals, notably Perspectives of New Music, many of which appear in From Wheelock Mountain: Music and Writings by Malcolm Goldstein (1977, in Pieces: A Profile, edited by Michael Byron). In addition, he wrote the book Sounding the Full Circle: Concerning Music Improvisation and Other Related Matters (1988, self-published, now available through the McGill University Project On Improvisation). Mr. Goldstein was commissioned by the Charles Ives Society to prepare critical editions of Symphony No. 2 in 1976 and String Quartet No. 2 in 2002, both by Charles Ives. Frog Peak publishes some of his music.

http://www.paristransatlantic.com/magazine/interviews/goldstein.html

Monday, November 16, 2009
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
ARTS Lab Garage
131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque
http://artslab.unm.edu/where.html

COMING NOVEMBER 02: THE TRANSDUCERS

2009-10-22T07:16:00.003-06:00

The Transducers

Featuring: Martin Back, James Brody, Philip Mantione, Christian Pincock, and Frank Rolla

The Transducers is a group of five composers and improvisers from diverse backgrounds spanning three generations of experience. They utilize laptops, custom software, sound sculptures, circuit bending and custom electronics to produce unique sonic worlds. Within the context of unstructured improvisation, they incorporate audience collaboration by means of the Photo-Instigator, a light-sensitive device suspended above the performers that picks up light beams originating from the audience. These rays are transduced into MIDI controller data streams that are sent to the performers to use or ignore as they see fit. So in essence, audience members become collaborators, instigators and possibly saboteurs.

Excerpt of live performance (MP3)

The Transducers

DATE: Monday, November 02, 2009

TIME: 7:30 pm

COST: $5/10 suggested donation

LOCATION:
ARTS Lab Garage
131 Pine Street NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
http://artslab.unm.edu/where.html

COMING NOVEMBER 16: MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN

2009-10-22T07:13:00.003-06:00

Malcolm Goldstein violin solo

Malcolm Goldstein | MySpace Video

Interview with Malcolm Goldstein

COMING NOVEMBER 19: SUN CIRCLE

2009-10-22T07:11:00.000-06:00

LAST SHOWS FOR A LONG TIME

2009-10-16T19:18:00.004-06:00

Last shows for 2009 coming up in November. Don't know if the series will continue.

11/02: The Transducers, 11/16: Malcolm Goldstein, 11/19: Sun Circle, Osker Merrill.

NOVEMBER IS FULL OF SOUND

2009-09-03T13:28:00.001-06:00

More details soon...

NOVEMBER:

MON. 02: PHIL MANTIONE ENSEMBLE: "The Transducers" (NM)
MON. 16: MALCOLM GOLDSTEIN (VT/MONTREAL)
THURS. 19: SUN CIRCLE (VT/MT), OSKER MERRILL (NM)

SPECTRE SERIES gets a mention in London magazine...

2009-06-24T07:19:00.002-06:00

FACT magazine reviews SPECTRE SERIES curator William Fowler Collins' new album and mentions UNM/ARTS Lab and the series....

SATURDAY MAY 09, 9:00 PM: METAL ROUGE, MESA RITUAL

2009-04-28T20:23:00.007-06:00

"Métal Rouge is a duo unit, originally formed in New Zealand between Andrew Scott and Helga Fassonaki, now residing in the sea between--concerned primarily with pure thoughtless formless now and its expression through sound."

http://www.myspace.com/metalrouge

Mesa Ritual is the duo of Raven Chacon and William Fowler Collins. If you caught the duo at the Robb Trust Composers' Symposium show here at ARTS Lab earlier this month then you'll recall low frequency electronics that shook the architecture, layered field recordings played at a whisper and towering, multicolored walls of sound.

When: Saturday, May 09, 9:00 PM
Where: ARTS Lab Digital Media Garage. 131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque
Map: http://artslab.unm.edu/where.html
How much: $5-10 suggested donation goes to the artists.

Photos from the last 3 SPECTRE SERIES performances

2009-04-27T11:00:00.006-06:00

Links to the photo sets:

Christian Pincock/Peter Rand

Barn Owl & Heavywater

NoiseFold

Christian Pincock with live visuals by Peter Rand on 4/23/2009:

Barn Owl, Heavywater on 3/24/2009:

NoiseFold on 2/20/2009 on 2/20/2009:

THURSDAY APRIL 23, 7:00 PM: CHRISTIAN PINCOCK

2009-04-14T09:58:00.002-06:00

An evening with Christian Pincock and live visuals from Peter Rand.

Christian Pincock performs improvised and composed music on valve trombone and a computer-based instrument of his own creation with MAX/MSP. Using a keyboard controller and a system of sensors attached to his trombone he is able to control sampled sounds and integrate them expressively and musically. His work is both dynamic and subtle, drawing from diverse styles such as improvised experimental music, contemporary classical, avant-garde jazz, noise, and electronica.

He has performed internationally in events such as the 9th, 10th and 11th Soundpainting Think-tank in Woodstock, Sweden, and France, the Music Omi International Arts Residency in 2007, the Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music in Banff, Canada in 2006, as well as venues such as The Stone (NYC), Roulette (NYC), Le Petit Faucheux (Tours, FR).

http://www.christianpincock.net/

When: Thursday, April 23, 7:00 PM
Where: ARTS Lab Digital Media Garage. 131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque
Map: http://artslab.unm.edu/where.html
How much: $5-10 suggested donation goes to the artists.

Tuesday March 24 @ 7:00 PM: Barn Owl, Heavywater

2009-02-24T10:20:00.005-07:00

An evening of heavy drone from Barn Owl (San Francisco) and Heavywater (Albuquerque).

We are very grateful to have Barn Owl coming through. Who are Barn Owl? From the beloved and essential record store Aquarius Records: "Not only have Barn Owl become one of our favorite musical projects right here in SF, but they are now serious contenders to the throne of best purveyors of deep and emotional and soul satisfying drone music anywhere in the world... While drone-folk bands have become a somewhat common entity in the last couple years, it's actually rare to discover one whose music exudes soul and spirited passion... There is much reward in patient listening to the music of Barn Owl. Their sound entrances and enthralls, but without letting go the melodies, or forgoing actual songwriting, these are not just chunks of droning sound, these are songs, dark, haunting, lovely mysterious songs." http://www.myspace.com/barnowlband

Heavywater are 1 part Jim Roeber and 1 part William Fowler Collins. Comfortable in Western Swing, Free Improvisation, and electronics, Jim Roeber is an inventive and focused multi-instrumentalist. William Fowler Collins is an improvisational guitarist and electronic composer and on this night the duo will serve up some heavy electronic dronescapes with a side of Southwestern, cinematic improvisation.

When: Tuesday, March 24, 7:00 PM
Where: ARTS Lab Digital Media Garage. 131 Pine Street NE, Albuquerque
How much: $5-10 suggested donation goes to the artists.

Friday February 20 @ 7:30 PM: NoiseFold

2009-02-02T09:22:00.005-07:00

NoiseFold is a leading interactive sound-art and live cinema group founded by David Stout and Cory Metcalf. NoiseFold perform live animation works to breed virtual forms that both create and respond to sound. These abstract visual structures can take many forms including bio-mimetic cellular life & organic architectures. The performers animate, coax, bend and herd these audio-visual "organisms" by use of cameras, microphones, electro-magnetic and infrared sensors. The result is a visual music theater where "lifelike" avatars emerge, evolve and emit a startling array of sounds; from pure noise and chaotic rhythms to shimmering melodic textures.

Not quite three years old, NoiseFold presented their world premiere at the Festival Internationale d’Art Video in Casablanca, Morocco in spring 2006. Their performances, which have included the UNESCO Creative Cities Summit, the New York Electronic Arts Festival and “Chinati Weekend” in Marfa, Texas have garnered rave reviews and a growing audience. The pair received the New Mexico New Visions Award for innovative animation and were recently nominated for the United States Artists fellowship. Stout is also the recipient of the Harvestworks Interactive Technology Residency and the Sun Micro Systems Award for Academic Excellence (2004) and was nominated for the both the WTN World Technology Award (2003) and the International Media Art Prize (2004). Stout & Metcalf currently live in Santa Fe, New Mexico where they are designing Archipelago, a networked installation environment in the form of a “live” artificial ecosystem. The project, which includes collaborators and scientists from both the Santa Fe Institute and Santa Fe Complex, explores the creative nexus between real-time animation, immersive environments, multi-player computer games, mathematic visualization, complexity science and ecology.

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

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

2008-12-09T09:54:00.004-07:00

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

2008-11-11T15:01:00.009-07:00

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

2008-11-07T11:34:00.003-07:00

Experimental Music Series begins November 06

2008-10-07T13:08:00.003-06:00

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/

----

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

----

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