Collective DRONE event - join us!!

On March 7th, join us at the ARTS CENTER OF THE CAPITAL REGION in TROY (265 River St.) for a collective DRONE event!

Bring an instrument and spend some time making drone-music together.

7pm start time

Hope to see you there!

RANGDA + CENTURY PLANTS!!!

ALBANY SONIC ARTS COLLECTIVE, in partnership with WCDB Albany is proud to announce....

Monday Feb. 27th in Albany, NY - the mighty RANGDA (Drag City Recording artists), featuring SIR RICHARD BISHOP, CHRIS CORSANO, and BEN CHASNY! Three musicians of the highest caliber you're likely to find anywhere on the globe. Don't miss these gentlemen on the opening night of a rare minitour of the Northeast. Rangda, the child-eating demon queen of Balinese mythology, finds a sonic voice via the epic, thrashing jammerisms of Sir Richard Bishop (Sun City Girls), Ben Chasny (Six Organs of Admittance), and the incredible Chris Corsano.

Special opening guest will be Albany's own CENTURY PLANTS, providing their take on guitar-centric noisy psychedelia, with guest Phil Donnelly sitting in on drums!

RANGDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hudHpfUbuuI&feature=related

CENTURY PLANTS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xm2gUZpr6Q

Monday Feb. 27 @ 7:30 PM
Valentine's
17 New Scotland Ave.
Albany NY

See you there!

HUGE EVENT to HELP SAVE the UAG!!!

JOIN US FOR THIS INCREDIBLE EVENT!!!

To help save the Upstate Artists’ Guild, an essential resource for the Capital Region’s art and music scenes, the Albany Sonic Arts Collective (ASAC) is proud to present a showcase event, featuring an array of local performers in the Albany area’s improvised and experimental music world. Now in its 5th year of programming exciting and innovative music in the Capital Region, the Albany Sonic Arts Collective wants to officially thank and give back to the Upstate Artists Guild, which has so generously helped support and develop the local music community.

Sunday January 29th, 2012
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St. Albany, NY
4:00PM - 10:00PM
$5 suggested donation.


All donations at the door, and all proceeds from merchandise sales will benefit the Upstate Artists Guild!! Special raffles/doorprizes too!

On Sunday January 29th at 4PM sharp, ASAC will present an extravaganza of local experimental music talent in new and fascinating configurations.

Highlights will include:

* Century Plants performing Spacemen 3’s DREAMWEAPON in its entirety

* Jason Cosco & Asa Morris premiering a new duo project, CONTINENTS

* Holland Hopson transforming the gallery’s front windows into loudspeakers

* Pete Edwards (Casper Electronics)

* Nonhorse (G. Lucas Crane)

* Parashi

* Jefferson Pitcher

* Shape Shifting Shepherds

* soundBarn

* Matt Weston both solo and with Insect Posse

* Plus surprise guests!

Video projections by 1983 (Jason Cosco) will be displayed during the event.

Facing a financial challenge in the coming year, the UAG is in danger of losing its current gallery space. UAG president Rebecca Schoonmaker Finnen has issued a call for support: “We need to generate a continuous flow of money from as many sources as possible so that our organization can continue to keep a roof over its head.”

ASAC and UAG have worked together since 2007 to provide a regular space for audiences to experience a wide range of musical styles not represented by other area venues. Some of the many memorable performers ASAC has brought to Albany include:
- Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore
- legendary music critic Byron Coley
- former member of 70s punk pioneers Destroy All Monsters, Ben Miller
- former member of the Cecil Taylor Unit, trumpeter & composer Arthur Brooks
- acoustic guitar virtuoso Jack Rose
- Chinese sound artist Yan Jun
In November of 2008, ASAC and UAG hosted the marathon River of Drone, producing a continuous 12-hour drone of sound.

About the Albany Sonic Arts Collective:
The Albany Sonic Arts Collective (ASAC) is a grassroots organization dedicated to building a thriving community of listeners and performers of music that exists outside of traditional boundaries. The Collective supports a wide variety of music and sonic art forms, with an emphasis on those that stress freedom and exploration of new ideas. Styles include free improvisation, drone, noise, electroacoustic improvisation, electronic music, avant jazz, and many others. ASAC have been presenting regularly since November 2007. The Albany Times Union called ASAC a “sonic bright spot” of the Capital District arts scene. In 2011 ASAC celebrated the 99th birthday of composer John Cage, with 99 consecutive performances of Cage’s seminal “silent” composition 4’ 33” followed by an evening length performance of Cage’s music.

Sunday January 29th, 2012
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St. Albany, NY
4:00PM - 10:00PM
Donations at the door and proceeds from merchandise sales to benefit the Upstate Artists Guild

5 Acts: An Evening of Experimental Music at the soundBarn

The soundBarn presents:

5 ACTS -- An evening of experimental music.
Sunday Dec 11 8pm suggested donation $8/$5 students

The soundBarn in Valatie, NY is pleased to present an evening of experimental music featuring Valerie Kuehne, Paul Pinto, Jeffrey Young, Century Plants and soundBarn from New York City and the Capital Region.

"Electrically-charged virtuoso of all-purpose cello," Valerie Kuehne from New York City performs a musical collage for cello and voice of dark and comedic vignettes about shopping, food, and drugs. http://dreamzoo.bandcamp.com/.

Paul Pinto performs For Stefanos Tsigrimanis , an elegy scored for two turntables, voice, guitar and electronics for Pinto’s friend and collaborator whose life was cut short after a bicycle accident in September 2010. Paul Pinto is a composer, vocalist and founding artistic director of thingNY in New York City. http://pfpinto.com/forstefanos

Jeffrey Young premiers a new set of alternatively energetic and deeply meditative work for violin, voice, and live electronics. Young is a composer and violinist from Brooklyn, NY who specializes in experimental classical and rock music. www.jeffrey-young.com

Century Plants are the Albany-based experimental guitar duo of Eric Hardiman and Ray Hare who have been described as “part raging metallic clang by way of the holy Shred, part meditative feedbacking in total Zen style.” Century Plants are highly regarded in the international underground noise/psych/rock/drone scene and have released music on labels from all over the globe. http://www.myspace.com/centuryplants

soundBarn has been mining the possibilities of extreme guitar for years. Thomas Lail and Patrick Weklar ply prepared and altered guitars, overprocess signals and pile loops of sound to orchestrate an arching instrumental tale of creation and destruction. www.soundbarn.blogspot.com


The soundBarn is a project of artist/musician Thomas Lail and artist/gallerist Tara Fracalossi and is located on what was once Heald Orchards in Valatie, New York. The soundBarn has recently initiated soundBarn Press and now publishes limited editions of poetry and experimental writing. Forthcoming publications include poetry by musician/artist/writer and founding member of rock band Sonic Youth Lee Ranaldo and poetry/writings by artist James Cullinane.


For more directions and more information visit: soundbarn.blogspot.com

SAT. Nov. 12th in Saratoga!

Join us for this special event - a rare performance by LOCATION ENSEMBLE! If you're not sure what that means, read below, and think "ecstatic and hypnotic massed guitar orchestra" and you'll be close.

LOCATION ENSEMBLE with video projection by 1983.

Performing works by: HOLLAND HOPSON, ERIC HARDIMAN, THOMAS LAIL, and VALERIAN MALY

Saturday, November 12, at 8pm
The Arts Center, 320 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY
$8 / $5 for students and members of the Albany Sonic Arts Collective

LOCATION ENSEMBLE, a supergroup sprung from the Capital Region's underground music scene and comprised of seven guitarists, bass player and drummer, will perform a program of original compositions and a new classic of experimental sound art at The Arts Center in Saratoga Springs on Saturday, November 12. The musical program will be accompanied by the projections created live by digital/video artist 1983.

In 2010 sonic experimenters soundBarn and Albany Sonic Arts Collective joined forces to perform at Saratoga Springs' Arts Center and two other venues Rhys Chatham's fabled Guitar Trio (1977), a swirling mass of sound where minimalism met punk rock and changed the state of music by ushering in the art-noise-rock scene of the early 1980's. With the last chords still ringing, soundBarn and Albany Sonic Arts members decided to make the group a semi-permanent performing unit and christened the project 'LOCATION ENSEMBLE'.

LOCATION ENSEMBLE has recently expanded its repertoire, serving as the core of two performances of John Cages's Imaginary Landscapes IV, scored for twelve AM radios.

On November 12, LOCATION ENSEMBLE sets aside their radios to pick up their guitars, bass and drums once again. This time the ensemble will perform new works by members Eric Hardiman, Holland Hopson and Thomas Lail with an expanded score of Valerian Maly's Electric Guitar II.

Valerian Maly (Born Switzerland 1959) is a composer, performer and music director of experimental theater. His projects include collaborations with John Cage, David Tudor and Alvin Lucier. Influenced by the Fluxus-artists, Maly’s Electric Guitar II (1994) employs electric guitar & champagne as a form of trauma therapy; a response to the musical education of a Swiss conservatory. Maly lives and works in Bern, Switzerland.

For this show, LOCATION ENSEMBLE will include:

Tara Fracalossi - guitar
Ray Hare - guitar
Howard Glassman - guitar
Holland Hopson - guitar
Thomas Lail - guitar
Jason Martin - guitar
Patrick Weklar- guitar
Eric Hardiman - bass & guitar
Matt Weston - drums

Video projections to accompany this concert will be provided by 1983 (Jason Cosco), an Albany based noise and video artist, co-founder of the Upstate Artist Guild, and a member of the Albany Sonic Arts Collective.

ASAC show on Sept. 25th!!

The Albany Sonic Arts and the Arts Center of the Capital Region co-present

Doug Van Nort / Al Margolis duo and Mysterybear (Dave Seidel) / Julia Alsarraf

Sunday 9/25 @ 2pm
The Arts Center of the Capital Region
265 River Street
Troy NY
$5 suggested donation

The duo of Al Margolis (If, Bwana) and Doug Van Nort utilizes two distinct approaches to manipulating sampled material, grabbing one another's sound on the fly and forming an endless feedback loop of re-imagined sonic identities. The result is a rich palette of sound informed by classic electronic composition, minimalist drone works, and modern noise music. "Structure to chaos, drone to acoustic collages..."

Doug Van Nort is an experimental musician whose work explores the sculpting and radical transformation of his sonic environment, as well as interaction with/through machines. His instruments are custom-built electro-acoustic systems and digital processes, with an ear towards noise, immersion and free improvisation. Van Nort performs solo and in the trio Triple Point with Pauline Oliveros and Jonas Braasch, and has collaborated recently with others including Francisco López, Stuart Dempster, Chris Chafe, Al Margolis, Ben Miller, Anne Bourne, Sarah Weaver and Judy Dunaway. Recordings of his music can be found on Deep Listening and Pogus among other labels, and his writing has recently appeared in Organised Sound and the Leonardo Music Journal. Van Nort is currently research associate in music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

If, Bwana was born on New Year's Eve 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition. A recent review of Margolis's work says: "Let it be declared that Al Margolis/If, Bwana is some sort of evil genius working with raw materials which are never adapted to a genre or a context, because they create one in that very moment. Those sources are radically altered up to an utterly unrecognizable state, anarchic manifestations moving in compact determination." (Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes) www.ifbwana.com

Dave Seidel is a composer/performer based in southern New Hampshire who works with electronics in both live-improvised and composed idioms, usually under the name mysterybear. As a guitarist, he participated in the downtown New York music scene in the 1980s, most notably as a member of Scott Johnson’s and Lois V Vierk’s ensembles and in the bands La Guapa Papa and People Falling, performing at venues including CBGB, Danceteria, Mudd Club, The Kitchen, Dance Theater Workshop and Alice Tully Hall. His premiere recordings of Vierk’s "Go Guitars" and "Red Shift" were released on the XI and Tzadik labels, respectively, and he appears on Guy Klucevsek’s album "Flying Vegetables of the Apocalypse".

JOHN CAGE 99 !!!

September 10, 2011

The Arts Center of the Capital Region is pleased to partner with Albany Sonic Arts Collective to present a celebration of John Cage, one of the most influential American composers.

John Cage, one of the most influential American composers, was a man so ahead of his time, that it is only appropriate to celebrate his centennial on his 99th Birthday. The occasion will be celebrated with 99 consecutive performances of his classic work for silent musicians, 4’33”, played by members of the community throughout the day on Saturday, September 10th. In addition, artists will perform John Cage’s music and writings at an 8PM concert.

We need your help to play all 99 performances of 4′33″! If you would like to participate, please email cage91011@gmail.com to reserve a time slot. Participants are welcome to bring their own instruments or use The Art Center’s piano.

The free ongoing performance of 4’33” will begin at 9AM in The Arts Center lobby and continue until approximately 6PM. The concert, which begins at 8PM, cost $10 for members of The Arts Center and Albany Sonic Arts Collective, and $12 for general admission.

Participating artists:

Michael Century
Justin Friello
David Gibson
Holland Hopson
Julie Kabbat
Thomas Lail
Location Ensemble plus special guests
Melissa St. Pierre

Sunday Aug. 21st - ASAC returns!

NOTE THE DATE CHANGE...

Sunday 8/21 at the UPSTATE ARTISTS GUILD

ELI KESZLER

BENJAMIN NELSON

SHAPE SHIFTING SHEPHERDS

NOT THE WIND NOT THE FLAG

Upstate Artists Guild
8pm start
247 Lark St. Albany, NY
$5 suggested donation for touring performers.

More info on the performers:

ELI KESZLER is a composer/multi-instrumentalist based in Providence, Rhode Island. He primarily uses percussion, bowed crotales, guitar as well as invented instruments (his harps which use strings and motors) to create his sound that balances droning harmonics with shattering acoustic sustain and fast, free rhythm, all working in balance with his integrated installations.

In addition to his solo releases, installations, visual art and performances, Eli has performed, recorded or collaborated with artists such as Phill Niblock (performing on a new work of his for Crotales and soprano saxophone with Ashley Paul), Aki Onda, Loren Connors, Jandek (I.C.A Boston and at NYU), Roscoe Mitchell (Art Ensemble of Chicago), Anthony Coleman (recording Lapidation released by New World Records), Joe Morris, Greg Kelley (Nmperign), T Model Ford, Ran Blake, Bryan Eubanks, Ashley Paul and Steve Pyne (Redhorse). He performed in the United States premiere of Mauricio Kagel’s Der Schall at Merkin Hall in 2008 led by Anthony Coleman.

He has toured internationally finishing a 6-week European tour in December of 2009, performing at Colour Out Of Space Festival in Brighton England as well as Sound-Body-Movement in Ostrave in the Czech Republic. In addition to performing over 25 other gigs in England, France, Spain, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Serbia.

"Perhaps it’s merely personal, but I’m deeply moved by many of the aural and visual elements present in Eli Keszler’s music. This new LP, on the venerable ESP-Disk label, is a new high, a work of art that is as conceptually strong as it is well executed. Combining explorations of musique concrete and machine music with a sure compositional ear, and incorporating subtle elements of free improv, “Oxtirn” creates some extraordinarily unique and compelling musical architecture." Foxy Digitalis 9/10


BENJAMIN NELSON is a Boston based electronic musician. Performed primarily on modular synthesizer, Nelson’s music is focused on reduction and detail, using long forms and slow development, gradually revealing inner rhythmic oscillations and shifting overtones. While informed by many classic minimalist traditions, Nelson seeks to overcome the sterile and anti-emotional trapping often associated with such music. Personal as process.

Benjamin Nelson is also a co-curator of the Non-Event concert series. He has performed throughout the US and Europe sharing bills with a wide variety of acts such as Giancarlo Toniutti, C Spencer Yeh, Whitehouse, and others. New recordings are due out this summer on Intransitive Recording’s Songs From Under The Floorboards, and Keith Fullerton Whitman’s NO label.

SHAPE SHIFTING SHEPHERDS delve into many realms of sonic exploration. Since 2002, they have made hundreds of live and studio recordings utilizing electronic and acoustic instruments modified by an array of analogue and digital effects, tape loops, samples, stompboxes, and rhythms. They tailor every performance to adapt to each venue often using visual elements.

http://www.myspace.com/556092865

From Canada, dynamic duo Colin Fisher and Brandon Valdiva work as Not the Wind Not the Flag. Together, they deliver improvisational music inspired by everything from free-jazz to post-hardcore to the folk traditions of Bali and West Africa.

Holland Hopson "Post and Beam" CD release party

We hope you can join us for this great event. In conjunction with the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy, we're happy to be announcing the CD release event for Holland Hopson's new release, "Post and Beam". Trust us, it's a fantastic disc. And, even better - In exchange for your admission to the concert, you'll receive a copy of the CD itself! Also playing will be Matthew Carefully and Century Plants.

MONDAY JUNE 13 at 8pm
HOLLAND HOPSON CD release party
with
MATTHEW CAREFULLY
CENTURY PLANTS

The Arts Center of the Capital Region
265 River Street, Troy, NY
$10 admission includes Post & Beam CD!


www.artscenteronline.org

518.273.0552

TWO EVENTS this weekend!!

FIRST UP:

Albany Sonic Arts Collective and The soundBarn present:



RIVER OF DRONE III

11am – 4pm on Sunday May 22 at The soundBarn, Valatie, NY.

Albany Sonic Arts Collective and The soundBarn are pleased to present River of Drone III a free, long-form sound performance that will center on the extended sounds of drone and will develop through a five-hour performance.
This year will mark the third annual River of Drone and the second Drone collaboration between Albany Sonic Arts and The soundBarn.
Set in a former orchard cooler with views of the Catskill Mountains, The soundBarn is a uniquely suited location for visitors to lounge, listen and linger for an hour, a few minutes or the entire performance. The audience is encouraged to make themselves comfortable and to bring pillows, chairs, food and drink. Listeners are encouraged to move around, watch the accompanying video projections, wander in and out and discover new relationships to sound through immersion, reflection, deep listening, meditation, and concentration.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
We hope you will join us to listen, meditate, bliss out-- or to simply enjoy a swim in the RIVER OF DRONE!

For more information visit: soundbarn.blogspot.com

The soundBarn
330 Maple Lane
Valatie NY 12184
south driveway

SECOND UP:



They Undulate When Struck By Light
an evening of poetry and music colliding


BILL SHUTE/PARASHI

CENTURY PLANTS with PHIL DONNELLY

CRUUDEUCES

Come on out to UAG in Albany to witness a collision of poetry and improvised sound! Parashi will open the evening with a short blast of noisy wandering. Poet Bill Shute (the head of Kendra Steiner Editions label) will read some of his work, and will then be joined by Sandra Burgess and Parashi for a collaborative set. Century Plants and Burnt Hills drummer Phil Donnelly are slated to follow, bringing out their amazing slow-burning psych drones, and then Cruudeuces' thunderous noisescapes will finish things off for the night's end. Don't miss it!


Bill Shute is an American poet who runs the Kendra Steiner Edtions label as a place to put out adventurous music along with equally challenging poetry.

Century Plants are the duo of Eric Hardiman and Ray Hare; they have released material on such labels as Ikuisuus, Tape Drift, Abandon Ship, and Carbon. They can also be found playing with Burnt Hills and in their respective solo projects of Rambutan and Fossils from the Sun. Phil Donnelly is part of the percussive engine behind psych lords Burnt Hills.

Cruudeuces is Nathaniel Brennan, head of the Ghetto Naturalist Series cassette label. Cruudeuces have released material on Kimberly Dawn, GNS, and Tape Drift.

Parashi is the solo project of Mike Griffin; releases in 2011 have been on Stunned Records, Kendra Steiner Editions, and Ghetto Naturalist Series.

Doors will open at 7.30, music will begin around 8.

Monday, May 23
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark Street
Albany NY
$5 suggested donation