Monday, April 22, 2013

ASAC's 2nd Annual Benefit for UAG!!!



ASAC LUVS UAG!!

JOIN US FOR OUR SECOND ANNUAL BENEFIT FOR UAG! Last year, the Upstate Artists' Guild (UAG) faced financial challenges that threatened its existence. To help save this essential resource for the Capital Region’s art and music scenes, the Albany Sonic Arts Collective (ASAC) presented a showcase event featuring an array of local performers from the Albany area’s improvised and experimental music world. One year later, UAG’s here; ASAC’s here, and we couldn’t be happier. Once again ASAC wants to thank and give back to UAG. Please join us!

Saturday April 27, 2013
Upstate Artists' Guild 247 Lark St. Albany, NY
4:00PM - ???

$5 as a minimum suggested donation, but everything you can do to help out UAG will be tremendously appreciated!  Donations at the door and proceeds from merchandise sales to benefit the Upstate Artists Guild. Starting at 4PM sharp, ASAC will present an evening of continuous sound featuring:

Fossils From The Sun
Matt Weston
Grab-Ass Cowboys
Parashi
Sun Burdens
Blacklight Lighthouse
Tiki Bats
soundBarn
CASE
World Lines

Crank Sturgeon




Closing the evening out will be Western MA via Portland ME noise legend Crank Sturgeon! If you missed his recent performance at UAG, YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS ONE!

ASAC and UAG have worked together since 2007 to provide a regular space for audiences to experience a wide range of experimental and improvised musical styles not represented by other area venues. 


Recent artists brought to Albany by ASAC:
- Joseph Hammer – member of the legendary Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS)
- Baltimore Lap Steel alchemist Susan Alcorn
- Tape manipulator extraordinaire Jason Lescalleet
- MAWJA featuring Vic Rawlings; Mike Bullock and Mazen Kerbaj
- The live debut of electronic music pioneer Pauline Oliveros’ all-harmonica ensemble, the Tintinnabulate Harmonica Band

Past highlights 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
- Wolf Eyes' John Olson as SPYKES
- Chinese sound artist Yan Jun

- Hair Police
- Family Battle Snake and PAN Records head Bill Kouligas

- Philadelphia saxaphonist Jack Wright
- legendary underground supergroup Rangda (Richard Bishop/Ben Chasny/Chris Corsano)
- a massive two day festival celebrating what would have been the 99th birthday of John Cage (John Cage 99)

And of course, ASAC has worked tirelessly in the last 5+ years to inspire grow its own local & regional talent, providing a welcome home stage for solo artists and groups such as:

- Matt Weston (world class percussionist/multi-instrumentalist/improvisor)
- soundBarn (fearless twin guitar explorers Thomas Lail and Patrick Weklar)
- Fossils From the Sun (Ray Hare)
- Shape-Shifting Shepherds (Saratoga drone experimentalists Elky and Clarke)
- Insect Posse (noise provocateurs Mark Lunt and Chris Bassett)
- Century Plants (Ray Hare and Eric Hardiman)
- Twilight of the Century (heavy improvised doom unit w/ Mike Bullock, Linda Aubry Bullock, Ray Hare, and Eric Hardiman
- LOCATION ENSEMBLE - swarming & thundering multiple guitar ensemble
- 1983 (solo noise project from UAG's Jason Cosco)
- Jefferson Pitcher - guitar improv like no other from former Troy resident now in Western MA
- CASE (Albany-based noise experimentalism from Jeff Case)
- Mensheviks - Albany-based electronics + percussion improv unit
- Grab Ass Cowboys - Albany's pre-eminent noise duo (Christian Bulmer & Jason Cosco)
- Rambutan (solo project of Eric Hardiman) 

- Parashi (solo project of Mike Griffin)
 
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. The Albany Times Union called ASAC a “sonic bright spot” of the Capital District arts scene.



There's a lot to celebrate here, and a lot to support.  For a city the size of Albany, we feel very proud to have helped in some small way to nurture this vibrant scene.  But none of this would have been possible without the Upstate Artists Guild.  Please consider showing your support by coming out for this spectacular show, enjoy the great music, buy some merchandise, and donate what you can to the UAG!!


THANK YOU!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

ASAC show on 4/20!

Join the Albany Sonic Arts Collective for an evening of deep synth zones and noise....Saturday April 20th at the Upstate Artists' Guild! Synthesizer explorers Afterlife take their thick and blissful tones on the road, leaving Brooklyn for a bit and bringing compatriot Mike Chau of Bedroom along with them. A trio collaboration between Fossils from the Sun and Urkas will round out the evening. All for five bucks, don't miss it!






 Saturday April 20th

Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St. in Albany
8PM



AFTERLIFE

BEDROOM

FfrtheSun vs. URKAS
 
 Afterlife has released tapes and vinyl on outstanding labels like Stunned, Hooker Vision, and their own Tranquility Tapes. Ryan McGill and Franklin Teagle incorporate elements of classic kosmiche electronic music, filtered through a 21st century perspective, resulting in a gentle yet massive sound. Teagle curated the Tranquility Tapes Series at the Stone in New York City in February 2013, and his label has released a ton of amazing music in the past few years.

http://afterlifesounds.bandcamp.com/

Mike Chau's Bedroom has released 3 tapes for Tranquility Tapes. His patient, drifting style of synth work is equal parts beauty and dread.

http://bedroomnyc.bandcamp.com/

Fossils from the Sun is Albany's Ray Hare, who also plays in Century Plants and Burnt Hills. He's released material on such fine labels as Digitalis, Tape Drift, and House of Alchemy. Urkas are the duo of Brooklyn's Russ Alderson (Xanthocephalus) and Albany's Mike Griffin (Parashi, Burnt Hills). They'll collaborate using synth, bass, tapes, voices, and metal objects.

https://soundcloud.com/rambutan/fossils-from-the-sun-run-on

https://soundcloud.com/aldertone

https://soundcloud.com/parashi/sim-life-in-wet-decades