Tuesday April 22, the Albany Sonic Arts Collective welcomes Finland's
Antti Tolvi, in duo with master drummer
Chris Corsano!! Also performing on the bill will be
Jefferson Pitcher, solo guitar wizard from Easthampton, MA, and a special improv duo set by
Meg Duffy and
Jason Cosco. Don't miss this fantastic show!!
ANTTI TOLVI-CHRIS CORSANO DUO
JEFFERSON PITCHER
MEG DUFFY-JASON COSCO DUO
Tuesday April 22
Upstate Artists Guild
247 Lark St.
Albany, NY
8PM
$5 suggested donation for the touring musicians
Antti Tolvi is a self-taught, multi-talented musician. He has played in
numerous bands including Lau Nau, Rauhan Orkesteri, and Lauhkeat Lampaat. Born
in ’77 in Panelia on the west coast of Finland, he began making music with his
brothers, untutored. From 2000-2001 he studied classical Indian music in
Varanasi, and this marked a turning point in his perception of music. On
returning to his native Finland, he became embroiled in Free Jazz for a number
of years, until a recent relocation to the countryside pushed him ever more
towards solo improvisation – deriving inspiration from, in Antti’s own words,
“harmonies, overtones, going into sound, no ends, no starts, from nothing comes
something, just perfect, peace”.
‘Pianoketo’ can be seen as a culmination of Antti’s musical experiences to
date. Featuring three extended meditations on a theme, all played on solo
piano, it is a sound that defies categorisation, with nods towards classical,
avant-garde, improvisation, psych, free jazz and Indian music. A shimmering
flux of tones and harmonies, each of Pianoketo’s pieces seem to collect notes
as they gather momentum, expanding and shifting form as Antti breathes life
into them. At times, it is almost as if there are two instruments, the
overtones working like feedback, playing counter-melodies as notes weave
through each other. Antti’s technique combines neatly with the personality of
the instrument to convey an evocative, psychedelic nostalgia.
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First spellbound by freely improvised music in the mid-1990s after witnessing performances by TEST, William Parker, Cecil Taylor, and others,
Chris Corsano began a long-standing, high-energy partnership with Paul Flaherty in 1998. A move from western Massachusetts to the UK in 2005 led Corsano to develop an expanded solo music of his own, incorporating sax reeds, violin strings and bows, pot lids, and other everyday household items into his drum kit. In February 2006 he released his first solo recording, The Young Cricketer, and toured extensively throughout Europe, USA, and Japan. He spent 2007 and '08 as the drummer on Björk's Volta world tour, all the while weaving in shows and recordings on his days off with the likes of Evan Parker, Virginia Genta, and C. Spencer Yeh. Moving back to the U.S. in 2009, Corsano returned focus to his own projects, most notably a duo with Michael Flower, Rangda (with Sir Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny) and solo work, now revamped to include synthesizers and contact microphones in addition to his drum set and home-made acoustic instruments.
In addition to the those mentioned above, he's also worked with, among others: John Edwards (released by: Clean Feed/Dancing Wayang), Jim O'Rourke & Akira Sakata (Drag City/Family Vineyard), Paul Dunmall (ESP-Disk), Nels Cline (Strange Attractors), Jessica Rylan (Load Records), Jandek (Corwood), Sunburned Hand Of Man (Manhand), MV&EE (Eclipse/Time-Lag), Vampire Belt (Open Mouth), Joe McPhee (Roaratorio), and Wally Shoup (Leo/Columbia Japan).
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Jefferson Pitcher is a guitarist and composer originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. He spent his formative years involved in the DIY Berkeley punk-rock scene, at 924 Gilman Street, which still influences him today. While much of his work explores free improvisation, he also draws heavily on his gift for melody, as well as on the simple repetitions of minimalism, the space and North African influence of flamenco, and a history of performing and recording in the West Coast indie-rock scene as a singer-songwriter, where he fronted the band Above the Orange Trees.
Since that time, Pitcher has released music with Standard Recording Co. (USA), Digitalis Recordings (USA), Camera Obscura (Australia), Tape Drift Records (USA), Moonpalace (Spain), Dutch East India (USA), Words on Music (USA), Tract Records (USA), and his own Mudita Records (USA). He has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists including Pauline Oliveros, Fred Frith, Ikue Mori, Okkyung Lee, Scott Amendola, Rosie Thomas, Christian Kiefer, J. Matthew Gerken, Denison Witmer, Sarah Weaver, Mark Dresser, Mike Bullock, Tim Keiper, Doug Van Nort, Jonathan Chen, David Gibson, Kristina Forester, Ron Guensche and many more. He has twice been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and has been well reviewed by Pitchfork, Blurt, The Melbourne Sun, Prefix, and Harp magazines.
Pitcher holds an MFA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he studied improvisation and composition with Pauline Oliveros and Neil Rolnick. He is married to author and visual artist Keri Smith, and can often be found on some hilly country road riding his bicycle while daydreaming about the minutiae of guitars and the endless wonder of sound.
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Meg Duffy is lead vocalist and guitarist for Hand Habits. She deals in psychedelic pop/dream rock sounds with an emphasis on pretty and sad melodies, reverb, and guitar freakouts with simple but meaningful structures. Jason Cosco is a core member of the Albany Sonic Arts Collective, and also plays in Albany's noise legends Grab Ass Cowboys, as well as performing solo.
