The Annual Red Room Holiday Show

Red Room

Thursday, December 30th, $5

John Dierker, Will Redman, Mark Miller, Stewart Mostofsky, Jeff Carey, Alex Weber, and Adam Hopkins 

A Red Room holiday tradition for nearly 15 years, John Dierker will lead a diverse group of musicians in improvised music sets ranging from duos to large ensemble

425 E. 31ST STREET BALTIMORE, MD. 21218, USA

Keenan Lawler & Susan Alcorn // Marc Miller & Shelly Blake-Plock - Nov 27 at Red Room

Tonight at Red Room!
Saturday, November 27th, $6

Keenan Lawler & Susan Alcorn // Marc Miller & Shelly Blake-Plock
A Night of Improvised Strings

Prepare yourselves for a night of radical 'string theory' from some first-string free improvisers this evening at Red Room. Lawler and Alcorn bring steel guitar and pedal steel explorations, while Miller and Blake-Plock destroy it on acoustic steel string guitar and double bass.

at The Red Room
c/o Normals Books and Records
425 E. 31st Street
Baltimore

http://www.redroom.org/
Twitter: @highzero

Baltimore’s 12th Annual High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music Again Set to Organize Chaos

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8.31.10




High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music
September 23rd - 26th, 2010
@ The Theatre Project   45 W Preston St., Baltimore

site: highzero.org

twitter: @highzero

PR contact: diymummy@gmail.com



Baltimore’s 12th Annual High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music Again Set to Organize Chaos


"High Zero Festival is the premier showcase for spontaneous sound." NPR

“An utterly confounding yet utopian vision of musical possibilities.” Wire

High Zero is the premier festival of Improvised, Experimental music on the East Coast, being fully devoted to new collaborations between the most inspired improvisors from around the world.

“A fertile laboratory of musical possibility without equal.” Signal to Noise

The festival brings together 28 core musicians each year, but also involves a much larger subculture of musicians in Baltimore and on the East Coast. Musicians play sets of improvised music alongside improvisers they are often meeting for the very first time on stage. Unlike many related festivals, High Zero is not narrow in terms of sensibility or subculture, but rather widely inclusive of all the different types of experimental music-making in the moment.

“The continent’s finest four days of all-in improv and otherwise musical exploration.” City Paper

"Baltimore is becoming a crucible for serious experimental music produced outside of academia and concert halls." ArtPapers

The fact that half of the festival's core participants are from Baltimore speaks to the depth of Baltimore's experimental music subculture, which in recent years has grown to be one of the richest cities in the country for experimental art.

“Best Music Festival” City Paper and Baltimore Magazine

"A striking glimpse into the avant-garde and a creative process limited only by the imagination." Baltimore Sun

The festival has a unique structure. HIGH ZERO is focused solely on new collaborations in freely improvised experimental music. Internationally famous musicians play side by side with younger "unknowns," united by their commitment to the musical imagination. Each year, Baltimore becomes a fertile meeting-ground for a large group of inspired players, drawn from a fascinating international subculture.

"Could there possibly be a better place for a festival of cutting edge, improvised music than Baltimore?" Washington Post

The festival exposes large audiences to this radical music in its pure form. Large-scale public concerts, recording sessions, workshops, and guerrilla street performances are all part of the heady mix. The players are carefully selected by the festival's organizers for their intense, unique music, whether it is based around dramatic intensity, humor, specially designed instruments, original approach, raw sound, or nearly superhuman instrumental technique. The resulting collaborations challenge the limits of music and delight by their audacity, expressiveness, immediacy, and innovation. It isn't about stars or established projects; it is about the most uncompromising and stimulating new improvised music we can bring together.

High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music

September 23rd - 26th, 2010
@ The Theatre Project   45 W Preston St., Baltimore

Musicians from Afar

Karen Borca (NYC): bassoon
Shayna Dunkelman (NYC): percussion
Ju Suk Reet Meate (Portland): trumpet
Hans Koch (Switzerland): bass clarinet
Andrea Neumann (Germany): inner piano
Tuna Pase (Istanbul): voice, flute, laptop
Juanjosè Rivas (Mexico City): circuit bending
Tomoko Sauvage (Paris): porcelain bowls, water
Gary Smith (United Kingdom): guitar
Li Tieqiao (China): saxophone
Keith Fullerton Whitman (Boston): electronics
Wobbly (California): electronics



Musicians from Baltimore


Shelly Blake-Plock: stringed instruments
Ami Dang: sitar, voice, electronics
Drew Daniel: electronics
Dan Deacon: electronics, tuba
Tiffany Defoe: saxophone
Owen Gardner: strings
Ayako Kataoka: electronics
Liz Meredith: viola
Marc Miller: guitar
Stewart Mostofsky: electronics
Michael Muniak: feedback
M.C. Schmidt: electronics



High Zero Special Projects


Dan Deacon (Baltimore)
Ayako Kataoka (Baltimore)
Dr. Johannes Rosenberg (Australia)
Dragos Tara (Switzerland)


High Zero Festival Sound Installations


September 21st - 26th, 2010
@ Gallery Four   4th Floor / 405 W Franklin St., Baltimore

Sound Installations
Tristan Perich (NYC)
Karl Ekdahl (Baltimore)
Julie Benoit (Baltimore)




For set lists and information about High Jinx street happenings, see: www.highzero.org


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2010 High Zero Festival: Artists Announced!

This year's High Zero line-up is:

From Baltimore:

Ayako Kataoka, electronics
Drew Daniel, electronics
Stewart Mostofsky, electronics
M.C. Schmidt, electronics
Dan Deacon, electronics, tuba
Michael Muniak, feedback
Marc Miller, guitar
Owen Gardner, guitar
Shelly Blake-Plock, stringed instruments
Tiffany Defoe, saxophone
Ami Dang, sitar, voice, electronics
Liz Meredith, viola

From afar:

Keith Fullerton Whitman, electronics, Boston
Wobbly, electronics, California
Shayna Dunkelman, percussion, California
Li Tieqiao, saxophone, China
Karen Borca, bassoon, NYC
Tomoko Sauvage, porcelin bowls, Paris
Ju Suk Reet Meate, trumpet, Portland
Gary Smith, guitar, United Kingdom
Andrea Neumann, inner piano, Germany
Hans Koch, bass clarinet, Switzerland
Juan Jose Rivas, circuit bending, Mexico City
Tuna Pase, voice, flute, and laptop, Istanbul
Dr. Johannes Rosenberg, violin, technology, Australia
Dragos Tara, MAX/MSP, acoustic bass, Switzerland

SOUND INSTALLATIONS: Tristan Perich, Karl Ekdahl, Julie Benoit

And a special opening week show at 2640 Space featuring Susan Alcorn and Claire E. Barratt.

From the High Zero Foundation: Exotic Hypnotic

from the source:

Exotic Hypnotic: High Zero Foundation's 24-hours of extremely varied music sponsored by Baltimore Office of Promotion and The Arts.

University of Baltimore Performing Arts Center Student Theatre - 21 West Mount Royal Avenue, 5th Floor - Air Conditioned!!

-----------------------
Friday, July 16th, Free

2pm- Robby Rackleff: Eccentric multimedia monologist. 

3pm- Aaron Henkin: Producer of the Signal presents original radio documentaries. 

4pm- Square Pi: Experimental vocalist and sound-collage artist.

5pm- Baltimore Sacred Harp: Oldest American a cappella singing tradition comes alive. 

6pm- The Hammered: Grandiose theatrical heavy metal ensemble. 

7pm- Weyes Bluhd: Dark lo-fi ballads. 

8pm- Janitor: Homoerotic industrial  performance electronics. 

9pm- Annex Theater: Psychadelic dream-like theater work with puppets, live music, actors, and projection. 

-----------------------
Saturday, July 17th, Free

12pm- Avocado Happy Hour: Tuneful percussive oddities. 

1pm- Turquiose Cats: Electro feline minimal electronics. 

2pm- The Creepers: Wacky tortured songs with great lyrics. 

3pm- Jason Urick: Baltimore ping pong icon and legendary laptop jammer. 

4pm- Singers Madrigale: Wandering Traditional Renaissance voices. 

5pm- Stuart Saunders Smith: Avant-garde classical music. 

6pm- Summer Games (Schwartz/Fell/Boeldt): Money hungry boy band. 

7pm- Death Race 2000 (Broydelic Sidecar I + Stewart Mostofsky): Conceptual experimental supergroup meets 70's Carsploitation film. 

-----------------------
Sunday, July 18th, Free

12pm- Jah Hannibal/Aaron Martin/Britton Powell: Down-to-earth cosmic free jazz.

1pm- Nothingberry Plasma: One-man electronics and drum psychosis.

2pm- Stewart Mosotofsky, John Berndt, Kate Porter and friends.

3pm- Jeff Carey: Globe-trotting experimental electronic musician.

4pm- Andrew Bernstein: Electronic free-wheeling post-song rock.

5pm- Yoshiko Ohara w/ Gerry Mak: Doom and gloom from members of Bloody Ailuropoda melanoleuca.

6pm- Embarrassment Poems: A cavalcade of experimental language.

7pm- Baltimore Experimental Dance Group: Unusual movement and inspired oddity.

See the full schedule of events here: http://www.exotichypnotic.org/

Get a Taste

Get a Taste at Taster:

Thursday, June 3th, Free

At 2640 Space: a collectively run events venue in Baltimore, located at 2640 St. Paul St. 

 TASTER! A free introductory concert to experimental / improvised music with a bevy of stellar Baltimore musicians.

Are you interested in experimental music but not sure where to start? Or do you have friends or family members that you think might be interested in this stuff if it was introduced to them in the right way? In order to make this sort of thing happen more frequently, High Zero has put together this special free event at 2640 space called TASTER. Its a buffet of virtuoso experimental music styles.

In addition to good food and drink and casual conversation, this event will feature short, highly varied sets by these hand-picked ensembles of great Baltimore area musicians:

Neil Feather: inventions
Eric Franklin: inventions
Dan Breen: inventions

John Dierker: bass clarinet
Samuel Burt: bass clarinet
Britton Powell: bass
Will Redman: drums

Susan Alcorn: pedal steel guitar
Paul Neidhardt: drums
Chris Pumphrey: alto saxophone

Andy Hayleck: inventions
Ayako Katoaka: inventions
Peter Blasser: inventions

Audrey Chen: cello, voice
Shodekeh: human beat-boxing
Brian Sacawa: saxophones

Please come and bring interested friends and family. Its a chance to get them to peek into the amazing, exotic world of Baltimore experimental music and see what you like. We think they will find it interesting, and it may open some interesting doors for people. The whole event will last about an hour and a half, starting at the Church at 8PM sharp.

Ehse Radio Brings the Fresh Top Hits!

Ehse Records' owner Stewart Mostofsky was recently interviewed on Baltimore's best local radio program: The Signal.

Check out the program and hear how host Aaron Henkin responds to the likes of Leprechaun Catering and Sejayno. The Ehse talk takes place towards the last ten minutes of the program.

April 30: Salamander Wool LP Release

Reminder from Ehse Records:

Salamander Wool LP Release

Friday, April 30th, 9pm
at Tarantula Hill, 2118 W. Pratt Street, Baltimore, MD 21223

With performances by:
Salamander Wool
Needle Gun
Weyes Bluhd
Ami Dang & Jenny Graf & Nathan Bell

Double Quadraphonic Endurance Event at the True Vine

Friday, April 23rd, Free Show at the True Vine Record Shop

Double Quadraphonic Endurance Event at the True Vine 

Can you endure all the quadraphony? Test your senses!

Strotter (turntable-machines) from Switzerland
Ear, Nose and Throat
Electric Junk Band
Zomes
FunkHouse


Strotter Inst. is Christoph Hess from Switzerland. He creates music through the use of old, modified, Lenco turntables which he modifies and manipulates in countless ways. Rubber bands are affixed to the rotating turntable and plucked by the stylus, records have tape affixed in patterns to create textural rhythms, electrical current is sent via live wires to the needle to create pulsing feedback. These sounds are then manipulated by Hess through effects pedals to create warm and dense sound structures, looping, rumbling rhythms and multilayered broken beats.
The music of Strotter Inst. has more in common with the anti-electronica of Pan Sonic or the early minimalism of Steve Reich, than to other experimental turntablists like eRikm, Philip Jeck or Christian Marclay. Hess’ roots are not in improvised music, but in industrial culture, the electronic avantgarde and electro-acoustic composition.

Christoph Hess is also a member of post-industrial band, Herpes Ö DeLuxe (since 1995) and the experimental doom-trio Sum Of R (since 2007). He has collaborated live with Sudden Infant, Maja Ratkje, and others. Strotter Inst. has performed throughout Europe, China, Russia, and Bolivia.

PLEASE NOTE
This event will be held at

True Vine Record Shop

3544 Hickory St (just off the Avenue in Hampden)
Event begins at 4 PM

www.strotter.org

www.thetruevinerecordshop.com/

Jack Wright, Pascal Batus, Michael Johnsen, Tyler Wilcox, Andy Hayleck, and Paul Neidhardt: Live at Red Room 4/21

Wednesday, April 21st, $6 

The Red Room
at Normals Books and Records
425 E. 31st Street Baltimore
Doors open at 8:30 

Improvised music with Jack Wright (saxophones), Pascal Batus (objects, pickup), Michael Johnsen (saw, electronics), Tyler Wilcox (saxophones), Andy Hayleck (electronics, amplified Gong) and Paul Neidhardt (percussion). 

The Red Room is overjoyed to present these improvisers of super-human sensitivity and creativity on its humble stage. Jack Wright is a legend of North American improvisation. Pascal Batus is an amazing sound-oriented guitarist from France who utilizes an unusual method of "stringless guitar". This is his first visit to Baltimore. Michael Johnsen is a singular mind, a contemporary improvement on both David Tudor's electronics and Paul Loven's saw playing. His visits to Bmore from Pittsburg are rare.

Opening the night is the (semi) local trio of Paul Niedhardt, Andy Hayleck and Tyler Wilcox. Paul and Andy are amongst the finest members of the local inprovised music scene. Both members of Trockeneis, they share some like-minded goals of psychically transporting, disorienting electronacoutic timbres. They are both masters of subtle, shifting sound fields full of odd colors and dark, metallic friction. Tyler Wilcox is a one-time resident of Baltimore and returns throughout the year to play with Paul, Andy and others. He is a multiple reeds player. Together, the music they make is likely to be really transcendent. You'd be a fool to miss this one.

Cellist Charles Curtis, plus "Deacon at Bernie's" (Dan Deacon and Andrew Bernstein) Live at the Red Room 4/20

Tuesday, April 20th, $6 

The Red Room
at Normals Books and Records
425 E. 31st Street Baltimore
Doors open at 8:30 

Cellist Charles Curtis, plus "Deacon at Bernie's" 

Charles Curtis is one of the most important 'cellists in new music. He has had works written for him by La Monte Young (Curtis being his foremost interpreter), Eliane Radigue and Alvin Lucier and is likewise experienced in more traditional classical music, having served as first solo 'cellist of the Symphony Orchestra of the North German Radio for over 10 years. That's not all! He's performed at all the cool weirdo clubs in New York (Tonic, Knitting Factory, CBGB's etc.) and collaborated with people like Elliott Sharp, David First, Bongwater and Borbetomagus.

Deacon at Bernie's is a collaboration between Baltimore musicians Dan Deacon (electronics) and Andrew Bernstein (saxophone, Teeth Mountain). Deacon is best-known for his more pop-oriented solo work, the subtle experimentalism of which comes full flower in this collaborative context with Bernie's nurturing saxophone. The two will be accompanying, modulating or overtaking three short films by Lillian Schwartz and Stan Van Der Beek, lovingly chosen by local experimental film maven Mary Helena Clark.

musicweb.ucsd.edu/people/people.php?cmd=fm_music_directory_detail&query_Full_Name=%20Charles%20Curtis&query_Active_Status=Faculty

www.myspace.com/dandeacon

www.myspace.com/teethmountain

Ehse Records to Release LP by Baltimore's Salamander Wool

Ehse Records to Release LP by Baltimore's Salamander Wool


Ehse Records will release a new LP by Baltimore's Salamander Wool on May 18th, 2010. There will be a special local-release show in Baltimore on April 30th, 2010 at Tarantula Hill (2118 W. Pratt St., Baltimore, MD 21223) with guests Needle Gun, Weyes Bluhd, Ami Dang & Jenny Graf & Nathan Bell, and Ian Nagoski spinning 78s.

"Salamander Wool is the fiber mineral asbestos, which shows a particular resilience to fire. This force field spins its own protective web."

And so on this, the first Ehse LP by Salamander Wool -- the solo project of Baltimore artist and musician Carson Garhart -- resilience and force fields abide in plucked and chimed tre-melodies and fleeting glances of recorded sound.

Garhart resides in the Carollton Ridge neighborhood of Baltimore where, "while living in a constant nomadic flux sailing down concrete rivers across known and unknown provinces, he paints musical landscapes". Using electronics, stringed instruments (homemade and other), voice, and poetry, Carson creates songs and movements meant for metaphysical keys and ecstatic dances.

Having released a solo album in 2004 with the Shinkoyo collective, Garhart plays in the time-travel band Sejayno and occasionally paints birds on his wall. His music is at once a revolt against modernity and an embracing of possible futures, especially ones that restore an age of light and life. 

See: ehserecords.com for more album info.
For contact and updates on tour dates, see diymummy.com.
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