Saturday, August 10, 2002

We would like to welcome you to the first of a series of intimate house concerts hosted by Bill Thompson, Brent Fariss, and Clark Crawford. In this particular series (the loft series) we will be following a standard format of one installation followed by two solo performances. The solo performances will be performed from the loft above and out of sight of the audience seated below. We have always struggled with the all too common phenomenon of audience members looking at what is being performed at the expense of listening to what is being performed. Through this series we are hoping to refocus our energies back into the act of listening as a primary vehicle of experiencing our surroundings.

To El Paso and Back - Bill Thompson

This installation was derived from numerous recordings made during frequent drives to and from El Paso. I would scan the am dial and listen to various programs broadcasted across the Texas desert from all over the country. Most of the drives occurred late at night or early in the morning so much of the programming was far from conventional. Often I would let the radio scan for half an hour or longer and just listen to different snippets of programming or radio static as I drove. These various recordings were then reworked to varying degrees (mostly on the abstract side) and prepared for the installation setup. The finished tracks fill a CD that is played by 3 primary CD players and 3 secondary CD players, all set to random. The result is a constantly shifting interplay of sounds combining and recombining with themselves and each other, not unlike their original state as I found them.

7 Prayers for Contrabass - Brent Fariss

7 prayers for contrabass is an exploration of the microsounds of the instrument. The piece is performed live with no processing or overdubbing. The only addition to the fingers, contrabass, and the bow is amplification that is necessary for the piece to be heard in a live environment. The creation of this piece happened during a recent bout with tendonitus. I have always had a love/hate relationship with playing the instrument, often wishing that I would not be able to play. When faced with the reality of this, I realized how valuable the instrument was to me as an extension of myself. So, in addition to everything else…the piece is a tribute to my beat up, old Engelheart…with love…

Tonight’s performance is dedicated to the memory of Jason Cooper who left this world on August 17, 1995, but whose spirit stays with me always…

Quartal Expansion (for two friends)

This piece was written for and inspired by the techniques of Bill Thompson and Brent Fariss, two dear friends. It is based on an eight-chord quartal harmony progression written six years ago, and utilizes increased time durations as a means for expanding harmony. The particular progression has always fascinated me for the manner in which it seems to achieve complete balance yet I have struggled in my attempts to develop it lest it lose its sense of symmetry. It recently occurred to me that the progression itself was capable of being the composition.

Presented by:

ThomFariCraw:
modern music initiative

Dedicated to the creation and presentation of the highest caliber of modern experimental music

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