Loft Series #6

We would like to welcome you to the sixth in a series of intimate house concerts hosted by Bill Thompson, Brent Fariss, and Clark Crawford. In this particular 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.

Concrete for Berio - Brent Fariss (live installation)

An installation dedicated to the recently departed Italian master, Luciano Berio. Live musique concrete focusing primarily on the human voice, featuring fragments of Berio’s music, found recordings, electronic manipulations, and the Gates Ensemble (in the form of my GATES remix). The basis for the installation is influenced by Berio’s thoughts on a music created by other music (meta-music) in which there is “the gradual emergence of something, which then dissolves into something else. That something need not be self-created, like a series; it could be something already existing, like a folk song or a fragment of Schubert”.

For Luciano Berio (10/24/25 – 5/27/03).

Piece for Five Tracks - Keith Manlove

Piece for Five Tracks' utilizes five previously recorded performances to explore
discontinuous form. By arranging parts of the individual pieces in new ways, they lose their original continuous forms and become a part of this new discontinuous
form. Since only glimpse are given of each piece, the original structures and
motives lose their importance. This discontinuous form allows the pieces to be unified by personality, color, and even their differences and conflicts instead of more traditional compositional devices. Thank you to Feldman and Berio, for showing me perfection and its opposite, that I might find something in between.

The Overload -Rick Reed

The idea for the music presented tonight, was originally inspired by an idea I had for a soundtrack for an unrealized video piece, which was to be called ‘The Overload’. The video was to be a study on high-tension power lines and electrical junction boxes in all their various shapes and sizes. This is something I've been intrigued by since I was a kid, and it seemed to echo back to me a visual analogue of some the mystery I've found in short-wave radio transmissions over the years. I abandoned the idea when I slowly realized that trying to use images like this to make a connection to the sounds I was creating, was like trying to use a glass of water to describe rain. That, plus armed security guards who ran me off from both power plants I tried to videotape. So tonight, I'm presenting a somewhat physically safer for me, but perhaps no less psychically assaulting collection of video programs for you, to accompany the music I've created. The videos are being presented on three stacked TVs with three different pieces shown on each. Nothing profound, I just tried to pick out some things out that you, the viewer, might find interesting to look at while listening. In addition to my own work, the tapes feature video art by my good friends Josh Ronsen and Kuwayama Kiyoharu, who sent me his contribution all the way from Nagoya, Japan. It also has a piece by John Grzinich, originally made for the first Frequency Curtain show, when we were still a trio. I hope you enjoy the show!

A few additional notes on the soundtrack. I used mostly sine wave generator sounds mixed with special VLF radio noises and non-broadcast short-wave sounds. Also, a small bit of synthesizer is heard in the second section to twist the textures around. All the layers were recorded on my home computer and mixed using a music program called SAW.

Performance released on Elevator Bath.

Presented by:

ThomFariCraw:
modern music initiative

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

Return to Loft Series