Dubble8 Productions

The Vigil all-night music festival

Saturday April 27, 2013

6 pm (4/27) to 6 am (4/28)

Cohen Plaza at MICA

1301 Mount Royal Ave., Baltimore, MD 21217

FREE

Hosted by the Sound Art program of the Interaction Design and Art department, in collaboration with the Video and Film Arts, Animation, and Interdisciplinary Sculpture departments

Schedule:

Cloudprints by Matthew Burtner, performed by Sound Art students, X|i|O duo, Kevin Gift and Erik Spangler [networked performance with the composer and Mobile Interactive Computer Ensemble at the University of Virginia]

- 6:00 PM        Brown Center atrium

STEIM Sound Project group -    6:20        Brown Center atrium

Zak Greene -    6:40        Cohen Plaza – EAST

Schwarz -    7:00        SOUTH

Tyler Tamburo -    7:20        WEST

Jonathan Badger -    7:40        NORTH

Essays -    8:00        SOUTH

Oneiric -    8:20        WEST

Tendrills -    8:40        EAST

Whoarfrost -    9:00        NORTH

Out Of Your Head Orchestra -    9:20        SOUTH

Wendel Patrick & Max Beats -    9:40        WEST

Zoe Burke & Karl Ekdahl -    10:00        EAST

[10 - 11 PM - Projected animations by students of Lawrence Arcadias (Animation)]

Erik Spangler & Jason Sloan -    10:20        SOUTH

Microkingdom -    10:40        NORTH

Network Glass -    11:00        EAST

[11 PM - 6 AM - Video art by students of Nadia Hironaka (Video) and Sarah Doherty (Interdisciplinary Sculpture)]

plake 64 & the hexagrams -    11:20        WEST

Beth Brown -    11:40        NORTH

Liz Meredith & John Somers -    12:00 AM    SOUTH

Sam Jones -    12:15        WEST

Miles Clark -    12:30        EAST

Sam Kuo -    12:45        NORTH

Fiona Sergeant -    1:00        SOUTH

Will Schorre -    1:15        EAST

Mike Arreaga -    1:30        SOUTH

Helen Jackson-Adams -    1:45        WEST

Dylan Young -    2:00        SOUTH

Qian Zeng -    2:15        NORTH

Shawn Cook -    2:30        SOUTH

Andrew Kim -    2:45        WEST

Matt Lewicki -    3:00        NORTH

Sydney Spann –     3:15        EAST

Louise Lee/ Gihea Nho -    3:30        SOUTH

Jared Brown/ Adi Shachar -    3:45        NORTH

Cry Baby -    4:00        EAST

Dingding Hu/ Catherine Akins -    4:15        SOUTH

Nicole Lee -    4:30        WEST

Keaton Johnson -    4:45        SOUTH

Ian Privett -    5:00        EAST

Niki Murphy -    5:15        SOUTH

Boone Snavely -    5:30        NORTH

Richelle Vargas -    5:45        EAST

Matt Sullivan  -    6:00        WEST

Back in October 2012, I released an EP focusing on a hybrid of old-time mountain music and instrumental hip-hop. Cloudsplitter consists of six tracks that I recorded while teaching myself to play banjo, in connection with two other projects: a cantata for a loop trail in the forest, and a soundtrack for a film focused on the lives of mountain people. You can listen to the EP here, or download it for $5 from Bandcamp:

You can also read a review of Cloudsplitter in Baltimore’s City Paper here.

Composed for Mobtown Modern (Baltimore, Maryland) and Recover Band (Rome, Italy), “ZeroTime Operations” is a graphic score and audio collage based on samples from vinyl records, serving as a foundation for improvisation between ensembles in two different countries and time zones, connected through Skype.

Featuring samples of music by: Microkingdom, Susan Alcorn, Daniel Blacksburg, Sun Ra, Lionel Hampton, Olivier Messiaen, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Igor Stravinsky, World Saxophone Quartet, Morton Subotnick, Hector Villa-Lobos, The Normal, Santo & Johnny, Ennio Morricone, Miles Davis, Lukas Foss, Daft Punk, J.S. Bach, and Nikolai Chaikin, along with a test tone record.

The performance is imagined to take place in the future, following a collapse of the global economy, a loss of digital communications for 20 years, and a dark era of isolationist and totalitarian governments across the globe. Following a revolution, an experimental reconstruction of global communications has begun, led by musicians who aim to establish a new international mode of musical communication. The only surviving audio recordings from the past are vinyl records. These form the basis for live improvisation, directed by a graphic score and a system of visual cues between the two groups of performers.

Social media communications between participants – performers and audience alike – may guide digging expeditions in each city’s used record stores, as a preparation for the performance. Twitter users are encouraged to communicate about records that will be brought to the performance, using the hashtag “#stickerloop”. Attendees are invited to bring old records featuring any of the following instruments (solo, or as prominent as possible): clarinet, synthesizer, drum kit, or bass guitar. These correspond to instruments that will be played live by the group in Rome- Recover Band. They, in turn will perform with records featuring instruments to be played by a small group Baltimore musicians, presented by Mobtown Modern Sound Lab at MICA.

The full version of “ZeroTime Operations” was premiered as the opening event of The Vigil all-night music festival. Saturday, April 28, 2012, at Maryland Institute College of Art.

The audio with this video is a fixed electronic version of the piece, which could be used in a performance situation without access to the full live electronics. It consists of two separately performed parts. The first of these I played on turntable and Kaoss Pad, running into Ableton Live. I performed the second part on a Traktor Kontrol S4 (digital turntable controller), using both Traktor Pro 2.5 and Max For Live (mapping the jog wheels to control multiple effect parameters simultaneously). Much of my work on the live electronics for this project was done during my time with a group of MICA students in residence at STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam in March 2012.

Video produced with the assistance of Itay Niv.

My studio at Wildacres

During an artist residency at Wildacres in North Carolina back in May, I began exploring some new stylistic hybrids inspired by my newly acquired banjo. The composition that I sketched out during the residency, entitled Cantata For A Loop Trail: Land, Water, Memory, is a long term project for the group Rhymes With Opera, based on poetry by Wendell Berry as well as some recorded elements that will be specific to each location in which the work is performed.

Following my return to Baltimore, I experimented with some samples from the developing cantata that I had recorded on banjo and melodica, as loops to be remixed live in the context of my improvised hip hop series, Baltimore Boom Bap Society. As a byproduct of all this, I composed and recorded a new track, Skyline Drive, on which I played all the various instruments (complimenting the aforementioned banjo and melodica with violin, soprano and alto recorders, Irish harp, classical guitar, and some MIDI instruments). This track will be part of an upcoming EP that will focus on an acoustic instrumentation composed of parts that I perform myself, combining classical, folk, and hip hop elements.

Mapping the cardinal directions to the space of the Cohen Plaza

The Vigil [all-night music festival]

Saturday, April 28, 2012, at 6:30 PM (until 7:30 AM the following day). RAIN SPACE: Atrium of the Brown Center and Cohen Plaza, 1301 Mount Royal Ave., Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. Free event.

Two years ago I premiered my doctoral dissertation piece, Mandala of the Four Directions, and with it, the first all-night music festival known as The Vigil. Now in its third year on the Cohen Plaza at MICA, The Vigil will feature performances by Baltimore artists and bands including Yeveto, Wendel Patrick, Geodesic Gnome, dead mellotron, Tendrills, jason.sloan, Chris Pumphrey Sextet, Liz Meredith & John Somers, plus performances and installations from students in MICA’s sound courses this semester- Sound Art & Sound Installation Art.

Four stages surround the plaza, representing the cardinal points. Individual performances can thus overlap. At the same time, a few performances (including one by the STEIM Sound Project Studio group: Andrew Scotti, Faith Bocian, Tyler Tamburo, Shawn Cook, Sasha de Koninck, Jason Sloan & myself) will utilize all four sound systems at the same time.

The opening act of The Vigil will take place in the Brown Center atrium- the premiere of my latest piece, ZeroTime Operations, which will use Skype to bring together local performers (representing Mobtown Modern) and a group called Recover Band, based in Rome. I will be assisted with the live electronics by students in my Sound Art class.

Full Schedule for The Vigil:

**Sound sculptures & installations from Jason Sloan’s Sound Installation Art class will be placed throughout the space**

6:30 PM – Mobtown Modern presents the premiere of “ZeroTime Operations”, a networked performance in collaboration with Recover Band (Rome), composed by Erik Spangler [Brown Center atrium]

7:40 – STEIM Sound Project Studio: Tyler Tamburo, Sasha de Koninck, Andrew Scotti, Faith Bocian, Shawn Cook, Erik Spangler & Jason.Sloan
[Cohen Plaza- North, South, East & West stages]

8:00 – Geodesic Gnome [South stage]

8:20 – Essays [West stage]

8:40 – Wendel Patrick [North stage]

9:00 – Yeveto [South stage]

9:20 – Chris Pumphrey Sextet [West stage]

9:40 – Tendrills [East stage]

10:00 – dead mellotron [South stage]

**transition to ambient/downtempo stage of the night**
10:20 – Chang Park [North stage]

10:40 – Liz Merideth & John Somers [East stage]

11:00 – jason.sloan & Erik Spangler [West stage]

11:20 – Ray Van Ha [North stage]

11:40 – Shawn Cook & jason.sloan [South stage]

**midnight until dawn: performances by members of Erik Spangler’s Sound Art class**
12:00 – 4 corners improv I

12:20 – Josh Newcomb [East stage]

12:40 – Zoe Burke [South stage]

1:00 – Itay Niv [West stage]

1:20 – Devon Brown [North stage]

1:40 – James Padham [East stage]

2:00 – Greg Murphy [West stage]

2:20 – Katie Ball [North stage]

2:40 – Amanda McMicken [South stage]

3:00 – Tsai Lian [West stage]

3:20 – Sophie Monosmith [East stage]

3:40 – Joshua Nissim [South stage]

4:00 – Alex Leggin [North stage]

4:20 – Michelle Shen [West stage]

4:40 – Matthew Thompson [South stage]

5:00 – 4 corners improv II

5:20 – Rachel Jones [East stage]

5:40 – Rose He [North stage]

6:00 – Jeremy Cain [South stage]

6:20 – Josh Burke [West stage]

6:40 – Caitlin Reid [East stage]

7:00 AM – Robin Foster [West stage]

7:30 – end

MICA sound students Tyler Tamburo, Shawn Cook, and Sasha de Koninck

During spring break at Maryland Institute College of Art, sound concentration chair Jason Sloan and I took a group of five students to STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam for a 10-day residency. I came to STEIM for an orientation workshop back in 2010, and had been interested in making this residency happen for awhile. Through my discussions with STEIM program coordinator Jonathan Reus, plus Jason and I meeting a few times with the Continuing Studies office at MICA, we were able to make it a reality. We now have a course number for this and will hopefully be making this trip every year. We are also working on how to bring artists from STEIM over to give a series of workshops at MICA, hopefully starting in the next school year.

At the end of the residency, the students had all developed their own instruments, using various types of sensors, and performed on a STEIM Concept Stage show. Incidentally, while we were over there, we learned that we were the first group of undergraduates from any institution to do a residency at STEIM. They truly rocked it.

Check out the video below for a view into the inaugural Sound Project Studio.

On the same show, in residence at STEIM at the same time by chance, were composer/vocalist Ken Ueno and clarinetist Gregory Oakes. Ken and I went to grad school together and had last collaborated in performance in 2004, while Greg and I were meeting for the first time- finally transitioning from Facebook friends to real friends. Jason and I got to do a short improv set with Ken and Greg at the beginning of the Concept Stage show. The video is posted below.

One of the more original options for a Valentine’s Day night out in Baltimore was presented this past February by Mobtown Modern at the 2640 Space, as pianist Adam Tendler was in town to perform John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. Tendler performed the work from memory, beautifully and with a real sense of owning it, drawing out those emotional qualities that were still a conscious part of Cage’s music in this early stage.

My role at the concert was in three parts: I was DJing before and after the performance, I played some of my own tracks that I had created the day before and the day of the show based on Cage prepared piano samples, and I set up microphones to record the performance- so that my students at MICA could create remixes or sample-based beats from samples of the recording.

I talked with Adam after the performance about the idea of doing a live remix of the Cage Sonatas and Interludes at some point, and we both agreed that we should make it happen. As a first step toward this collaboration, I made a fourth prepared piano-based beat, this one based on Adam’s performance. In tribute to Cage, my choices for many of the shorter snippets and more percussive bits of sound to use in the patterns were selected by SoundCloud’s display of which tracks from the performance had been least downloaded by my students. The main loop, however, was selected by virtue of my really liking it- very un-Cage.

Here is the EP of all four beats, with the Tendler-based track placed first:

Back in January I performed on an all-night sleep concert organized by the Contemporary Museum at the SoftHouse (in the Copy Cat Building, Baltimore). It was an amazing evening all around, with a great turnout and an immersive multimedia environment. My half-hour performance was a new inter-generational version of my piece Grandpa Dale Songs, incorporating (in addition to samples of my grandfather Dale Spangler’s music) samples of my great-grandmother’s piano playing, my own parts recorded on melodica, digital keyboard, and (my great-grandfather’s) violin, my daughter Mila’s harp playing.

In the video documentation of the event below, you can find an excerpt from my performance at 12:10-14:53.

::DRIFT STATE:: from Contemporary Museum on Vimeo.

For about a week at the end of November, beatboxer extraordinaire Shodekeh basically moved in upstairs as we hammered out his contribution to MONK MIX: Remixes and Interpretations of Meredith Monk. Shodekeh chose Dolmen Music, Pt. 1 as the source composition to remix for the album, which was curated by DJ Spooky for Meredith Monk’s House Foundation. My role was primarily as lead producer- recording, editing and automating, while also adding some scratches and cuts on the digital turntables. Some sections where I contributed overtone whistling (a vocal specialty of mine that occasionally drives my wife up the wall), ended up being cut from the much shortened version of the remix that ended up on the album. Yes, we have a Director’s Cut version, that we cannot reveal just yet.

After I did some tempo adjustments (“warping” in Ableton Live) of the original recording to fit sections of the piece to the beatbox patterns that would be added, the first stage of working with the material creatively was a collaboration beween Shodekeh and Max Bent (a.k.a. Max Beats), another local producer as well as beatboxer. Max chopped up some samples from the original piece and assembled them into some patterns that he played on the drum pads as Shodekeh recorded some initial beats to go with these remix sections. The project came back to me for the stage of recording parts by vocalist Bonnie Lander and cellist/vocalist Kate Porter. I also recorded new versions of Shodekeh’s beatbox patterns and vocal “record static”. Scratched it up in a couple of sections. The editing process was intensive, and ended up as a 15-and-a-half-minute epic journey that couldn’t fit on the album. We had to edit the piece down to under 6 minutes for MONK MIX. The full version will have to wait a year before we can release it through our own channels.

Shodekeh, Max, Kate and I performed a live alternate remix at the album release party on February 19th at Joe’s Pub in New York.

Check out this sweet documentary by Michael Faulkner about the project:

DJ Dubble8 and Wendel Patrick

I am very happy to be introducing a new music series and collective, the Baltimore Boom Bap Society. Our mission:

Baltimore Boom Bap Society Improvised Hip Hop Session 3 promo vid from Wendel Patrick on Vimeo.