I’m a little late with this post, but it’s not too late to check out the Blogger Book Club that’s been going on all week over at Mind The Gap. The assignment that several music bloggers chose to accept was to read Lawrence Lessig’s Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy and post our thoughts, impressions, and what have you. Here are my two contributions:
The whole exercise has been a lot of fun for me. I feel like I’m back in doctoral ethnomusicology colloquium. And I mean that in a good way. It’s been a while since I’ve engaged with literature addressing what’s current in the field. Check it out.
This past Tuesday, Mobtown Modern was allowed to invade the main gallery space at the Contemporary Museum for our Sequenzathon, a marathon performance of 12 of the 14 Sequenzas by the late great Italian composer Luciano Berio. Talking to Erik before the show, I realized that with the exception of seeing Sequenza VIIb for soprano saxophone performed several times, I had never experienced any of these pieces live. So we were fortunate to have an immensely talented roster of soloists willing to tackle some of the most unforgiving solo works in their repertoire, some of which like Sequenza II for harp, Sequenza XI for guitar, and Sequenza XIII for accordion are rarely heard outside the confines of a pair of headphones. We had an amazing crowd who definitely got their money’s worth of Berio for the evening. And the reviews of the show seem to confirm that it was indeed a great night:
Next up for Mobtown Modern on May 6th is our final concert of the season, Out To Lunch. We’ll be back in our usual digs playing music by Edgard Varese, Eric Dolphy, Frank Zappa along with a rare realization of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Solo and a mind-altering performance by Sam Burt of Alvin Lucier’s Music for Solo Performer.
Visuals at new music shows can be a slippery slope. There’s the danger that the visual component is so prominent that it overshadows the music or that it’s done so poorly that it ends up detracting from the performance. I’ve seen it go both ways. Yet, when done well, adding a visual element to a performance can do a great deal to enhance the total concert experience. At least that’s what we believe at Mobtown Modern.
We’re fortunate to be in good visual hands at Mobtown thanks to video whiz-kid Guy Werner. Guy’s work is so effective because of the way it compliments the performance rather than dominating it. Nothing is ever pre-set in terms of what’s going to be happening when. Prior to each show, we send Guy recordings of the pieces that will be performed, which he uses to get conceptual ideas for his presentation of each piece. For some compositions, like Jacob TV’s Lipstick (performed by Katayoon Hodjati shown above), the thematic material is obvious. But in other cases, like Wendy Richman’s performance of Manto III by Giacinto Scelsi, the inspiration for the visual element seems to come from unexpected sources while remaining ultra-effective. During the performance, Guy draws on the samples he’s prepared and mixes a visual layer in real time as the piece unfolds, lending an improvisatory quality to the work as well as making the video layer an integral part of the experience rather than a simple “visual soundtrack”. It’s this type of engagement during the playing of the music that makes Guy’s work so compelling.
P.S. Guy also curates an annual video event at the wonderful Metro Gallery called Videopolis. And guess what? They’re currently accepting submissions! Go here to find out more.
Okay, so Hybrid Groove Project is embarking on a massive undertaking that includes working with a certain 12 melodies of the Zodiac. But we need a place to start. Help us choose which melody to begin working on by casting a vote in the first ever SLN Poll. Preview each of the five melodies below.
Since Trade Zone #3 was canceled today, I was banished to the cycling lair for a 2-hour trainer session, which included 3 x 3 mins in the upper part of my threshold and 3 x 10 min sets of 30s at lower VO2 with 30s recovery at balance point. Woof.
Katayoon Hodjati performing at Mobtown Modern. Photo by Rob McIver.
With impeccable timing in advance of Mobtown Modern’s show next week, there’s a new interview with Erik and I up at the web magazine Zeitschichten. Many thanks to Matthias Röder for the opportunity and for doing such an excellent job. Check it out.
From yesterday’s 2-hour ride on the trainer, which included 3 x 10 minutes of microbursts (15secs @ 300+% of FTP followed by 15secs of 150 watts). Last week I did 2 sets of these and I actually felt better doing them this week. I also recovered from each set really quickly, which is a very good thing. Will see how 4 sets of these feel next week. The weather’s looking dismal for Trade Zone this weekend.
Mobtown Modern is kicking it into high gear in advance of next week’s Sequenza-thon, our marathon performance of Berio’s Sequenzas, at the Contemporary Museum. This show will be a bit different than our previous shows in that we’ll be performing in the museum’s main gallery space, which should be awesome for a bunch of solo pieces. Two items of interest so far: the City Paper listed the show as a Critic’s Pick in this week’s issue; and the new Mobcast (”What you know about Berio?”), featuring Baltimore music blogger and indestructible new music audience member Devin Hurd telling us all about Berio, his Sequenzas, and why we should care. Listen below or click here to subscribe.
Went out to Boonsboro to get a solid hill ride in. This ride starts in downtown Boonsboro, heads up Boonsboro Mountain Road, out Route 40 to Pleasant Walk/Stottlemeyer, then to SR 77, and through Catoctin Mountain Park (Park Central), which includes the nearly 15 minute climb I did twice in the middle of the file. Some really steep stuff out there.
