Y2KX+1 MUSICIAN BIOGRAPHIES
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ANDREA CENTAZZO During his artistic career that spans over 40 years, composer, conductor, percussionist multimedia artist and filmmaker Andrea Centazzo has given more than 2000 concerts and live performances in Europe and the United States, as well as appeared and performed on numerous radio and television broadcasts worldwide. He has recorded over 200 LP's, CD's and DVD’s, and he has authored 500 compositions mostly published by Warner Chappell (ranging from opera and symphony to solo works) and eight musicology books. He's the director of more than 20 video films presented in all the festivals and venues around the world. He has performed at festivals, concert seasons and theaters as soloist and conductor of his compositions conducting the American Youth Symphonic Orchestra, the LA Contemporary Orchestra, the Mitteleuropa Orchestra, the ER Youth Symphonic Orchestra and many Ensembles. He also directed and staged his operas as well theatrical plays of other US authors.. His opera TINA was highly acclaimed in Italy as well in California. Holding a PHD in Ancient Music from the prestigious University of Bologna, he did teach in Europe as well in USA from Universities to Jazz schools. He has performed and recorded, co-leading, with some of the greatest avant-garde soloists and composers, including John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Sylvano Bussotti, Steve Lacy, Don Cherry, Evan Parker, Fred Frith, Lester Bowie, Tony Oxley, Tom Cora, Alvin Curran, Henry Kaiser, Teo Jöergesmann, Albert Mangelsdorf, Gianluigi Trovesi, Anthony Coleman, Toshinori Kondo, Elliott Sharp, Don Preston just to name few. Deservedly, Centazzo has received a number of prestigious music, film and video Awards (Italian Critic’s Choice Award, Italy, Downbeat Magazine Poll, USA, International Video Festival Tokyo, Japan, Prix Arcanal of French Culture, France, Jazz Forum Critic’s Poll, USA, Bruce Chatwin Award, Italy, Dramalogue Award, USA and many more). Recently his 30th ICTUS Anniversary Box Set has been nominated Box Set of 2006 by the Journalists of the American Jazz Critics Association. For 20 years now, Centazzo has been working to create multi-media experiences, combining live music with video images, blending traditional instrumentation with the latest music digital technology. His two multimedia solo project MANDALA (inspired by the Buddhist Universe) and ETERNAL TRAVELER (inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci) got enthusiastic welcome from audiences and critics both in USA and Europa, appearing in TV broadcasts at CBS, KPFK, Rai and several international magazines. Lately finding a new source of inspiration in Science and Technology Centazzo wrote and directed 2 worldwide acclaimed multimedia shows: EINSTEIN'S COSMIC MESSENGERS (with astrophysicist Michele Vallisneri inspired by the Gravitational Waves) and R-Evolution (inspired by the life and work of Charles Darwin). His last 2011 project has been the music for orchestra composed and orchestrated for The Searcher, a new majestic show at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. In 2006 Centazzo re-established, highly successful, his famous ICTUS Records label, born in 1976 as one of the most prominent catalogues of new contemporary classical, avant-garde, jazz music and experimental film. Next year he has been requested by John Zorn to present the 35 years of ICTUS activity in a 24 concert series Festival at The Stone in NY. Born and raised in Italy, but naturalized American in 1996, since 1992 he lived and worked in Los Angeles traveling extensively in Asia and Europe.. |
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NAT GRANT (Australia) Nat Grant is a freelance percussionist who performs regularly in pop, orchestral, and experimental groups around Melbourne (Australia). Her own projects, both solo and collaborative, utilize a variety of acoustic instruments, found objects, live looping and processing. Nat's music explores intersections between acoustic and electronic environments, and between composition and improvisation. In 2010 Nat completed a Master of Music (performance) at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne, and is currently undertaking studies towards her Doctorate, with a focus on experiential music composition |
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MATT DAVIGNON Matt Davignon is an experimental musician living in Oakland, California. Since 1993, he has focused on developing his own unique style of music, which is largely characterized by organic textures, arrhythmic patterns, musical imperfections and occasional elements from pop music. Historically, he has worked extensively with fx pedals, household objects, live sound collage, consumer-grade electronics, prepared instruments, real-time sampling/looping, turntablism, field recordings and cassette recorders. Since 2004, he has been working almost exclusively with a drum machine, which with his array of effects devices becomes an unusual synthesizer for making gloopy and biological sounds. In addition to playing solo and in various ad-hoc groupings with other improvisors, Matt is a member of the experimental space-music band Tiny Owl.
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PER BOISEN Swedish multi instrumentalist Per Boysen regards live looping a musical instrument to be played, rather than used as a live recorder. Although he masters many traditional acoustic and electric instrument he prefers to perform a solo concert with just one physical instrument as the audio source to front a system including laptop based interactive electronics and pedals for real-time control of processing. An equally important part of this "meta instrument", however not visible to the audience, is a personal system for real-time composition strategies. At LOOPFEST 2011 Per Boysen will use a twelve stringed Stick Guitar at the front |
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BILL WALKER Among the most innovative guitarists in the world, Bill Walker creates evocative guitar soundscapes that showcase a staggering range of musical influences and techniques. Performing on a variety of electric, acoustic and lap steel guitars, and utilizing state of the art live looping technologies; Bill pioneers bold musical frontiers in improvised performance. Hypnotic and transporting, Bill’s music is characterized by beautiful improvised motifs, lush multi-layered guitar ensembles, and otherworldly timbres which evolve serendipitously, creating exotic music that defies categorization. Eclectic, soulful, and original, are words that best describe this unique musician. A veteran of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene, Bill has recently embarked on a solo career that took him to Europe last year on a performance and clinic tour, as well as recording dates in Switzerland and Istanbul, Turkey. Most recently Bill collaborated with acclaimed Turkish composer Erdem Helvacioglu on a new CD due out next fall, and is busy completing his own debut CD, and working on music for film
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RICK WALKER Composer, multi-instrumentalist and master percussionist/drummer, Rick Walker has been on the cutting edge of music for the last 25 years. One of the original founders of the World Beat movement, and now an influential performer and promoter in the emerging international live looping movement, he incorporates a vast array of world music and pop styles in his repertoire combining instruments from the most primal to the most modern with state of the art digital looping and signal processing instruments. An exceptionally versatile and sensitive musician, he is eccentrically creative, finding rhythm and melody in hundreds of everyday objects. He is also the founder of the Y2K_ International Live Looping Festivals, the largest international live looping festival series on the planet and has been responsible for producing or directly inspiring 35 live looping festivals in 15 countries around the world as well as producing several creative new music festivals in Northern California (the Festival of Found and Invented Sound, The Festival of Voice and Electronics, the 1st Bass Looping Festivals, the Festival of Emerging Santa Cruz Electronica, the First Woman's Live Looping Festival, the Spirit of Africa and many more). He has also performed, toured and recorded with many master musicians from around the globe, collaborating and backing artists like Bob Brozman (USA), Debhashish Battycharya (India), Martin Simpson (England), Djeli Moussa Djawara (Guinea), Babatunde Olatunje (Nigeria), Amel Tafsout (Algeria), Rene Lacaille (La Reunion), Ali Farke Toure (Mali), Hamza El Din (Nubia),Takashi Hiryasu (Okinawa), Pajoe Amissah Aidoo (Ghana),Massimo Liverani (Italy) Familia Valera (Cuba), George Pilali (Greece), David Hidalgo (Los Lobos/USA), David Lyndley (USA), Michael Manring (USA), Steve Lawson (UK), Per Boysen (Sweden), Matthias Grob (Switzerland/Brazil), Ile Aye (Brazil), Olodum (Brazil), Luca Formentini (Italy), Sunao Inami (Japan), Phantasmagoria (Japan), Paul Marshall (Northern Ireland), Bernhard Wagner (Switzerland), Luis Angulo (Mexico), Andreas Willers (Germany), Andre LaFosse (USA), Titos Sompa (Congo), Abdoulaye Djakite (Senegal), Krispen Hartung (USA), Jeff Kaiser (USA), Henry Kaiser (USA) and many others. He has opened for acts such as Los Lobos, Santana, the Neville Brothers, Huey Lewis and the News, Cher, Kenny G, Todd Rundgren, the Residents, Youssou NDour, Thomas Mapfumo, Sly and Robbie, Steel Pulse, Wailing Souls, the Thompson Twins, Berlin and many others. He resides in Santa Cruz, California with his wife, singer/songwriter Chris Wedertz, where he teaches, performs, records and releases original recordings as: |()()p.p()()| (found sound/live looping), PurpleIHand (abstract electronica), nO thiN-g (dark ambient, noise, experimental), Ultra Violette (synth goth, industrial, ebm) and the RICK WALKER TRIO (modal acoustic jazz). Rick also was the first recipient of the Gail Rich Award for Service to the Arts, the Calabash Award for Excellence in the Ethnic Arts and served as Arts Commissioner for the City of Santa Cruz from 2002-2005.
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GEORGINA BRETT On 31st October 2005 Georgina found herself at an all-night marathon recording session with 20 or so songwriters and players who wanted to create as much music from scratch as they possibly could in exactly one day, the longest day of the year, (when the clocks go forward) so 25 hours. She picked up a mic, hooked up to a couple of delays and the first piece was recorded. It was an improv. between her and Steve Finnerty of Alabama3 and was called Work4Me. She quite quickly became aware that after decades of experimenting with different music making, this live-looping work contained all the qualities and possibilities of expression she had wanted to concentrate her efforts on. At Y2KX+1 Georgina will be premiering 2 new pieces, "Secret" and "A Thought Cure".
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DARREN NELSEN Darren Nelsen is a composer, guitarist, bandleader, improviser, looper, and sound artist based in Atlanta, GA, USA. He is an active member of the Atlanta composer community and founder of the Atlanta Composers Blog. His latest album of guitar loops and improvisations is Passing Through Veils.
http://www.curiomusic.com |
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MAT TRUMBULL Mat Trumbull is a sound artist based out of San Francisco. He composes and records as a solo artist under the project title, Laurentide Ice Sheet.
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TIM THOMPSON Tim Thompson is a software engineer, musician, and installation artist. His wide-ranging artistic work includes a programming language for MIDI (KeyKit), interactive installations at Burning Man (a 12-foot-high lyre, an 11-foot high monolith, and an antique radio), musical performances with Playstation dance pads and QWERTY keyboards, graphical performances using multitouch pads (pre-iPhone), and realtime video looping and processing with a handheld security camera (LoopyCam). His most recent work uses the Microsoft Kinect to create a musical and graphical instrument called the Space Palette.
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HERMIT CONVENTION A stalwart of the Santa Cruz music scene, Hermit Convention is the one-man bass looping project of Craig Prentice (ex-Depth Charge Revolt). Though easily bringing to mind the stream-of-consciousness songwriting of Bob Pollard and Guided by Voices, Hermit Convention's music aims to connect on an entirely different level. Weaving together a pastiche of lyrical snapshots consisting of past memories and drunken recollections, Hermit Convention may come off as purposefully obscure. However, it's a criticism that is muted upon repeat listens, as Prentice's true genius lies in crafting songs that are built like forests. It's easy to see why those who don't get it are really just aiming for the trees.
http://hermitconvention.bandcamp.com/ |
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LASSE THORNING Lasse Thorning, born 1984, Denmark. Poet and live looper. Works as a residence poet at various schools, teaching, writing and performing poetry. His first collection of poems will be published this fall and as an extension of the book an ambient sound/speech album, the poetry read by strangers that don't speak Danish, will be released online. Lasse Thorning is former Danish Poetry Slam Champion and has been one of the top Poetry Slam organizers in Denmark for several years. His artistic work is supported by the Danish Arts Council.
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STEVE UCCELLO The goal of Steve Uccello’s “Clarified Birds” project is twofold: to compose new music for bass ensemble and to join visual art & music together. After recording a full length album featuring various basses (bowed contra-bass, electric bass, resophonic slide bass, washtub bass, etc) I thought, ‘how on earth am I going to perform this live?!’ Hiring 10+ bassists every time I do a show seemed a daunting answer! The solution proved to be found in technology: a foot controlled high definition recording device (or Looper) lets me put down all the parts my imagination can muster, play them all in real time and layer them up to orchestral proportions. Now with 3 albums under my belt in collaboration with artist/brother J.F. Uccello, that revive the luxury of vinyl packaging, including letter pressing, the project ‘Clarified Birds’ brings visual art and bass music together in unique alchemy.
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MARILYN MCNEAL Marilyn McNeal is a San Francisco-based musician and composer who writes, records and performs using homemade musical instruments. The instruments are influenced by early American roots music and allow Marilyn to reference the raw beauty, magic, and connection characteristic of that music. Marilyn’s compositional approach is rooted in live looping, an emerging art form in which the musician combines musicianship and technology to create a series of repeating phrases that become woven layers of sound. Inspired by the laments, ballads, work songs and spirituals of the past, Marilyn sings and uses body rhythm and hybrid folk instruments to share haunting and heartfelt songs.
http://screamy.info |
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S T A N O S A U R S T A N O S A U R has played most of the west coast loopfests since '99 LoopStock. He has been looping since the EH 16Sec. DDL came out in the 80s. He plays the Low Frequency Drones.
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EELA SOLEY Eela Soley, originally from Switzerland, now living in Germany, loves combining experimental sounds with beautiful melodies. She sings, plays wind instruments and uses different controllers, like midi-sax or voodoo-control ;-) After spending her childhood with tape recorders, voice experiments and a small synthesizer, she studied in Germany and toured with local bands playing the saxophone. In 1999 she started her solo work, a sort of relaxed electronic-soundscapes-songwriter style. She recorded some albums and developed her way of live performing, using delays, vocoders and loopers. These days she is doing a lot of improvisation and realtime composing, loving musical surprises and also healing aspects of music.
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ANN O'ROURKE Ann O'Rourke plays with cymbals, drums, found objects, lots of contact mics, and effects. She also provides strange vocals. She became hooked on improv/experimental music and gave up jazz drumming to pursue her new path, which is still evolving.
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DAYAN KAI Born without sight but not without soul. Dayan Kai is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, vocalist, and producer with a lifelong dedication to music. Equally versed in jazz, world, Americana, and rock traditions. Devoted husband and father of two.
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JOSH FRIEDMAN - Members of Fractal As a versatile guitarist with an omnivorous appetite, guitarist Josh Friedman (b. 1977) enjoys performing and expanding the repertoire for the modern classical guitar. Mr. Friedman has performed in many ensembles, including Santa Cruz Guitar Duo with Kelsey Damas, and Duo135 with flutist Kassey Plaha. He has been featured on the electric guitar in the Cabrillo Music Festival. He has written, performed and recorded with established progressive rock band Fractal. Mr. Friedman will also be appearing at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts Second Stage on Dec. 3rd as part of the New Arts Alliance collaboration featuring small chamber ensemble with dance troupe in his most recent multi-movement work, Nonself. His works have been performed by Santa Cruz New Music Works, and the UC Santa Cruz Orchestra. He was the winner of the Sound Horizons Composition Competition in 2007. Mr. Friedman received his education at UC Santa Cruz (M.A., B.A.) studying composition with Paul Nauert and David Cope, and studying guitar with Mesut Özgen and William Coulter. Privately, he has studied with a long list of teachers including Dusan Bogdanovic, Scott Cmiel, and Benjamin Verdery.
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THE CINTAPHONIQUES Residing in San Francisco, The Cintaphoniques formed as a result of a merger between math rock and Latin post-pop. This unusual combination is encompassed in the duo of Katya Lopez and Matt Herman. Between the two of them, they cover the span of Brooklynite avant-math rock of the East Coast and Cuban rhythms and indie sound by way of the West Coast. The Cintaphoniques create their own brand of pop by mixing their love of looping effects and polyrhythmic layers with melodic counterpoints.
http://soundcloud.com/cintaphoniques/ |
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CYNTHIA WEYUKER Highly influenced by opera and musical theater, Cynthia creates avant pop tunes mixed with soundscapes using electronic musical saw, voice and effects. A 3 time winner of the “Most Unique Performance” award at the International Musical Saw Festival, Cynthia has been described as, “One who does more with her voice and saw than you have ever done with anything else.” She has toured with Irish Minstrel Larry Beau in the
United States and Ireland, and has performed and recorded with The Rude Mechanicals
and The Punk Rock Orchestra. Recent collaberations include Eurostache and Bob
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