Berkeley Arts
2133 University Avenue Berkeley
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Set 1, 8pm: Thomas Dimuzio & Wobbly

Extreme space exploration by the Bay Area's most radical electronics duo as the Good Ship Gench takes wild shore leave on Planet Plunderphonia.

Thomas Dimuzio is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, electronic musician & musical pioneer renowned for his innovative use of live sampling, looping techniques, signal processing, custom crossfade looping, and algorithmic mixing, which fuel the man/machine synergy of his performances. Intercepted signal feeds from collaborators, wild sources of MIDI-controlled feedback, modular synths, circuit-bent toys & ambient microphones become integrated sound sources within his system of live interactive electronics, effortlessly moving from electroacoustic & noise to glitch, dark ambient, improv & drone. Listed sound sources on his many CDs include everything from "modified 10-speed bicycle" & "resonating water pipe" to short-wave radios, loops, feedback, samplers, and even normal instruments such as clarinet and trumpet, while his current work is facilitated by the deep expanses of modular synthesis.

Jon Leidecker has been performing music under the name Wobbly since 1990. Releases include the album Wild Why for Tigerbeat6, Live 99>00 for Phthalo, Regards for Alku, Simultaneous Quodlibet for Important Records, and Playlist & Music For The Fire for Illegal Art. Recent festival appearances include Sound Unseen / Plunderphonia in Minneapolis, Ether at Royal Festival Hall in London, and Sonar in Barcelona.

Taking to heart Spider Robinson's advice from Melancholy Elephants, "Art is long, not infinite... One day we will use it up - unless we can learn to recycle it like any other finite resource", Wobbly has gone on vast plunderphonic raids with fellow "detrivores" like Negativland, Matmos, and the Chopping Channel crew. 

Or, as the website detritus.net puts it: "He says he is a performer of pre-recorded live music. If you know what that means please email us."

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Set 2, 9pm: Bruce Ackley — Lisle Ellis — Joe Lasqo — Donald Robinson

Bruce Ackley has been critical to the Bay Area free improv scene since the Sound Clinic with Lewis Jordan & George Sams in the 70s, a time when he also began playing with Larry Ochs & Jon Raskin, leading to the founding of the world-renowned ROVA Saxophone Quartet. Although Bruce has mainly devoted his time ROVA, he has done notable side projects with John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Henry Kaiser, Dino J.A. Deane, Joseph Sabella, Stefano Scodanibbio, Miya Masaoka (正岡みや), Rohan de Saram, George Cremaschi & Garth Powell.

Veteran of 40+ recordings (including Down Beat ✰✰✰✰✰ The Ornette Coleman Songbook), bassist and computer musician Lisle Ellis. has worked with Paul Bley, Peter Brötzmann, Andrew Cyrille, Anthony Davis, Ben Goldberg, Frank Gratowski, Joëlle Léandre, Rudresh Mahanthappa (ರುದ್ರೇಶ್ ಮಹಂತಪ್ಪ), Miya Masaoka (正岡みや), Myra Melford, Bob Ostertag, William Parker, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, Stefano Scodanibbio, Cecil Taylor, William Winant, Pamela Z, & John Zorn, among many others. 

Lisle Ellis' long-term working relationship with Donald Robinson, in groupings such as the Glenn Spearman Trio, What We Live and various Biggi Vinkeloe bands, has created one of free jazz's most subtly driving and telepathic rhythm sections, described as "the best bass-drums tag team on the scene" by Jazz Times, and this telepathy will be in full force tonight.

Laptopist/pianist Joe Lasqo studied classical music in India; computer music at MIT, Columbia, Berkeley/CNMAT; has been a long-time avant jazz musician; & has lived, played & listened in many East Asian and European countries (now in SF). Special interests include applying AI techniques from expert systems, natural language processing, & computational linguistics to music; and the intersection of traditional Asian musics with modernism. Besides many collaborations with local & international musicians, Joe's had a solo residency for 3¾ years+ at San Francisco's Viracocha. His album, Turquoise Sessions, is on Edgetone, + new releases w Beth Custer, Thomas Dimuzio & Biggi Vinkeloe coming in soon. 

Master drummer Donald Robinson, whom Coda Magazine has described as a “percussion Dervish”, has numbered among his most notable collaborators Alan Silva, Anthony Braxton, Oliver Lake, Glenn Spearman, Larry Ochs, Cecil Taylor, Wadada Leo Smith, George Lewis, Bobby Few, Raphé Malik, Joe McPhee, John Tchicai, Marco Eneidi, Miya Masaoka (正岡みや), & Matthew Goodheart. After coming up in the hothouse of the Paris free jazz scene, Don has been a stalwart of both the SF Bay Area and northern and central European avant-garde jazz scenes.

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