Suzuki Junzo
http://suzukijunzo.org/
Suzuki Junzo is a masterful experimental guitarist, creating fantastic orchestral landscapes with the odd melody permeating the crunch and texture, and his songwriting is at once ghostly and rich. We're honestly a bit giddy to have him for a US tour.
He is perhaps best known for his involvement in the underground psych bands Overhang Party and Miminokoto. His solo music is stripped down form of 'ghost' blues and improvisation that recalls Loren Connors and his fellow countryman Hisato Higuchi. His second full length CD 'Buried Sky, Spider Torn to Pieces' has just come out on Junzo's own Plunk's Plan label. He also performs with 20 Guilders, Nasca Car, Pouring High Water and Samm Bennett's Ghost Steppers.
Mason Jones + Mike Shoun
http://www.charnel.com/mason/
Unbeknownst to us, Mason Jones has been part of our lives for quite some time, having encountered his recordings (under the name Trance) as highschoolers digging through San Jose record bins. He is also the force behind Charnel Music, which released bands like Crash Worship, Melt Banana and Merzbow, who shaped our early interest in experimentation. It is quite an honor to have him performing in our living room.
Jones performed for a time with SubArachnoid Space, and currently as Numinous Eye, a free-form noisy, psychedelic rock guitar-drum duo. His music has a wide range, from noisy experimental guitar work to recent psychedelic pop forays.
We are quite excited that he'll be performing with percussionist Mike Shoun (formerly of Thee Oh Sees), with whom he made several of these beautiful Numinous Eye recordings.
Bryan Day + Cheryl Leonard +
Tom Djllhttp://www.bryanday.net/
We first encountered
Bryan Day in Lincoln Nebraska running one of the sweetest house venues in the country, which was of our inspirations for creating Fortress Callosum. He has since settled in the Bay Area, to our delight, and is the music curator at the Meridian Gallery, putting together the best of experimental music. He will be collaborating with two amazing bay area musicians,
Tom Djll and Cheryl Leonard.
Bryan Day is a improviser, instrument inventor, illustrator and installation artist based in Richmond, CA. His work involves combining elements of the natural and man-made world using field recordings, custom audio generation software and homemade instruments. Day’s work explores the parallels between the patterns and systems in nature to those in contemporary society. Day has toured throughout the US, Europe, Japan, Korea, Argentina and Mexico, performing both solo as Sistrum and Eloine and in the Shelf Life and Seeded Plain ensembles.
Cheryl Leonard
http://www.allwaysnorth.com/
Cheryl E. Leonard is a composer, performer, and instrument builder. Over the last decade she has focused on investigating sounds, structures, and objects from the natural world. Leonard is fascinated by the subtle intricacies of sounds. She uses microphones to explore micro-aural worlds hidden within her sound sources and develops compositions that highlight the unique voices they contain. Her projects often feature one-of-a-kind sculptural instruments and field recordings from remote locales. Leonard has received grants from the National Science Foundation’s Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, ASCAP, American Composers Forum, American Music Center, and the Eric Stokes Fund. Her commissions include works for Kronos Quartet and Illuminated Corridor. She has been awarded residencies at Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus, Djerassi, Arctic Circle, and Villa Montalvo. Recordings of her music are available from NEXMAP, Unusual Animals, Pax, Evolving Door, Apraxia, 23 Five, and Great Hoary Marmot Music
Tom Djllhttp://tomdjll.com/
Tom Djll studied music at Berklee School of Music, the Colorado College, the Creative Music Studio, and Mills College with Anthony Braxton, Roscoe Mitchell, Karl Berger, Lester Bowie, Leo Smith, George Lewis, Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, and many others. He is the recipient of a Masters degree from Mills College in Electronic Media as well as a “Deeploma” from the Deep Listening Organization, and was awarded the Paul Merritt Henry Prize for Composition while at Mills. Tom has led improvising workshops and in 2004 completed a monthlong residency at Mills College, focusing on extended techniques. In 2007 Tom was featured in the film Noisy People, a document of the San Francisco Bay Area experimental music scene. 2003 and 2008 saw stagings of Mockracy, for co-operative orchestra, actors, electronics and live video. Djll’s long-running project Grosse Abfahrt enters its 10th year looking back on recordings and performances with MKM, Frank Gratkowski, Lê Quan Ninh and Frederic Blondy, John Butcher, Fred Frith, Annette Krebs, Boris Baltschun and Serge Baghdassarians, Matthieu Werchowski and David Chiesa, plus many others.
Videos featuring musicians playing at this event
Tender Buttons at Second Act, SF, 2016; live video processing by Bill Thibault