Matt Davignon
Link to home page : Matt Davignon
Biography:
Originally born in Agawam, Massachusetts, Matt Davignon has been developing his own unique form of improvisation since 1993. After moving to California as a teenager, he spent his musically formative years tinkering with tools such as lo-fi samplers, cassette tapes, contact microphones, household objects, 4-track compositions, extensive chains of guitar effects, prepared instruments, turntables and field recordings. These explorations fuel and inform his current work, which most frequently involves processing the sounds of a drum machine in real-time with various electronic devices. Characteristics of his music include a focus on textures, arrhythmic patterns and musical imperfections, with a focus on evoking biological systems.
Matt continues to organize inclusive music events such as Droneshift, the Pmocatat Ensemble (which stands for "pre-recorded music on cds and tapes and things"), and Conduct Your Own Orchestra. He's a member of Larnie Fox's Crank Ensemble, the vaguely krautrock band Tiny Owl, and numerous other ad-hoc duos and trios.
Mp3's of his work are available at:
www.ribosomemusic.com/music
http://tinyowl.bandcamp.com
CD's:
Living Things (2010)
SoftWetFish (2006)
Bwoo (2005)
Music at 1/2 Speed (2004)
"tiny frequencies and irregular, almost spastic rhythmic emissions that prepare to something stronger, which inevitably arrives under the guise of subsonic bumps, synthetic tides and interrelations of biochemical composites whose movement is similar to the bubbles in a mad scientist's alembic. ...the brain receives a rubbing in the 'right' way" - Massimo Ricci - Touching Extremes
(Photo by Peter B. Kaars - www.peterbkaars.com)
Phone: 510 459 1507
Email: mattdavignon@gmail.comUpcoming Events:
Community Music Center
544 Capp Street
SFMonday, Jul 22 2013 7:00 PM
12th Annual Outsound New Music Summit
The Bay Area's New Sound Festival for underground and experimental jazz, electronics, noise art, spoken word & more!
Composers Symposium:
Compositional Trace Medium and Traditional Strata
2013 New Music USA Metlife Creative Connections recipient composers Rent Romus, Lewis Jordan, Matt Davignon, Fernando Lopez-Lezcano, and Ilya Rostovtsev will discuss the elements of their compositional styles and how they navigate the worlds of modern compositional techniques, combined with individual forms of experimentation. There will be a Q&A segment for attendees of this free public event.
Funded in part through New Music USA's MetLife Creative Connections program.
Community Music Center
544 Capp Street
SFFriday, Jul 26 2013 7:30 PM
12th Annual Outsound New Music Summit
The Bay Area's New Sound Festival for underground and experimental jazz, electronics, noise art, spoken word & more!
Emanation & Artifacts - an evening of objects, electronics, tapes, & found sound
DAVID MOLINA'S TRANSIENT, PMOCATAT ENSEMBLE, FUZZYBUNNY
Advance Tickets Available @ Brown Paper Tickets
Fuzzybunny
Chris Brown - keyboard/midi, Scot Gresham-Lancaster - electric guitar, Tim Perkis - laptop
Fuzzybunny is a high-powered electronic improvisation and composition trio consisting of Chris Brown, Scot Gresham-Lancaster and Tim Perkis. All-out ""carnallectual"" electronic improv,
rockyroaded with pop-music fragments and sonic gags define some kindof new style difficult to describe. Edwin Pouncey in The Wire called them ""a total meltdown of the senses...a trio of smartarses with nothing to say.
Pmocatat Ensemble
Matt Davignon - Conductor, CD DJ unit and Multispeed Tape Player with percussion, acoustic guitar, voice, accordion, melodica and glockenspiel, Amar Chaudhary - Ipod with traditional Indian instruments, Tom Djll - Tape Player with Trumpet, David Douglas tape player with percussion, Gretchen Jude: tape player with Concertina, Guitar, Voice, Melodica, Koto & Shamison, Daniel McAnulty - tape player with Guitar, Rent Romus - 4-Track and Tape Player with saxophone, flute, accordion & zitherod. Daniel Steffey - Tape & CD with Percussion, Benjamin Tinker - Cassettes with Organ, Harmonica and Chanter with Echoplex (tape delay), Nick Wang - Cassettes with Guitar, Saxophone, Ukelele, Michael Zelner - Ipod with saxophone, clarinet and flute
As part of the 12th Annual Outsound New Music Summit, Matt Davignon will present the Pmocatat Ensemble performing his original graphic and textural scores. Each member of the ensemble records the sounds of their instruments in advance of the concert using the composition as their guide to a tape based medium. During the concert, the music is then performed by playing and manipulating these recordings according to the composition.
Performers frequently record the instruments they are most accustomed with, but it's also common for them to play other instruments that are available to them, as defined by the score. The second part of each score provides instructions on how to interact with the recordings, and the other performers on stage. Special attention is usually given to the abilities and limitations of the playback devices.
Transient
David Molina - cello, electric guitar with pedals, broken autoharp and dulcimer, flute, some small homemade instruments and found objects, CDjs and DJ mixer, Anna Geyer - 16mm Film
Transient: is David Molina’s electro-acoustic, ambient, experimental project. He combines traditional acoustic, home made and found object instruments with field recordings and electronics to create meditative soundscapes which can either be light, beautiful and haunting, or dark and disturbing. Transient has collaborated and performed with musicians such as John Ingle, Chris Webb, Polar, Garret La Fever, Miguel Hernandez, Kyron, Marco Eneidi and George Cremachi; and video artist Mickey T, and filmmaker Anna Geyer. He has performed at 2005 and 2007 International Loop Festival, the Chapel of Chimes winter 2005, The Lab, Noise Pancakes, Drum Machine Museum, Galeria De La Raza, Noh Space, SOMARTS, Performance Art Institute, internationally and at various noise shows in SF. He collaborates with performance artists Violeta Luna and Secos Y Mojados.
Anna Geyer is an award winning experimental filmmaker and writer. Her films have screened in many festivals internationally. A fascination with non-traditional methods of both production and presentation is apparent in her work. Cameraless, non-representational work has been the emphasis of much her recent effort, although she frequently describes her work as, “experimental with a narrative bent”. Live three projector loop sets performed in collaboration with local musician David Molina encompass the technology of the past and present and include abstract imagery, live action work and degraded imagery of the digital age. She teaches cinema classes at both City College of San Francisco and Solano Community College.
Luggage Store New Music Series
Outsound co-Presents @ The Luggage Store Gallery
1007 Market St.
SFThursday, Aug 8 2013 8:00 PM
8:15pm: Toaster
8:45pm: Matt Davignon (drum machine)
9:30pm: Jim Kaiser
Toaster is the solo project of Todd Elliott, who makes music by programming things, and occasionally other methods-- his live sets are focused around improvised drones. His latest record "Theophany", along with many others, can be found at : http://toaster.bandcamp.com
Matt Davignon is an experimental musician living in Oakland, California, best known for combining drum machine with a variety of electronic processing devices to create an expressive, organic-sounding synthesizer. His work is informed by past experience with field recordings, household objects, prepared instruments and live sound collage. In addition to his solo work, Matt is a member of the band Tiny Owl (http://tinyowl.bandcamp.com), and is the founder of the Pmocatat Ensemble, a group that performs on CD and tape recordings of their instruments. His fourth CD for the drum machine, called "The 3am Music" was released in June 2013. http://mattdavignon.bandcamp.com
Jim Kaiser http://petitmalmusic.bandcamp.com/
CDs on which Matt Davignon appears:
