The Lab
2948 16th St SF
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John Cage: Electronic Music for Piano performed by Tender Buttons
Saturday, October 6, 2018
7:30pm Doors / 8:00pm Performance
$15 Guests / Free for members

Tania Chen — piano
Tom Djll — modular synthesizer
Gino Robair — modular synthesizer
with special guest: Wobbly — electronics

Pre-Concert Talk: Before the concert, David Toop will speak about his book Into the Maelstrom as well as contextualize the piece by John Cage, Electronic Music for Piano, based on his liner notes for the recent release on Omnivore Records.

Electronic Music for Piano is a work that Cage wrote in Stockholm in 1964, asking musicians to play parts of his Music for Piano 4-84 on electronic equipment. What is played is up to the artist. Pianist Tania Chen will create a new version of the piece with Tom Djll, Gino Robair, and Jon “Wobbly” Leidecker.

Gino Robair wrote in the notes for the recording that this rendition of the piece “has sudden (sometimes drastic) transitions as well as silences lasting up to three minutes. You’ll also hear artifacts of the performance ­­– for example, the creak of the piano bench and the physical movement of the musicians – which addresses a statement in the score that reads ‘Consideration of imperfections in the silence in which the music is played.'”

Audio samples in which musicians at this event play:

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