7:30pm
Gabby Wen: solo performance of guqin
8:30pm After the End of the World Coretet - 30th anniversary - Annelise Zamula - soprano sax, flute/
Bill Noertker - electric bass/
Dave Mihaly - drums, guitar
•
Gabby Wen (b. 1995) is an improviser, electroacoustic composer, and sound/performance artist. Born in Toisan, raised in Shenzhen and the East Bay, she is currently based in San Francisco. Having a background in computer science and postcolonial studies, she is interested in the subtle intersections of mathematics and art, of tradition and innovation, and the impact of new technology on indigenous music around the globe. Her works explore the disordered human life experience, the physical state of obsolete and dysfunctional, erotica, and conscience. Works with modular synthesizers, code, homemade electronics, field recordings, guqin (Chinese seven-stringed zither), found objects, voice, body & more.
Guqin, or qin, is an ancient Chinese plucked 7-string instrument that was mainly played by the literati class with its history dating back more than 3000 years ago, in improvisational styles for personal meditation or small gatherings among the sages. Seeking to break the elitist, patriarchal and Confucianist connotation of the qin, Gabby Wen de-romanticizes its sound, reimagining the instrument as a vehicle of a radical grassroots resistance fueled by feminine and queer energy with unorthodox performance and electronic processing.
•
30 years ago,
Bill Noertker, Annelise Zamula, and
Dave Mihaly started playing under the name 'The After the End of the World Coretet'. They all had met earlier playing in an art rock band that crossed genres called 'Bardo'. The AEWC was formed in order to play primarily self-composed, instrumental music.
The original fourth member, Tracy McMullen, played with the band for several years before becoming an academic. The next steady fourth member, Jon Birdsong, played with the band for a handful of years before moving to L.A., NYC, and Belgium. In between those two wonderful musicians, the Coretet would play with a rotating cast of other instrumentalists at gigs all over the Bay Area.
But the primary and ongoing members remained the trio of Zamula, Noertker, and Mihaly. They're all composers who have all maintained residency in the morphing San Francisco realm. They have a special almost sibling rapport. Inspired by all eras of so-called jazz music, free improvisation, western classical, folk music from where ever the folk dwell, and really any audible soul music . . . they've evolved together into a very rare unit. Their personal Venn diagrams of music connect in a cornucopia heart whilst the outlying fringes add pepper and tension. As in any long-term relationship/friendship/partnership, a psychic knowing has evolved which adds a nuanced quality to the sounds that can't be faked.
The Coretet name was initially used, rather than Quartet, to not limit the number of members who played within the crew. For this performance we present the core of the Coretet.
Cost: sliding scale $10-20