Mosswood Sound Series
3630 Telegraph Ave enter 2nd door on 37th St Oakland
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Tim Perkis + Jon Raskin
and with
THE MOSSWOOD IMPROVISERS GROUP

Tim Perkis (electronics) and Jon Raskin (saxophones) started playing together regularly online in April of 2020 often with George Cremaschi in Prague and later with Dirk Stromberg in Singapore using a combination of Sonobus and Zoom. This concert is the first time Perkis and Raskin will be playing together in the same space since the pandemic. Jon writes of this experience:

Playing online is a combination of playing in your living room in the early morning, with headphones on, in front of a microphone and video camera. Not the most conducive environment for creativity. The sessions start off making sure you have levels figured out, getting the connection stable and working toward a feeling immediacy like you are in a room together and overcoming the frustrating technology glitching out. Over time the software improved and we got a better understanding how of play with it all improving the quality so you could really dig into the music.

It’s an intimate situation and since each player controls the volume allows for quieter sounds to be heard along louder ones. The sessions were also social time to hang out so all it all it helped to give a feeling of connection during the isolation imposed by the pandemic.

This concert is the first time Tim & I will be playing together in the same space since the pandemic started so it is at once a momentous occasion and, hopefully a return to normalcy.

Following the duo, a collection of local improvising musicians, THE MOSSWOOD IMPROVISATION GROUP, will join Tim and Jon in set of free improvisation.

PERFORMERS
Hallie Smith, violin
Jon Raskin, saxophone
Tim Perkis, electronics
Crystal Pascucci, cello
Lisa Mezzacappa, bass
Scott R. Looney, piano/electronics
Jordan Glenn, percussion
Myles Boisen, guitar



Tim Perkis has been working in the medium of live electronic and computer sound for many years, performing, exhibiting installation works and recording in North America, Europe and Japan. His work has largely been concerned with exploring the emergence of life-like properties in complex systems of interaction.

In addition, he is a well-known performer in the world of improvised music, having performed on his electronic improvisation instruments with hundreds of artists and groups, including Chris Brown, John Butcher, Eugene Chadbourne, Fred Frith, Gianni Gebbia, Frank Gratkowski, Luc Houtkamp, Yoshi Ichiraku, Matt Ingalls, Joelle Leandre, Gino Robair, ROVA saxophone quartet, Elliott Sharp, Leo Wadada Smith and John Zorn. Ongoing groups he has founded or played in include the League of Automatic Music Composers and the Hub -- pioneering live computer network bands -- and Rotodoti, the Natto Quartet, Fuzzybunny, All Tomorrow's Zombies and Wobbly/Perkis/Antimatter.

Jon Raskin has been a member of Rova Saxophone Quartet for the last 43 years exploring the relationship of improvisation and composition, developing and honing the language of ensemble music and researching linguistic possibilities of the saxophone. He has performed and/ or recorded with Anthony Braxton, Chris Brown, Fred Frith, Sam Rivers, Tim Berne, Tim Perkis, Leo Smith, Frank Gratkowsi, Phillip Greenlief, Henry Kaiser, and Vladimir Tarasov.

Cost: $10-$25 sliding scale

Audio samples in which musicians at this event play:

Videos featuring musicians playing at this event