OCHS + JOHNSTON + PERKIS + MERKEY + NORDESON
B DAY + S GLASS
A rare chance to hear the reconvening of
Larry Ochs'S (saxophones) stellar quartet with
Darren Johnston (trumpet), MADALYN MERKEY (electronics),
Tim Perkis (electronics), and special guest
Kjell Nordeson (percussion). If the 2019 and 2020 and 2021 quartet shows are any indication of how high this music can take both the listeners and the musicians, expect a set of healing-force music this Friday evening.
B DAY and S GLASS, two well-established virtuosos of collage, cobblecore, and clutter-clobber come together for full of tactile toybox sound-worlds, warbling electronic transmissions, and surreal environmental invasions.
MADALYN MERKEY is a composer and performer of live computer music based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Merkey creates sound events with elemental sonic material—voice, sine waves, and pulses—to generate lush synthetic environments with the aid of acoustic readings from microphones and sensors. . Her recent work observes the principles of acoustic instruments and material spaces to design real-time sound synthesis programs. She has performed solo computer music compositions at Yale Union, Issue Project Room, and Block Cinema, and designed sound installations for Robert Irwin’s Central Garden at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Her CD "Oranges" is a selection of songs from various online performances presented in July and September of 2020.
Tim Perkis is a well-known figure in the worlds of improvised and electronic music. He is also a founding member of several electronic music ensembles, including Fuzzy Bunny, Splendor Generator and the pioneering computer network band The Hub. Recordings of his music are available on the Artifact, Tzadik, New World and EMANEM labels, among others. His documentary film NOISY PEOPLE (2007) and NOISY PEOPLE podcast (2015) are available at noisy people.net and perkis.com.
Since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canada-born trumpeter/composer/songwriter
Darren Johnston has collaborated and recorded with an extremely diverse cross-section of artists, yet always finds ways to be true to his own unique voice in each context. For example he has worked with straight-ahead jazz luminaries such as bassist/composer Marcus Shelby, to experimental icons like Rova Sax Quartet, Fred Frith and Myra Melford, to multiple tours with rising star, singer/songwriter Meklit Hadero, or traditional Balkan brass band giants Brass Menazeri. As a bandleader he has made his mark with the award winning The Nice Guy Trio, The
Darren Johnston Quintet, the category defying Broken Shadows, Reasons for Moving, and more. Johnston was featured as one of Downbeat Magazine’s “25 Trumpeters for the Future,” and has been listed multiple times in the critic’s polls. His debut quintet recording, “The Edge of the Forest” received four stars by four very different critics in the Downbeat “Critics Polls,” and was given an honorable mention by the Village Voice for the top 10 CDs of the year. Johnston has a BA from the Cincinnati Conservatory of music, and an MFA in composition from Mills College. He has received commissions from dance companies such as Kunst-Stoff, Robert Moses’ Kin, and AXIS Dance, and from presenting organizations such as the De Young Museum, and the Yerba Buena Garden Festival; his music has been used in a few independent films.
As a member of Rova Saxophone Quartet since 1977,
Larry Ochs has made more than two-dozen CDs and 40 tours to Europe and Japan. He has recorded dozens of CDs with his other touring bands including
Larry Ochs Sax & Drumming Core with Scott Amendola, Don Robinson, Satoko Fujii, and Natsuki Tamura (4 CDs) and Kihnoua with vocalist/performance artist Dohee Lee, Scott Amendola and special guests (“The Sybil’s Whisper”- 2012 CD). He is performing in and composing for more “collective” bands such as: East-West Collective – with Didier Petit, Sylvain Kassap, Miya Masaoka, Xu Fengxia (“Humeurs” – 2014 CD); Ochs-Robinson Duo with drummer Don Robinson (2021 CD = A Civil Right); Jones Jones – with Mark Dresser and Vladimir Tarasov (“A Jone4s in Time Saves None”- 2019 CD); Maybe Monday – with Miya Masaoka and Fred Frith (Unsquare -2008 CD); Shelton-Ochs Quartet with Aram Shelton,
Kjell Nordeson and Mark Dresser (Continental Drift – 2020 CD); Trio Dave Rempis-
Darren Johnston-
Larry Ochs (2 CDs + 1 live digital release). He has performed with Kronos Quartet, John Zorn, Steve Lacy, Anthony Braxton, Nels Cline, John Lindberg, Scott Amendola, Andrew Cyrille, Butch Morris, Marilyn Crispell, Henry Kaiser, Wadada Leo Smith, Peggy Lee and many others.
Kjell Nordeson is a Swedish percussionist and drummer living in San Francisco. In the early '90s, he formed AALY Trio with fellow Swede Mats Gustafsson. AALY Trio became one of the leading groups in the Swedish experimental scene in the '90s. He has toured extensively in Europe, North America, North Africa, and Japan with various groups; altogether over 1200 performances in around 30 different countries and recorded over 60 CDs. He has performed with Peter Brötzmann, Barry Guy, Ken Vandermark, Joe Morris, William Parker, Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway, Frank Gratkowski, Stefano Scodanibbio, and many others. Nordeson has worked as a musician and composer in numerous theatre performances at Sweden's Dramaten (Royal Dramatic Theater), Riksteatern (Swedish National Theater), and Stockholm's Stadsteater (City Theater). In 1994 he founded Co. Alba with choreographer Nathalie Ruiz. Ruiz and Nordeson jointly produced numerous dance performances; their latest piece, a short film entitled Désire, was commissioned by the Swedish Television. In 2004, he relocated to California and is now active in the San Francisco Bay Area scene with its thriving community of free-improvised, experimental, and new music. He has a Ph.D. in music from UC San Diego, where he wrote a dissertation named "Why do you play the way you do? - Musical Improvisation, Identity, and Social Interaction.”
S GLASS (Seymour Glass) is a long-time member of Bren't Lewiis Ensemble and Glands of External Secretion, two groups where a prowess-averse anti-sophisto can flourish in any number of roles: abuser of instruments, ignorer of proper technique, found sound gourmand.
B DAY (Bryan Day) is a sonic adventurer, painter and inventor of curious things based in the East Bay. Using scavenged electronics, repurposed mechanical components and amplified materials that you might find in your garage or your great uncle's office, he re-imagines them into constructivist sound sculptures. Day has performed, taught workshops, and built sound installations across Europe, Asia and the Americas.