23five Incorporated and The Lab presents:
Pedestrian Deposit
Acre
Brandon Nickell
Work/Death
Infinite Body
Friday, October 30
The Lab
2948 16th Street
San Francisco, California
http://www.thelab.org
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The music of Jon Borges and Shannon Kennedy of Pedestrian Deposit could best be described as highly composed, focused and dynamic, experimental music that draws on their widely varying music talents. From Borges's interest in such areas as electronics, tape loops, field recording, and synths, to Shannon's use of classical instruments, contact mics and manipulated metal objects, the duo combine elements of musique concrete, ambient, drone, classical and harsh noise. Borges began Pedestrian Deposit in the Winter of 2000, with the concept of combining layers of electronic sound with no pre-determined relation to one another until mixed. The project slowly evolved to incorporate elements of harsh noise, tape collage, field recordings and glitch, resulting in a prolific few years of rich and dynamic compositions on such labels as Hospital Productions, Hanson Records, and Jon's own label, Monorail Trespassing, to name a few. After a few years hiatus, Pedestrian Deposit returned in the fall of 2008 with the addition of multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Shannon Kennedy, and her elements of cello, violin and amplified, bowed and manipulated objects.
Acre was conceived in the dark and moldy basements of Olympia, Washington in 2002. After several shows as a duo with a constantly rotating cast of collaborators, Acre settled for the inevitable solo
entity that it is today. With only Aaron Davis involved, the sound was honed and recordings were made and ultimately distributed. Davis has spent years of experimentation with guitar, alternate tunings, synths, and multiple amp setups (sometimes to level of absurdity). Later utilizing and expanding on the phasing and generative music techniques put forth by Steve Reich, Sonic Boom, and Phill Niblock, Acre has arrived with a sound that some refer to as "Power Drone", which can be described as a dense wall of heavy drone based sounds all changing and intermingling. With these variables in play each Acre performance is a unique event depending on the room's sound system, acoustics, and environment.
Providence, Rhode Island based Work / Death is operated by Scott Reber, strip-mining personal raw materials in hope of coming to terms with the past by means of its symbolic reworking. Unapologetic harmonic/melodic moves surfacing through and being submerged by waves of white noise. Reber has tried to integrate a number of approaches (i.e. harsh noise, musique concrete, electro-acoustic improv, drone, and the pop song) to get closer to, if not explain, his own ambiguous narrative shadows. Garbage in. Garbage out.
Brandon Nickell (b. 1981 Oakland, California) has recorded under the computer-based synth and noise Aemae project since 2002. Over the course of this time Nickell regularly declined shows and opted to
spend those years recording and quietly perfecting his craft in isolation while located in Oakland. The fruits of this labor were the critically acclaimed albums "The Helical Word" (2005) and "Maw" (2007). The work is characterized by brutal synth-based noise yet highly-detailed compositions that exhibit formant-based frequencies as well as other uncommmon synthesis-based techniques. The final compositions of this project, "And Tongueless, I Can Conjure You At Will" and "The Roughest Jewel In Your Glittering Crown" recently found their way on the local San Francisco Black Horizons label as a limited cassette-only release. Now recording and performing under his own name, 2009 has featured more frequent performances of live material for the forthcoming album "And If You Set This Mind Of Mine Afire, Then On My Bloodstream I Yet Will Carry You" which has been in the works for over three years. Nickell is currently embarking on a brief West Coast tour which will feature more live elements of this material. Nickell currently operates the Isounderscore record label out of San Francisco's Mission District.
Infinite Body is the solo project of 22-year-old Kyle Parker. He turns his voice into melodically beautiful but physically jarring synthesized sound, which is then turned into multicolored light that reacts to the music's varying intensity.
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23five Incorporated
http://www.23five.org
Founded in 1993, 23five Incorporated is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development and increased awareness of sound works in the public arena, and to the support and education of artists working with and discussing the medium of sound. For the past 15 years, 23five Incorporated has remained at the forefront in bringing the most adventurous elements of sound art to the San Francisco Bay area. 23five has served as an important benefactor to artists such as CM von Hausswolff, Christina Kubisch, Francisco Lopez, Olivia Block, Matt Heckert, Zbigniew Karkowski, Atau Tanaka, and many more.
Cost: $8.00