7:30 J
Jim Ryan's Green Alembic Ship of Fools Concert
Green Alembic is a chamber performance group combining original instrumental music, graphic projection, spoken word, and art song. It is engaged in the alchemical transformation of postmodern technological sterility to the warmth of living human experience with a wry smile. The performers are subject to change and expansion in number but the core group consists of:
Ron Heglin trombone/voice, Theo Padouvas trumpet/violin, Bob Marsh electronically affected
cello,
Michael Cooke bassoon/shung (Chinese free reed instrument),
Bill Noertker double bass,
Jim Ryan flute/amped,modified, & distorted kalimba/small percussion + a poem or two. That's it.
All other Green Alembic players will have gone elsewhere to sing madrigals on April Fools Day.
There is also graphic work by Arlene Columbe-Hiquily, an artist who lives in Paris, France.
Cost: $8/10
Videos featuring musicians playing at this event
Green Alembic at Berkeley Arts 5-17-14
Open Ended by Michael Cooke is a very versatile work that is composed live before your eyes and ears. Based on Rova‘s Radar techniques, Open Ended is less of a composition and more of a color or tool palette. It is an ever-growing collection of rules and games for the performers that are triggered by hand signals by the conductor/composer. The conductor/composer then composes the piece live using these hand signals to guide the performers. The ability to compose with what happens in the moment, in real time, is what is required to produce this piece. This similar to the “Soundpainting” language was created by Walter Thompson in Woodstock, New York in 1974. Open Ended has no set instrumentation and can be played by any number of performers. It also has no set length; the piece could last 5 minutes or 24 hours.