experimental, electronic and/or improv

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April 12 2007 8:00 PM
8pm Beartrap Mind
Andrew Ferren- tenor saxophone, electronics, laptop
Adam Landfair- tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, bonsari, laptops
9pm Yumi Hara Cawkwell
vocalist/composer (UK)

$6-10 sliding scale, no one refused for lack of funds

Beartrap Mind is a Bay Area based duo consisting of musician/composers Adam Landfair and Andrew Ferren. They met in New York City in 2001 and soon became friends, realizing their common interest in esoteric philosophy, jazz, conspiracy theories, funk, and electronic music. Soon after their meeting, the two musicians began working with computers and analog electronics to augment, inspire, create, and deconstruct their music. Within months both were performing their unique brands of improvised electro-acoustic music throughout New York. Meeting again on the west coast in 2006, the two musicians began working on Beartrap Mind, melding modern improvisation with electronic wizardry. Their influences are vast and on any given day could range from bird calls to Franz Bardon, J.Dilla to W.S. Burroughs, and Bismilan Khan to Hazrat Inayat Khan


Yumi Hara Cawkwell studied medicine in Japan and practised as a psychiatrist for eight years before moving to the UK in 1993. In 1999, she graduated in music from City University in London with a first-class honours degree, and has completed her PhD in composition at City University under Rhian Samuel in 2005. She has received a number of awards including a prize in the Continuum Ensemble Improvisation Competition, Sculpted Sound competition and the British Medical Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology Fanfare Competition to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the molecular structure of DNA. She has been nominated as a finalist for the British Composer Awards 2006 in solo and duo category. Her music has been performed by, among others, PianoCircus, Ensemble Bash, OKEANOS, Jane Chapman, Kate Ryder, Michael Bonaventure and Trio Japan in concerts and festivals in the UK and Japan. She has led voice improvisation workshops for the Yokohama Boys and Girls Chorus at the ISCM World Music Days in 2001. She regularly gives improvised performances as a solo vocalist (with electronics), is active as a DJ, and since 1996, has been a member of the performance-art girlband Frank Chickens. She also performs with Lemon Squeezer and Farmyard Animals. She is Lecturer in Music at University of East London.