NEW MUSIC SERIES

Thursday, June 7 2007 8:00 -10PM

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

8pm Barpieces (Christopher Fleeger & Charles Engstrom)
9pm OUTHEAD

 
Charles Engstrom is a film-music composer; Christopher Fleeger a sound designer. Barpieces are audio scores of twelve computer music inventions, based on ideas about gathering places as social and sonic resonators group this material. More specifically, the focus revolves around computer music performances which could maintain some revelatory utility in the hurly-burly of ordinary public listening-- in a barroom, for instance. The resulting pieces are formally simple, relatively short in duration, and try to maintain distinct timbral surfaces. Methods include the gas laws, lissajous curves, set transformations and fourier harmonizations of the ambience in performance spaces. The sonics range from simple synthetic waveforms, excited glass, wood and metal to slot machines, washers and other timbral pointers to the everyday world of the early 21st century.

OUTHEAD, both the terminal chorus in a jazz composition and the terminal state of mind of its four members, is a rehearsal band gone mad-crazy. Formed in response to the less-than-fun gigs of four Bay Area professionals (read whores), OUTHEAD features the original compositions and improvisations of Charles Gurke (Carne Cruda) on baritone saxomophone and percusson, Alex Weiss (Gallo Pinto Jazz 5tet) on alto and tenor saxophone and percussion, Rob Woodcock (Plan A, Silicon Valley Symphony, Linda Draper)) on double bass and Dillon Westbrook (Gomorran Social Aid and Pleasure Club) on drums and cymbals. Drawing on inimitable influences of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Ornette Coleman and Last Exit, OUTHEAD keeps the synapses misfiring and the energy high. Ocassional covers include hits from the Ethiopique imprint and Thelonious Monk. Look for them in a rubber room near you.