R.A. Jones is a New York-based composer, producer, and educator. A current member of electronic, avant-garde band Eaters, the bi-continental duo Scythe, and releasing solo music as Jha Bones, Bob first appeared on the international stage through his involvement in Jackie-O-Motherfucker and Parquet Courts, to say nothing of the more regional/local heavyweights Evolutionary Jass Band (Portland, OR) and Gospel of Mars.
For his performance at the Chapel, Jones will present new work centering on gesture as a means of sonic origination and interaction. Using a 3-D motion sensor to modulate synthesis and spatial processes in real time, Bob’s performance calls to mind the kinetic syntax of orchestral conducting, the hand as positioned in Orthodox iconography, and Eastern mudras. The result is undeniably computer music, yet the computer itself seems off center, or at least off stage: less an instrument, more a conduit, a feedback loop between embodied intention and sound in space and time—a continuous, tactile exchange. Bob’s most recent work is Sahrazad, the debut release on Random Walk, a new label focusing on spatial audio founded by Ryan Carlile of Visible Cloaks.
Wild Strawberries is a new project with Nick Bindeman (Eternal Tapestry) and Ryan Carlile (Visible Cloaks). The duo crafts expansive compositions in which heavily processed guitar textures dissolve into shimmering delays and reverbs, paired with a digital horn (EWI) that breathes between acoustic models and digital abstractions. Their patient, hypnotic compositions build through gentle layering, creating music that feels both structured and spontaneous.
RM Francis is an artist working with computer-generated sound and language. His work explores the unique perceptual effects of the simulated human voice and the unstable auditory personae that emerge within the gap between artificial and embodied speech systems. Alongside this inquiry into the material properties of the voice, he is engaged in an investigation of the semantic affordances of spoken language decoupled from its capacity for the communication of human intention. These processes yield a synthetic sprechstimme that traverses a continuum of vocality ranging from abstract sound to uncanny characterological specificity. His most recent release is H E L L O After-Person, a collaboration with Viennese sound artist Jung An Tagen.