Composer David Stutz weaves new chant and experimental vocal music together with electronic drones, field recordings, the sound of looms, and percussion to create a ritualized tribute to computer scientist and mathematician Alan Turing. The concert takes place amidst an installation based on artifacts from Turing’s life and work, with gentle mechanical sounds, spoken word, and synthesized electronic drones, all algorithmically derived from Turing’s own mathematical work. With Geoff Shilling, Perri Lynch, Beth Glosten, Jim Bennett, Erika Chang, Linda Strandberg, David Krueger, Markdavin Obenza, Josh Haberman, and Dean Moore.

Presented by Gift Tapes and Debacle Records

Bee Mask is a project of Chris Madak (Philadelphia), who over the course of thirty-plus releases has cultivated an intricately wrought and deeply warped sensibility that draws equally on the ecstatic human/machine couplings of 1970s west coast synthesis, the fractured gloss of sampler concrète, the iridescent thumbprint of High Minimalism on the IQ-decimating throb of trunk bass, and the barely-sublimated currents of vertigo and terror that course beneath the finest and most unsettling moments in the canon of home-recorded psychedelia. Matt Carlson is an active participant in Portland’s underground and experimental music scene. In his recent music, he uses his body and voice to interact with a large analog modular synthesizer. Spare Death Icon is a solo project of Jason E. Anderson, head of the Gift Tapes/DRAFT label and half of synth duo Brother Raven. He employs “dated” synthesizers and drum machines to craft a sound recalling b-movie action and horror soundtracks, offset by influences from early 80’s underground tape music and atmospheric ambient.

Molten Vocals is a dynamic quintet of seasoned vocalists – Gina Sala, Christian Swenson, Rebekka Goldsmith, Joanne Lauterjung Kelly, and Kate Thompson – singing world scat, creating lush vocal landscapes, and popping a-cappella wheelies. They intend to unfold your mind, body, and soul to the heart of the voice through improvisation in an evening of music never to be heard again.

New York drummer extraordinaire Bob Meyer returns to the northwest! Bob has garnered praise throughout the planet with his rhythmic prowess, performing with, among others, Joe Lavano, John Abercrombie, Kenny Werner, Glenn Moore, Jacki Byard, Gary Peacock, Bert Wilson, Mal Waldron, David Friesen, Diane Schurr, Jim Pepper and Itzhak Perlman! Tonight he’s joined by Marc Smason (trombone), Craig Hoyer (piano), and Michael Barnett (bass) in a combo known as Better World.

Seattle Rock Orchestra closes its season with all new rock-inspired compositions by SRO’s in-house team of composers: Scott Teske, Ian Williams, Emily Westman, Andrew Josyln, and Barry Uhl, plus winners of SRO’s first annual composition contest: Alex Guy, Michael Owcharuk, and John Teske.

Presented by Nonsequitur. One of downtown NYC’s great, unsung guitar heroes, Chris Cochrane’s raw, angular guitar style embraces a gamut of tender, bluesy lyricism and harsh noise. Tonight he performs music from his new CD, Them (Tzadik), composed for a 1985 performance with choreographer Ishmael Houston-Jones and writer Dennis Cooper. Climax Golden Twins is the inscrutable and ever-morphing sonic beast animated by Rob Millis and Jeffrey Taylor. Together, individually and with others, they push the definition of a “band” to its limits, making live movie soundtracks, gallery installations, weird ethnographic films, and deeply immersing themselves in the dusty, crackling grooves of old 78s.

Lalage is the duo of poet, librettist, playwright, screenwriter, and singer Lara Candland and Canadian-American composer/performer Christian Asplund. Co-founders of Seattle Experimental Opera, as a team they have composed A Girl’s Body at Crepuscule, The Archivist, Floralesque, Liquid Girls, and Sunset with Pink Pastoral. Lalage layers text, drones and live sampling, using only vocal sounds made by Candland during their performances. The naked human voice is heard, transformed into celestial chorales, words are understood, then reduced to shimmering shards laced with new meaning.

An evening of solo compositions, and one ensemble piece, spanning the career of John Cage, in the year of his one hundredth birthday.
Sonata – William O. Smith, clarinet
One7 – Neal Meyer, voice
In a Landscape – Melissa Walsh, harp
Solo – Stuart Dempster, trombone
Four6 – Stuart Dempster, Neal Meyer, William O. Smith, Melissa Walsh (any way of producing sounds)

S. Eric Scribner (piano), new works, with Matt Kocmierowski and Keith Eisenbrey (found objects); Bruce Greeley (bass clarinet); Natalie Mai Hall (cello); and Mike Sentkewitz (string bass). Includes SoundScrolls VII for a trio of bass instruments; Four Places on Planet Earth for found objects and prerecorded sound; and Ukiyo-e, an extended piece for solo piano.

For its season finale, Seattle Modern Orchestra presents two pieces where the ideas and emotions unique to the visual arts are transformed into music. To start the program, French composer Hugues Dufourt‘s L’Asie d’aprés Tiepolo (2009) reflects on Italian painter Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Allegory of the Planets and Continents (1752), while the second half features the celebrated Rothko Chapel (1971) by American composer Morton Feldman.