Seattle Improvised Music presents Bob Marsh, a seasoned improviser whose work has involved shaping sounds, words, images, and ideas for the past forty years. Originally from Detroit, Marsh arrived in the Bay Area in 2000 after ten years in Chicago where he played with most of the avant improvisers in that rich and varied scene. He has studied classical piano, classical guitar, and vibraphone, and has taught himself various other instruments. Tonight he plays solo violin, voice, tap shoes, and directs a large improvising ensemble.

Nonsequitur presents noted guitarist and veteran of the Northwest creative music milieu Dennis Rea leading sets by three widely varied groupings: unclassifiable improvised music for electric guitar trio with Tom Baker and Brian Heaney; the Tanabata Ensemble – Dennis Rea (acoustic guitar), Elizabeth Falconer (koto), John Falconer (shakuhachi), Jim DeJoie (bass flute, reeds), Greg Campbell & Paul Kikuchi (percussion) – performs an arrangement of an ancient Chinese piece; and Tempered Steel, a trio with Ffej and Frank Junk playing improvised music on a variety of amplified, electronically processed thumb pianos.

Presented by Earshot Jazz. Heavily influenced by Hindustani music and the spiritual music of John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, and Pharaoh Sanders, Narmada combines free improvisation, highly-arranged multi-meter composition, and traditional Hindustani musical forms. The band includes Neil Welch (saxophones), Chris Icasiano (drums), Luke Bergman (bass), Cam Peace (guitar), Brian Kinsella (piano), Tor Dietrichson (tabla/congas/percussion), and Pandit Debi Prasad Chatterjee (sitar).

Presented by Subtext Reading Series.

George Bowering is a prolific Canadian novelist, poet, historian, and biographer. His most recent books include Baseball Love (Talonbooks, 2006), and Vermeer’s Light: Poems 1996-2006, and Fulgencio (Nomados, 2008). Bowering lives in Vancouver, BC and is Emeritus at Simon Fraser, where he has worked for more than 25 years. In 2002, he was appointed the first ever Canadian Poet Laureate. Marion Kimes‘ books include CROW’S EYES, of multiplication & light (Nine Muses), Whirled, and NAMORATUNG’A (Woodworks). She has been a driving force in Red Sky Poetry Theatre for many years.

Nonsequitur presents Bay Area electro-acoustic composer Michael Gendreau. Emerging in the 1980s underground as half of the duo Crawling with Tarts, Gendreau studied composition at Mills College and went on to get a PhD in physics with a specialty in acoustics. Applying his occupational skills to his creative work, he has developed a series of works in which he uses the tools of his trade to activate the very buildings in which he performs, using the materials of the room itself as a large, resonant instrument.

Andrew McInnis, a New England transplant who performs on drums, percussion, guitar, piano, synthesizer, and vocals and has been in the Northwest for eight years, has aimed to create an evening “bringing a lot of different sides of the music community together here in Seattle, from the elders to the youngsters all over the wide spectrum of music influence and aesthetic.” That will entail a host of performers including his own band, the mighty quintet Sunship, along with members of Seattle Harmonic Voices and Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls.

In a follow-up to their recent performance at Seattle City Hall, sound artists David Stutz and Perri Lynch (a/k/a RADIUS) combine field recordings, loops, beats, drones, and pings to explore the simultaneity of world events and dilation of time and distance; field recordings from across the globe are interspersed with micro-samples from the interior.

Dragon’s Eye Recordings celebrates its third anniversary with a free digital compilation and an evening of performances. The Leather event and compilation showcase current work by artists working with the label: Lissom, Yann Novak, Clinker, Jamie Drouin, Wyndel Hunt, Kamran Sadeghi, and Former Selv, and is indicative of the label’s goal to explore new territory in minimal electronic music and sound art. Tonight’s concert features sets by Yann Novak, Wyndel Hunt, and Kamran Sadeghi

Improvisor, composer and cutting-edge media technician, vance galloway performs on prepared electronic guitar, conjuring complex drones, shifting grains of sound, fields of flowing harmonics, pointillistic clicks and pops, and perhaps even a languid melody or two. noisepoetnobody is long time electronic composer and electro-acoustic musician Casey Jones with his home made creation the string board, loopers, analog devices, and guitar amplifiers creating ambient yet rhythmic sounds from soothing to disturbing. vox vespertinus is susan dumett, a classically trained vocalist who uses her powerful, 4-octave range to evoke sounds both angelic and primeval.

Classical guitarist Michael Nicolella and odeonquartet perform the west coast premiere of Black Dog/Lucky Dog for electric guitar and string quartet by Anthony Gatto, as well as music for classical guitar by Domenico Scarlatti, Elliott Carter, and Michael Nicolella; works for electric guitar by Jacob ter Veldhuis and Jimi Hendrix; and works for string quartet by Tunde Jegede, Marcello Zarvos, Ken Benshoof and Ljova.