Violinist and composer Luke Fitzpatrick presents an hour-long solo work entitled The Dreamer. Stemming from the anxiety of our current time, The Dreamer is an experiential piece that explores the themes of isolation, longing and duality. Audience members are encouraged to move around the space during the performance.
For the continued safety of all present, audience members are required to wear a mask covering nose and mouth for this event.
Spätzer is a creation from multi-disciplinary artist Aiken Bömers-Muller. Living through generative-based compositions, Spätzer’s sound designs balance the formalist approach of traditional ambient music with a tumultuous underbelly of chaotic sensibilities. Coming from a theater background, Spätzer focuses on storytelling through his music and performances. Some have called this post-ambient, some have remained silent. Muller is a part of REALMOREREAL and the artistic director of Radio Brennpunkt, a station focused on showcasing creative commons music.
wiley soule is Clayton, a Seattle based electronic musician, sound designer and voice artist who explores the infinitely rich, often tumultuous emotive open space at the nexus of noise, ambient, goth-industrial, bass, musique concrète and electroacoustic music. In his waking hours he also pursues a career in social work, fully committed to the healing and growth of others while chasing art as life through-theme. His debut EP, Been Midnight, can be found on Bandcamp and all other major platforms. His upcoming EP, Like Kaiju Vermin, will descend this spring, 2022.
The Force of Listening is a concert series hosted by REALMOREREAL sharing sounds and musical explorations of the potential of listening. This series shifts the focus from music as an end-point, to music as a dialogue for practicing the future. This dialogue begins with the artists’ investigation of a communal topic and continues as they “report” their findings through sound performance. File under experimental, avant-garde, and shit’s getting real.
In this performance, we invited Spätzer and wiley soule to explore the homeless epidemic in our nation, and Seattle specifically.
Spätzer took the hyper-focused route of studying and incorporating the works of Bill Jarboe, a Seattleite and musician who died unhoused in 2020.
wiley soule offers an aural meditation on the constraints common to the state of homelessness: the steady denial of access, the gauntlet of casual judgement cast by often still-housed peers, the losses that cascade in at a gale’s pace. This piece is an appeal to empathy, a casting about for the space where the outpaced grief can be shared and hope fashioned into something like real tenderness.
Curated by Omar Willey for Nonsequitur’s NonSeq series.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: King County & WA State have lifted their mandate requiring masks and proof of vaccination. Masks are optional for this event.
Two trios of master improvisers will reverberate the rafters with electric and organic sounds: experimental guitar trio Lotus Lungs and Bentley/Campbell/Levin.
Lotus Lungs is composed of three accomplished Seattle guitarists: Bill Horist, Matt Benham, and Tom Scully. Their backgrounds range from punk rock and electronic music to jazz and classical. They use special effects and prepared guitars to create unimaginable sounds, and no two performances are alike. If you thought you knew the guitar, prepare to be surprised.
They’ll be joined by the trio of Bentley/Campbell/Levin. That’s electric violist Heather Bentley, percussionist Greg Campbell, and harpist Carol Levin. Drawing from deep experience spanning jazz, classical, world music and free improv, this trio promises to generate organic yet futuristic sounds in their first Seattle appearance together.
Presented by Right Brain Records.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Following current mandates from King County & WA State public health officials, proof of vaccination status or recent negative COVID test result will be required for entry, and all audience members will be required to wear a mask covering nose and mouth. Windows will be open, weather permitting.
Experimental harpist/composer Elisa Thorn and violinist Meredith Bates have been playing together in many contexts for the past ten years, including their project Gentle Party which just released its sophomore album, God Complex. The two will be presenting improvised works creating visceral sound worlds with ample electronic processing, extended techniques, classical virtuosity and ambient minimalism.
Elisa Thorn is a harpist/composer living in Vancouver, BC. Combining her technical classical background, exploration of electronic processing and experience working in a variety of contemporary music worlds, Elisa’s music is propelled by two artistic objectives: firstly, how to create music that is both abstract and accessible; and secondly, how to lead a band with harp in a way that does not compromise sensitivity with its boldness, or generosity with its curiosity. Interested in the intersection between composed and improvised music, she is involved with many projects including HUE, The Giving Shapes, and Gentle Party. Her electroacoustic sound world is designed to leave you wondering where the sounds came from. Emerging and dissolving into an ambient landscape, you may hear her influences from Pauline Oliveros, Vijay Iyer, Björk, Radiohead, Arthur Russell, Stevie Wonder, Fiona Apple, Debussy, and the distinct style of the West Coast creative music scene.
A talented improvisor and performer, award-winning violinist Meredith Bates is known for her elegant and virtuosic sound. She has spent most of the past twenty years recording and performing around the world in celebrated ensembles, such as Pugs and Crows, Gentle Party, and projects led by Vancouver music icons Tony Wilson, Ford Pier, Leah Abramson, and Peggy Lee. Recently, Meredith has founded a new instrumental sextet Like the Mind, with renowned improvisors from Canada and Sweden (Peggy Lee, Lisa Ullen, Lisen Rylander Love, Elisa Thorn, and Emma Augustsson). Her ambient and experimental debut solo album, If Not Now (2020, Phonometrograph) is inspired by our relationship to one another and our natural surroundings. Meredith lives on unceded Coast Salish territory and is the artistic director of the Vancouver Improvised Arts Society (VIAS), a non-profit organization aimed at supporting the creation and presentation of improvised works by womxn, BIPOC, and LGBTQ2S+ artists.
Curated by Omar Willey for Nonsequitur’s NonSeq series.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Although we will not require proof of vaccination status to attend, for this event we are still asking that all audience members wear a mask covering nose and mouth.
Modular Seattle presents (re)connect, SF Bay Area duo electric.kitchen’s evening of experimental electronic music and visuals exploring reconnecting after two years of isolation for performing artists. The whole evening connects its parts into a journey, newly traveled every night.
The Seattle performance of (re)connect includes local musicians Demetrius Patin and WabiSabi. The evening journey includes time for each of them to perform their explorative solo electronic work, as well coming together to play both composed and improvised sections.
Mark Lentczner works with electronic sonic elements – analog synthesizers, sampled sounds, drum boxes, handmade electronics, effects boxes – using them in ways that skirts the line between recognizable musical forms, and journeys in sonic space. The music is all conceived for live performance, using many different ways to interact with electronics, building on the energy of live creation with an audience.
Bill Waitroski uses modular video synthesis and video feedback to create abstract visual interpretations of the hidden energy fields that surround us. The live performed visuals expose a secret, subtle, sometimes unruly world, lying just outside our normal field of perception.
Demetrius Patin creates music in layered patterns of polyrhythms, lush echos, and chewy distortion; this sound is meant to move you. If not physically, then emotionally. With hints of classical, jazz, and progressive rock the sound is unique, beautiful and driving.
WabiSabi (DB Pawlan) performs ambient soundscapes and textures featuring percussive and melodic elements. Much of his work incorporates Asian-influenced inspiration, manifesting itself in the dichotomy of the Japanese notions of wabi and sabi.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Following current mandates from King County & WA State public health officials, all audience members at this performance will be required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Proof of vaccination status and/or recent negative COVID test result will be required for entry. Windows will be open, weather permitting. Given the constantly changing nature of the pandemic, all events are subject to cancellation on short notice. Check back here on the day of the show for updated info.
Kin of the Moon (Seattle) and Strange Interlude (LA) team up for the first of an ongoing series of collaborations titled STRANGE MOON, featuring six newly commissioned works for flute, viola, cello, harp, vox/piano, and electronics.
Back in 2019, Kin of the Moon and Strange Interlude hatched a plan to commission some of our favorite composers to write ten minute works featuring our combined ensemble of flute, viola, cello, harp, vox/piano, and electronics. Things went globally sideways, and instead of unveiling our STRANGE MOON new repertoire in Fall of 2020, we are well into 2022 with even more excitement and appreciation for these gorgeous creations.
Composers Wayne Horvitz, Sarah Bassingthwaighte, Nebal Maysaud, Michaud Savage, Abbey Blackwell, and James Falzone have crafted exquisite pieces for this performance that represents Kin of the Moon’s return to the live Seattle stage. All the works contain through-composed as well as improvised elements. We are thrilled by these texts, and the sonic, textural, and architectural imagination lying within these compositions, and we can’t wait to share these new pieces with everyone! This program is STRANGE MOON I – next in the series will take place in Los Angeles in May with different repertoire.
Kin of the Moon is Leanna Keith, flutes; Heather Bentley, viola; Kaley Lane Eaton, vox/keyboard. Strange Interlude is Lily Press, harp, and Simon Linn-Gerstein, cello.
Presented by Nonsequitur.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Proof of vaccination status or recent negative COVID test result will be required for entry, and all audience members will be required to wear a mask covering nose and mouth. Windows will be open, weather permitting.
Unity Garnish is the electronic music duo comprised of Derek Blackstone and Sam Klickner. Unity Garnish is perfect. Unity Garnish plugs the body into machine. Unity Garnish is set over the maintenance of an audio aura which offers an out to the entrepreneur, and an in to the saved. Duckling, their debut mixtape, is available via Mercy Clinic.
Bit Graves is an experimental electronic chamber duo that explores the shifting boundaries between the physical universe and the digital multiverse. Their music takes the form of dense drone landscapes which range in character from ambient to abrasive. By blending the coarse, unpredictable voltages of plain circuitry with the rigid, precise calculation of digital programming, they depict sonic worlds which are both organic and artificial.
EAMS. is an experiment in the live sculpting of sound & sight born from a love of modular synthesis, sampling, live improvisation, and reactive visualization. Venue and atmosphere greatly influence each performance, rendering diverse results ranging from breathy cinematic waves of leisure to late night fast car beats.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Following current mandates from King County & WA State public health officials, all audience members at this performance will be required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Windows will be open, weather permitting.
Powerful, tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis last appeared with Earshot in the 2018 festival. Known for his many talents that span musicianship, composing, and writing, he’s noted as “a saxophonist who embodies and transcends tradition.” (The New York Times). His style melds many traditions including gospel, free jazz, funk, and hip-hop. His soaring notoriety rests on the back of his many acclaimed albums which include: An Unruly Manifesto, Jesup Wagon, and Molecular as well as DownBeat’s 2020 Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist accolade.
For his upcoming performance, Lewis will be joined by his long-time collaborator, drummer Chad Taylor. Hailing from Chicago but now based in Philadelphia, Taylor is known as a co-founder of the Chicago Underground Duo with trumpeter Rob Mazurek. Lauded for his creativity and sharp improvisational instincts, Taylor has played with Fred Anderson, Pharoah Sanders, Marc Ribot, Malachi Favors, Jaimie Branch, and Nicole Mitchell, among others.
Lewis and Taylor have appeared on many albums together, the latest being the 2021 album Code of Being. Pirmin Bossart writes about the duo in an earlier album, Live in Willisau — “the two musicians let us hear the great breath of an essential jazz tradition, its clarity, raw beauty and urgency shining through.”
Presented by Earshot Jazz.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Following current mandates from King County & WA State public health officials, all audience members at this performance will be required to wear masks regardless of vaccination status. Proof of vaccination status and/or recent negative COVID test result will be required for entry. Given the constantly changing nature of the pandemic, all events are subject to cancellation on short notice. Check back here on the day of the show for updated info.
An hour-long, meditative music experience featuring the nature-inspired music of American composer John Luther Adams. Seating is limited.
Program:
The Farthest Place (2001)
The Wind in High Places (2011)
Among Red Mountains (2001)
The Light That Fills the World (1998/2001)
with
Rose Bellini, cello
Storm Benjamin, vibraphone
Joseph Kaufman, double bass
Rebekah Ko, marimba
Andy Liang, violin
Jesse Meyers, piano
Mikhail Shmidt, violin
Erin Wight, viola
Charles Smith, light
Benjamin Marx, sound
Erin Jorgensen, production
(photo: James Holt)
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Following current mandates from King County & WA State public health officials, proof of vaccination status or recent negative COVID test result will be required for entry, and all audience members will be required to wear a mask covering nose and mouth.
Lost Chocolate Lab is the moniker and double entendre of Damian Kastbauer practicing as noise maker, effects builder, and spatial audio investigator.
Ingredients for a System of Playback: 1. Position one guitar(lcl) at the center of quad(2²) towers of synchronized amplification. 2. Augment with assorted speakers(+2) of ~/= amplitude linked by devices of time-based modulation(z) and manipulation of (semi)randomized properties. 3. Improvise across/ out/ outside/ time/ space(n) for a duration(x) defined by frequencies(20,000).
(time travel(lcl+2²~/=z*nx)) == Guitar + Amplification + Effects + Chapel + Activate Ambient Acoustics
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS: Following current mandates from King County & WA State public health officials, proof of vaccination status or recent negative COVID test result will be required for entry, and all audience members will be required to wear a mask covering nose and mouth. Windows will be open, weather permitting.