Born and raised in Grand Forks, ND, Gavin Borchert attended Michigan State University and the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. A not-entirely-unexpected inability to secure a teaching post upon graduation led him to Seattle in 1994, where he composes and has contributed classical music and arts coverage to The Seattle Times, The Stranger, KUOW, Seattle Magazine, Crosscut, and (for 24 years) Seattle Weekly.

My main composition project in this lockdown year, launched in November 2019, has been a series of Two-Part Inventions for piano (44 of them to date) — a resolutely practical project in the face of a growing backlog of unperformed chamber music. These are designed to be as simple yet as compelling and rewarding as possible for beginning piano students of any age. Some of them wear their Bachian ancestry more blatantly on their sleeve than others. (Sheet music is available.)

1. C major (00:00)
2. C major (01:04)
3. G major (02:12)
4. G major (03:05)
5. G major (04:55)
6. A minor (07:02)
7. F major (10:20)
8. A major (14:50)
9. B flat major (19:34)
10. C minor (23:03)
11. B flat major (24:56)
12. E flat major (28:35)
13. F minor (31:54)
14. C sharp minor (35:18)
15. A minor (40:23)
16. E minor (44:02)
17. G minor (47:53)
18. B major (50:55)
19. B minor (54:40)

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Steve Layton is a Seattle composer, performer, recordist, connector, facilitator. Editor of Sequenza21, a long-running website reporting on contemporary classical music. Collaborator at ImprovFriday/Sound-In, a weekly web gathering of musicians from around the globe. Hear more on BandCamp.

March Winds (2021)

As source and basis for the piece, I chose a recording shared online by a person in The Netherlands, “klankbeeld“, thirty minutes of a very strong windstorm (gusts to 60mph) blowing through a crack in their window. They recorded it in March 2019; one March later we began the lockdown; one more March and here we are, having been buffeted, and still in the storm (though maybe with a little light on the horizon?).

I use not only the original wind sound as a “voice” in the work, but also use various software to derive MIDI notes from the variation in the wind’s sound. These notes are then given to other synthesizer patches, so that an entire multi-voiced counterpoint is created. Yet it’s the wind that guides all aspects of the length, shape, notes, and unfolding of the piece.

Near the end I’ve overlaid (and somewhat transformed) a recording of the poet Dorota Czerner reading part of her poem “Cave Nocturne” at the 2017 Subterranean Poetry Festival, recorded by Chris Funkhauser.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Afroditi Psarra (US/Greece) is a transdisciplinary artist and an assistant professor of Digital Arts and Experimental Media at the University of Washington. Her work engages with the idea of the body as an interface and sound as a medium of control and resistance. She uses cybercrafts and other gendered practices as speculative strings to hack existing norms about technical objects. Hear more of her work on BandCamp or SoundCloud.

Radiotactility was recorded live in March 2021 at the DXARTS Softlab at the University of Washington in Seattle, and has been enhanced with sample RF footage found on the Signal Identification Wiki. The live set is comprised of a series of hand-embroidered digital synthesizers, machine embroidered fractal antennas, software-defined radio, and other miscellaneous electronics. The composition is largely improvised exploring the gestural language of the handmade synths, the tactility and textural characteristics of the textile radio antennas, and the dynamics of layering live radio signals.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Marcus Price is a Seattle-based sound mangler and artist. Been around since 2010. Full-on hexagon theorist. Hear more on BandCamp and SoundCloud.

This is a collage of things I’ve made during the pandemic. Variety of sound design, granular mangling and pretty sounding filters. All recorded in random Max/MSP sessions and edited in Audacity for wayward in limbo.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Chloe Harris (aka Raica) has been an integral and influential figure in the Pacific Northwest music community for over two decades. Her contributions as a musical artist, producer, DJ, mentor, record label owner (Further), and record shop owner have helped lay the groundwork and build the foundation upon which rests the current success of Seattle’s underground electronic music scene.

(00:00) Untitled 1
(06:54) Untitled 2
(10:58) Untitled 3
(17:42) Untitled 4
(23:24) Untitled 5
(29:34) Untitled 6
(37:20) Untitled 7

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Jessica Lurie is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in saxophones, flute and voice, and enjoys a varied career as a performer, composer, producer, and teaching artist. Highlights include working with artists such as Taylor Mac, John Zorn, Devotchka, Helen Gillet, Fred Frith, Bill Frisell, Henry Butler, Indigo Girls, Mark Ribot, Frank London, Allison Miller, and Nels Cline. Jessica performs with her own ensemble, and co-leads the Tiptons Saxophone Quartet & Drums, Living Daylights trio, Sofie Salonika, Freethiopiques, and Slingshot, and has been working on several new solo and collaborative recordings to be released in 2021.

Violist and composer Heather Bentley has trailblazed a career as one of the West Coast’s most visible improvisatory musicians, specializing in creating evocative atmospheres and textures. Classically trained, she has shifted to an unabashedly experimental artistic output: As a performer, she can be seen performing on instruments like her electric seven string and five string violins or her electronic pedal board in numerous chamber ensembles that utilize improvisation, electronics, and often both. As a composer, her work for chamber ensembles and orchestras has been performed by organizations across both California and Washington. Relentless in her pursuit of creativity, she continues this work as co-founder of Kin of the Moon, a 501(c)3 organization which fosters collaboration between artists in service of creating unique art.

Heather and Jessica have been creative collaborators for years in their free improvisation project Slingshot. Tonight’s music is all about Spring! – new growth and ideas emerging from fertile dirt and darkness into light and air, to tree and blossom. Their spontaneous compositions both hold intentional musical space for the many changes and traumas brought by the pandemic, while blooming with new sonic energy and color.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Dave Abramson is a drummer and percussionist. He grew up playing in the hardcore and metal scene on the east coast and studied visual arts in upstate New York, where he began to play improvised and experimental music. Since moving to Seattle in 2002 he has recorded, performed and/or toured with folks such as Eyvind Kang, Secret Chiefs 3, Wayne Horvitz, Climax Golden Twins, Lori Goldston, Paul Hoskin, Wally Shoup, Greg Kelley, Boredoms, etc. Abramson is a member of the bands Master Musicians of Bukkake, Diminished Men, Spider Trio, Telescoping, and has composed music for the Maureen Whiting Dance company since 2004. He has toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada and can be heard on albums released by Tzadik, Sub Pop, Drag City, Abduction, Conspiracy, Web of Mimicry, and Important Records.

For the last few months I have been back in New Jersey at my childhood home, a return to the concrete basement where I first started playing drums along to cassettes and eventually with bands. On my first drum set, a 1989 Tama Rockstar, a Bar Mitzvah present from my parents, and a 1967 Ludwig kit gifted from a friend, I present six improvisations. The opening and closing pieces are deconstructions of a theme entitled “Doubles”, and the third is based on the Afro-Haitian folkloric rhythm Yanvalou. It has been a time of self-reflection personally and musically to be back in the space and on the instruments related to my younger self. Thanks to everyone for tuning in.

(00:00) Improvisation #1
(05:36) Improvisation #2
(10:44) Improvisation #3
(15:17) Improvisation #4
(20:58) Improvisation #5
(27:25) Improvisation #6

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Kasson Crooker (aka Symbion Project) has been composing various styles of eclectic electronic music for the past 25 years. Based in Seattle, Kasson’s current musical focus is on immersive audio experiences, from live quadraphonic surround sound performances to interactive VR-Music apps featuring interactive spatial audio. Spanning the past three decades, over a dozen albums and EPs have been released from Symbion Project, ELYXR, Khems, Freezepop, and many other side projects, as well as composing bespoke music for indie films, video games, and VR experiences. (YouTube, Instagram)

Gishiki is a live quadraphonic performance of music from the Symbion Project albums Gishiki and Backscatter, primarily featuring the Japanese koto heavily processed through modular synth DSP, layered over lush vintage synthesizer beds and field recordings. Live performances of Gishiki took place in 2018-19 on the West Coast featuring performances at Good Shepherd Center Chapel (Seattle), Bloom (Portland), and Synthplex (Los Angeles). The music ranges from lush, immersive ambient to dark and pulsating, with the koto as its sonic centerpiece.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Tom Varner is a composer, French horn player, recording artist, band leader, and teacher, who plays on over 75  recordings, and has 14 recordings of his own as a leader/composer. His recent CD “Nine Surprises” is available at Apple Music.

The Sound Vespers project grew out of a series of concerts at the Good Shepherd Center Chapel combining instrumental improvisers and members of the Seattle Phonographers Union. In August 2019, I assembled a nonet (6 brass, percussion, and 2 phonographers) and recorded a series of improvisations similar to what we had done at the Chapel Space. I hope you enjoy them.

Samantha Boshnack & Greg Kelley, trumpet; Ray Larsen, cornet; Jim Knodle, flugelhorn; Haley Freedlund, trombone; Tom Varner, French horn; Greg Campbell, percussion and tuba; Steve Barsotti & Steve Peters, field recordings/electronics.

Recorded live (no overdubs) at Jack Straw Studios by Steve Ditore. Special thanks to the Jack Straw Cultural Center.

00:00 – Section 2
15:52 – Section 6
30:49 – Section 8
42:18 – Section 9

(photo: Michelle Smith-Lewis)

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Jarrad Powell is a composer and performer. He is professor emeritus of music at Cornish College of the Arts and director of Gamelan Pacifica. He is the third-generation descended from Montana homesteaders and grew up on Absáalooke land in south-central Montana, former site of the Sundance Sea, an epeiric sea of the mesozoic era.

LAND (2020)

Sounds from three different sources – biophony (sounds of animals), geophony (sounds of weather and other natural elements), and anthrophony (sounds created by humans) – interpenetrate and are mediated by minimal electronic signal processing to yield a soundscape. Like a landscape, it is somewhat static, but also changing, with subtlety or suddenness. Through recordings we preserve the sound environment to use and study, even as we destroy that very environment by various means, leading to degradation and extinction.

This composition is a soundtrack recently completed for a film by noted photographer David T. Hanson. The film features the work from his Waste Land series, a master photographer’s meditation on the country’s most dangerously polluted places. The sociologist Andrew Ross wrote, “Hanson’s Waste Land series is a stunning documentary of a century of organized state terrorism against the North American land, its species, and its peoples.” The film will premiere July 1 – July 31, 2021 at ICON (Iowa Contemporary Art) as part of EXTRACTION: art on the edge of the abyss.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Music Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.