Theatre Intangible

Here’s Theatre Intangible episode 110: Hertenstein/Hunt/Sevits, recorded on September 13th, 2013. Joe Hertenstein is a New York City-based drone/avant-garde/free improv drummer, originally hailing from Germany. He’s played with heavy hitters such as Mat Maneri, Anthony Coleman, Ken Filiano, Frank Gratkowski, Jon Irabagon, Achim Tang, Mikko Innanen, Todd Neufeld, Simon Jermyn, and Thomas Heberer. How did this [...]

Here’s Theatre Intangible podcast 109: Lyrebird Artist Showcase, recorded on February 15th, 2013. Lyrebird is an experimental improv duo featuring Jeremy Bennett on electronics and Craig Schenker on saxophone and flute. Jeremy takes samples of Craig’s live sounds and weaves them into ever-evolving loops, which also feature field recordings and electronic synthesis. Craig then improvises new parts [...]

Savage Knights are an avant-jazz and rock n' roll instrumental band from Raleigh, North Carolina. They start things out with an experimental improvisation featuring Mike on my Hammond student-model organ and then they perform some of their prepared material. For links and more info, check out the show notes at TheatreIntangible.com.

Age is the "horizontal sound composition process" of Josh Gumiela and Luke Rainey, and it's based around a very innovative technique. One artist presents a sound. The other samples that sound and alters it in some way – perhaps speeding it up, slowing it down, degrading it, or chopping it up. The first artist then samples the altered sound, the other artist then samples the altered altered sound, and so on. Soon the sound becomes unrecognizable and the improv progresses in an indeterminate direction, much like the pointer of a Ouija board.

On July 22nd, 2013, the Dig Deep Light show performed an improvised light show in the basement of Noa Noa house while a group of musicians sat in the back of the room and created a score to the visuals. That musical improv is what you're about to hear.

We recorded this series of four improvs in Robert's home studio on June 18th, 2013. Regi and Robert are two Nashville musicians with long and fruitful careers who have only just recently begun performing together. They recorded an initial improv with Regi on electric bass and Robert on electronics. Weeks later -- and on the date I was in attendance -- they ran back the tape and recorded again with Regi on guitar and Robert on drums and additional electronics. This is essentially a quartet with two players improv-ing with past versions of themselves.

Here's episode 104: Adventure Bomb: Projecting, a revised and expanded edition of the set I performed at Soundcrawl in collaboration with Benton-C Bainbridge's live video projection mapping (“Fast-mapping”). Recorded at Brick Factory Nashville. Best experienced through headphones.

Chris Davis organized a fantastic show at the Downtown Presbyterian Church featuring free jazz legends Trevor Watts and Veryan Weston. He also booked Louisville-by-way-of-New-York experimental percussionist Tim Barnes and Nashville guitarist William Tyler to perform that night, and that duet is what you're about to hear.

Recorded on the Noa Noa back porch on April 6th, 2011. The second of two special improvs featuring Charlie and Chris Rauh. The idea for this was that any participant could walk off at any time and tag in someone in the audience to replace him or her. It features featured Randy Hunt, Rhendi Greenwell, Tim Norton, Charlie Rauh, Chris Rauh, Sarah Robey, Chris Murray, Craig Schenker, Jamison Sevits, and Tommy Stangroom.

Recorded on the Noa Noa back porch on April 6th, 2011 and starring Randy Hunt, Charlie Rauh, Chris Rauh, Craig Schenker, Jamison Sevits, and Tommy Stangroom. We organized this show around Charlie and Chris Rauh's visit back to Nashville from New York City and DC respectively. We did two improvs that night, the first with a set group of musicians who came in one at a time throughout the performance, and the second, a free for all tag team with a who’s who of the Nashville avant garde music community. Episode 102 will feature the second. You're about to hear the first. I did the recording, live mixing, editing, and mastering.

Thomas Lehn & John Butcher, St. Louis, 06-08-2012. Photo by Joseph Raglani For the 100th Theatre Intangible podcast, we’ve been saving a very special performance: the Thomas Lehn and John Butcher artist showcase. This is a recording of their spectacular June 7th, 2012 performance at Downtown Presbyterian Church. Thomas and John very graciously allowed me to release the recording as a  podcast. This rare event was organized by Brady Sharp, Chris Davis, and David Maddox. Here’s an excerpt from my Nashville Scene Critic’s Pick: “Thomas Lehn and John Butcher are two of the most important players in the European free improv scene. Lehn plays unearthly sounds out of an EMS Synthi A, a unique 1970s analog synthesizer that supplants the Moog-style patch bay for a matrix of Battleship-like resistor pegs. His sputtering, crackling, and at times combative timbres are just as unique as the instrument he plays, and a far cry from the soothing tones of ambient electronic music. If Evan Parker is the pioneer of extended saxophone technique, John Butcher is the lab scientist. Formerly a theoretical physicist, Butcher meticulously catalogs every sound he discovers on the sax — and I do mean every sound. Where most musical adventurers remain content mapping out the big spaces in the middle, Butcher charts every crack, crevice and blind alley. He’s famous for treating the room as an extension of the instrument (having recorded in caves, oil tanks and underground reservoirs), and you can be sure the amazing acoustics of the chapel at DPC will play a big part in both players’ performances.” The acoustics of the space did play a big part of the performance. The reverb you hear on the recording is in fact the chapel’s natural room reverb. This was a very special performance, and I’m indebted to Brady, Chris, and Dave for putting the show together and to Thomas and John for bringing their talents to Nashville. Also, I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the talented performers who have ever appeared on Theatre Intangible. 100 episodes down. Here’s to 100 more. As always, thanks for listening.

Kendall Station (photo by Adam Newton) Here’s episode 99: Tau Ceti, starring Mike Simpkins, Josh Gumiela and Luke Rainey, recorded May 25th 2012 on the back porch of Noa Noa. Minneapolis-based ambient electronic artist Mike Simpkins was in town to perform a concert at Noa Noa under his moniker Kendall Station. You can see an excerpt from his performance in the video below.  Also on the bill were Luke Rainey’s project Grand Reality and Josh Gumiela’s project Foster Dad. Josh organized the show. After their sets, they performed this beautiful improv, awash in analogue synths, circuit-bent gear, and field recordings. I did the live mixing, editing, and mastering. Thanks for listening.

Ypsmael live at Noa Noa Here’s Theatre Intangible episode 98: Ypsmael and Lawrence Crow Artist Showcase. These two solo performances were recorded August 5th, 2012 for a show also featuring T.J. Borden and Steven Dunning. Episode 97 featured those performances. Ypsmael is an electroacoustic improviser and performance artist currently based in Munich. He uses stompboxes and a blend of baritone guitars and other instruments, voice, amplified objects, DIY electronics, field recordings and no-input feedback to create hazy drone swells, noise washes, audio detritus and subtly unfolding textures. All sounds are generated and processed live. Frequent Theatre Intangible collaborator Lawrence Crow makes abstract electronic improv music using open source programming such as Supercollider and PureData. This marks his twelfth appearance on the podcast. Lawrence’s set starts off the podcast, and Ypsmeal’s takes over at 17:55. Thanks for listening!

T.J. Borden. Photo by Jung | Media. Here’s Theatre Intangible episode 97: T.J. Borden and Steven Dunning artist showcase. These two solo performances were recorded August 5th, 2012 for a show also featuring Ypsmael and Lawrence Crow. Episode 98 will feature those performances. Buffalo, New York experimental cellist and composer T.J. Borden has worked with artists such as Tony Conrad, Steven Mackey, Jack Wright, Thomas Helton, Evan Lipson, and DJ Spooky. He’s also a member of Wooden Cities, a Buffalo-based new music collective of musicians dedicated to performing the work of emerging and underrepresented composers. A native of Buffalo, Steven Dunning is a Nashville-based violinist who has performed with the Huntsville Symphony, the Amherst Chamber Ensembles, and Country Music Hall-of-Famer Ray Price. He last appeared on Theatre Intangible episode 81: Ghost in the Hollow. Thanks for listening!  

Here’s episode 96: Cenobium Artist Showcase. Cenobium is an evolving collective of improv musicians based out of Nashville. Exploring the worlds of post modern jazz and the avant garde, Cenobium pushes the boundaries of improvised acoustic music. For this event, Cenobium took the form as a trio featuring Craig Schenker on saxophone, Randy Hunt on upright bass, and Jamison Sevits on trumpet. I recorded this performance at Gallery F on October 10th, 2011 as part of the exhibition Scientists and Artists Picture the Intangible. Tim Kaiser, Jeremy Walker, and Santa’s Workshop also performed. We released the Jeremy Walker performance as a free download and the Santa’s Workshop performance as Theatre Intangible episode 75. Thanks for listening.

John Latartara Indeterminacies. Photo by Kim Sherman. Here’s episode 95: John Latartara Indeterminacies, recorded November 8th, 2011 at Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville, TN as a part of their Indeterminacies series. Indeterminacies is a series of performances organized by Zeitgeist Gallery‘s Lesley Beeman and Lain York. It’s based on John Cage’s idea about creating processes with no predetermined outcome, welcoming the unexpected and learning from the accidental. John Latartara is associate professor of music theory and music technology at the University of Mississippi and a composer who specializes in the use of computer technology to create music. He has music released on the Centaur, Sachimay, and Visceral Media record labels. The piece he performed at Zeitgeist deals with the issues of God, Transience, and Death. John combined interviews he conducted and otherworldly-sounds generated on his laptop. You can see an excerpt of the performance in the video below. The piece is the basis for a new album he’s currently working on. During the performance, John projected video art by his college at Ole Miss, Brooke White. Thanks for listening!

Now that I finally have some free time on my hands, I’m releasing all the podcasts that have been patiently waiting in the queue. Here’s episode 94: Softly, Gently, starring Jesse Kenas Collins, Lawrence Crow, Brady Sharp, Stephen Molyneux and Jeremy Bennett, recorded on June 08th, 2012 at Noa Noa. Boston experimental multi-instrumentalist Jesse Kenas Collins came to Noa Noa last year to perform a bill with keyboardist Lawrence Crow and guitarist Brady Sharp. See an excerpt of Jesse’s solo performance in the video below. After their respective sets, they combined with Horsehair Everywhere‘s Stephen Molyneux and Lyrebird’s Jeremy Bennett to perform this textural improv. I did the recording, live mixing, editing, and mastering. Thanks for listening!

Here’s Theatre Intangible podcast 93: Evans/Laplante/Schenker/Sevits, starring Peter Evans, Travis Laplante, Craig Schenker, and Jamison Sevits. New York free improvisation artists Peter Evans and Travis Laplante performed a show at Noa Noa on May 15th, 2012 organized by Nashville’s Craig Schenker. See excerpts of their solo sets in the videos below. After the show, we recorded this incendiary improv, featuring Peter Evans on trumpet, Travis LaPlante on saxophone, Craig Schenker on saxophone, Jamison Sevits on trumpet, and all four on various woodwinds. I did the recording, live mixing, editing, and mastering. Travis LaPlante plays in the band Little Women, as a solo saxophonist, and with the tenor saxophone quartet Battle Trance. His solo album Heart Protector released to rave reviews in 2011, and Little Women’s brand new album Lung is available now at aumfidelity.com. Peter Evans plays with the Peter Evans Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Continuum, and Ensemble 21, as a solo saxophonist, and with many jazz luminaries, including Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker, Mary Halvorson Fred Frith, and Weasel Walter. He just released the debut recording of his “Zebulon” trio with John Hébert and Kassa Overall, recorded at and named after the now defunct Brooklyn club. It’s available on MoreIsMoreRecords.com.

Concurrence is a Nashville jazz improv duo, featuring bassist Greg Bryant and pianist Paul Horton. Greg and Paul are key players in the Nashville jazz and improvisation communities. Greg is one of the organizers of Improv Undergound, a monthly Nashville c

On Friday, July 13th, 2012, Watts and Weston performed together at the Downtown Presbyterian Church in Nashville. It was a phenomenal experience. Trevor and Veryan very kindly gave me permission to record and release the performance, and that's what you'r