Author: COTFG Assistant

5:00pm on Saturday, July 29th 2023

E.Artifact is a songwriter, producer, and mulit-instrumentalist based in Austin, Texas. their current musical output exists in the realms of jazz, soul, and psych rock.

The performance at New Media Art & Sound Summit will include:

David Alvarez (piano)
Patrick McNally (percussion)
Paul Ukrainets (electronics)
Ezra Rodriguez (cello)
Kendra Sells (vocals)
Luke Bartels (flute)
Andrew Harkey (bass)

The group will be exploring questions interpreted from a series of Vietnamese folk poems, known as Ca Dao, in four movements.

https://eartifact.org/

4:00pm on Saturday, July 29th 2023

Goliath Was Bigfoot is a contemporary music initiative started by Andrew Stoltz and Brent Fariss in 2022. The purpose of the group is to engage in conceptual explorations of folk tales, urban legends, ghost stories, conspiracy theories, myths, and the possible origin of the Sasquatch in the Book of Samuel. They present these ideas drawing from diverse and eclectic musical traditions such as sound-based abstraction, theater, folk songs, hymns, minimalism, metal and Ambient Americana. In late 2023, Goliath Was Bigfoot will be presenting a full-scale work in both the performative and recorded formats. For the Murder Ballad series, they are joined by Jess Griggs and Jordan Walsh.

NMASS Program description

Murder Ballads, Volume III
Side 1 – “The Possom’s Lament” – Andrew Stoltz
Side 2 – “Merrilee” – Brent Fariss

Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form, whose primary narrative describes the events of a crime or death. This usually includes the lead-up and/or aftermath. “Murder Ballads, Vol. III” examines the tradition of murder ballads in relation to animals and how humans tend to treat animals in a very cruel way. The piece also explores grieving through old-world ritualistic funerary customs and practices that contrast our modern, often sanitized process of handling sorrow, and the way we often dismiss that these furry friends are members of our family. As an aural expression, this piece seeks a surreal, meditative and ritualistic atmosphere that confronts the finality of death and the peace that comes with the reconciliation of this universal, shared experience.

Player Biographies

Brent Fariss is a composer / performer living in Austin, Texas. He has collaborated in several modern music settings including the Gates Ensemble, Waco Girls, Goliath Was Bigfoot, and the Austin New Music Coop. Fariss holds a Master’s degree in Composition from Texas State University, where he also studied the contrabass. He has become increasingly interested in the idea of conceptualism; using minimalist techniques to unite texture, form, resonance, and abstracted programmatic ideas to create a musical environment. 

Andrew DiRemiggio Stoltz is an Austin, Texas-based composer, songwriter, performer and recording engineer. Utilizing both traditional and non-traditional instruments, strict composition and improvisation, his most recent work celebrates the subtle, natural, introspective and quiet moments. Born and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio metropolitan area, he holds a Masters of Music in Composition from Cleveland State University and was a 2005 recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Award, and a 2012 and 2020 recipient of a New Music USA grant. His work has been performed and represented at a number of festivals and galleries throughout the U.S., Mexico and Europe.

Jess Griggs is a radio host, producer, writer, and musician based in Austin, Texas. Jess has worked in a variety of music and media institutions in Austin and on the east coast. Currently, they work at KMFA 89.5 as the traffic manager and host of ‘Night Music.’ When they’re not on the airwaves, they write angsty poetry or they make questionable sounds via the trombone.They also have a Mini Australian Shepherd named Libby who is, by all accounts, perfect.

Jordan Walsh is a percussionist, audio engineer, and educator based in Austin, Texas. A proponent of electronics and theater in music, he strives to perform the most absurd music with the most genuine fervor. Jordan frequently commissions and performs new works in both chamber and solo settings, including recent collaborations with composers including Elainie Lillios, Akshaya Avril Tucker, Kitty Xiao, and José Martinez.

Frequently engaged as a solo performer, Jordan has appeared as a guest at the SEAMUS conference, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and Southwestern University, with upcoming engagements including residencies at Purdue University and Alabama University. Jordan proudly endorses Pearl/Adams Instruments, Sabian Cymbals, Black Swamp Percussion, and Innovative Percussion. When he is not engaged with contemporary classical music, Jordan can be found playing drums with singer-songwriter James Tabata, a smattering of nonsense instruments with Goliath Was Bigfoot, and prepared guitar with Austin’s experimental folk band Middle Sattre.

8:00pm on Saturday, July 29th 2023

Integrating traditional sounds of Mesoamerica and South Asia, Andrea Cortez and Mario Garza incorporate wordly improvisations with elements of raag (melodic frameworks) and taal (rhythmic cycles). Combining harp, tanpura, and tabla, the representative instruments of the West and East, the duo expound on connecting to natural elements through indigenous praxis and padhant (rhythmic syllabification). These improvisations are catalysts in evocations for healing and hope.

Andrea Cortez, MM, MT-BC, is a board certified music therapist and sound artist. Her diverse work is at the intersection of performance art, sound therapy, and sound meditation. Deeply inspired by nature, Andrea explores the relationship between music, the natural world, and plants. Her performances and recordings with harp, ambient effects, and plant generated sounds are designed to create restorative listening experiences that move the listener into relaxed states of consciousness. The therapeutic tones of her work focus on sound’s influence on physiological processes of the human body, states of attention, and perception. Andrea is a harpist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and sound meditation teacher. She is owner of Mind Body Music Center, a sound therapy studio, in Austin, TX

Mario Garza studies theology at the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and performs percussion with the Nizami Qawwali Party. He studies classical Hindustani khayal with tabla and the Bengali mridanga under the tutelage of Ustad Ghulam Farid Nizami of the Senia gharana. Illustrating live rhythm, Mario also dances Mexican Jarocho and Mexika danza. Outside of music, Mario’s work focuses on current events in agriculture and interfaith initiatives.

9:00pm on Saturday, July 29th 2023

MATTIE is a mirror. She is an oracle of the SOL, and a watch-person over the keys to liberation guiding your experience via modalities of introspective visuals, lyrical self-inquiry, melody/harmony, experimental instrumentation, movement, meditation, and performance art.

Learn more about her sounds on Bandcamp.

6:00pm on Saturday, July 29th 2023

Bitches Set Traps is a feminist improvisation ensemble. Part avant-garde improv, part comedy, part social commentary.

The virtuoso musicians of Bitches Set Traps push the boundaries of improvisation by exploring current events, feminism, misogyny, and performance taboos, in theatrical and comedic performances. Using instruments, voices, and common household items, BST recycles and questions everyday tropes of American culture, from tampon commercials to heavy metal power ballads, Eminem to Supreme Court briefs, Joan Didion to Frank Sinatra.

The Bitches cross over venues and genres bringing together ideas between subcultures; they set traps in concert halls, nightclubs, theaters, and galleries with equal intensity. As an improvising group they sometimes collaborate with additional guest musicians. BST formed in 2018 as the North Texas Feminist Improvising Group, inspired by the original Feminist Improvising Group of the late 1970’s.

Bitches Set Traps members:

7:00pm on Saturday, July 29th 2023

COSMS

COSMS is an instrumental duo formed in Austin, TX in 2013.  Josh and Damen hail from small town Indiana and Shanghai respectively.  As such, their perspectives, tastes and approaches to their sounds overlap as often as they clash.  The result is a full and complex sound of bass and percussion.  By using effects, loopers, trippers, percussion and bass guitar, Josh and Damen make two sets of hands sound like ten.

As one of the original members of the Southwest Post Rock Collective, their exploration in to what they can achieve as a two-piece has evolved over the years as the pic up steam and hone their craft.

2023’s release of the “Tigers” EP is a testament to that growth.  Utilizing new instruments like a hardpan and a 6-string bass, COSMS continues to push what is possible.  Recorded and mixed by Chico Jones at Estuary Recording Facility and Mastered by Max Lorenzen at Rare Ear, “Tigers” marks their most challenging and engrossing effort yet. 

Gamelan Lipi Awan (Gamelan Rising Star) refers both to the Balinese musical instruments and to the group of individuals that comprise the orchestra.

The gamelan was acquired by Texas State University in 2012 and has attracted large numbers of players over the years. Gamelan Lipi Awan’s performances have included the Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce gala, Sights and Sounds festival, San Marcos Public Library, Texas State University Asian Cultural Showcase, 72 Degrees Festival, and TMEA. The ensemble has also been featured in the documentary Power of Pearl.

Playing the gamelan is a very special experience. Apart from the obvious educational musical benefits including rhythmic acuity and musical memory, the sekaa or club of players develops a close sense of ‘belonging’, responsibility and friendship through learning together.

9:00pm Friday, July 28th 2023

Aurum Son is Sonia Flores with Andrew Martinez, Danielle Gibson, and Mark Medina for Friday, July 28th.

Aurum Son is a genre-busting electroacoustic ensemble from Houston, Texas. The group successfully blends global music with jazz, folk and experimental soundscapes. Taking notes from Sun Ra and Avant Garde Jazz, the themes in which they compose are outer space, the spirit warrior journey, spiritual alchemy and transformation. Aurum Son can be heard on major streaming platforms and are set to release new music in 2023.

Bandcamp: aurumson.bandcamp.com

8:00pm Friday, July 28th 2023

SLUDER BROTHERS performing “Niche Cathedral” 

Brent Sluder manages an historic Austin dance hall as a day job , and though he wants to be writing scores for real films (such as Jules of Light & Dark (2020) and The Love Inside (2015), for the time being, Brent settles for writing music for fake movies (such as Man-Made Lakes, and Outlaw Supper Club massacre 1984). Additionally, he can be found experimenting under the names Field Dress and Jeepacabre, collecting art books, and painting his feelings.

His older brother, Kevin Sluder lives in McKinney, Tx and has been teaching public school string orchestra at the middle and high school levels for 16 years. He has also published nearly 20 educational string orchestra pieces, and loves recording albums of a variety of genres in his spare time.

This premiere performance of their all-new collaboration ‘Niche Cathedral’ marks the first time the Sluder brothers have performed live since high school marching band. They have a long-distance recording project called Brudeheim Stemroller which relies on passing Logic stems back and forth like sonic pen pals. Their piece for Friday, July 28th was conceived and arranged in the same way.

Examples of works by Brent Sluder and Kevin Sluder can be heard in Bandcamp.

7:00pm Friday, July 28th 2023

Originally from Calgary Canada, Aaron Bielish received an MFA from the University of Houston and a Master of Music from Rice University. He works in a diverse range of media including photography, pen and ink, digital and computer media, sound, and ceramics. His works have been featured at the Art League of Houston, Foundation for Modern Music, Canadian Music Festival and the Baton Rouge Gallery. He currently resides in Houston where he is currently an instructor in the music department, visual art department, and humanities department at Lone Star college.

For this set, a number of performers will interpret graphic scores created by Aaron Bielish. The improvised sections will be performed by individuals or small groups of people on a wide range of instruments and technological tools.

The players may include:

The players may include: Aaron Bielish, Violinda, J.Brent Crosson, Thomas Echols, Julia Hungerford, Hung Nguyen, Peter Stopschinski, Leila Henley, and Charles Stolze.

9:00pm Thursday, July 27th 2023

QRSTV is a newfangled socio-entertainment experiment of broadcasting live television in an effort to stimulate brain activity. 

Performers include Chad Hopper, Amanda Jones, Emily Summerfield, Andy Miller, and Kevin Pope

Amanda Jones was lured to Austin 18 years ago by the creative weirdos she encountered at COTFG. Now she carries on the creative weirdness as a  curator of art shows and experiences at Collection Rert with Chad.

Chad Hopper is an Aries that spends his days and nights playing Scrabble and making art. He also enjoys eating strawberries and gets nervous when climbing ladders.

Emily Summerfield is a baked bean sandwich made with premium white bread toast. She is the lunchtime delicacy of your dreams. Handle with care

Andy Miller is a person who has created and performed with Andi Skeemax and the Slow Jams, Ouiness, Black Ocean Parking Lots, Night Viking, PLAYVISION, himself, other people, and you.

Kevin Pope is an Austin native that has been part of the experimental music and art scene for many years. He records under the name Epop Nivek and is also a member of Night Viking  and Pataphysics.