DNA Studies is the project of Sarah King and Zachary Smith.
This recording is a performance from December 7 at cloud tree studios in Austin, Texas . It features field recordings from a Lubbock junk yard in 2019. As well as the Bernese Oberland alpine zone in Switzerland. Cities including Montreal’s transportation. And finally highlighted is the Black Friday foley of San Antonio, in a study of Consumerism Studies. This 15 minute performance required no looping, reverb or delay. The recording was taken from the mixer board operated by the curator Alex Keller under Phonography Austin: Annual Report and Album Release.
Sarah King is a visual and sound artist living in San Antonio. TX. They utilize found material including metal for recording purposes. Using found objects they manipulate objects for samples. With partner Zachary Smith they use samplers and other effects to recontexualize sound. Various microphones and vocal techniques are employed by this artist included bowing metal and processing via modular outboard gear. They are a part of dna studies with Zachary Smith.
Zachary Smith is a founding member of the Mt.Borracho. Mt.Borracho is a audio-visual project founded in 2013 by Zachary Smith and Cameron Day. Since forming Mt.Borracho has released material surrounding personal surrealism, paranormal and abstract sound design. Mt.Borracho appeared alongside local veteran deejays Katrina Fairlee, Nick McDonnough and NY-based Umfang for a set in 2018. Zachary Smith recorded an in-studio broadcast at Red Light Radio Amsterdam and abstract set at Asile404 Marsaille, France . Prior to SXSW, Mt.Borracho was featured in the March 2020 Wire UK magazine for their long abstract track as an “A/V collagist” according to writer Raymond Cummings. They are members of DNA Studies with Sarah King.
PR0SC1UTT1 is an experimental sound project that touches on sonic and visual elements, each informing the other to create an organic and hopefully transcendent mix of looping and playful building of multi-instrument orchestration and sound collage.
Todd Mein (MC T-O Double D) is a multimedia visual artist from Austin. He has a show called ToddShow (Fusebox 2020). He loves his dog Moon. IG: @meandtodd
Wayne Champagne (AKA Paul Wainright) is a bagel entrepreneur and a badminton connoisseur from Austin, TX.
Sonic Vibe: Loops, samples, synthesizers, vocoder, found sound audio, banjo, harmonica, electronic, improvisational, glitchy, indie, hip-hop
Visuals: Live video mixing by Todd Mein with original and found media
Stop Motion Orchestra formed in 2013 and quickly got to work recording their debut, Instant Everything! (2014 Egg Helmet Records), a collection of cartoonish prog mini epics drawing equally from early Zappa instrumentals, ‘70s synth rock, and post punk. After some line-up shuffling and a brief hiatus, the band resurfaced with a new aesthetic and a new line-up featuring several virtuoso players from Austin’s fertile rock scene. On Lightworks (2018 Knock’Em Dead / Megaphone Records) the band presents a more organic sound, drawing on influences including Henry Cow, Magma, Haniwa-Chan, and Picchio Dal Pozzo, as well as traditional music from Eastern Europe and South Asia.
Mohadev – Electric Guitar. Mohadev is a guitarist, composer and producer active in a variety of forms of creative music. Stop Motion Orchestra has been his primary creative outlet since its formation in 2013.
Sam Arnold – Bass, Acoustic Guitar. Originally from Grand Rapids, MI, Sam Arnold is a bassist, guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter/composer based in Austin since 2001. In addition to Stop Motion Orchestra and other current work with local progressive rock bands Opposite Day, StarMind Ceremony, and Dream Eater, he has performed and/or released recordings in a range styles including jazz, big-band, punk, pop, metal, R&B, country, afro-pop, reggae, Americana/country, and electronic.
Aaron Parks – Drums. Aaron Parks started playing drums in his birthplace, Houston, TX. He moved to Austin in 2005 and has been on the scene ever since. He can be seen around town with singer-songwriters, jazz groups, prog-rock ensembles, and many more. He loves the drums, he lives the drums.
Alden Doyle – Violin. Alden Doyle started playing violin in Kindergarten. After studying at UT, he has performed in a variety of styles including classical, bluegrass, rock, and experimental. He also works professionally designing algorithms for audio signal processing.
Leila Henley – Saxophones, Flute. Leila Louise Henley is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist specializing in saxophone, flute, and various other aerophones to the delight and amusement of other humans (and the distinct displeasure of certain dogs). Past projects include the bands Churchwood, The Invincible Czars, Go: Organic Orchestra (Austin chapter), Poon (all-female Ween tribute), and Sweetmeat and the musicals Speeding Motorcycle at Zach Scott Theater and Cabaret at St. Edward’s University. In addition to Stop Motion Orchestra she currently performs with Andrew Nolte Band, Fontanelles TX, and Super Creeps (David Bowie tribute).
“From the Texas you don’t hear so much about, Stop Motion are a seven piece, rock-inflected, late sixties-mid-seventies influenced band (drums, bass, piano, synth, violin, cello, sax, banjitar) playing highly harmonically based, rhythmically interesting and through-composed music that’s a pleasure to listen to… Familiar echoes of the better bands of the era, but still very much on its own track. Nice work.” – Chris Cutler
“With one foot firmly in the rich bed of Euro-folk and another in a more classic melodic proggy space, this Austin based quintet brings a lot of great ideas to the fore with a snappy and clever songwriting style and an interesting combination of instrumentation. De-facto bandleader and primary composer Mohadev plays guitars, keyboards, banjo, bass, computer and other stuff, pulling together a wide array of compositional ideas that all mesh together well, but still challenge conventional senses.” – Peter Thelen, Expose
This piece started as a drawing / score made by Georgina at home with materials on hand – graphite + red acrylic paint, which Howard interpreted with layered electric bass and bird song. From there, Georgina recorded a response video.
The domestic spaces in each one – a kitchen corner studio, a deck, and a spare room – are porous. Shadows of herbs, houseplants, trees, and whole flowers move across the drawings, while layers of bird song surround the bass notes.
collaboration – process – texture
Raised in Pennsylvania and Nova Scotia, Georgina Lewis is a Boston based artist, writer, and curator. She received her MFA in Sound from Bard College and holds undergraduate degrees from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts and Franklin and Marshall College. She works across media in photography, installation, drawing, text, sound, and sculpture and is interested in forms of interchange and the aberrations and novelties, intentional or not, introduced by the act of correspondence: what happens when one or more things come in contact with each other.
Georgina has been a resident at the Millay Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and VCCA France, as well as a fellow at Harvard University’s metaLAB. Her work has been written about in The Boston Globe, Big Red and Shiny, The Wire, and Afterimage among others. Georgina is one of the studio artists at the Boston Center for the Arts, a former member of the Collision Collective, and a member of Fountain Street Gallery in Boston. Her work has been presented at numerous venues including the Visual Studies Workshop, National University of Ireland, REDCAT in Los Angeles, Boston Cyberarts Gallery, the Mills Gallery, Boston University’s 808 gallery, and Grapefruits Art Space in Portland OR.
Howard Martin is a Massachusetts based librarian and instrumentalist focused on the interactions between sounds and resonant spaces. His playing favors timbre and isolated pitches or clusters in place of melodic or harmonic development. His solo saxophone performances have included free improvisations, graphic and text score interpretations, and engagements with the jazz tradition. He plays in Variant State […] an electro-acoustic improvising unit with some combination of Michael Rosenstein, Jesse Kenas-Collins, and Steve Norton.
Dorothy Fragments (2019) is a collection of ephemera drawn from drag culture, catch phrases, geosocial apps, and Craigslist discussion forums, among others. One thing that strikes me about queer culture is its fragmentary nature. It is highly decentralized, reliant upon coded language and dress, inside jokes, and a relentless parsing of itself into subcultures, sub-subcultures, sub-sub-subcultures, and so on. In this piece, the silly, the heartbreaking, the nonsensical, and the problematic assemble into an incoherent whole, much like queerness itself. The name “Dorothy” in the title refers to the expression “friend of Dorothy,” a coded term for gay men that dates back to at least World War II. – Derek Tywoniuk, composer
“Ah yes, the three genders.” The meme started as a joking response to things like a trio of airport signs labeled “Men,” “Women” and “Telephones,” or an application form whose options are “Male,” “Female” and “Business.” Over time, it was extended to refer to any group of three things. In the case, the three genders are metal, wood and skin — the three materials that pair with the vibraphone in the piece’s three movements. The title is also a playful nod to my and the performers’ queerness. – Alex Temple, composer
Spectrum Ensemble is a new music ensemble championing the work of talented LGBTQ+ artists. Based in Denton, TX, the ensemble commissions and performs new music by Queer composers at different points in their careers. As a young musician coming to terms with their identity, Jaime Esposito felt a distinct lack of LGBTQ+ role models in music. Jaime found that many other Queer musicians felt the same, and after discussing the idea with Stephen Hall – a friend from their undergraduate studies at Northwestern University – they decided to create Spectrum Ensemble together. Still in its infancy, Spectrum Ensemble enjoyed a successful first year: commissioning five new works; presenting its debut concert in Denton TX; going on a tour promoting Queer representation at universities and art series throughout Texas and Oklahoma; and performing at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Spectrum Ensemble has three objectives: commission and perform great music of high caliber; increase representation of Queer artists in the concert music world; support LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations by donation part of concert proceeds.
Relative Dissonance is a project by Danny Kamins, Hsin-Jung Tsai, Aaron Bielish, James Metcalfe, and Thomas Helton.
Danny Kamins is an improvising saxophonist based out of Houston, TX, as well as the director of Jazz Studies at Rice University. He has also been booking shows in th Houston that specialize in experimental/avant-garde music since 2016. Musicians he has performed/recorded with include Vinny Golia, Jeb Bishop, Sandy Ewen, Paulina Owczarek, Damon Smith, Luke Stewart, Thomas Helton, Adam Goodwin, Michal Dymny, Alvin Fielder, Ra Kalam Bob Moses and NewMusic groups Relative Dissonance, Le Train Bleu, Loop 38 and Transitory Sound and Movement Collective.
Danielle Reich is a Houston-based jazz vocalist with an affinity for experimental, avant garde, and new music. After receiving a BA in Music from the University of FL, she moved to Houston, TX. She sang with the Houston Grand Opera Chorus for two seasons before taking time off music for other pursuits. Danielle currently performs new music with Relative Dissonance (Houston) and the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble (New York and Houston). She also performs jazz with Boomtown Brass Band (Houston), Swing Rendezvous (Houston), as well as with ensembles in Austin and Seattle.
Hsin-Jung Tsai, a musician (composer, pianist, and improvisational performer) and a practitioner, studied at CUNY Graduate Center in New York, has had experienced musical and theatrical performances, including a solo composition concert at Carnegie Hall in New York, projects/collaborations for films and theater in Asia and the U.S., and publications of contemporary music and Buddhist chanting. She has also received composition award and grants from Asia American Research Institute in New York and City University of New York Diversity Grant for her compositions. Ms. Tsai served as Composer, Pianist, and Administrator at Houston Composers Salon from 2012 to 2018. She currently serves as a studio-instructor in composition and piano, and as Artist in Residence at The Flamenco Poets Society in Houston, Texas.
Aaron Bielish (viola) is an intermedia artist and musician originally from Calgary, Alberta Canada. He works in a diverse range of media including photography, drawing, digital media, ceramics, and sound. His works have been featured in the United States, Canada and Germany. He is interested in exploring the territory where music and visual art meet.
James Metcalfe is a freelance musician, audio engineer and educator.He has premiered numerous new works with the Music Box Theater,Alley Theatre, Lone Star Theater, and Houston Grand Opera including Jekyll & Hyde, Svengali, American Vaudeville, Monky Business and Salsipuedes. He has performed on sessions for GTE, Shell, Harvie S, Tianna Hall, the Testostertones, The Champion Sisters, Stratus and Deer Mountain Music. Working with a diverse group of artists such as Ed Calle’, Paul English, David Liebman, Josie De Guzman, Richard Brown Orchestra, Linda Eder, Jerry Lightfoot, Houstons First and Joel Olsten Ministries requires James to excel in both acoustic and electronic percussion. He has performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, been published in Percussive Notes, Modern Drummer and has a released a collection of Afro-Cuban Conga drumming transcriptions. In addition he has recently released his first group project “JMR Abstract” an improv percussion trio with guest artistsHe has been work with several world premiere events including Jekyll & Hyde, Svengali, American Vaudville, Monky Business, Salsipuedes and In the Shadows of the Forest.
Houston bassist and composer Thomas Helton is a multifaceted improviser and skilled interpreter of contemporary bass repertoire. Equally adept at playing jazz, classical, experimental and avant-garde music, Helton continues to push and redefine the possibilities of his instrument by embracing extended performance techniques and new compositional forms.Helton has studied with several bass masters, including Eric Late, Dennis Whittaker, Mark Helias, Rufus Reid, Lynn Seaton and William Parker, and performed with such celebrated musicians as Tim Hagans, Milt Jackson, Daniel Carter, Monty Alexander, Frank Gratkowski, Ernie Watts, William Parker, Weasel Walter, Whit Dickey, William Parker, Michael Formanek , Michael Bisio, Tony Malaby and Steve Swell. Helton has composed music for solo bass as well as small and large ensembles, including several pieces for choreographer Michele Brangwen and the experimental dance company Group Acorde.
Early summer “trio” This piece was created during a period of shelter-in-place during which opportunities to make acoustic music in real time with other people dwindled to nothing. Instead of shifting my focus to multitrack recording, I began exploring alternate strategies for multi-instrument acoustic sound. This came in the form of a foot operated free reed organ (shruti box) and the augmentation of one of my existing piano wire instruments (a skiff) with three electromagnets allowing them to “bow” themselves. Thanks to Matt Steinke and the folks at dadageek.com for offering an excellent online class which helped me puzzle through the technical side of this project.
Travis Weller is a composer, performer and instrument builder. He is one of the founders of Austin New Music Co-op, which has been presenting adventurous new music in central Texas for nearly 20 years. His music has been commissioned and performed in Europe and across the US by groups such as Yarn/Wire, Ensemble Pamplemousse, line upon line percussion, Cadillac Moon Quartet, and the Quince Vocal Ensemble. Travis collaborates frequently with a large group of colleagues, both regional and international, and has participated in residencies at Cornell University in Ithaca, STEIM in Amsterdam, and OdysseyWorks in San Francisco. An avid interpreter of new music, Travis has performed a variety of contemporary music from mid-20th century onward and has worked with many internationally known composers including John Butcher, Phill Niblock, Olivia Block, Michael Pisaro, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Ellen Fullman, Tristan Perich, Pauline Oliveros, and Arnold Dreyblatt.
Amy Knoles & David Stout have created a piece called ‘Seres’ (defined as: a natural succession or series of ecological habitats), an analog-digital music performance composed and performed by Amy Knoles and David Stout. In this project the artists explore new possibilities for digitally assisted instrumental networks using acoustic and electronic percussion instruments to trigger and sculpt both image and sound. The work explores a variety of sound generation methods including the direct sonification of the image processes. The sonification methods allow for working in both tonal/atonal and/or textural oriented modes including a wide array of richly layered soundscapes. Using these techniques, the duo acknowledges the cross-pollination of contemporary art music and popular styles that have continue to evolve in the electronic underground over the past 4 decades. In this light, HYDRA can be viewed as a techno-poetic synthesis of one of the most essential musical expressions, where drumming is augmented and transformed through the expanding capacities of multi-sensory digital media.
Amy Knoles, Associate Dean; Larry Levine Chair in Contemporary Music, Faculty of Electronic Percussion at the Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, performs original works throughout the world.
She is a recipient of the ASCAP Foundation “Composer-in-Residence at the Music Center of Los Angeles”, the Meet the Composer “Commissioning Music USA”, the “UNESCO International Prize for the Performing Arts”, the C.O.L.A and has worked with the LA Phil, Kronos Qt., Rachel Rosenthal, Frank Zappa, Pierre Boulez, Morton Subotnick, Robert Henke a.k.a. MonoLake, Ensemble Modern, Flea, Bang On A Can, Ulrich Krieger, Alison Knowles, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Morton Feldman, David Rosenboom, Mauricio Kagel, Vinko Globokar, Louis Andriessen, Lucky Mosko, Charles Wourinen, Arthur Jarvinen, Steve Reich, Tod Machover and many others; has recorded over thirty CDs/Vinyl of new and unusual music.
Her work has been described as being of: “frightening beauty, fascinating, complex” by National Public Radio and she is described as “Los Angeles’ new music Luminary, infinitely variable, infinitely fascinating” by the Los Angeles Times.
David Stout is a visual artist, composer and performer exploring cross-media synthesis and hybrid approaches bridging the arts. He is recognized for works in live cinema, interactive video, electroacoustic music and performances integrating immersive projection as an extension of performer, audience and architecture.
His work with Cory Metcalf examines the aesthetic possibilities for generative systems, artificial life networks and simulation environments. The pair are founders of the interactive media ensemble, NoiseFold, whose installations and performances have been exhibited worldwide, from Casablanca, Morocco to Marfa, Texas. NoiseFold are currently engaged with projects in visual music, data visualization, virtual reality and glassmaking. Stout previously founded the MOV-iN Gallery and the Installation, Performance & Interactivity project (IPI) at the College of Santa Fe, (NM).
He is currently director of the Hybrid Arts Laboratory at the University of North Texas, where he coordinates the Initiative for Advance Research in Technology and the Arts (iARTA) and holds joint positions in Music Composition and Studio Art.
David & Amy‘s performance will be followed by a Q&A facilitated by Mickey Delp.
Mickey Delp is an electrical and computer engineer with expertise in analog and digital circuit design and embedded systems programming. He is the founder and Chief Inventor at Delptronics, a maker of unique electronic musical instruments. He is an instructor at dadageek where he teaches electronics and programming. He is a frequent presenter at Maker Faire, Dorkbot, and Nerd Nite, and co-showrunner at Nerd Nite Austin. Mickey is also an electronic musician who performs solo and with various projects around Austin.
City of Dawn is an ambient project of Damien Duque from McAllen, TX. He creates immersive and atmospheric, melodic, dreamy soundscapes.
Aside from his mind-opening message about the effects of Ambient Music, his art also advocates for people within the Autism Spectrum. For Damien, his music is a way of dealing with occasional Anxiety attacks, Depression, and Insomnia and through it he shares his experience as a person with Asperger’s Syndrome (High Functioning Autism).
‘Réchauffés’ brings together leftover or orphan sound and video files from the computers of Josh Ronsen and Vanessa Gelvin, files in incomplete or abandoned states. What one file lacks, another file may complete. Electro-acoustic renderings of clarinets and cellos are catalyzed with location recordings of doors, frogs and weather systems, and vice versa.
Vanessa Gelvin is a sound artist and sculptor working in glass, stone, and porcelain. Her work primarily draws from her academic background in cultural anthropology, sociology, and media studies. She is a founding member of arts collective Phonography Austin and avant-garde chamber ensemble, Katie & Rachel.
Josh Ronsen — musician, artist, writer — has worked in Austin since 1994. He has recorded and performed in Frequency Curtain, the Gates Ensemble, LSJ and brekekekexkoaxkoax, using guitar, clarinet, piano, organ, analog synthesizer, voice, computer and percussion. His work in performance art has led him to infamously destroy a hundred Pierre Boulez records, blindfold the audience or place hand-mounted speakers (handphones) on their ears, and direct “Stacked Deck,” the 1959 experimental play by Dick Higgins.
