Author: COTFG Assistant

Atlas Maior creates original music that combines elements of Progressive Jazz, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and Indian music traditions. Their set in NMASS2019 is based off concepts they employed when making their 2014 album, Palindrome, exploring different methods of improvisation and cosmologies of sound. Many of these exercises utilized themes of symmetries in sound through different instrumental arrangements. The players will be Joshua Thomson (alto saxophone, flutes), Jonathan Horne (guitar), Josh Peters (oud), Gary Calhoun James (bass), and Aaron Parks (drums).

JAWWAAD is a trumpeter, composer, producer, educator, and hip hop artist. He is a founding member of the group, Shape of Broad Minds, whose critically acclaimed album, “Craft of the Lost Ark,” brought him international attention. The album featured MF Doom.  JAWWAAD has long been committed to being engaged and socially active, and infuses politics, history, and literature into his music. These things turn his work into an exploration of culture and humanity. JAWWAAD has performed with jazz, free jazz and improvisors, as well as hip hop artists, from around the world.  His appetite for all things music is apparent. As co-founder and producer of the band, The Young Mothers, he merges modern jazz, improvisation, hip hop, indie rock and caterwauling afro-grooves.

A trombone player, composer, improviser, and educator, David Dove has given performances and workshops across North America and internationally. As Founding Director of Nameless Sound (a non-profit organization in Houston, Texas), he curates/presents a concert series of international contemporary creative music, and has developed an approach, philosophy and practice of creative music education based on creativity and improvisation.

Jawwaad and Dave’s set at the 2019 COTFG New Media Art & Sound Summit is co-sponsored by Sonic Transmissions Festival.

Eschewing the collection of traditional titles that describe single elements of her body of work, Elizabeth refers to herself as a “New Renaissance Artist” that embraces a constant stream of change and rebirth in practice, which expands into a variety of media, chiefly an exploration of how sonic and spatial worlds can be manipulated to personify a variety of philosophies and principles both tangible as well as intangible.

Elizabeth has received recognition from press as well as scholars, for her conceptual compositions and commitment to inclusive programming. In addition to studies of her work, Elizabeth has been awarded several fellowships, grants, and residencies, in addition to sponsorships from Schoenhut Piano Company and Source Audio LLC. As an experimental filmmaker, her work has been shown at festivals including Women of the Lens (United Kingdom), and the African Smartphone International Film Festival (Nigeria). As a solo recording artist, Elizabeth is represented by Aerocade Music, her first solo album on the California-based label Quadrivium released worldwide in May 2018 to rave reviews. She is founder of the Florida International Toy Piano Festival, The New Music Conflagration, Inc., author of three books, and the subject of a number of scholarly articles, thesis papers, and other academic research. In March 2018, Elizabeth retired from nonprofit arts administration to focus on her international solo career, though she remains committed to the community through workshops and public speaking engagements. 

Quadrivium B-Side in performance takes the form of structured electronic improvisation unfolding as a programmatic journey of the flux between the modern post-ontological world where a secondary self and dual reality exists by means of a persistent silent web presence, and the world of antiquity where we had only one being that was largely defined by our experiences in on the physical plane of reality.

For a portion of Elizabeth A. Baker‘s performance during NMASS 2019 she will be joined by Austin based performers Samuel Friedland, Iris Sidikman, Laura Brackney and Sonya Gonzales. A visual component to the set will be provided by Bahareh Khoshooee.

JA$$IE lives and works in the District of Columbia. Originally, from Laredo, Texas, a border city to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico—the wave of the Rio Grande, a bank for migratory birds, and the duality of two cultures/economies/languages has been a major wealth of inspiration that informs her music, drawings and research as she continually finds new ways to draw and remix samples and textures inspired from the brown mud of the river.

JA$$IE’s artistic practice in grounded in light & sound and the ways it articulates space. By applying a conceptual and theoretical framework her practice crosses wires, disciplines and borders to extend, fold, and push drawing, sculpture and music—questions of composition, physicality of form, and the ephemeral and immaterial as material to generate work that draws attention to what lies at the edge of perceptibility— placing the work and audience at the bank and in a new relationship.

She problematizes the industry of music with respect to various forms of recording: sampling, notation, code, mixing, performance, genre, improvisation/chance as a system, and she measures this information, takes it out of context in which they are normally seen and/or heard, and reshapes and represents them anew.

Her work oscillates between states of representation and fragmentation, acoustic and electronic, object and process and takes the form of site-specific, interactive installations, drawings, collage, photography, video, music, performance, research, writing and works for internet and paper.

She earned a Master in Audio Technology from American University in 2018 with a concentration in Computer Music, a Master in Studio Art with a focus on Interdisciplinary Drawing and Critical Theory in 2011 from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and a Bachelor
of Fine Arts in Studio Painting from Texas State University. JA$$IE won second place in the 2018 Guthman New Musical Instrument Design Competition, with her instrument gramFX— making her the first woman to compete and win Georgia Tech’s prestigious award. Jassie’s exhibited her work in the 2016 Pure Data Conference at Stevens Institute for Technology in NJ and at the Reinstitute at Guest Spot in Baltimore. She has performed at ShapeShifter Lab in Gowanus, NY and Wave Farm in Acra, NY. JA$$IE was an artist in residence at Signal Culture in Owego, NY and her poems are archived in Ditch, a International magazine for contemporary
poetry.

Jassie will be utilizing GramFX in her performance. GramFX is an augmented gramophone that utilizes an open air gesture control scheme for control over processing of acoustic and electronic sound. I’m interested in old and new recording/playback technologies and making something new.

GramFX consists of a gramophone, a leap motion camera, 78 rpm records, a steel needle and a patch made from scratch in Pd Vanilla. Using one to many mapping strategies, effects parameters are mapped to Palm position and both raw independent coordinates and relative coordinate data. Three fingers map FX parameters, which activate effects and techniques that are borrowed/inspired by “Dj’s” from various time periods, such as: Hindemith, Pierre Schaeffer, John Cage, DJ Kool Herec, Grand Master Flash, Daphne Oram, and Suzanne Ciani. Additional synthesis is generated based on real-time audio analysis of the acoustic gramophone output.

In all, GramFX is capable of granular synthesis, pitch shifting, variable playback speeds, and phase-vocoded streams of stretched audio. It can be played by physically locking the needle in a groove and by activating the DRFX chain with hand gesture controls and zones.

A.R. Abbauen is the solo project of Austin, Texas artist Michael Cockrell. Under this moniker, Cockrell utilizes four track cassette players and effects to create plunderphonics focused compositions. Built of pitch-warped repetition and thoughtfully layered melodies, each piece results in the disclosure of a space, or environment. Fixed loops come in and out of play in various forms, coalesce and eventually suspend the listener within a room of aural objects awaiting examination. Other undertakings of Michael’s include being an active member of Industrial Post-Punk group, Deep Cross, operating the limited run cassette label Somatic and releasing material under the name Jezzebeam. Visual accompaniment for A.R. Abbauen’s 2019 NMASS performance will be executed by Victor Enriquez(Drip//Cuts).

In 2017, diplomats from the United States in Cuba experienced an attack with a sonic weapon described by one as “an invisible wall cutting straight through his room.” Immediate effects ¹ included pain and disorientation. Longer­term effects included mild brain injury, with symptoms including cognitive impairment and memory issues.

The immediate reaction from the science community was inconclusive; the effects didn’t match what we know about sonic weapons . At this point most researchers believe that the weapon ² was most likely microwave radiation modulated by ultrasonic sound . ³

Since early 2018, we have been experimenting with reproducing this sonic effect at an intensity that is low enough to avoid the short­term or long­term effects, and merely lets you appreciate the brilliant weirdness of ultrasonic sound.

For the 2019 New Media Art and Sound Summit we would like to present the results of our experiments as a safe sound and light installation, in which the audience is able to voluntarily confront an attack on the senses.

About Thomas Bey William Bailey

Thomas Bey William Bailey is a psycho­acoustic sound artist, researcher and writer on saturation culture. Working with a number of different communications media, TBWB’s body of work investigates and interrogates notions of utopia, anthropocentrism, and “the extreme”; refusing to reject any unpopular cultural manifestation as invalid until its more nuanced aspects have been brought to light.

A restlessly ‘transitional’ and uncategorizable artist, TBWB has performed, recorded, and taught in several distinct global regions, sharing with others the joys of chaos and of the valuation of creative process over end product.

About Alex Keller

Alex Keller is an audio artist, sound designer, curator and teacher based in Austin, Texas. His work is in the media of performance, installation, and recorded release, and reflects his interests in architecture, language, abstraction and music.

He is an active audio production professional, has taught classes in media production at the Art Institute of Austin, Shoreline College, and the Art Institute of Seattle, and has won awards for his creative work from the Austin Chronicle, the City of Seattle, Puget Sound Transit, and Jack Straw Productions.

Alex received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995 and an MLA from St. Edward’s University in 2005. He is a founding member of Phonography Austin and the Mimeomeme collective.

1 _{https://apnews.com/697536f065e6470eaa5ccfc35061e7ce}
2 _{https://apnews.com/697536f065e6470eaa5ccfc35061e7ce}
3 _{https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/01/science/sonic­attack­cuba­microwave.html}

Bitches Set Traps (or BST) started as a group in 2018 inspired by the Feminist Improvising Group, which was a 5-8 person ensemble founded in 1977 by Scottish vocalist Maggie Nicols and English bassoonist-composer Lindsay Cooper.  They were the first ensemble of female improvisers who performed publicly. Their initial intent was apolitical, the group developed an interest in exploring social commentary and political parody and farce, and in challenging taboos on-stage.  

Elizabeth McNutt, flutist, specializes in contemporary music, and has premiered hundreds of new compositions. She directs Sounds Modern as well as the University of North Texas new music ensemble, Nova. www.elizabethmcnutt.net; www.soundsmodern.org.

Jolene Masone is a unique artist specializing in Contemporary and Experimental music for bassoon. https://exmusens.com/home

Kourtney Newton is a professional cellist based in Denton, TX who specializes in contemporary and experimental music; she especially enjoys playing electroacoustic music as well as improvisation as a soloist or in an ensemble.  https://amorsima.com/

Sarah Ruth is a diverse musician and artist – a multi-instrumentalist, she employs hammered dulcimer, harmonium, electroacoustic sound art, and extended vocal techniques. https://www.sarahruthalexander.com/

Article From Theater Jones, http://www.theaterjones.com/ntx/reviews/20190120105431/2019-01-20/Sounds-Modern/Broken-Dolls

BST  “…used unconventional “instruments” such as kitchen bowls, a coffee grinder, hair dryers, and assorted other implements of traditional femininity. Both the written piece and the improvisatory one raise questions about gender roles and expectations. (Can a person play the cello and vacuum at the same time? Yes, apparently, cellist Kourtney [Newton] can. But can she do them simultaneously and well? Not really, unless all you want to hear are open strings—perhaps reinforcing that we can do it all, sure, but maybe not all at once.)”

Emily Beanblossom is an artist and musician from Chicago Illinois.  Her live performances are structured around minimalist compositions using both analog and digital tools, including tape loops, live feedback, voice, and digital synthesis.  She is pursuing an MFA in Sound Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, studying composition processes (or methods/systems) for music and sound.  Rooted in DIY music culture, Beanblossom strives to make a lot with only a little.