The Collected presents new works for celebrated electric guitar quartet Dither, including world premiers by Brent Miller, Adam Fong and Denise Gilson, and music by Lisa R. Coons from Dither's 2010 album. Each piece focuses on different idiomatic elements of the quartet's sound palette and develops aesthetic concepts from both classical and vernacular repertoires.
Dawn of Midi is a collective made up of Indian contrabassist Aakaash Israni, Pakistani percussionist Qasim Naqvi, and Moroccan pianist Amino Belyamani. Creating a bold face on the notion of idiosyncratic music, Dawn of Midi blends together the sentiments of many musical worlds. In this age of modern improvisation where the distinctions between musical normatives are blurred, DoM’s thematic and timbral approach is reminiscent of many genres bound in one simultaneous moment.
Dither, a New York based electric guitar quartet, is dedicated to an eclectic mix of experimental repertoire, spanning composed music, improvisation, and electronic manipulation. Formed in 2007, the quartet has performed in the United States and abroad, presenting new commissions, original compositions, multimedia works and large guitar ensemble pieces. With sounds ranging from clean pop textures to heavily processed noise, from tight rhythmic unity to cacophonous sound mass, all of Dither's music wholeheartedly embraces the beautiful, engulfing, and often gloriously loud sound of electric guitars. The quartet’s members are Taylor Levine, David Linaburg, Josh Lopes, and James Moore.
Among Dither's recent collaborators include downtown bagpiper Matthew Welch, composers Eve Beglarian and David Lang, and guitarist/composers Bryce Dessner, Nick Didkovsky, Marco Cappelli, Elliott Sharp, and Mark Stewart. In Fall of 2008, the quartet traveled to Hong Kong to premiere an evening-length theatrical work by Samson Young, “Hong Kong Explodes!” funded by the Hong Kong Council for the Arts. Recent performances in New York include the Performa Biennial, The MATA Festival Interval Series, and the Bang on a Can Marathon, at which they gave a monstrous performance of Eric km Clark's exPAT, a Dither commission for hearing-deprived guitar orchestra. Dither’s debut album was released by Henceforth Records in June 2010.
The Collected is a new music collective of performing artists and composers who share a dedication to programming experimental, genre-crossing and noise-based music. With members living on the east coast, the west coast, in the midwest and the southern states, this group programs concerts that attempt to bring together far-flung and aesthetically diverse individuals through collaborative and boundary-defying performances.
Dawn of Midi is a collective made up of Indian contrabassist Aakaash Israni, Pakistani percussionist Qasim Naqvi, and Moroccan pianist Amino Belyamani. Creating a bold face on the notion of ideosyncratic music, Dawn of Midi blends together the sentiments of many musical worlds. In this age of modern improvisation where the distinctions between musical normatives are blurred, DoM’s thematic and timbral approach is reminiscent of many genres bound in one simultaneous moment.
DoM's sound-world is one of effortless juxtaposition; from the harmonic language of Debussy to the clambor and rattle of extended techniques evoking Cage’s piano preperations. In the global art music setting, one can sense a paradigm shift that veers towards an appreciation of timbre, color, and the silences that frame a musical offering. This new sensibility is immediately recognizible within DoM’s language. Dawn of Midi is creating a sound that connects with people who are unfamiliar with improvised music as well as highly adept listeners of more eclectic musical stylings.
After working as a group since 2007, Dawn of Midi released their debut Album First in March of 2010 (Accretions) to unanimous high praise from critics around the world. Within six month's of the album's release, the group's music was featured in Downbeat Magazine, Time Out New York, Point of Departure, New Music Box, The Chicago Reader Critic's Choice List, The Wire (on the bi-annual compilation CD The Wire Tapper) and was named among the top 3 "Best Piano Albums of 2010" by About.com. In the same year, a court-métrage was created for their piece 'A way with words' by French filmmakers Maxime Bruneel and Adèle Miossec. In 2010, DoM has performed concerts in New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama, Kyoto, California, Chicago, The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, and the ISIM Festival at the University of Michigan. In the spring of 2011, Dawn of Midi has been invited to perform at Gasteig in Munich (home of the Munich Philharmonic), Frankfurt, Niederstetten, England, Portugal, and Austria. Dawn of Midi is also in the planning stages of a Large-scale multimedia project, Kashmir.