Duane Pitre
Duane Pitre (originally from New Orleans) is a Brooklyn-based, avant-garde composer and performer. His current works explore both chaos and discipline—and the relationship that exists between the two. Pitre primarily works with long-tones and utilizes alternate tuning schemes that focus on microtonally, enabling him to explore unaccustomed harmonic intervallic relationships.
Composing primarily for acoustic and electro-acoustic instrumentation, Pitre has scored works for large String/Wind Ensembles, String Quintet, his own Bowed Harmonic-Guitar Ensemble, solo performers, among other instrument configurations. In 2008 Pitre started exploring simple electronic sounds and their role in a dualistic relationship with acoustic instruments, as well as utilizing them in his recent “tape” pieces.
Pitre has releases on Important Records, Trome Records, NNA, and Quiet Design, among others. He has appeared on compilations with artists such as Keith Rowe (AMM), Sir Richard Bishop, Tetuzi Akiyama, Jandek, Sebastien Roux, and Thierry Muller/Ilitch. He recently curated and contributed a track to an upcoming Just Intonation compilation (Important Records), alongside Pauline Oliveros, Ellen Fullman, Michael Harrison, Greg Davis, Charles Curtis, and others.
Pitre has presented his works in NYC at such spaces as Roulette, The Stone, Phillips de Pury & Co., St. Marks Church, The Knitting Factory, and ISSUE Project Room (where he will be Artist in Resident for spring 2009). He has also performed in other cities across the U.S., as well as in Europe at Les Voûtes (Paris), St. Giles-in-the-Fields Church (London), and in Bristol, U.K.
In 2009, Pitre is planning more performances (national and abroad), a variety of releases, recording sessions, new works, and further exploration of electronic sound material.
Tristan Perich
In all of his creative activities, Perich is inspired by the aesthetics of math and physics, and works with simple forms and complex systems. The challenge of elegance provokes his compositions for solo instruments, small ensemble and orchestra. As a visual artist, he works primarily with machines to create pen-on-paper drawings that explore the limits of traditional drawing through randomness and order.
In 2004 he began work on 1-Bit Music, combining his music with primitive, hand-programmed electronics that investigate the foundations of digital sound. The Village Voice, BOMB Magazine, BPM Magazine, Res Magazine, Wired News, Cool Hunting and Spin Magazine covered the release, which has also been featured on television. Surface Magazine called the boxes “profound throwbacks to the traditional album, a response to the intangibility of iTunes and mp3s in the form hand-held artwork.”
Perich’s compositions have been performed by ensembles including Bang on a Can (2008 People’s Commissioning Fund), counter)induction, Calder Quartet, New York Miniaturist Ensemble, Due East, Y Trio and Ensemble Pamplemousse at venues including the Whitney Museum, P.S.1 and Mass MoCA. His recent activities include electroacoustic pieces for 1-Bit Music with instrumental accompaniment. His experimental electronic music group, the Loud Objects, has performed in Germany, Japan, Italy (Screen Music 2), Norway (Piksel), England (Evolution) and the USA (including at the NIME festival). He has spoken twice at Dorkbot. Perich studied math, music and computer science at Columbia University after attending Philips Academy, Andover. More recently, he studied art, music and electronics at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at Tisch School of the Arts, NYU.