Tombstones, composer Michael Pisaro's foray into experimental-pop, reconstitutes traces and fragments of the voice, finds it slipping down the inexorable mountain-slope of tones in "New Orleans", or bearing mute witness to the dark octaves that loom over Julia Holter's delicate vocals on "Silent Cloud". Concomitantly with its official release Jason Brogan will lead an ensemble of musicians from Los Angeles, New York City, and Charleston in a performance of selections from Michael Pisaro's Tombstones.
Julia Holter is a Los Angeles-based musician interested in translation—the continual exchange of a universal voice. Her recordings consist of instrumental sounds and sung text, as much brand new as they are borrowed from work anywhere (Burma or Paris, Saturn) and anytime (Middle Ages, ancient Greece, the future). She teaches music and is a frequent performer of experimental music—her own as well as others’—in the Los Angeles area and beyond.
Jason Brogan resides in Brooklyn, New York, and works with musical and non-musical material. His work has been performed and recorded by the Dog Star Orchestra, Edges Ensemble, Incidental Music, New Music Collective, S.E.M. Ensemble, Set Ensemble, and the Wandelweiser Ensemble. He curated the series Silent Music: 4'33'' and Beyond, and the conspectus, Michael Pisaro: 2000 - 2010. He has performed music by Antoine Beuger, Catherine Lamb, Alvin Lucier, Michael Pisaro, Larry Polansky, James Saunders, Mark So, Taku Sugimoto, James Tenney, and Manfred Werder, among others.
Michael Pisaro (born 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is a guitarist and composer. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, he has composed over 80 works for a great variety of instrumental combinations, including several pieces for variable instrumentation. Most of his music of the last several years is published by Edition Wandelweiser (Germany). Two CDs of his work have been released by Edition Wandelweiser Records. He has performed many of his own works and those of close associates Antoine Beuger, Kunsu Shim, Jürg Frey and Manfred Werder, as well as works from the experimental tradition, especially John Cage, Christian Wolff, Robert Ashley and George Brecht.