In conjunction with Erstwhile Records, Fridman Gallery and Shared Shapes, ISSUE Project Room presents AMPLIFY 2015: exploratory. Spanning three evenings Oct 30-Nov 1, the ninth edition of this international series features three duo combinations each night. The final night of the festival features horn improvisor and composer Anne Guthrie with Austin-based Composer/violist Vanessa Rossetto in their first collaboration. The prolific Tokyo-based composer Taku Unami performs with object-oriented sound artist Devin DiSanto, also a first-time duo. Kevin Drumm and Jason Lescalleet combine their expansive electronic sounds in what is sure to be an epic closing performance.
Anne Guthrie is an acoustician, composer, and French horn player living in Brooklyn, NY. She studied music composition and English at the University of Iowa and architectural acoustics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she recently completed her Ph.D. Her music combines her knowledge of acoustics and contemporary composition/improvisation. Her electronic music has focused on exploiting the natural acoustic phenomena of unique architectural spaces through minimal processing of field recordings. Her composition has focused on the orchestration of non-musical sounds, speech in particular. Her French horn playing has focused on electronic processing and extended techniques used in improvisatory settings, as a soloist and with Fraufraulein and Delicate Sen, among others. Her acoustics research has focused on the use of ambisonics for stage acoustics.
Vanessa Rossetto is a composer working primarily with found sound. Since 2008, she has released work on various labels including Kye, Another Timbre, and ErstAEU as well as her own Music Appreciation imprint. She was consistently on the honor roll in grade school.
Taku Unami: Performer of multi-instrumental, improvised, or unclassifiable (non-)music. Composer of film scores for directors including Isao Okishima and Takeshi Furusawa. Founder of hibari music, an experimental music record label and distributor. Work influenced by cosmic-pessimism, science-fiction, supernatural-horror, and weird-fiction. Proficient in string instruments, piano, synthesizers, recording hardware and software, and “obfuscated everyday, non-musical objects”. Collaborators include Evan Calder Williams, Rhodri Davies, Masafumi Ezaki, Klaus Filip, Jean-Luc Guionnet, Kazushige Kinoshita, Radu Malfatti, Masahiko Okura, Keith Rowe, Eugene Thacker, Nikos Veliotis, Taku Sugimoto … Recorded or mastered numerous records for labels such as Erstwhile Records, skiti, slub music … Published more than 30 solo or collaborative records and performed in Asia, Europe, Middle East, and United States.
Devin DiSanto is a NY-based artist currently focusing on task-oriented approaches to performance. This work revolves primarily around functional uses of common/everyday objects in both solo and group situations in order to emphasize the presence and impact of incidental sound. The objects and recordings he creates are an extension or reinterpretation of these performances.
Kevin Drumm (b. 1970) is an experimental musician based in Chicago, United States. His work is best regarded within the context of electronic music with strong connections to electroacoustic music. From early participation as a prepared guitar player in Chicago’s experimental scene, Drumm has developed an unorthodox and expansive recorded oeuvre including numerous and noted collaborations with RLW (Ralf Wehowsky), Daniel Menche, Axel Dörner, Lasse Marhaug, Taku Sugimoto, Prurient, Leif Elggren and Mats Gustaffson, among others. He is a formidable and consummate live performer, presently tending to use cheap test equipment and computers.
Since establishing himself as a preeminent voice in contemporary electro-acoustic study, Jason Lescalleet has, through his solo work and in collaboration, exploded the notion of what is possible within the realm of tape-based music. His recorded catalog acknowledges a diversity of application, from lo-fi reel-to-reel soundscaping and work for hand-held cassette machines, on through to digital sampling and computer generated composition. Lescalleet's live actions further expand his ouevre to include work with video, dance, performance art and multi-media concerns.
