In addition to his composing and performance, Sharp has also been an instrument builder, inventor and conceptualist. In 2002, he began a collaboration with luthier Saul Koll to create an electroacoustic 8-string guitarbass which was completed in 2005. Since then, E# has been performing on the instrument, exploring its sounds and potentials. He has composed a suite of pieces, OCTAL (which was released on CD by the Clean Feed label based in Lisbon), that fully melds his huge personal vocabulary of extended techniques and unique compositional and improvisational strategies to the possibilities of this beautifully sculptured guitar.
“Octal is, in large part, a more percussive affair, excepting the second track, which is another exercise in multivalent Ebow-driven drone. For the manic percussion that Sharp executes so well, just check out the astonishing “Antitop and Charm”; it roils and bubbles with precision and muscular grace. The pieces are fairly brief and it is as if Sharp’s imagination is in overdrive in each oneŠ so many and disparate are the ideas that pack each moment.”
- All About Jazz
9pm
Orchestra Carbon performs Elliott Sharp’s SyndaKit
Composed in 1998 for E#’s ensemble Orchestra Carbon, SyndaKit utilizes a collection of biological metaphors to create an ever-shifting rhythmic and timbral matrix. Improvisatory and algorithmic but not improvisation, SyndaKit’s essence is a transformative organism consisting of 144 composed Cores on 12 sheets divided among the 12 players with a set of simple rules for their use through processes of imitation, addition, recombination, transposition, and mutation. These actions are based on the activities of flocking birds, African drum choirs, cellular automata, hunting packs, and recombinant amino acids.
The musicians include Reut Regev-trombone, Catherine Sikora-saxophone, Rachel Golub-violin, Judith Insell-viola, Ha-Yang Kim-cello, Kevin Ray-bass, Reuben Radding-bass, Marc Sloan-bass, Jenny Lin-piano, Danny Tunick-percussion, Sim Cain-drums
The CD of SyndaKit performed by E#’s Orchestra Carbon, long out-of-print, has now been reissued by the German label Neos and is available at Downtown Music Gallery.
http://www.downtownmusicgallery.com/Main/index.htm
Concert begins at 8:00pm, $15
The (OA) Can Factory
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11215
see http://www.issueprojectroom.org for more info and directions