Emil de Wall & Erik Sanko, Andy Green, Bruce Tovsky, CHIKA and Kato Hideki + Mikkel Hess

Sun 03 May, 2009, 8pm
Old American Can Factory

Play- and joyful freeform acoustic/electronic music by Dane, Emil de Waal and the great artists of the evening.

Accompanying artists will make improvised music interplaying with Emil and his pre-recorded material, a.o. adding improvisations and backing to the preliminary (live) recordings from his laptop.

Emil de Waal on drums, percussion, electronics and laptop is one of the most heavily engaged drummers in Danish music, and has toured internationally and appeared on 150 releases since his debut in 1986. Emil de Waal is also known as a band-leader, programmer, composer and arranger. Since 2004, Emil de Waal+ has released two albums with his “Emil de Waal+” project that have been appraised by reviewers a.o. in British “The Wire”. Emil de Waal+ has toured in China, US, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark with diverse guests such as Wayne Horvitz, Danny Frankel, Erik Sanko, Bruce Tovsky, Andy Green and Yan Jun.
myspace.com/emildewaal
Emildewaal.com

Multi-instrumentalist Erik Sanko is the leading light in the much admired Skeleton Key and was an original member of John Lurie’s Lounge Lizards. He also helps out such luminaries as Yoko Ono and John Cale from time to time.

Guitarist and technician Andy Green is known for his work with John Cale & The Velvet Underground, among others.

Bruce Tovsky is a visual/sound artist, who began painting at the age of 7 and started playing with tape recorders at the age of 10. Ever since then he has been figuring out ways of putting sound and pictures together. For the past several years he has been creating live video and sound improvisations, often in collaboration with artists such as John Hudak, David Linton, Kim Cascone and Michael Schumacher in a variety of spaces around New York City, such as Diapason, Experimental Intermedia, Issue Project Room, Tonic, and his own installation space 106BLDG30 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His audio/video duo with video artist Shimpei Takeda has been appearing in planetariums, rural arts festivals and galleries around New York.

Kato Hideki (Kato:family name; Hideki: given) is a Japanese-born composer/bassist/multi-instrumentalist, who lives in NYC. He is the co-founder of Death Ambient with Ikue Mori & Fred Frith. His other groups as a leader are: Green Zone with Otomo Yoshihide & Uemura Masahiro; OMNI wtih Nakamura Toshimaru & Akiyama Tetsuji. His compositions include: solo bass piece Turbulent Zone, Mystic Ship of Life, (commissioned by the Kitchen, NYC) and Tremolo of Joy for his quartet with Charles Burnham, Briggan Krauss & Calvin Weston. Besides his own projects, Kato collaborates with Nicolas Collins and James Fei. He is also a member of analog synthesizer collective, Analogos. (http://www.katohideki.com/)

CHiKA is a live media artist working in the international VJ and experimental music scene. Her performances vary from minimalist geometric patterns to unique compositions overflowing with a variety of forms and color.

She has performed at THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, THE HAMMER MUSEUM, MUTEK, THE MAPPING FESTIVAL,DECIBEL FESTIVAL, Platform Bohenstrasses, THÉ TRE MAISONNEUVE, ASIA CONTEMPORARY WEEK, SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE, REMIX HOTEL MIAMI, Eyebeam, Monkeytown, THE ISSUE PROJECT, GALAPAGOS ART SPACE, Tonic, EYEWASH as well as private parties, festivals, events, galleries and nightclubs.

She is recently resident vj at monthly event at “THE FUTURE IS BEAUTIFUL” Her work was featured CLUB CHROMA on JOOST and EYEWASH 3 DVD by FORWARD MOTION THEATER AND IS SUPPORTED BY MODUL8, KORG,EXPERIMENTAL TELEVISION CENTER and FORWARD MOTION THEATER.

Mikkel Hess
“If you think of a piece of music as a rubber band - I like to try and stretch it. Let’s say melancholy in one end, and humor in the other, and see how far you can take it. Bringing oppositions together. “ Welcome to the playful world of New York-based Mikkel Hess aka HESS IS MORE.

Originally from Denmark, HESS IS MORE is something like the Danish answer to both Jon Brion and The Flight of The Conchords. Like Brion, Hess is a skillful singer, songwriter, composer with the virtuosic ability to play multiple instruments and a eclectic sense of instrumentation that encompasses rock, Jazz and experimental electronica. And like Brion, Hess doesn’t let his natural tendencies for eclecticism sink his ship but uses them to craft a distinct sound all his own firmly grounded in the art of proper song form. Unsurprisingly, also like Brion, Hess has got vast experience in both multimedia and film work. In his native Denmark Hess is a well known name with MTV and itunes chart topping success alongside work with the likes of the Danish Royal Theatre, National Danish TV, the Danish Film Academy as well as collaborations with Danish celebrities like Saatchi Gallery represented modern artist Tal R and hyped fashion designer Henrik Vibskov. Like The Flight of The Conchords duo, Hess has a unique distinctly very poppy Steve Martin style sense of humor that is very appealing and inviting even though it’s often filtered through quite a dark almost Lars von Trier outlook.

Unsurprisingly Mikkel’s first musical memory is banging the Cookie jars with wooden spoons in the kitchen around 3 or 4 years old. It’s something he continued to do in a more refined manner getting his first drum kit at 7 years old and then later taking up conservatory training and becoming a student of Denmark-based, Chicago-born Jazz drummer Ed Thigpen.