ELASTIC SONGcycle
Paul Steven Ray – electric guitar, laptop, moog, embedded vocals
Ha-Yang Kim – cello, electronics
Eli Fountain - percussion
ELASTIC SONGcycle takes the simplicity of song and storytelling to refocus the textural sonic excursions that have colored my work over the years. The embedded text carries the performers and hopefully, the listeners to a place that straddles the supercharged ritual atmospheres of improvisation and the stripped down directness of the blues and Americana forms.
Paul Steven Ray has been composing and performing various mutations of electronic-ritual music for over 20 years. He arrived in NYC in 1981 and has been heard in experimental venues such as The Knitting Factory and TONIC and festivals such as the Noise Festival at the Ontological Theater, the International Electro-Acoustic Festival, Cosmoson, Ivy Salon Paris, CERF Festival , New York Jazz Festival and the NORTH RIVER MUSIC SERIES. He has collaborated with such artists as Theresa Rosas, Bora Yoon, Vernon Reid, Oblaat, Val- Inc. Pheeroan Ak Laff, Nate Wooley, Cyro Baptista, Yuko Fujiyama, Val-Inc., Eli Fontaine, Julian Thayer and Susie Ibarra. His compositions for other media include work created for Laura Staton Dance (Judson Movement Research Series) and the score for Sikay Tang’s Phrases/s Lesson #5 . In recent years, Ray has taken up the camera to create multimedia work and video art such as Lotus B.’s Haiku Dream for 4 channel video and live music. In 2006, Paul Steven Ray and Theresa Rosas formed the experimental duet, Aquiaconverse which is now based in Berlin as well as Brooklyn. His experimental opera, Sally Distance, for Soprano, electric guitar, laptop, live electronics, and video was premiered in 2007 at Galapagos Arts Space and featured Bora Yoon. His listener activated sound environments are outdoor installations designed for an ultra-sensitive sonic experience for the “listener-performer”. He received the 2004 John Cage award for experimental composition. He is curator of the experimental concert series, PSYCHELOUNGE.
www.paulstevenray.com
http://myspace.com/aquiaconverse
http://myspace.com/sallydistance