Tim Barnes & Mattin - New York premier
Both Mattin and Tim Barnes' sound work deals with contrast. This is Mattin's first visit to the United States.
A Basque Country native, Mattin (computer) works with an electronic instrument; however, he investigates the acoustic properties of his computer by generating feedback that is often instigated by actually bowing the computer itself. During the past three years, local percussionist and composer, Tim Barnes (percussion) has worked strictly with acoustic instruments, but searches for a sound field where acoustically generated sounds take on electronic-sounding qualities. Separately their explorations and performances bring a kind of fragility to improvisation, yet their approach to sound is effused with intensity. Mattin has spent a good part of the last two years touring throughout Europe, playing with such artists as Eddie Prevost, Radu Malfatti, Kaffe Matthews, Dieb 13, Mark Wastell, and Rhodri Davies (to name a few). His sound work has also been exhibited in Ireland, England and in Spain.
Tim Barnes runs the record label Quakebasket, which has released archival recordings of Angus MacLise and Christopher Tree, while also supporting new artists such as Glenn Kotche, Minamo, Michael Schumacher, Marina Rosenfeld, and Toshio Kajiwara. As a performer, Tim has played with such visionaries as Ikue Mori, Jim O'Rourke, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Sean Meehan and John Zorn.
Margarida Garcia & Barry Weisblat
In the short time these tow have publicly displayed their musical aesthetics, both Barry (homemade electronics) and Margarida (double bass) have each collaborated with an impressive collection of experimental artists, such as Tower Recordings, Oren Ambarchi, Tetuzi Akiyama, Ruth Barberan, Toshio Kajiwara, and Phil Niblock.
Weisblat's machine and circuit manipulations also reach into the area of photography and sound engineering, where he has aided the like of the late Peter Kowald, Erstwhile Records, and sound artist Dean Roberts. While Garcia's graphic design work has been displayed as video art, installations, and poster art. As a duo, Margarida and Barry have developed a spontaneos language and a dynamic range that is all their own. She journeys through the landscape of the bass electronic pick-up with her fingers, bow, sticks and stones, and anything else she finds fit, while he experiments with electro-magnetic devices, homemade circuits, and solar cell technology.
David Daniell & James Elliott
David Daniell (pedal steel guitar) and James Elliott (laptop) have worked both as an improvising duo and (under the Project Qua Project moniker) creating intricately composed electronic music. Daniell and Elliott are the co-founders of Antiopic, a New York record label focusing on experimental electronic and electroacoustic music which has produced several albums (including Daniell's solo debut) as well as the criticallly-acclaimed collection of polically-charged MP3 releases, the Allegorical Power Series. Daniell, a member of San Agustin (releases on Road Cone, Family Vinyard, and Table of the Elements) has performed extensively on the guitar for over 10 years moving recently to exploring the detournement of the pedal steel guitar. Elliott also produces dense, abstractly melodic computer-music as Ateleia. In this pairing the two create a tightly-conjoined melding of an unconventional approach to a traditional instrument with innovative real-time computer processing.