Terry Riley’s In C w/ Dustin Wong, Booker Stardrum, HOCKET, Mildred, Madeline Falcone, and Battery
February 7, 2019
8:00 pm
Art Share L.A.
Equal Sound’s First Thursdays series at Art Share kicks off with a rock-flavored performance of Terry Riley’s masterpiece In C featuring Dustin Wong, Booker Stardrum, Mildred, HOCKET, Battery, and Madeline Falcone.
LA-based piano duo HOCKET tie Riley’s work to the music it influenced with pieces by Tristan Perich, Aphex Twin, Sarah Gibson, and Andy Akiho. Electronic math rock percussion project Battery joins the bill for a solo set.
Beer provided by Solarc Brewing.
Program
BATTERYAndy AKIHO: Karakurenai
APHEX TWIN: Avril 14th
Sarah GIBSON: our eyes once watered
APHEX TWIN: Nanou2
Tristan PERICH: Duet
Terry RILEY: In C
Artists
Dustin Wong
From the opening notes of Mediation of Ecstatic Energy, it is clear that Dustin Wong has bested even himself in expanding the capacity of what can be done with a few pedals and a guitar. The album is the conclusion of a trilogy that began with 2010’s Infinite Love and continued with last year’s Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads, each record created by Dustin in solitude with ten fingers, two feet, and his endless imagination. Mediation shows Dustin complicating his already complex arrangements for guitar, voice, and loops, expanding not only his timbral palate, but also exploring new rhythmic intricacies. This is his first record since moving back to Japan (where he spent his childhood), and follows Toropical Circle, a collaborative release with Japanese singer Takako Minekawa, which was released on vinyl on Thrill Jockey in July.
thrilljockey.com/artists/dustin-wong
Booker Stardrum
Booker Stardrum is a Los Angeles based performer-composer. His recent compositions are sculptural, involving the dense layering of instruments, a focus on pan-tonality and an intuitive approach to rhythm. Booker’s sophomore solo release ‘Temporary etc.’ (NNA, 2018) is a highly personal amalgamation of electro-acoustics, minimalism, ambient, jazz, and contemporary experimental electronic music.
Using integrative sampler technology, Booker’s newest live solo set seamlessly synthesizes acoustic and electronic sounds, combining drums, cymbals, and bells with deconstructed and reimagined recorded samples of horn instruments, vocals, synthesizers, and other collected sonic ephemera.
Aside from his solo practice, Booker has dedicated himself to the art of percussion across multiple platforms, having recorded and performed with rock-based groups like Cloud Becomes Your Hand, Landlady, Lee Ranaldo, and Weyes Blood, in addition to more experimental and free improvisation collaborations with Nels Cline, VaVatican, and many more.
Booker has toured in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America and has performed at such festivals as Meltdown (U.K.), Brighton (U.K), Rewire (NL), Le Guess Who (NL), Festival Bo:m (ROK), and Ecstatic Music (US). His discography includes solo and collaborative releases on independent labels such as NNA Tapes, Northern Spy Records, Mexican Summer, Saddle Creek, Prom Night Records and Home Tapes.
HOCKET
HOCKET is a cutting edge piano duo based in Los Angeles. Lauded as “brilliant” by Mark Swed in the Los Angeles Times and as an "adventurous young ensemble" by The New Yorker, members Sarah Gibson and Thomas Kotcheff are both pianist-composers dedicated to commissioning and performing contemporary music. They have performed in some of the most exciting festivals and venues across the country including The Bang on Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, MATA Festival in New York City, The Center for New Music in San Francisco, and the Carlsbad Music Festival. Together, they have premiered over one hundred chamber and solo works and have collaborated with the premier, new music ensembles Eighth Blackbird and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. HOCKET has received grants from the Presser Foundation and The Earle Brown Music Foundation and has been a selected artist in Firebird Ensemble's Outstanding Young Artists Initiative. HOCKET is a performing artist on the Schoenhut Piano Company Artist Roster.
Battery
Jacob Richards is a Los Angeles-based drummer, composer, educator, and creative coder who specializes in building new systems for performance that prioritize improvisation. He leverages technologies such as virtual reality, trigger electronics, and live coding to explore computationally mediated improvisation. Jacob's solo drums and electronics project BATTERY premiered at the CalArts Digital Arts Expo in 2016, and he continues to maintain an extensive performance and touring schedule with the project. He was interviewed in January 2017 by Bandcamp for his work as BATTERY. He recently published a 360 VR music video app on the iOS and Android mobile platforms for songwriter Craig Wedren, titled Adult Desire 360. His virtual reality experience "When Ball Pit Is Life", which involves interactively improvising with microtonal spheres (á la Harry Partch's diamond marimba) in a physics-based environment, won the Ableton Prize at the 2017 CalArts Digital Arts Expo. Jacob’s drumming is also featured on NBC’s hit series New Amsterdam (clip here), as well as David Binney’s 2018 album, Here & Now. Jacob has performed with Steve Lehman, Drew Gress, David Binney, Tia Fuller, Myra Melford, Vinny Golia, and many more, and has toured extensively in the US and abroad. He holds an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in Jazz Studies, where he studied with Joe LaBarbera. He also studied at New England Conservatory with Billy Hart and Bob Moses. Previously, he earned a BA in Applied Mathematics and Music from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied composition with Myra Melford.
Mildred
Mildred was born on October 24th, 2017. Mildred is an artifact. Mildred is an actual human woman who lives in Los Angeles and occasionally sings in operas. Sometimes Mildred pretends she is an opera. Sometimes Mildred writes music on purpose and sometimes Mildred writes music by accident. Before Mildred became Mildred, she was the lead singer, keyboardist, and core songwriter for a progressive rock band called Blackberry Tongues. Mildred exists on the internet and in places that aren't the internet, like the ocean. Mildred's eyes leak out like yolks. Mildred is a cloak that wears her pain. One time Mildred almost fell off the side of a mountain but someone saved her. Mildred wants you to think she is beautiful. Mildred wants you to find her repulsive. Mildred doesn't care what you think. Sometimes Mildred wonders if her spirit animal is a cockroach. Mildred doesn't have a family but she has an army. Mildred will crawl into the earth inside you and cry through you.
Madeline Falcone
Madeline Falcone is a violinist, violist, and producer interested in artistic collaboration and the performance of all kinds of music.
Featured as a soloist on acoustic and electric violin for the 2017 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation’s Rising Artists series, Madeline is active in Los Angeles and New Orleans and performs regularly with the LA-based Isaura String Quartet.
As a proponent of experimental and contemporary music, Madeline has worked closely with composers including David T. Little, Gloria Coates, Marc Sabat, Anne LeBaron, Mark Menzies, and Jherek Bischoff.
In the world of less experimental modern music, she has performed and recorded with artists including The Eagles, The Temptations, the All-American Rejects, Demi Lovato, and Jóhann Jóhannsson.
In addition to her work as a performer, Madeline is interested in supporting interdisciplinary creative performances as a producer. Recent productions include Gifts of the Spirit with Ron Athey and The Broad Museum, Santa Paula Street Party Jam Session with Peter Sellars and the Ojai Music Festival, and Partch: LSD/Dementia with Anne LeBaron and Grammy award-winning ensemble Partch at REDCAT.