Interview with Madeleine Campbell

Madeleine Campbell records bands under the Accessible Recording banner, runs live sound at Brillobox, works at Pittsburgh Modular, teaches classes through TechShop, publishes the Women in Sound zine, and with all the time that's leftover she also plays cello and synthesizer. She'll be improvising with Matt Rappa, Ricardo Iamuuri Robinson, and Jeff Weston as part of Crucible Sound #21 on Saturday, November 5th at Wood Street Galleries. 

Many people here in Pittsburgh are familiar with your recent work with Gangwish (alongside Sam Pace and Crucible alumni Jim Lingo and Keith DeVries). What role does improvisation play in Gangwish? 

Playing shows with Gangwish is fun. Sam is an incredible musician and it's always a treat to see what he does with various iterations of his projects. He was kind of my gateway back into regularly playing cello. Those shows were my first time making music in front of anyone after taking a couple years off post music school graduation. I stopped after my final recital because I felt stuck - I realized I had the last spent 12 years taking private cello lessons, playing with various youth and university symphony orchestras, and memorizing pieces I didn't necessarily care about purely for the sake of a more impressive performance, yet I could not just sit down and improvise or compose an original melody. For me, all the power was in the sheet music. The idea of making up parts of my own was terrifying. Sam laid a great foundation that made it really effortless to formulate ideas and build upon. I consider it untamed/unconstrained structure.

In March, we opened for Faust in Detroit. At the end of their set, we rejoined them to play their last song in the middle of the audience. All I heard was "It's in D!" This was totally out of my comfort zone. It felt similarly to when I learned how to drive stick shift and had to go up Herron Avenue for the first time. I thought "You can't half ass this. You have to commit and just go with it." I felt like I leveled up a lot over those 10-15 minutes. The whole experience was really affirming and encouraging. I think I felt like more of a musician than I ever did in a recital.

I heard good things about Red Eft Trio's first show — what can you tell my about that project?

Red Eft Trio is Jim Lingo, Emily Hawkins and me. Emily is a phenomenal percussionist and co-organizes the Pittsburgh New Music Festival. Jim asked if we would be interested in collaborating through improv. I'm always intrigued by his ideas so I obliged. We opened for Wume and Richard Pinhas a few weeks ago. It's pretty free form but we went into it with a general road map. It was my first time playing synth in front of people. It's more sparse than other projects I've been involved with, which is funny considering how many objects are on stage at one time, but after going to a lot of punk and hardcore shows over the last couple years, it feels like a nice change of pace. I think the first performance went well overall. I think we'd all agree it could use more focus but there were moments that genuinely made me smile.

In your mind, what makes an improvisation successful or not? 

It's hard for me to say since I feel like I'm just dipping my toes in this pool for the first time but in my own ensemble and improv experience, balance and communication between players is a big determining factor in how I interpret success. It's similar to how I converse with people. I talk a lot so I have to remind myself to give others space to do the same and actively listen, as well. The comfort of non-verbal communication comes with time. (Not having that one reason why I think Crucible is exciting.)

Carrying through with the intention of ideas is also important to me, if that makes sense. Maybe that could be framed as not rushing a process. Someone in the audience during the Red Eft Trio set said he enjoyed all the different things happening on stage but felt it was all over the place towards the end and wished some themes would have been more developed before abruptly ending. I think his exact words were, "A wrench is a good instrument and I like how it's being played but I want to hear it for more than six seconds before it's tossed to the side."

The bulk of your work uses a proactive DIY ethos to address issues of gender inequality in music. Here I'm thinking of Women in Sound, Accessible Recording, the recent panel discussion at VIA, and Girls Rock Pgh, to name a few. From this collective experience, what are a few strategies that you have found to be effective in creating legitimately inclusive, welcoming spaces within the music community? 

I don't think it's something I've necessarily strategized but I'm definitely learning a lot as I go along. My creative endeavors are often responses to my own experiences. If there is a need, I hope to help fill it. I wasn't (and still am not) seeing enough representation of women in audio literature so I started a DIY zine about it. I engineered at a big studio where none of my friends could afford to make records so I left and am outfitting a room of my own to try and bridge the gap between lugging your four-track to your friend's kitchen and saving for years to cut a few tracks at a large professional space. Both sides of the spectrum are beautiful in their own ways but I don't want my skills and ideas to only be accessible to people with a $3,000 minimum budget.  

I think there are a lot of really simple ways we can start to make our music communities more inclusive. For some people it will involve stepping outside of their comfort zone but it's time to do that. Let's try to book shows and curate events with diverse lineups. It's not hard to book shows that aren't 100% men. It's not hard to include women and queer and trans* people. I see this happening more and I hope it continues to move in that direction. I'd love to see more all-ages events. It's often feasible to offer sliding-scale entry and childcare, too. More consideration for parents from non-parents need to happen. I'm not saying smoky dive bar punk shows are bad. I've been to a lot and I'll go to more in the future. I just hope we can continue to mix it up more. 

From VIA "Mothership - The Future is Female" panel. Photo: Nico Segall.

Another personal goal for my work is that I establish a platform where people can comfortably ask questions. To me, accessibility to all skill levels is a huge part of inclusion. I was terrified to ask questions when I started recording. It's something I'm still getting over. I was really inspired by a sound recording skill share I co-facilitated with Tessa Barber from Carnegie Library this past summer. There were about ten people who wanted to learn some basic principles and establish a foundational knowledge of audio signal flow but weren't sure where to start. I don't have all the answers but I do know the basics so I can help someone cross that threshold and hopefully feel empowered to build from there. I'm really grateful for the people who have done so for me. 

I think a lot of this comes as a no-brainer to me because of the network of brilliant, inspiring, innovative women living and creating in this city. Volunteering with Girls Rock! Pittsburgh for the last few years connected me with many wonderful musicians and artists and it spread from there. Collaborating with Lauren Goshinski of VIA has taught me so much about curating and executing an event. Alexis Icon showed me everything I know about live sound and has continually told me to stop doubting myself. Celeste Smith of 1Hood Media represents the business woman I hope to be someday. Getting to know Molly Burkett has inspired me to start exploring production techniques for my own music. This support network is invaluable and my biggest motivating factor. 

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You can read more about Women in Sound and Accessible Recording on the cyberweb. 

Interview with Matt Rappa

You may already know Matt Rappa as the drum half of the long-running self-described "A.D.D. bludgeon rock" band Triangle and Rhino. More recently, he's been experimenting on his own as Skeletonized, which has mutated into a full live band. Whatever the context, Matt's playing seems to be always recognizably heavy and packed with detail and nuance. He'll be improvising with Madeleine Campbell, Ricardo Iamuuri Robinson, and Jeff Weston as part of Crucible Sound #21 on Saturday, November 5th at Wood Street Galleries. 

Can you give me a little history of the various musical projects that you've been involved in?

I grew up in Meadville, Pennsylvania and started playing music with my best friends in a punk band called Fogo Junior. I started playing drums on buckets in my friend's basement, and eventually got a used Rogers drum kit and "taught" myself how to play by listening to records and trying to replicate what I heard. I was lucky enough to come up in a thriving small town DIY scene in the 90's. We had a good variety of bands and styles come through on tour, which exposed me to a variety of different underground music from all over the country.

Before I moved to Pittsburgh, I was in a band called The M.O.T.L., which was my first experience playing improvised music with a variety of different people & instruments at shows. After moving to Pittsburgh in 1997, I enjoyed attending shows at Millvale Industrial Theater and eventually played shows there and wherever we could in a band called Warlocks. Warlocks was largely improvised as well, and included drums, bass, french horn & sometimes guitars or other instrumentation. We hosted house shows in the North Side, and were lucky enough to have Thrones play in our dining room, among other great noise acts and bands. The first tour that I went on with a band was with Warlocks in 1999 or 2000, driving around in a packed station wagon from show to show. The highlight of being in Warlocks was opening for Men's Recovery Project & Thrones in Cleveland, as well as opening for Enemymine(ex-Godhead Silo) for a leg of their tour.

After Warlocks ended, I was one half of sample/loop noise project Boda P'nodo with my friend Jake who I played with in Fogo Junior & Warlocks. Boda P'nodo made sounds with a 202 sampler & Halloween voice changer from what I recall. In our short existence, we were lucky enough to play shows with Reynols, Evolution Control Committee, and Burning Star Core.

After Boda P'nodo, Jake & I started writing songs on guitar and drums as Triangle & Rhino. We went on a month long U.S. tour without ever having played a show in Pittsburgh. We had various third members through the years contributing vocals, horns, electronics, or guitar sounds to the band, but the core duo always remained. Throughout our 13 (maybe 14?) years as a live band, T&R played countless live shows, went on various tours, released music on cd, cdr, cassette, vinyl and digital formats, and played shows with countless amazing local, national & international acts. Jake now lives out of state so Triangle & Rhino exists solely as a recording project as of 2015.


More recently, I played for a couple years in a punk-ish, heavy, weird band called Fantasy Crime, and started Skeletonized as a recording project. Skeletonized existed as a recording project for a few years, mainly as an opportunity to improve on my recording and mixing skills. My friend Eric helped considerably with information and techniques to improve my recordings, and then helped me get started on translating Skeletonized to a live solo project. After playing some shows solo, my friend Luke joined on saxophone and we started writing and practicing as a duo with me on drums, vocals & electronics, and Luke on sax. Most recently, my friends Eric, Brian & Eric have joined in live on saxophone, electronics and guitar. We're currently recording and mixing songs for what I hope to be a digital release, as well as a release on cassette.



Is it fair to say that, over the years, you've gravitated toward making music that is more tightly composed? Are there still elements of free improvisation that figure into recent Skeletonized material? 

I've always enjoyed improvising in a live setting, particularly on live recording sessions.
Throughout the existence of Triangle & Rhino, we always had fun improvising on recordings, and normally half of each release was improvised material, sometimes with overdubs. Sometimes ideas for structured songs came out of improvised recording sessions as well.



All of my parts in the Skeletonized live set are "written", or practiced and played essentially the same way each time. The other instrumentation (saxes, electronics, guitar) is partially improvised and partially written/practiced. I have & am currently taking improvised Skeletonized recordings and attempting to make arranged pieces from them. At this point, it's one of the best ways to generate ideas for songs.

Do you draw a distinction between "jamming" (for lack of a better term) to generate ideas that will eventually be solidified into songs versus free improvisation for its own sake? 

I'd say I do draw a distinction between the two. A lot of times, a passage of a recorded improvisation will fall in to place for a few minutes and stand out to me and/or whoever else is involved and listening to the session. That passage would end up on a physical or digital release after all the performers agreed that it sounded great. Sometimes the bi product of that passage is inspiration for a piece with structured parts that's performed the same way or essentially the same way each time.
I think recording those improvised moments/sessions was always important to me & whoever else was involved at the time. When everyone hits a sweet spot in the recording session, it's great to be able to go back and listen any time you want.

At the same time, there is something magical about improvising live in front of an audience. Everyone performing and observing can potentially share a moment in time that can't be replicated, even if the audio or video are recorded live. That's why I'm so excited about participating in Crucible Sound with other performers I've never met before. Anything good or bad can happen, and that unpredictability is exciting. 

---

Check out Skeletonized on Bandcamp. 

Interview with Daniel Malinsky

"Daniel Malinsky is an improviser and composer from Pittsburgh in the United States. His work is improvised electro-acoustic music, with varying instrumentation but in recent years his ultra-minimal performances have been comprised of audio feedback, electro-magnetic interference (from mobile telephones or other electronic devices), and amplified object manipulation" (blurb swiped from Cafe Oto). He'll be improvising with Matt Aelmore, Stephen Boyle, and Eric Weidenhof as part of Crucible Sound #20 on Saturday, October 1st at Wood Street Galleries. 

You've been very busy since your last appearance at Crucible Sound almost 2 years ago. Can you tell us about your Japanese and European tours?

I had a very nice time performing in Japan and exploring that beautiful country (it was my first time there). I played in Fukuoka, Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama, and Tokyo, collaborating with folks like Masafumi Ezaki, Yuma Takeshita, Yuji Ishihara, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Toshimaru Nakamura. All of these people are innovative and amazing artists, and it was really a privilege to work with them. It was especially interesting since there was with some people somewhat of a language barrier (I don't speak Japanese, unfortunately) and so in a few cases the bulk of our communication occurred while playing. Toshi Nakamaru has been an inspiration to me ever since I was just getting into electroacoustic improvised music, and playing with him was a special honor — I was very nervous. He was also instrumental in organizing the tour and I am really thankful for that. Everybody I met there was also really nice and friendly, I had a lot of fun. It was nice to see a bunch of great performances on nights I was or wasn't playing. I saw some creative stuff that spanned the gamut of noise, improvised music, electroacoustic improv, jazz, weirdo rock, and folk, plus mixtures of these things and styles hard to classify. Some of the performances which most surprised me and made me uncomfortable (in a good way) were ones that combined folk or pop or "straight ahead" jazz with electroacoustic music in ways I had never seen in the USA. It was obvious that Japanese musicians are continuing to push the boundaries of innovative art. On top of all this, I managed to visit places (venues, record labels/stores, etc) that I had only read about but which played an important role in the history of Japanese experimental music, so that was really cool for me.

In Europe I played a handful of shows -- in London, Prague, Berlin, and Munich -- in between attending some conferences and visiting friends, so it was a low-key and spread out kind of "tour." All the shows were good experiences (though I blew out my mixer in London -- forgot about the voltage difference on the power grid!). I had an especially nice time in Prague, which is a beautiful city where I saw a nice mix of experimental music and film/media art. In addition to playing a solo set there, I collaborated with Laura Luna and Michal Kindernay which was a really good experience. In Munich the show was great, but I also had a nice time playing baseball with some new friends, in the park where Oktoberfest happens. I felt a bit of pressure because I was coming from a country where baseball is the national pastime and I am terrible at sports. Luckily, I managed to do ok.

Any examples of those performances which surprised you?

I can't think of the group names right now, but for example I saw Yuma Takeshita perform with a band that was playing something akin to indie folk or folky indie rock (say, in the style of Galaxy 500 or something). Yuma plays "electro-bass" which is a self-made bass guitar with oscillators and various noise-making electronics built into the body. So, on top of reverberant guitar strumming there were electronic clicks, sine waves, low frequency oscillations, etc. Those strange sounds were not superfluous, and they did not come off as gimmicky or weird for-the-sake-of-weird. They combined with the other sounds to make for a strange and creative kind of harmony.

Can you describe the music you were performing on these tours?
The materials I perform with vary, but on both of these tours I was amplifying the electromagnetic interference of mobile phones with a guitar pickup. I have a small collection of old (donated) phones which are not connected to service, but they keep searching for signal and thus interfere with the magnet in the pickup, which is transformed into audible crackling and fuzz and clicking. I manipulate this signal a little bit, just with the EQ on my mixer. I also use the mixer to create feedback (in a "no-input mixing board" style), mostly quiet and high-pitched pure tones. In addition to this, in Japan I was amplifying the surface of a snare drum, and scratching/scraping/poking/rubbing it with various objects. In Europe I was mostly using a cymbal in place of the drum. But various components of this setup changed from show to show. Something nice about taking the cell phones on tour is that they behave quite differently in different places, I guess because the operating standards of cell towers and cellular network infrastructure differ country-to-country.

That's interesting, I hadn't considered the notion of site-specificity when it comes to physical phenomena like interference. Did this result in any unexpected moments or cause you to improvise in new ways? 

Setup from DM's performance in Tokyo

Some of the sounds coming out of my phone setup were quite different than what I had come to expect based on recent performances in the US. (I seem to remember things being especially different in Germany.) This was nice, as it provided new material to work with, especially since I often prefer to let the phones and other electronic components do their thing for long stretches of time without intervening. When I don't know how my equipment will behave ahead of time, I get to focus on listening, rather than preoccupying myself with producing a certain outcome. I like to experiment in the moment, learn how the constructed "system" (of electronics, speakers, wires, space) behaves in the course of a performance. Then the structure of the resulting piece of music is a reflection of my learning process. This is why it is also nice to use borrowed equipment. Some years ago, when I was playing mostly with microphone feedback -- something very site-specific since feedback behaviors would depend strongly on the room, the condition of the equipment being used, the spacing between microphones and speakers which was never exactly replicated -- "learning" the behavior of a system and putting that on display as performance was very important to me. That has been less central in recent performances, but I'm happy to get back into it.

What you're saying about listening reminds me of a line from Michael Johnsen's bio: "His work is characterized by a relative lack of ideas per se, and an intense focus on observation, the way a shepherd watches sheep." This deemphasis of the artist's role as idea generator and embrace of an almost journalistic approach is compelling. I wonder how this plays out when you're collaborating with other musicians, though. How/does your approach to observation change when you've got multiple human actors involved? 

That's a tough question, and my own views about it are far from settled. One of way of thinking about it just considers those other human actors as part of the "system" — they determine by their actions some major part of how the whole performance sounds just like features of my electronic components and instruments and performance space influence the sound of a solo piece. So, I try to listen carefully, to think more about what's going on around me and where the other players might be going than "what's my next move." I'll admit that I'm not always successful, this is something I'm working on.

In Japan I was traveling with a good friend who is not himself a big fan of this kind of improvised music, but he is an astute listener. He mentioned at some point after a concert that some improvised performances seemed to him to exude a kind of masculinity. When I asked him what he meant he said that some players came across as dominating — they kind of flex their musical muscles and determine for others where the music will go, what the presiding aesthetic will be like, maybe by being loud or persistent or uncompromising or by using certain kinds of sounds that compel other players to react instead of contribute as equals. (I'm paraphrasing here.) I think there is a lot of truth to this, and if we intend to have truly egalitarian improvising experiences we have to be vigilant. We like to think that improvising which is "free" (i.e., not structured by the forms and expectations of jazz and other genres) is non-hierarchical, but just as in politics dismantling hierarchies is not sufficient to ensure equality, so it is in improvised music. There are always power differentials and social dynamics; even when there is no prevailing order or structure explicitly elevating somebody and putting somebody else down, domination and marginalization can arise in subtle ways. So, I like to think about which practices (if any) can really ensure that all the people playing do contribute to the artistic product as equals.

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More information about Daniel Malinsky's music is available at dmalinsky.info

Fall 2016 lineup

Excited to announce that Crucible Sound is back this fall at Wood Street Galleries. 

Crucible Sound #19: Thursday, October 8th, 2015

Crucible Sound #19
Thursday, October 8th, 2015

Ricardo Iamuuri - guitar, vocals, electronics
https://iamuuri.bandcamp.com/

Neil Newton - guitar
(AM Faces)
http://www.music.pitt.edu/faculty/newton

Justin Riddle - percussion, tapes
(DeLeon, My Brightest Diamond)
As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups.

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

on Facebook

Crucible Sound #18: Thursday, August 13th, 2015

Crucible Sound #18
Thursday, August 13th, 2015

Jason Belcher - trombone, trumpet
(Full Circle Time Machine)
https://soundcloud.com/belchercomp

Ben Grubb - alto saxophone, invented instruments
(Lungs Face Feet)

Jim Storch - percussion, objects
(Burnout Warcry)
https://burnoutwarcry.wordpress.com/

Eric Weidenhof
https://soundcloud.com/ericweidenhof

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups.

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

on Facebook

Crucible Sound #17: Thursday, July 9th, 2015

Crucible Sound #17
Thursday, July 9th, 2015

Aaron Brooks - guitar
(Nite Vapor)
https://aaronbrooks.bandcamp.com/

Kris Gruda - guitar
https://adurgsirk.bandcamp.com/

Chris McCune - drums
(Dendritic Arbor, McCune/Trimm duo)
https://dendriticarbors.bandcamp.com/

Brian Riordan - electronics
http://www.brianriordanmusic.com/

Jeff Weston - bass
http://www.jeffwestonmusic.com/

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups.

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

on Facebook

Interview with Aaron Zarzutzki

photo by Graham Stephenson via faceplace 

Aaron Zarzutzki describes himself as "an improviser of various sorts." From his home base in Chicago, he investigates "misuse and perversion of objects and systems...virtuosity, volatility, futility, and capability are thought of." He'll be visiting Pittsburgh to perform at Crucible Sound #16 on Thursday, June 11th at Modernformations. 

The long-running Myopic Improvised/Experimental Music Series in Chicago is one of the inspirations for Crucible Sound here in Pittsburgh. Can you talk a little about the series and your involvement? 

En route to Chicago from Florida 10 years ago, I played a gig in Atlanta and bassist Pat Lawrence mentioned the series to me. My first day living in Chicago was a Monday so I checked it out. Shortly after that, Fred Lonberg-Holm and Brian Labycz roped me in as a host. The series was founded over 20 years ago by Weasel Walter. The shows are aimed to be like a workshop for the musicians as they are encouraged to play in first time groupings often with others they might not normally play with. Percussionist Julian Kirshner is currently the other organizer. The series has hosted players ranging from Jim O'Rouke to some dirty dude off the street.

Can you talk about some of your recent collaborations? 

I've got a new project with guitarist Jacob Kart that has been fun. Guitar and synthesizer duos with attention towards harmony. It feels great to actually play notes now and then.

Ben Bennett and I were booked to play in a quartet with Wilson Shook and Ryan Jewell back in 2009, but my trip to Seattle got bumped to a different month. Ben and I finally played in 2012 as a totally acoustic duo. Last year we played in a trio with Fred Lonberg-Holm which was one of my favorite sets I've ever played. Ben just stopped through Chicago and Fred wasn't around so we did a couple days of recording as a duo. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the material that resulted from the recording. Lots of overlapping timbres, but the main aspect of the music might be stochastic and gesture-free processes versus more gestural events. A lot of moments might sound like a field recording, but mutate into something that is definitely two people hacking away in a room while keeping the same timbral elements. Very excited to see where the duo is headed.

I don't really know how to discuss playing with Graham (Stephenson). I met him when I was a long-haired teenager at a Lescalleet show. It took us a long time to finally play together and now we do it often. Playing with Graham always feels very low-key and casual.

The Green Pasture Happiness was one of the greatest improv trios of all time and criminally under-documented. Danfan (Daniel Fandiño) lives in Jersey now and Brian (Labycz)'s efforts have shifted towards house and techno musics, so tGPH lies in a state of dormancy. We do have unreleased material with Guillermo Gregorio, Jim Baker, and Frank Rosaly which will hopefully surface someday before the reunion concerts.

Nick Hoffman is one of my favorite people on and off the court. When he was last living in Illinois, he was out in Schaumburg so we didn't get together regularly, but we still managed to do some weird weekend tours. Sometimes as a duo, but we did trios with Mattin and Takahiro Kawaguchi in Normal, Illinois of all places. The most recent things Nick and I have done together are rock music. His Pilgrim Talk imprint released my "best of the hightone years" tape and I played in drums in a disastrous tour for his black-metal-sans-distortion-and-screaming-meets-garage band Back Magic. Their last album "Chorus Line to Hell" is really something special.

How about your solo pursuits: what have you been focusing on lately? 

A few years ago I had a computer failure that lost two solo projects. An acoustic and field recording based "softcore" for Ghost and Son and an all synthesizer based "relentless love" for Copy For Your Records. The last track off the latter was saved and now I'm about to make the rest of the record inspired by the lost one.

Can you talk about how you choose your weapons? I know historically you've invested a fair bit of time and energy into creating or modifying your own instruments and processes, like: no-output turntable, homemade electronics, and the setup you described to me recently that involved tattoo coils and mechanical feedback. For Crucible Sound, you're going to be playing synthesizer. Conceptually, what has pulled you down these different paths? Do you see them as separate modes, or as related threads? 

I've been working with electronic instead of acoustic setups lately because people seemed too interested with the objects I was using instead of the sounds they were making. I don't really see my different instruments as being different paths. It all stems from the same curiosity. When I got my first guitar I had to mess with the tuning pegs and see what was under the pickguard. If I'm walking down the street and something catches my eye, I have to pick it up, flick it, shake it, see what sounds could come out of it. I don't really consciously develop these ways of playing, I just mess around all day and see what sticks.

---

Aaron's most recent release is "No Dice" with Graham Stephenson on Hideous Replica. 

Crucible Sound #16: June 11th, 2015

Crucible Sound #16
Thursday, June 11th, 2015

Aaron Zarzutzki - synthesizer
"Aaron Zarzutzki is a improviser of various sorts. He works primarily with misuse and perversion of objects and systems. Virtuosity, volatility, futility, and capability are thought of. Zarzutzki currently lives, works, and plays in Chicago." Aaron has collaborated with many artists including: Nick Hoffman, Brent Gutzeit, Joshua Manchester, Kevin Drumm, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Takahiro Kawaguchi, among many others. He is a member of Green Pasture Happiness alongside Brian Labycz and Daniel Fandiño. His most recent release is "No Dice" with Graham Stephenson on Hideous Replica.
http://erstwhilerecords.com/catalog/EA003.html
http://www.discogs.com/artist/765116-Aaron-Zarzutzki

Margaret Cox - electronics, objects
http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~mc94/marzipan/HELLO.html
http://cruciblesound.blogspot.com/2013/04/interview-with-margaret-cox.html

Anthony Levin-Decanini - card readers, tabletop guitar, tapes
(Lead Pall, Consultant, Binges)
https://soundcloud.com/adecanini

RJ Myato - electronics, guitar, etc.
(Wiretappers, Consultant)
http://killcollectorculture.bandcamp.com/

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups.

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

on Facebook

Crucible Sound #15: May 14th, 2015

Crucible Sound #15
Thursday, May 14th, 2015

Matt Aelmore - French horn, bass
http://mattaelmore.bandcamp.com/

Anna Azizzy - performance, sound sculpture, electronics
https://soundcloud.com/annaazizzy
http://youtu.be/e6DVjKcKeAI

Rey Freme - synthesizers
http://www.amazon.com/Physically-Mental-Compromise-feat-Freme/dp/B00CVKTK8U/

Jeremy Yamma - percussion, guitar
(Hunted Creatures)
https://soundcloud.com/jaywhy-1

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups.

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

on Facebook

Crucible Sound #14: April 9th, 2015

Crucible Sound #14

Thursday April 9th, 2015

Derek Bendel - tenor saxophone, guitar

(Nevhar Anhar)

https://nevhar-anhar.bandcamp.com/

Brandon Lucia - chango

(netcat)

http://brandonlucia.com/music.html

John Paul Zigterman - drums, electronics

(Static Death, Luminaire)

http://staticdeath.bandcamp.com/

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups.

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

Crucible Sound #13: February 12, 2015

Crucible Sound #13

Thursday February 12th, 2015

Keith DeVries

(KMFD, Gangwish)

https://soundcloud.com/kmfd-1

Ian Edwards

(Pet Clinic)

https://soundcloud.com/pet-clinic

Kurt Schmidt

(Natural Bottom)

http://naturalbottom.bandcamp.com/

Joshua Tenenbaum

(Dwayne Rifle, Lead Pall, Cousin-Brother)

https://soundcloud.com/d_rifle

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups.

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3? sets)
$7 suggested donation

Interview with Adam MacGregor

Adam MacGregor is a guitarist, vocalist and sound artist known to Pittsburghers as a member of local bands Brown Angel, Microwaves, Conelrad, Fate of Icarus, and Creation is Crucifixion. He also performs solo under the names Lothal and torus, and is one half of the free-improvised rock duo Orlop (founded in Beijing, China, 2013) with drummer Stephen Roach. He's also performed with Anla Courtis, Li Jianhong, Li Qing, Yan Jun, Vavabond, and Klaus Bru. He'll be performing in a special two-night event: Crucible Sound #12 this Wednesday and Thursday (December 17th & 18th) at Modernformations. 

I know that you've been in Beijing for the last couple of years. What can you tell us about the improvised music community there?

I moved to Beijing in November of 2012 for my fiance's job.  I'd done a lot of travel through Europe and India in the past, but China was a totally new frontier for me - I knew absolutely nothing about the people, language, or culture at the outset.  To stave off the shock of relocation, I figured the most obvious thing to do would be to get back to basics and seek out the things I knew best: creative music that was weird and abrasive enough to keep my interest.

It took a little bit of sleuthing and the help of some very knowledgeable American expat friends: Josh Feola, who performs as Charm and promotes shows under the Sinotronics and Pangbianr banners, and Nevin Domer, Fanzui Xiangfa guitarist, proprietor of Genjing records and COO of the influential Maybe Mars label.  As my bilingual guides (and themselves witness to the recent and very rapid development of the scene over the past decade), these two helped me to ease into what I found to be a vibrant improvised music community.

Josh used to organize a weekly improv night at a venue called School Bar under his Pangbianr (the Beijing-accented transliteration of the word for "next to") venture. He kindly booked me for a performance there as torus in March, 2013.  It was also around this time that he introduced me to Yan Jun. Yan Jun is a sound artist, writer, poet, and founder of the Subjam label who is regarded as the godfather of experimental music in China. His own music is heavily based upon controlled feedback, micro-sound, environmental recordings, and silence.  As I observed to be the case with many other artists on the scene, Yan Jun's delivery seemed to me to be more focused and measured than brash and chaotic.  I don't know if I would characterize this as a sweeping characteristic inherent to Beijing artists necessarily, but some other performers such as the modular synth/effects duo Soviet Pop (Li Qing and Li Weisi of the popular Beijing postpunk band Snapline), Liu Xinyu (guitarist of dark psych band Chui Wan, who performed solo on no-input mixer) and laptop glitch exponent Vavabond (aka Wei Wei) exhibited these affectations often.



On the other hand, there are the out-and-out cathartic blasts of free-noise saxophonist Li Zenghui and guitarist Li Jianhong, whom I had the pleasure to see many times.  Nevin once described his playing as "elemental", which is spot-on.  At his most intense, I'd compare his playing to the feedback-soaked atavism of Masayuki Takayanagi, but he manages to avoid any kind of idiomatic framework during his solos for the most part.  He frequently uses a small stone to attack the strings rather than a pick, enabling him to grind some harrowing sounds out of the strings.  Li Jianhong collaborates frequently with his wife Vavabond in two units (Mind Fiber and Vagus Nerve, the latter of which has released material on Utech); here they explore psychedelic masses of sound and so-called "environmental improvisations" where the two play together in an outdoor setting, responding to the ambient sounds from their surroundings; however, they use headphones to isolate themselves from one another.  The resulting hybrid of field-recording and free improvisation yields some interesting chance-based "interaction."

There are many other active improvisers in addition to the ones I've mentioned, many of whom take part in the Miji Concerts and improvisational workshops that Yan Jun holds frequently at a few venues around town, namely Zajia Lab and XP (a real hub of experimental music, indie rock, punk, and lots of other great local talent).  Minimalist violinist Yan Yulong (also in Chui Wan), He Fan and Zhouwang of Carsick Cars, avant-guitarist and Plunderphonics artist Feng Hao (who plays in the excellent, terrifying Walnut Room with Li Zenghui), A-Ming Liang (who performs on a type of electroacoustic contraption made out of a pedal-driven sewing machine), erstwhile P.K. 14 guitar strangler Deng Chenglong, Zhu Wenbo and Zhao Cong (multi-instrumentalists who perform solo and as no-wave duo Xiao Hong and Xiao Xiao Hong), are just a few of the folks who you're likely to see on experimental bills in Beijing.  And those are just the native Chinese musicians - Beijing is a world-class city, and as such there are many foreigners who take part.  Drummer and saxophonist Stephen Roach - who is featured in this edition of Crucible Sound - continues to be a great friend and cohort of mine in the free-rock/thrash/noise duo Orlop that we started in Beijing, late 2013.

There's another stable of artists in the Nojiji (literally, "no pee-pee") camp, who used to be based out of a venue/house (and fish hatchery!) called Raying Temple located in far-out neighborhood of Tongzhou.  This place was closed by the time I arrived, but the guys who were the core of the collective maintained a few projects and at one point set out as a nomadic troupe, traveling across China in a van and playing impromptu concerts.  These artists ranged from the harsh noise of Li Yang Yang (also the mind behind the noise-rock wrecking crew Mafeisan), to the more stark and meditative "ethno-ambient" ensemble ONG, to the dark, manipulated field recordings of Dead Sea.

In short, I was intrigued, blown away, and terribly comforted to find likeminded musicians so far from home.  And I was honored to play alongside on many occasions.  My only regret is that we didn't talk much about "process", and as a result I left with a sizeable chunk of the story absent.  But, there's always opportunities to backfill while enjoying the music at face value.

Josh Feola has written an excellent article for Tiny Mix Tapes on the history and development of experimental music in China, and covers far more ground in a much more erudite manner than I could: check it out here.

At Crucible Sound, you're going to have groups improvise along to guidelines provided by Yan Jun and Vavabond. Can you give us a preview?

At some of the improvisation workshops that typically precede the Miji Concerts that Yan Jun organizes, he'll have a guest coordinator choose parameters for the players.  I participated in one of these with Alan Courtis (Reynols), who stopped through Beijing on a China tour early this year.  This past September, Vavabond organized a monthlong residency at XP Club's "Zoomin' Night," which is a mainly free-improv program held every Tuesday night.  We collaborated using the "no-thought" guideline that she devised.  Here are some (but not all!) of the guidelines below:

Yan Jun:

One musician sits on stage. The rest sit among the audience (it will be better if they don't use a P.A. - i.e., better to produce the sound from each one's own position). The one on stage plays less (it will be better if he or she plays no sound. But definitely in a tension of playing). He or she is the first one who finishes performance. The rest have to play at least 5 more minutes after he or she leave stage (without bow).

And here are a preview of Vavabond's guidelines for Thursday; again, one group will perform according to these:

No-Brain Improvisation - A Tribute to Dogura Magura  

"Brain is not the place where thinking comes out." In the Japanese novel Dogura Magura, the doctor proclaimed. "Brain is a protein without nerve or sense." "Our spirit or living consciousness rest on each corner of our body." "All our desires, emotions, wills, memories, judgments, faith, etc, equally scattered in each of our 30 million cells."
No-brain Improvisation is an attempt to practice and prove what was told in Dogura Magura.  

Rules: DO NOT use the brain during creation and performance — try to abandon all the concepts, aesthetics, logic, thinking, judgments and decisions about sounds that are “ordered” by the brain. Let body and instinct do the job.

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Orlop has just released a split tape with Slime Street on Telepathy Tapes. It will be available at Crucible Sound #12.

You can hear more of Adam’s music on his Soundcloud.

Crucible Sound #12: December 17 & 18, 2014

Crucible Sound #12

2 nights of improvised music with Pittsburgh ex-pat Adam MacGregor and friends

Adam MacGregor is a guitarist, vocalist and sound artist. Currently he works solo under the names Lothal and torus, plays in noise/metal band Brown Angel, and is one half of the free-improvised rock duo Orlop (founded in Beijing, China, 2013) with drummer Stephen Roach. He has performed with Creation is Crucifixion, Fate of Icarus, Conelrad, Microwaves, Anla Courtis, Li Jianhong, Li Qing (Soviet Pop/Snapline), Yan Jun, Vavabond, and Klaus Bru.

https://soundcloud.com/adammacgregor

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Wednesday December 17

Collaborating with:

Stephen Boyle - percussion & electronics

Dave Kuzy - guitar (Microwaves)

https://soundcloud.com/microwaves-1

Jim Lingo - percussion, objects, electronics (Centipede E'est)

https://soundcloud.com/jimlingo

RJ Myato - feedback, electronics (Wiretappers, Ouroborean Piss)

http://killcollectorculture.bandcamp.com/album/songs

Ben Opie - alto saxophone, contrabass clarinet, theremin (Flexure, Thoth Trio, Water Shed)

http://benopie.bigcartel.com/

Stephen Roach - drums/percussion, tenor saxophone (Orlop, Susto, DInner Sock)

https://soundcloud.com/sroach

Tyler Tadlock - electronics (Spirituals)

https://soundcloud.com/spirituals

Facebook event

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Thursday December 18

Collaborating with:

Johnny Arlett - bass (Microwaves)

David Graham - synth, theremin, baritone guitar (Requiem)

http://www.requiem-portal.com/

Joshua Rievel - guitar (Casual Male)

Stephen Roach - drums/percussion, tenor saxophone (Orlop, Susto, DInner Sock)

https://soundcloud.com/sroach

Tyler Tadlock - electronics (Spirituals)

https://soundcloud.com/spirituals

Facebook event

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At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 8:00
Music starts at 8:30, ends by 11:00 (3? sets)
$7 suggested donation

Crucible Sound #11: October 9, 2014

Crucible Sound #11

Thursday October 9, 2014:

Brian Hecht - guitar

(Radon Chong)

David Kuzy - guitar, electronics 

(Microwaves)

https://soundcloud.com/microwaves-1/

Daniel Malinsky - prepared instruments, interfering objects

(Wealth)

http://dmalinsky.info/

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 7:30
Music starts at 8:00, ends by 10:30 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

Facebook event

Crucible Sound #10: September 11, 2014

Crucible Sound #10

Thursday September 11, 2014:

Zach Katonik - vinyl loops, bass, electronics

(Buoyhood)

https://soundcloud.com/buoyhood

Joey Molinaro - violin 

(Say At Last, Hot Singles)

http://joeymolinaro.com/

Micah Pacileo - guitar & electronics 

(Hunted Creatures, White Reeves)

https://soundcloud.com/micah-pacileo

As usual, the musicians will improvise in ad-hoc groups

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 7:30
Music starts at 8:00, ends by 10:30 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

Facebook event

Crucible Sound #9: May 8, 2014

Ben Bennett, photo from http://romvos.org

Crucible Sound #9

Thursday May 8, 2014:

Ben Bennett - acoustic instruments & objects
From Columbus, OH
http://milmin.nixsyspaus.org
http://milmin.bandcamp.com

Steve Boyle - percussion & electronics
(Fuck Telecorps, Dead at 24)
http://cruciblesound.blogspot.com/2013/09/interview-with-steve-boyle.html

Jim Lingo
(Centipede Eest, Pay Toilets)
https://soundcloud.com/jimlingo

At Modernformations, 4919 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh

Doors at 7:30
Music starts at 8:00, ends by 10:30 (3 sets)
$7 suggested donation

Facebook event

Back in the spring

Crucible Sound will return this spring. Stay tuned.

Interview with Ben Hall

Ben Hall is a highly-accomplished percussionist, label honcho, and gospel record archivist, among other things. He'll be traveling from his home base in Detroit to perform at Crucible Sound #8, this Thursday December 12th at Modernformations. 

Most people probably know you from your wide-ranging collaborative work: Graveyards (with John Olson), New Monuments (with Don Dietrich & C Spencer Yeh), "Weight/Counterweight" with the late great Bill Dixon and Aaron Siegel, duos with Joe Morris, C Spencer Yeh, Mike Khoury, and Wally Shoup, the list goes on. You're known to be both prolific and highly discerning (a rare combination). Can you talk about what you look for in a collaborator? 

That's not something I think about per se, like if I'm putting a band together. It's available resources but also who I've built with before. Sometimes that's somebody like Lytton where we hit it off on the bandstand but didn't kick it much. Getting together seemed smart and appropriate. Dietrich and I played together for  'bout five minutes and we were just like, "Band." There's thought on it but it's mostly just friends, people I want to spend time with chopping it up.

I also tend to follow those peoples work closer because they're friends and therefore end up being really apprised of what they're talking about because I'm really apprised of what they're working on. I'll listen to anything Spencer, Joe Morris or Nate Wooley send me. I'll try to find them in the work. And if you add Olson to that equation you're talking about a tremendous breadth of production, approaches and outcomes.

That feels like a warm space to operate in because I know if send Joe a record I'll get a fair listen, any of those dudes... And most of the folk you mentioned have a serious history of listening. I mean combined you're talking about huge travel from someone like Spencer to Dixon to Khoury to Olson, ridiculous coverage. You don't want to make your framing bias too small or exclude what might teach, so recommendations from that group are real important. And that's how we build — just chopping it up.

So is community the lynchpin? Is being there, in conversation and in the same places with each other, the thing that causes all these collisions and enables the kind of cross-pollination you've been a part of? Because not just anybody gets a chance to get on the bandstand with the likes of Bill Dixon and Paul Lytton.

A lot of this art stuff in general is not wanting to sit in the bleachers. The collaborative effect isn't osmosis, but again you start to build a matrix out of bandstand experiences with those dudes, and again if you're not getting it first hand, it's Olson telling you about Braxton, or Dixon telling you about Cecil or Zitro or Marzette Watts, or Nate telling you about Hadley Caliman. Those aren't my histories but they kinda become my memory.

So for me it's not really about reaching out to big names. It's just this question of where you get your information from and I'm always more interested in folk who are more interested in the work and how it manifests than in themselves or in the game per se.

On that list there's a lot of bad motherfuckers. Serious thinkers. And I'm sorta the low man on that totem pole if you want to judge it. I just keep trying to make the work, and because there's a handful of people that are aware of that, I get to be a part of a good salon.


There's a thread of communion, of cohesion and wholeness, that runs through your work. 

I have a set of compositional ideas that I work through and then some, what could be described as, material concerns, that is, actual physical sound issues or mechanical issues, they will out.

It's harder to exert control over that in New Monuments not because of the players but because the music is moving really fast, it's like the ship is sinking and you have to not fuck up. I don't want a collision but I'm only a third of the conversation so I can only say and guide so much. So it becomes a matter of framing by block of sound rather than by individuating things. With Dixon or Graveyards, it's relentlessly trying to corral the movements and frame and destabilize.

I distinctly remember a passage from an interview you did with Dusted where you talked about "how not to be a self-important, chucklehead improviser." Do you think individuals have certain responsibilities when they're improvising in a group?

I think people have different approaches. I've noticed that for a lot of straight musicians who happen to improvise the language is often not there. The letters and words, yes, but the grammar less so. It's also opposite from most pure improvisers. So when you have someone like Evan Parker doing the thing it's beautiful because he has the slang, the turn of phrase, the lexicon with which to make a deep and engaging conversation. He's not gonna rule out performance, mechanics, sound, ensemble etc nor does he have to bc he has the tools to juggle all those things in his brain at the same time.

Most improvisation, to my ears, places a premium on the individual, though you'd hear a lot of denials. If you're not interested in discontinuity, but it happens to be a default setting, that slows everything down quite a bit, the accuracy of decision making, and so for me as I listener I fall asleep.

If folk aren't discussing the value of the individual or group, in the music or syntactically then it shows. You know you can fool the fans but not the players and I think if you do close-listening to music, music that's widely considered interesting, Follow The Leader, Talking Book, November 1981, you can discern the capabilities inherent to basic decision making. If basic decision making is the order then I just look for those people. It's a sort of pre-responsibility.

So let's talk about the value of the individual. You're going to be doing a solo set at Crucible Sound. How do you approach your solo practice differently (or not) from your groups?

Well, I think it's changing for me right now. I've never done much solo work but naturally I primarily work alone day to day. I guess Milford pointed out that to be a soloist is to be an avowed egotist, and Olson always told me the power of the solo is the fact that "you can't break up with yourself."

I just did a solo at Anabel Anderson's Snugs series in Brooklyn last month and it was really great exercise to be asked to do a solo and think about the conceptualization of time and presentation of material. Typically I'm thinking about the nature of voicing and blocks of sound in a group. Presentation is pretty low on the list, but if it's just you, you really gotta be on the ball. I know this is obvious but it's still the basic fact I have to return to each time I perform solo, which has been probably less than ten times. That said, I've done a lot of duets with dancers, so in terms of continuity and voicing it's helped me a lot because I don't like narrative or program music but I think having something that opens up those pathways is really powerful. I end up being way more aware of the performance aspects of the deal and really focus on that as much as the sound.

Tell me about "object-based percussion."

Well it's just a basic set of rules that I started to have when Graveyards was touring a lot. It was partially to keep myself sharp. I really just didn't want to play the same set on a separate tour. Olson and I have been playing for 15 years so it was a really comfortable place to say "I'm only bringing this set up" without having to worry about the preciousness of the known brand or assuring a continuity of image. It was more about how to get the same set out of a totally different instrumentation and still have it be Graveyards. I noticed Skaters could play the exact same set on gear that someone just brought them at the gig. You could say that's because Skaters suck and it always sounds the same because it's all shit (as I've heard someone counter). For me, I found something unique in that.

More to the point: on the percussion tip, I just like to think about objects more than the instrument and it allows me to think about sound and the arrangement a lot different. I wanted to have sound that was spatial and architectural so part of it is just thinking about the different beat frequencies and what they do acoustically and how that might produce a new image.

For me a snare, a ride, a hi-hat is so rooted that when I hear someone play a fill I can hear the Motown or the Bonham and it snaps me right out of the music. David Simon said something about that with The Wire: he wanted to use actors that didn't pull you out of the moment for one second so he could build something bigger than what is otherwise possible.

Vince Gilligan said the exact opposite about Brian Cranston. He wanted to use someone who was so deeply rooted to a single role that he could use that against the audience. So if I play something traditional, I want to be able to use that as an activator, a smelling salts rather than just a collection of notes seemingly denuded from their source material, though still rooted in the muscle memory and mechanics of producing, of learning something like Purple Haze. If I execute the smelling salts properly it's not supposed to be some meta, Lothario, bricoleur deal. It's supposed to break up the monotony of the performance. Not to mention that these objects have different trajectory in the world than maker, music shoppe, musician. It's trying to understand the inability of the objects to only sustain one role. I mean I don't like anything more than a table that has a book underneath a short leg. It's still a table and a book but they both become so much more enabled and empowered. Which brings me back to basic understanding of the capital inside of a book which is only wood pulp dried and printed on. But obviously the cultural value of a book can be so powerful and does not lose that power by virtue of being a prosthetic for a table. It doesn't make it less Don Quijote. It doesn't de-exalt it for me, it just allows it to have a grander provisional status.

For me, the problem with the bricoleur/engineer binary is not only that it's a binary but it doesn't have an allowance for primitive to become the engineer. I don't think there's a lot of sneer but it's problematic to unpack it and put people into one or the other category. In the new Ed Park novel this office is trying to divide themselves into Berts and Ernies and there's always a compromise or a qualifier. 

I wonder where you place Sean Meehan on that trajectory. What he's doing is ultra-technical on an engineering level but it's really deskilled in a way. Meehan is an important guideline for me not as a percussionist but thinking about how to get the work to have the qualities you want it to. I mean I could follow Meehan around the Iron Triangle with his snare under his arm like other people follow Kanye's twitter. It's just so engaging on a performance level. He has me thinking of Helmholtz, Cage, and Henry Threadgill at the same time without referring to that for a sec. 

In that way it's very American in that it stems from this very Rube Goldberg-ian idea of the trap set, or contraption set. Cartoon jazz 78s have percussion that's just mind-numbing (and I mean mind-numbing with the highest regard) because you hear people playing rhythm on what are essentially effects that aren't rooted in clear use like a clarinet.

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Ben and Don Dietrich will be performing at American Tapes' 1000th release blowout party this New Year's Eve.