a continuation of the ant farm experiment in mass quietude, this time accompanying the live action lab dancers as they performed a politically satirical piece. ant farm made tiny music, an excerpt of which should be available in mp3 format soon.

the night also featured fine performances by gloryland ponycat (george cartwright, adam linz, alden ikeda) and cordell klier + combat astronomy.

[ cell phone follies ]
tuesday september 28th
acadia cabaret theater
part of the every other tuesday series
performers: bryce beverlin ii, cell phone; mike hallenbeck, processing

bryce pecked out some patterns on a "vintage" cell phone; i gathered them up into the laptop and recapitulated them as stretched-out melodies, scattered sprinkles, and "sounds so low they could only be heard by elephants", as nathan put it later. big fun. an mp3 should be available soon.

[ fontana mix ]
saturday, august 28th, 2004
minnesota center for book arts
part of the opening festivities for the "artist's books: no reading required" exhibition

a performance of john cage's fontana mix, the graphic score for which was included as a part of the exhibition. the performer may use any sort of instrumentation (including prerecorded sounds; i, of course, used a soundfile of water under a dock). the score is a group of transparencies inscribed with various lines and points and laid at random atop a grid sheet. the arranger draws a straight line across the grid between any two points; the resulting intersections provide successive modifications to the sound according to parameters chosen by the arranger, as well as the duration of each "action". i decided that the intersections would address the sound's playback speed on the one hand and its direction (forward or backward) on the other. hence, a certain series of intersections might determine that the sound be played back three times as fast as its normal speed, backwards, or four times slower than normal, forwards. i chose to layer the results of these choices as a cumulative soundscape.

thanks to jeff rathermel and jonathan zorn for this opportunity!

more info on the immersion cd

[ sonic seance ]
saturday july 31, 2004
magus books, dinkytown, minneapolis

an all-star ambient afternoon featuring performances by

archive
cordell klier
datura 1.0
slut machine
samsa

sadly i had to split pretty soon after i played, but the set by samsa was really good.

[ laptops "unplugged" ]
part of the improvised music at acadia series
tuesday may 25th, 2004 -- acadia cabaret theater, minneapolis

performers:

bryce beverlin ii [ eleven beveled sledges ]
datura 1.0
al ernst
mike hallenbeck [ archive ]
samsa
davu seru
roger williams
jonathan zorn

8 laptop performers positioned themselves around the space and improvised using only the computer's self-contained speakers for amplification-- no p.a. the result was a subdued, constantly and subtly shifting soundfield. this show was quite a success; by all accounts, both performers and audience had a blast (the performance lasted about 30 minutes, and a number of people thought it was too short-- which, for an experimental show, is pretty rare).

this was followed by a terrific solo bass performance by elizabeth draper (as opposed to "solo ass performance", as i mistakently typed and sent out to about 500 people on a listserv).

[ kitchen jam ]
tuesday february 24th, 2004
acadia cabaret theater, miineapolis

i booked this evening as a show during which all sounds had to originate somehow from the kitchen. i started the night with a solo laptop set layering and processing looped samples of water dripping in my sink and the percussive interatction between various pieces of cookware. bryce bevelin ii, tim glenn, nathan phillips, and greg stuart followed with a marvellous interlude of quiet sounds produced on a wide variety of ceramic, plastic, rubber, and steel items. the greg schaeffer trio closed the evening with a whimsically frigthening piece utilizing motorized and amplified appliances augmented with occasional readings out of a cook book. improvised music was administered.

[ h y s t e r i a ]
soovac visual arts center, minneapolis
opening of the hysteria exhibition
live ambience by archive
friday january 30th, 2004

my second performance to last 3 straight hours without a single pause. i really like having that much time to develop themes and transitions. this was another show that gave me that science museum/ job fair feeling as people came by to ask how i was making the sounds. one person asked me if i could do something that was "more hip hop".

[ ant farm ]
tuesday january 20th, 2004
acadia cabaret theater, minneapolis

a high volume of performers, performing at low volume

featuring the improvisational stylings of

bryce beverlin ii
jaron childs
charles gillett
ben glaros
tim glenn
mike hallenbeck
melinda hobbs
andrew lafkas
nathan phillips
davu seru

an experiment in mass quietude, held in a candlelit theater. instrumentation ranged from violin to laptop to various found and household objects (including a music stand, a set of walkie talkies, a cell phone, and a bowl of water). charles gillet manipulated feedback through a miniature sound system from beneath the risers, davu seru sampled sounds from the room and played back treatments of the audio, bryce beverlin spent some time performing up in the tech booth, nathan phillips wandered around capturing footage on a video camera, and andrew lafkas played back audio from a dr. sample unseen backstage. i particularly enjoyed taping the first half of the performance on a microcassette recorder and then playing it back as a contribution to the soundscape during the second half. we're hoping to do this again sometime, perhaps for a much longer duration.

jaron childs followed with a vaporous solo sax set. nathan phillips and tim glenn closed out the evening with trumpet and percussion improvisations. a fine evening of music.