WEST OAKLAND SOUND SERIES
a weekly new music and experimental sound series presented by sfSound


dresher ensemble studio :: 2201 poplar street, oakland california
(please park perpendicular when past the trees on poplar)
$10-$25 sliding scale (cash & venmo accepted at door)
click here to purchase advance tickets ($20) online on eventbrite
(late arrivals follow instructions on door to get buzzed in)

sunday march 31, 2024 beth schenck quintet / matthew welch's blarvuster
sunday april 7, 2024 raskin + brown + davis + shokrai / smith + montufar / lanzoni
sunday april 14, 2024 balsamic / ben goldberg's insect life
sunday april 21, 2024 carl stone / a jordan glenn, music for other things
sunday april 28, 2024 john bischoff / zofo

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 MARCH 31 2024  7pm  $10-$25

BETH SCHENCK QUINTET
MATTHEW WELCH'S BLARVUSTER







The BETH SCHENCK QUINTET features BETH SCHENCK on alto saxophone, KASEY KNUDSEN on tenor saxophone, MATT WROBEL on guitar, LISA MEZZACAPPA on bass, and JORDAN GLENN on drums. Although these Bay Area improvisers have played together in different configurations for a decade, this quintet of musicians brings together their diverse backgrounds and influences to create boundary-pushing improvisation out of new compositional work from Beth. Inspired by the individual voices of each member of this ensemble, Beth set out to write music to specifically feature each one of these exceptional musicians. The result is music that is both challenging and accessible.


MATTHEW WELCH'S BLARVUSTER [MATTHEW WELCH (pipes, sax, vox), AARON GERMAIN (bass) and JORDAN GLENN (drums, perc)] is a bagpipe-driven amplified ensemble dedicated to Matthew Welch’s unique compositions and bagpipe virtuosity. Blarvuster’s music merges Scottish pipes, Balinese gamelan, minimalism, improvisation and rock into a textural labyrinth of ecstatic sound. The ensemble was formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 2002 and is now based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Blarvuster has performed at notable venues and festivals including: National Sawdust (NYC), Celtic Connections (Glasgow), The Stone (NYC), Jazzwerkstatt and BeeFlat (Bern, CH), Roulette, Le Poisson Rouge, EMPAC, Western Front (Vancouver), Switchboard Festival (SF 2014), The Kitchen (NYC), Tonic, Issue Project Room, Zebulon, MOMA, Galapagos and CBGB’s, TAC and most recently the Piping Live Festival in Glasgow. The ensemble’s debut eponymous album "Blarvuster" appeared on John Zorn’s Tzadik Records in 2010, with a follow up record, The Finger Lock, released on Kotekan Records in 2018.
“The ensemble’s border-busting music is original and catchy” – The New York Times






 APRIL 7 2024  7pm  $10-$25


RASKIN + BROWN + DAVIS + SHOKRAI
HALLIE SMITH + ADRIAN MONTUFAR
SIMON LANZONI





JON RASKIN (saxophones) has been a member of Rova Saxophone Quartet for the last 46 years exploring the relationship of improvisation and composition, developing and honing the language of ensemble music and researching linguistic possibilities of the saxophone. CHRIS BROWN (piano & electronics) makes music with self-designed sonic systems that include acoustic and electroacoustic instruments, interactive software, computer networks, microtonal tunings, and improvisation. BEN DAVIS (cello), trained in classical cello and composition at the Guildhall, London. Later, he developed a taste for free improvisation, performing with Ellery Eskerlin, Evan Parker, Louis Moholo, Vincent Courtois, Wada Leo Smith, among others. SAFA SHOKRAI (bass) has been based in the Bay Area for 30 years. His musical practice focuses on finding new ways to connect art with the varied cultures present in the Bay, always drawing inspiration from traditions to create something fresh and vibrant.

HALLIE SMITH (viola) and ADRIAN MONTUFAR (voice and flute) present an amplified acoustic duo. Hallie is a musician and composer currently based in Oakland. Her work is focused towards sound installations and producing ambient electronic music. Adrian is currently a graduate student in the UC Berkeley music composition program. His practice blends instrument design and physical computing with voice and movement improvisation. Together, their duo gathers a lexicon of contrasts: loveliness and revulsion, staccato outbursts and droning time-stretching, airy textures and visceral surges.

SIMON LANZONI is a Franco-American artist who combines visual and sonic art to create multi-sensory experiences, which explore central themes of the human condition, such as memory, language, and the fluidity of consciousness. His practice is inspired by the visual perception of art, and the inherent physicality of sound. The fusion of the two mediums creates experiences in which sonic and visual become interchangeable. Sound enters into the third dimension, taking on a visual form, while what is seen becomes a physical, and aural experience. It is this quest for fluidity between the two mediums that is the driving force behind the aesthetics of his installations.






 APRIL 14 2024  7pm  $10-$25


BALSAMIC
BEN GOLDBERG'S INSECT LIFE








BALSAMIC is a collective of sound and movement improvisers who developed their practice in (mostly) outdoor public spaces since 2020. This edition features:
KEVIN CORCORAN - percussion
RAE DIAMOND - found object, voice
SHOSHANA GREEN - movement
MEGAN NICELY - movement
SUKI O'KANE - percussion
EDWARD SCHOCKER - hichiriki, shō, ocarina
PAIGE STARLING SORVILLO - movement


Berkeley clarinetist BEN GOLDBERG, trombonist DANNY LUBIN-LADEN, cellist BEN DAVIS and saxophonist RAFFI GARABEDIAN present INSECT LIFE - a group dedicated to olive oil cake and the work of the imagination.







 APRIL 21 2024  7pm  $10-$25


CARL STONE
JORDAN GLENN, MUSIC FOR OTHER THINGS






CARL STONE returns to the Bay Area for an intimate performance of solo electronic music. Stone is one of the pioneers of live computer music, and has been hailed by the Village Voice as “the king of sampling” and “one of the best composers living in (the USA) today.” He has used computers in live performance since 1986. Stone was born in Los Angeles and now divides hs time between Los Angeles and Japan. He studied composition at the California Institute of the Arts with Morton Subotnick and James Tenney and has composed electro-acoustic music almost exclusively since 1972. He is on the faculty of the Department of Media Engineering at Chukyo University in Japan.


Drummer, percussionist, composer, improviser and constant collaborator JORDAN GLENN presents sketches for a new ensemble of clarinet, cello, guitar and vibraphone. Will these compositional seeds find their way to future contexts like dance or theater? Will Jordan remember how to play the vibraphone? Let's find out.

JORDAN GLENN - vibes/perc/composition
CORY WRIGHT - clarinets/bari sax
BEN DAVIS - cello
MATT WROBEL - guitar






 APRIL 28 2024  7pm  $10-$25


ZOFO
JOHN BISCHOFF






The Bay Area's premier piano duet, ZOFO plays excerpts from Echoes of Gamelan. This new program explores the influence of Balinese gamelan music on western composers, as well as how our music perception changes depending on the context.

P R O G R A M
Pemungkah and Tabuh Telu, from Balinese Ceremonial Music
    (transcribed by Colin McPhee for two pianos, arranged for one piano by ZOFO)
Beta Cygni - George Crumb
Prisms for Gene Davis, excerpts 1, 2, 4, & 5 - Brian Baumbusch
In the Kraton - Leopold Godowsky
Speech Delay - Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti (transcribed by Brian Baumbusch)


JOHN BISCHOFF presents a program of solo electronic music. Bischoff (b. 1949, San Francisco) is an early practitioner of live computer music. He is known for his solo constructions in real-time synthesis as well as the development of computer network music. He was a founding member of The League of Automatic Music Composers (1978), considered to be the world’s first computer network band. He is also a founding member of The Hub, a network band that began in 1986 and continues to expand on the network music form today. Recordings of Bischoff’s work are available on ArtifactRecordings, 23Five, Tzadik, Lovely, and New World Records. He was a recipient of an Artist Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 1999. As a member of the Hub, he was awarded a GigaHertz Prize for life-time achievement in electronic music in 2018 by ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. He was on faculty for many years in the legendary Music Department at Mills College in Oakland, California.








PROPOSALS


Our focus is on the bay area experimental and new music community, hopefully encouraging crossover among sub-scenes (composition and improvisation; established and emerging; institutional and underground; etc.) We strongly suggest local musicians attend concerts before requesting to perform on the series. Visiting aritsts are also welcome, ideally splitting a concert with local musicians.

We are also seeking compositions (in all forms of notation) to be performed by the sfSoundGroup.

We have a 92-key (down to a Low F!) 1953 Bösendorfer 7’4” Model 225 Piano (no sostenuto pedal; inside/prepared is OK). The venue hosts a Meyer Sound System, drum kit, additional piano, lighting, and projection equipment.

Please send proposals to matt ingalls: series@sfsound.org.





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