mikronesia

2009-07-14T09:49:00.001-04:00

Gemini Wolf’s second album Synchoronized Eyes is out today! You can purchase the album through earSnake.com, on and other digital outlets. You can also purchase the CD (along with some other goodies) at their album release party at Johnny Brenda’s this Saturday (more info below). Also keep an eye out for reviews and features about the album and the show in the Metro, Philadelphia Weekly and Philadelphia City Paper this week!

The album release party will feature an extended lineup with percussionist Shawn Hennessey (from Leana Song) Gary Dann and horns from West Philadelphia Orchestra on several tracks. Gemini Wolf’s set will also have live video and visuals from Klip Collective’s Nico. As an added bonus a certain singer in Gemini Wolf is celebrating her birthday on Saturday!

Sharring the bill with Gemini Wolf are:

Pink Skull
All star local dj based group putting forth mostly mesmerizing instrumentals with some spoken musings. Synced video projections and the pounding pulse of drums and electronic tropicalia.

West Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia’s best and most daring musicians, from all different backgrounds (jazz, classical, experimental, indie), playing music, much of it Romani, from Romania, Hungary, Serbia, and Macedonia. The group has focused recently on creating original music that draw upon all our creative resources, whether it be the voices of Jack Ohly and Petia Zamfirova, the screaming sax of Elliott Levin, or the rhythmic wit of percussionist Gregg Mervine. ‘Overflowing joy’ is the best description of the WPO party experience.

and spinning all night will be Bilwa, fresh of his residency in Mexico with Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd.

Hope to see you at the show, spread the word

Sat July 18
Johnny Brenda’s
1201 N. Frankford Ave (Frankford and Girard)
Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-739-9684
Gemini Wolf, Pink Skull, The West Philadelphia Orchestra, Bilwa
$10 - Door Sales at 8pm
8:00 PM

nEW and oLD

2009-06-03T12:30:00.002-04:00

This weekend, I'll be doing sound design / live treatments for Jaamil Kosoko's new piece VIRUS at the Drake Theater in Philadelphia for the nEW Festival. The shows are

Friday June 5 @ 7PM
Saturday June 6 @ 9PM

The Drake Theater
1512 Spruce St.
Philadelphia, PA

Here's a description of the piece from Jaamil

VIRUS

We live in a media infested world where we depend heavily on technology to survive. Electrical wires entangle themselves around the bodies of the dancers to represent the restrictive power of technology, while also making visible the invisible web of the past. The wires are both beneficial and detrimental; they provide inspiration for the future by acting as lifelines to past experiences, but also drain the psyche by not allowing the individual to become free of these experiences. The forces of technology and the past are not working separately but in tandem because technology provides a way for past experiences to be recorded. The performers are constantly negotiating these aspects of their personalities moving between the human and the robotic, the empathetic and estranged, the plugged in and the cut off.

Should be a cool performance, the theater looks and sounds great.

I spent the day yesterday recording The West Philadelphia Orchestra six piece band version. This is the lineup that toured Mexico with last month with sax, trumpet, trombone, tuba, keys and drums. They did some Balkan inspired standards by Monk and Sun Ra as well as a couple of originals. It'll be a fun project to mix / produce. It's a lot more raw and loose than their full orchestral straight-up Balkan lineup I've seen live a few times. It'll be interesting how far out we can go with the mixing. I always feel like jazz instrumentation albums are afraid to experiment too much in the studio. Most jazz albums just try and reproduce the exact sound of the instrument and mix, like your seeing the band at a club. I'm talking about blowing out some cones by putting a sub-bass filter on the tuba! Ya dig?

Gemini Wolf is also getting ready for the CD Release in mid-July. Here's the spooky cover (pictured). We've been getting great feedback from people that have heard the album. The Philly CD Release show should be bonkers with Pink Skull, the aforementioned WPO, Bilwa and Neko at Jonny Brenda's. Gemini Wolf is going to have a few special guests for the show too. You can hear some of the tracks streaming on our MySpace right now!

Brothers Quay

2009-05-19T22:01:00.002-04:00

the wonderful Brothers Quay chat about their nationally touring exhibit with poet Ish Klein
during this year's Philadelphia Film Festival/CineFest

made possible through the support of
The University of the Arts - Philadelphia with some Mikronesia music

Film by Scott Johnston / Evil Olive 3000 and Woodshop Films

lastminutegar

2009-05-15T08:30:00.003-04:00

Just a last minute heads up for folks in Philly... I'll be playing with Gemini Wolf tomorrow night at the M-Room on Girard Ave. It's part of a night of earSnake artists including Lillie Ruth Bussey, Shawn Kilroy, Paper Masques, Gemini Wolf and special guests Mixel Pixel.

Here's the exact information:
Saturday May 16
M Room
15 W. Girard Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19123
9PM - $8
Gemini Wolf, Lillie Ruth Bussey, Paper Masques, Shawn Kilroy and Mixel Pixel. plus DJ Baby Cow Face

Then in two weeks (June 6 and 7) I'll be doing two performances at the Drake Theater with Jaamil Kosoko. The performance is his new work VIRUS for which I'll be doing sound design. Hopefully I'll remember to post more information about it as the show gets closer. More information about the show can be found at the nEW Festival's site.

Ride the Snake

2009-04-21T09:31:00.005-04:00

I had a great time at the two shows two weeks ago, thanks to everyone involved. Pandar and I have been cooped up in the studio (despite the beautiful Philadelphia spring weather) finishing up the new Gemini Wolf record. This one is wildly different than our last one, Josiah. Although in some ways it's more stripped down and electronic, in other ways it's lusher and more organic with the additional of a string quartet, a horn section, vibraphone and more analog gear.

This week we're getting back into the swing of live shows as we ramp up for our CD Release Party in July at Johnny Brenda's. We're pleased to announce that our old drummer, Gary Dann, back from his India/Nepal/Thailand adventure will be playing drums with us. You can check out all the details of the shows in the performances section. Both shows will feature an all earSnake lineup (except for Mixel Pixel at the M-Room show). Here's the run down

Saturday April 25 - eckhaus @ Kutztown

Saturday May 16 - earSnake Night at M Room

Lastly, this Saturday and Sunday you can hear some Mikronesia original music for the new Ring Dance piece at Haverford College.

Bryn Mawr College Spring Dance Concert
Saturday April 25 and Sunday April 26, 7:30 PM
Marshall Auditorium at Haverford College
370 Lancaster Ave
Haverford, PA 19041.

Shows This Week

2009-03-27T09:55:00.008-04:00

I'm getting back to live performing this week after a few months of no Mikronesia shows. It's been a very productive couple of months in the studio and I can't wait to share all this new music with the masses. We've still got some work to do on the Gemini Wolf album, tentatively titled, Repetition Brings Relief. We've got some more overdubs and mixing to do, but we can see the finish line for this project. There are dozens of other Mikronesia tracks and compositions floating around my hard drive. Probably after the Gemini Wolf album, I'll finish most of those up and organize them into some kind of release.

Here's the info about the shows next week. I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing for either show, so both with be highly improvised, which is always fun! For the Monday night show, I'll be doing my best to make all my digital stuff fit a silent Buster Keaton movie from the 30s.

Monday March 30
The Monday Night Club@ National Mechanics
Host: Needles Jones
Curator: A.D. Amorosi
Monday March 30, 9PM
presents
PhillyCine Fest Indies post-party with films from local independent directors and performances from earSnake Recordings Mikronesia and1K Recordings Tim Motzer making diabolical live soundtracks to silent films by Stan Brakhage and Buster Keaton
National Mechanics (22 S. 3rd St.)

The Friday night show should be a very exciting culmination of the work I've been doing with the Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd dancers, sound artist Bilwa and collaborating with some of the best improvisers in the city, Alban Bailey, Gene Coleman and Helena Espvall. Plus we'll have videos from the brilliant John Phillips. This may be the last big multi-media / dance / artwork / music event I get do with Bilwa and Emily before they leave for Europe in the fall.

Friday April 3

featuring musicians Helena Espvall, Alban Bailly, Gene Coleman, Bilwa, and Mikronesia, dancers Emily Sweeney, Zornitsa Stoyanova, Rebecca Patek, and Jil Stifel, and video artist John Phillips, in collaboration with Soundfield
Tyler School of Art Gallery
259 N. Third street Philadelphia, PA (Old City)

InFlux

2009-03-20T18:07:00.002-04:00

Some Mikronesia music (sections of Arms Bent from Tissue Paper Ghosts and some other unreleased sounds) will be part of Michelle Stortz's piece tomorrow night at Mascher Space.

http://mascherdance.com/in-flux/

InFlux at Mascher Space Co-op
Saturday March 21st, 8pm
155 Cecil B. Moore Avenue 2B, Philadelphia, PA 19122
$5

Artists Showing Work:
Bidisha Dasgupta
Tomas Dura
Jumatatu Poe
Michelle Stortz

and also tomorrow night, Paper Masques will be performing for their CD Release, Tell the Ghosts It's Suppertime (earSnake). Along with several other special guests, I'll be playing xylophone and melodica with them for one song.

Monthy Update

2009-03-04T17:04:00.004-05:00

Ok here I am for my monthly update. I know, it's been a while. I've mostly been in the studio working on the Gemini Wolf album with Megan, as well as some studio stuff. I've also been shedding on classical composition skills studying with James Guglielimo.

We've been working on the Gemini Wolf album since December, we've recorded strings, horns, percussion and lots of electronics from Megan and myself. So far it's sounding quite different than Josiah. Just minutes ago we confirmed the album will be released around the third week of July, with a album release party at Johnny Brenda's on July 18!

As a I prepare to come out of my winter studio hibernation, I've got a few performances coming up you can read about. They're within blocks and days of each other in March.

The next couple of weeks we'll be finishing up the Gemini Wolf album and I'm working on three or four Mikronesia recording projects that have been slowly evolving in three separate directions: a dubby beat album, grainy ambient soundscapes and an electronic deconstruction of a string quartet I wrote and the recorded version of Pangaea: Trinity Sun.

Mikronesia on WHYY

2009-02-05T21:55:00.001-05:00

I forgot to post this in the last post but a snippet of some Mikronesia music was featured on WHYY Morning Edition on NPR.

Here it is - Cheers!

Download Audio (mp3)

NEXUSradio Closing Party

2009-02-05T21:37:00.002-05:00

Well two months have gone by very fast at NEXUSradio (well for me as a listener and part-time contributor, but probably not for Bilwa and Nick and all the people that have been working hard everyday to keep it on air). Tomorrow is the closing party for NEXUSradio and it's going to be off the handle.

Just to recap, NEXUSradio was a two month art gallery "installation" where they turned the gallery into a functioning low powered AM radiostation. They had a super wide range of on air and in gallery events, from chamber music, to DJs to live theater to comedy to talk radio. It was an honor to be a part of NEXUSradio and it's sad to see it go. Maybe it will be back again someday.

The first thing I did at NEXUSradio, was one of the first events there; a string quartet recording for upcoming Gemini Wolf album and future Mikronesia project. You can hear the "string only" version of the Gemini Wolf song, The Music You Make - here. The other string quartet we recorded was a full version of "Daemon En Gauze". That will be released after some production and processing for a full length album down the road.

Gemini Wolf did a small acoustic-y set for the Winter Solstice celebration. That a fun weird day with a fake fire place, live painting, and video. Megan and I were zonked, since it was the day after Festivus, but we did our thing.

Then a few weeks later we had earSnake day, with performace by Ben Fleury-Steiner, Baby Cowface and Carl Franke. It was also the long awaited premiere of the prequel to the opera, Pangaea. Solomon Slowburn and I did a performance of the Orson Wells type radio drama with narration by Solomon and music by myself of the creation myth of Pangaea. We have a recording of that, but I'm putting the finishing touches on a studio version of that piece which will be released on earSnake soon.

So thanks to Nick, Bilwa and everyone who was involved with NEXUSradio, it was a great event that expanded the minds and ears of people within the radio span of 1650 AM.

2009-01-11T09:44:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year. I’d like to take moment to thank all the musicians and artists I was able to work with in 2008. Last year was a tremendous year of growth for me as as a composer, a producer and an artist.

2009 is here and is looking to be an even more exciting and action packed year than 2008!

People close to me have been hearing me talk (and joke) about my “rock opera” Pangaea for years. It’s been something I’ve been kicking around for almost 15 years now! Last year I sat down and wrote out the story and I’ve sketched out about 3/4 of he music on piano. Last year, I was planning on performing it late this year and maybe early 2010. However, with the amount currently slated for Gemini Wolf, earSnake and other solo work, I would be rushing to get it done in a year. I’ve waited 15 year, so what’s another year or two?

I want to take time, get some funding, meticulously craft the score and recording, and make it the best production I’ve ever done. Therefore, I’ve decided to make the opera premiere and recording release Pangaea: When the Continents Were One on November 11, 2011. I’ve always been a fan of patterns with number, an an opera about one unified super continent seems like it should happen on 11/11/11 (plus it’s a Friday).

This will also give me some time to premiere some supplementary narrative and artistic work to help contextualize and tell the mythological tale of Pangaea, which bring us to this Saturday.

This Saturday, Solomon Slowburn (earSnake MC/Poet/Musican) and I will be premiering Pangaea: Trinity Sun on air for NEXUSradio. Trinity Sun, is an epic poem of the creation myth of Pangaea in the vein of Judaeo-Christian story, Genesis, or the hundreds of other Creation Myths out there. The idea came from Christian (Solomon Slowburn) to make the first chapter in the Pangaea story the myth that the tribes on Pangaea belive, which gives them a moral and spiritual guidance in their lives.

This will be the first in a series of smaller scale Pangaea performances leading up to the opera in 2011.

The performance will be Christian reading the text with orignial ambient music I wrote and will perform on air at NEXUSradio. In December 2008 and January 2009, Nexus Gallery has been turned into a low powered AM station for the comminity in North Philadelphia. If you’re in Philadelphia you can tune in to 1650 AM or drop by the gallery. The performance will be around 5 PM on Saturday January 10. From noon until 6 PM that day is earSnake day with performances by some instrumental / experimental earSnake artists. Check earSnake.com for details.

After the performance, we’ll record the piece and post here and on the forthcoming Pangaea website.

Pangaea: Trinity Sun

2009-01-05T10:03:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year. I'd like to take moment to thank all the musicians and artists I was able to work with in 2008. Last year was a tremendous year of growth for me as as a composer, a producer and an artist.

2009 is here and is looking to be an even more exciting and action packed year than 2008!

People close to me have been hearing me talk (and joke) about my "rock opera" Pangaea for years. It's been something I've been kicking around for almost 15 years now! Last year I sat down and wrote out the story and I've sketched out about 3/4 of he music on piano. Last year, I was planning on performing it late this year and maybe early 2010. However, with the amount currently slated for Gemini Wolf, earSnake and other solo work, I would be rushing to get it done in a year. I've waited 15 year, so what's another year or two?

I want to take time, get some funding, meticulously craft the score and recording, and make it the best production I've ever done. Therefore, I've decided to make the opera premiere and recording release Pangaea: When the Continents Were One on November 11, 2011. I've always been a fan of patterns with number, an an opera about one unified super continent seems like it should happen on 11/11/11 (plus it's a Friday).

This will also give me some time to premiere some supplementary narrative and artistic work to help contextualize and tell the mythological tale of Pangaea, which bring us to this Saturday.

This Saturday, Solomon Slowburn (earSnake MC/Poet/Musican) and I will be premiering Pangaea: Trinity Sun on air for NEXUSradio. Trinity Sun, is an epic poem of the creation myth of Pangaea in the vein of Judaeo-Christian story, Genesis, or the hundreds of other Creation Myths out there. The idea came from Christian (Solomon Slowburn) to make the first chapter in the Pangaea story the myth that the tribes on Pangaea belive, which gives them a moral and spiritual guidance in their lives.

This will be the first in a series of smaller scale Pangaea performances leading up to the opera in 2011.

The performance will be Christian reading the text with orignial ambient music I wrote and will perform on air at NEXUSradio. In December 2008 and January 2009, Nexus Gallery has been turned into a low powered AM station for the comminity in North Philadelphia. If you're in Philadelphia you can tune in to 1650 AM or drop by the gallery. The performance will be around 5 PM on Saturday January 10. From noon until 6 PM that day is earSnake day with performances by some intrumental / experimental earSnake artists. Check earSnake.com for details.

After the performance, we'll record the piece and post here and on the forthcoming Pangaea website.

[Image credit (croped image) NASA/JPL-Caltech]

string recordings

2008-12-13T13:45:00.002-05:00

Sitting here at Nexus Gallery. We're getting ready to record some strings live, on air for nexusRadio. We're going to be recording a piece for the upcoming Gemini Wolf album and a string quartet byMikronesia , "Daemon en Gauze". Folks in Philly can tune into 1650 AM, to hear the live recording session today (Saturday 12/13) from 2pm til 6pm.

Cochlea Wrapup and Reviews

2008-11-25T10:39:00.005-05:00

Cochlea was featured on artblog this weekend. Mike and I are very excited about this nice review with photos and video! (photo and video credits: artblog)

Here's the review:
The audio sculptures by McDermott and Murray are charming mash ups of found objects, motors and iPods that play sounds. One of the four pieces wasn't working but the other three tinkled and jangled and one, with boots, which was interactive, sounded like a fog horn. The spinning, found-object piece evokes memories of the boardwalk, wind chimes and merry go rounds. The piece with the boots -- which you pull down to activate -- visualized putting your feet to the fire (or, here, to what looks like a can of worms).

The sounds playing in Little Berlin's rough space with high rafters and peeling paint reminded me of David Byrne's sound piece, Playing the Building (see post). McDermott and Murray's work is more humble and experimental than Byrne's and I enjoyed it immensely. (I'm hoping it was fun making it -- it was fun experiencing the results.) Murray, by the way, is the sculptor. He's also the founder of art@sophi. And here's about McDermott from the LB press release: "McDermott is a Philadelphia based composer, musician, producer and sound designer. He co-founded the label/collective earSnake and has released music as Mikronesia and with his band, Gemini Wolf."

It's been a busy couple of months in Mikronesia land. From my Fringe piece(s) TalkTalk and Assembling Minutiae, to "Tomas" to "Cochlea". It's been a very rewarding time in my development as an artist.

Things will be slowing down in Mikronesia-land for the next couple of weeks as I sort through photos and recordings and try and get my portfolio up to date. I'll still be plenty busy with non-Mikronesia stuff. We're working on a new earSnake Holiday CD/Podcast and show in December. Also Megan and I are busy working on the new Gemini Wolf album. Also we'll be in New York next week performing at Trash Bar on Wednesday December 3 with Lillie Ruth Bussey.

In December and January I'll be taking part in the nexusRadio project. The details are still not 100% clear, but in December I'll be doing a day of recording my (and Gemini Wolf) string quartets and string parts on air. Then in January will be the premier of the "prequel" for my opera Pangaea. The prequel is the back story of the some of the characters of Pangaea. It's called Gorrock and Snakegar and it's a old school Orson Wells style radio drama! More on that later. For now enjoy the Cochlea video and photos. Cochlea is open this Saturday 11/29 and the last day it will be open is Saturday 12/6.

Tomas and Cochlea

2008-11-11T11:27:00.003-05:00

Thanks to all the wonderful people who came out to our opening at Little Berlin Gallery. Tons of people came through an interacted and experienced our installation with open minds, eyes and ears. Thanks to Martha and John and everyone at little Berlin. Special thanks to Mike Murray for his inspiration and extreme carpentry and artistic skills! Hopefully we'll be able to collaborate again in the future.

Here's a movie Carl made of people playing with stuff from Cochlea.

Cochlea At Little Berlin from Carl Franke on Vimeo.

Megan took some photos and I want to get some sound recording of Cochlea while it's up. For those who could attend the opening, Little Berlin is open every Saturday from noon til 5:00 PM. Cochlea will be there until December 6.

Finally, here's some photos and recordings from my flute quartet premiere back in October.

Photos:

Photos by Megan Cauley

Recording:
Tomas by Michael McDermott
Flute: Danielle Brosious, Bob Carpency, Heather Fortune and Jacquelyn Howell
Electronics: Mikronesia

Download VBR MP3 of Tomas

Cochlea Press Release

2008-10-27T11:51:00.004-04:00

I'm very excited about my next show. It's a sound and sculpture installation at Little Berlin Gallery. I've worked with Mike Murray for a few years now. Gemini Wolf and Mikronesia have played at Art@Sophi, the gallery he co-ran for a few years. Mike did some set design and live painting for some shows we've done at Art@Sophi. For a good part of 2008, we have been working and planning on our first full on collaboration. We've created some fantastic giant sculptures and constructions (made by Mike) with sound design elements (by Me). The opening is in about two weeks. Here's the press release and the flyer. You definitely have never seen anything like this show we're putting together. It sounds and looks like an alien symphony of wood and sound.

Sound artist Michael McDermott (Mikronesia) and sculptor/mixed-media artist Michael Murray join forces to present Cochlea: an automated sound and art installation at Little Berlin Gallery.

McDermott is a Philadelphia based composer, musician, producer and sound designer. He co-founded the label / collective earSnake and has released music as Mikronesia and with his band, Gemini Wolf. In addition to electronic / ambient solo performances with computer and piano, McDermott has composed small works for strings and flute and scored original music for modern dance.

Murray is a visual artist who utilizes mixed materials to create large constructions, bizarre situations and material explosions in space. A determined self-starter, Murray has shown at both whitecouch art room and art@Sophi which he also curated and founded in 2005.

With Cochlea, the two create another world, abstracting the ways sound related to movement, sight, touch and awareness. Using large scale constructions crafted by Murray along with pre-recorded and auto generated sounds by McDermott, Kensiginton's Little Berlin Gallery will be transformed with several large scale works suspended from the ceiling that blur the lines between sight and sound.

Opening Reception Friday November 7
with video installation by SHIFT and live performance by Melissa St. Pierre

little berlin
an undefined exhibition space

119 West Montgomery
Philadelphia PA, 19122

free and open to the public
Saturdays 12-5pm
or by appointment
(610) 308 0579

www.myspace.com/berlinlittle

Tomas

2008-10-13T12:38:00.003-04:00

Here's a flyer for the performance next week... The flute players are sounding great and I can't wait to hear the rest of the show.

Flutes and magical machines

2008-10-08T11:17:00.002-04:00

I'm getting excited for some upcoming projects. Tomorrow night I'm rehearsing with the flute quartet for the first time for my piece Tomas, which is going to be premiered at Nexus Gallery on October 22.

Also Mike Murray and I have been working a lot on our Little Berlin gallery installation Cochlea. We've made a giant turning chime machine that plucks 16 guitar strings (see a rough picture to the left). It's the central brain of the whole exhibition. When it all comes together I think people are really going to dig it. Abstract constructions and sound colliding together.

Also if you haven't check it out yet, my new album Host is available for download and CD purchase over at earSnake.

Here's the cover. The original pressing was a wood block pressing that Megan did. There's about 10 left, but the rest will be your standard jewel case. Unless you buy it digitally, then you're just getting the songs.

Green Line Cafe Show

2008-09-29T10:40:00.003-04:00

First off, thanks to everyone involved in the Fun Razor at Johnny Brenda's on Friday. Its loads of fun!!

We got some videos of Gemini Wolf's set from Carl Franke that I'll be posting soon...

This Thursday I'm playing my first Mikronesia solo show since April (I think).

Thursday October 2
David First (of NoteKillers)
Planet Y (Yanni Papadopoulos of Stinking Lizavetta and Charles Cohen)
Mikronesia
Green Line Cafe. 45th and Locust. West Philly.
7PM (sharp). $7

Should be an awesome night of experimental improvised electronic music!

Plus this will be an unofficial album release for my album Host which is coming out digitally on earSnake tomorrow.

Reckoner Remix

2008-09-25T14:44:00.003-04:00

Radiohead is hosting another remix contest. I kind of slept on the last one to remix "Nude". To be honest, I wasn't too into the version that was on In Rainbows. I kind of liked the older version when it was known as "Big Ideas" from Meeting People Is Easy back in the 90s (yes, Meg).

The new song Radiohead has chosen for this remix is one of my favorite new Radiohead songs. I was thrilled to do my own remix of "Reckoner". Today is the first cold, grey fall day in Philadelphia (where I work), so I think that inspired the sound and tone of my remix. Check it out and vote for it (if you like it).

Thanks!

TalkTalk recordings

2008-09-20T12:33:00.005-04:00

First off, thanks to all that came out to participated in TalkTalk. Obviously with out the crowd at Rocket Cat Cafe this piece never would have happened. It was so much fun and people were very cooperative and open to the process.

For those not familiar with TalkTalk, it was my Live Arts Fringe Festival performance that happened in September 2008. The basic idea was to setup a bunch of microphones and make a real-time sound installation by sampling and manipulating the sounds I record of people talking, banging plates, moving chairs, buses outside, ringing bells and in some instances playing instruments and cellphones. For those interested in the technical aspects of TalkTalk I used eight microphones (mostly SM-58 and SM-57s) direct into M-Audio 1814 interface chained with an M-Audio Octane 8 channel preamp. Everything was recorded, chopped up, stretched and mangled with Ableton Live 7.0 and lots of free VST pluggins running out to an external mixer with a Kaoss mini-KP on the send.

Special thanks to Megan for working the (overly complex) Fringe ticket table and all her support with this project, Bilwa for his help setting up, Karen and Thom who own the Rocket Cat and allowed me to do this installation / performance, Holly and Danielle who worked at the Rocket Cat during the TalkTalk nights and for making some noise when things got too quiet and to all the crazies who made their way in and out of the fabric of my piece.

Below are two excerpts from Thursday 9/11 and Friday 9/12. Send me your feedback on what you think.

To download the complete shows in various audio formats please visit, http://www.archive.org/details/Talktalk09122008 and http://www.archive.org/details/Talktalk09112008

TalkTalk - Thursday 9/11/2008

TalkTalk - Friday 9/12/2008

Last two performances...

2008-09-11T11:13:00.002-04:00

Tonight (9/11) and Friday (9/12) will be the final performances of talktalk. I think a lot of people are coming on Friday, so to get a seat and be heard, I would try and come tonight.

talktalk is my Philly Fringe Performance where I mic up the entire Rocket Cat Cafe and record, sample and make music out of talking, ambient noises, etc. It has been very fun and wildly different the two nights I did it last week.

So come out and get sampled!

Thursday 9/11 and Friday 9/12
Mikronesia Presents: talktalk
Rocket Cat Cafe
2001 Frankford Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19125
8PM - 9PM. $5

Lastly, Megan and I wanted to thank Scott Johnson and the UnOfficial Fringe Late Night Cabaret crew for a fun evening last night. The Fleischer space was transcendent and the other acts, Dr. Sketchy, etc were a lot of fun too! Thanks to everyone for the great feed back and we'll see you at our next Gemini Wolf show with Pink Skull at Johnny Brenda's (9/26).

Fringe Late Night Cabaret

2008-09-10T09:41:00.002-04:00

The Philly Fringe Festival is going by so fast! I got to attend two show of asNexus with Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd and J.Makary this past weekend. It was a superb show of film, dance and music. It was nice to see my piece "Pure" in the context of Emily's movement, Blaine's video and Bilwa's set and sound design. Nice work everyone!

Tonight Gemini Wolf is getting into the Fringe spirit by performing at the UnOffical Late Night Cabaret.

Here's the details

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 10
UnOfficial Fringe Late Night Cabaret
Sanctuary, 719 Catharine Street
FREE ADMISSION (21 and over)
7:00 - 10:00 PM: Dames, drinking and drawing with special edition of Dr. Sketchy's Philadelphia
10:00 PM - ?: Performances by Liberty City Kings (LiCK), Gemini Wolf, and Infinien

Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial
719 Catharine Street | Philadelphia, PA 19147-2811 | 215.922.3456
(picture to the left; probably one of the most amazing spaces Gemini Wolf has ever performed)

See you kids there and don't forget the last two performances of talktalk - Thursday and Friday night at the Rocket Cat Cafe.

talktalk Week One

2008-09-05T10:50:00.005-04:00

The first two nights of the Fringe Festival performance of talktalk have gone great! The first night was, admittedly, slow. It was the day after Labor Day and people just weren't out in the city. So talktalk was attended by a small group of rabble rousers, musicians and singers. As people moved around Rocket Cat singing, playing instruments, playing their cellphones, talking into the various microphones, I was basically "dubbing" them out as they played. It was an amazing mix of live playing and my tweaking- a lot of fun!

Thursday nights performance was much more packed. For this one I got more crowd noise and conversation as the source material. There was still a few people amusing themselves by clapping or tapping on glasses in rhythm with the music I was creating. It seemed most people were just listening to the music and keeping and ear out for a mangled snippet of their own talking in the mix. The overall sound was more dense and rhythmic.

For talktalk , I basically disassembled by studio and set it up each night at the Rocket Cat. I've been recording the performances from each night. Once I get my studio back together I'll post them here so people can hear the wildly different sounds of each night.

Talk will resume for the last two shows, Thursday September 11 and Friday September 12.

I've got about a week off from talktalk. This weekend, I'm involved with another Fringe Festival performance "Assembling Minutiae" for asNexus. I've only seen some of the set, so I'm excited to see my score ("Pure" from my new album Host) in the world that Emily and Bilwa have created. Here's the info for that:

NEXUS/foundation for today's art presents asNEXUS, performance installations by member artists J. Makary and Perpetual Movement and Sound that heighten the experience of the body through technology. Seeking form in minutiae, Perpetual Movement and Sound amplify the movements of dancers using live-feed audio and video, while J. Makary's video-based performance enters a fantasy where youth subculture never dies but instead matures.

Friday, September 5 through Monday, September 8
8:30 p.m.
$10

NEXUS/foundation for today's art
Crane Arts Building, 1400 N. American St. #102, Philadelphia

For tickets, please call the Festival Box Office at 215.413.1318 or visit www.livearts-fringe.org

After this show Gemini Wolf is doing a Fringe after party at the Fleischer Art Memorial at 7th and Catherine. It's Wednesday 9/10 night around 10 PM. More info on that after this weekend.

Get out and see some shows!!

the fringe is here

2008-09-02T10:38:00.002-04:00

Today is the debut performance of talktalk. I've been really busy this weekend and with the help of Megan and Bilwa have gotten everything all setup at Rocket Cat Cafe. Some really good press has been coming in about the show. Shaun Brady did a nice little blurb in the Philadelphia Daily News. The story was about the "fringe of the fringe" with a photo Megan did of me as "Mikronesia Sane". Here's an excerpt:

"Talktalk": Sound artist Mikronesia mixes sounds from his surroundings – in this case, the Rocket Cat Café – into a real-time sound sculpture that allows the audience to become fodder for an ever-evolving auditory installation

Check out the entire review here.

Sums it up nicely. Just a quick correction from the article, the show dates for Talktalk are Tuesday September 2, Thursday September 4, Thursday September 11 and Friday September 12 all at 8:00 at Rocket Cat Cafe. 2001 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19125.

Tickets are $5 and available at the door, the fringe box office or at phillyfringe.org

Also some else I'm really excited about is my new album Host has been released today on earSnake.

Host is two twenty minute tracks of very deep introspective ambient music. The first track is a melange of field recordings, drones and glitch computer treatments called "Snow Wind Cast Into the Fire Well". The second track is featured in the Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd show "Assembling Minutiae" at Nexus Gallery this weekend. That track is called "Pure" and it's a very soothing sea of pure sine waves over tones that make up the note "C".

For the next two weeks the CD will be available exclusively at the Rocket Cat Cafe Fringe shows and at Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd's show at Nexus Gallery. After the Fringe ends you can buy the album digitally from earSnake.com.

The limited edition CD available only at the fringe are a beautiful hand made linoleum block press of bronze ink on card stock jacket lovingly created by Megan Cauley (fastpanda). They are in limited supply and really look lovely. Here's a photo of the studio as they were being created.

Talking about talktalk

2008-08-17T21:12:00.002-04:00

So things have been busy here at the end of the summer. Some cool new releases coming out on earSnake and working on some new Gemini Wolf music.

I've really been focusing on my Philadelphia Fringe Festival piece, talktalk. I'm really excited about this work and think it's going to really be something special. It combines all my favorite aspects of sound, improvisation, crowd interaction and laptop trickery.

The basic concept of the piece is recording the ambient conversations and noises from a cafe, slicing the sounds up, processing them on the laptop and replaying them, almost instantly as music concrete. So prior to the performance, I'm going to hang 8-10 microphones from the ceiling, on tables and contact microphones through out The Rocket Cat Cafe.

It's going to be interesting to see to what extent the people at the Rocket Cat will consciously try and shape the sound of the performance. I'm hoping that it morphs and is different every night. Some nights, I imagine, people will kind of ignore the sounds I'm making, and just carry on their conversations. Perhaps other nights, people will shout and sing and make noises on the microphones to try and shape the musical output.

The performances details are:

Tuesday September 2, Thursday September 4, Thursday September 11 and Friday September 12. All performances at 8:00 PM. The Rocket Cat Cafe. 2001 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia, PA 19125. Cost $5

You can purchase tickets ahead of time here - http://www.livearts-fringe.org/2008/details.cfm?id=5287

As a preview for the piece I'll be performing Monday August 25 at the Balcony at Trocadaro for a Fringe Festival Showcase night.

For this I'll probably setup two microphone and do some live processing making music from the balcony crowd.

Here's the details on that show...

BALCONY PRESENTS Mon. 8/25 THE MONDAY NIGHT CLUB with host NEEDLES JONES + DJ EVAN G Weekly clusterf*** of local bands & solo musicians, thespians, artists, authors, comedians, DJs, jammers and scammers experimentions on an in-the-biz night. This week... Live Arts/Fringe Fest Unofficial Fringe Cabaret workshopping, networking & open mic finale. Hosted by Needles Jones and Liz Rywelski. Co-hosted by The Love Show and Mikronesia. FREE ADMISSION Doors @ 10:00pm - 21+ ID REQ

Hello, Ello

2008-07-28T00:01:00.002-04:00

It's been a hot minute since I've posted here. Continuing my summer of George. Busy working and scheming on some plans for the fall. Working with Mike Murray for installation at Little Berlin in Novmeber... Writing some "chamber" type stuff for some performances at Nexus. Working on new GW ditties... Doing a bunch of earSnake label type stuff. Working on new tracks for the next Mikronesia album... Lots and lots of behind the scenes work.

Except for our improv Zagar Magic Garden show back in June, I haven't played a show all summer. All that's about to change. We've got two late summer Gemini Wolf shows coming up in August.

The first Gemini Wolf show in next week in Durham, North Carolina at a really cool art space called Bull City HQ. All the info is on the pink flyer to your left. You can also get all the details in the performances section.

A week or so later Gemini Wolf will be performing in Philly at the all earSnake jamboree and album release party for Lillie Ruth Bussey's Truthful Little Ditties at Silk City. The night will feature a Gemini Wolf (3.5) lineup of Pandar and Mikronesia, taking to the streets Rerun bootleg style. Also on the bill are fellow earSnakers Bilwa and Zelda Pinwheel. Here's the flyer (to the right).

Summer Soltice Reverie Videos

2008-06-26T16:55:00.003-04:00

Steven from Fire Museum Records has posted some videos of the performances from Saturday's show at Zagar's Magic Garden. I didn't see any of Megan and I, but maybe it's in there somewhere. Enjoy the Reverie!

http://www.youtube.com/user/FireMuseumRecords

Also, just a quick note to regular readers, mikronesia [at] mikronesia [dot] com is not working now, so please send all emails to mikroneisa [at] gmail [dot] com.

[O][K] [Dokie] [?]

[Good]

New Site and other things

2008-06-22T17:22:00.005-04:00

Well it's been about a month since I made a post here in the website. It's been a slow time. As I mentioned before, I've just been working in the studio, making music, playing piano, walking in the woods, watching baseball, drinking lemonade and enjoying the summer.

Also during this time, I redesigned the website as well. I enjoyed the old pink and black website that's been up since early 2007, but I felt like it was a little awkward and distracting looking. Since this site chronicles (more or less) over ten years of my musical adventures it features 10 years of flyers, photos, posters and albums covers. So I decided to make something muted and ambient and let the vibrant colors of the photos, etc. color the site.

In addition to the visual redesign, I have updated and refined some of the sections and just generally cleaned everything up.

It's going to be a busy fall for Mikronesia projects, so I wanted to use this down time to reorganize my little gateway to all things Mikronesia.

Send me your feedback and let me know what you think.

Also wanted to just briefly thank everyone who was involved in the Summer Solstice Reverie at Zagar's Magic Garden. Thanks to Steven from Fire Museum Records for putting it together. It was basically a summer celebration of sound with three hours of improvised music performed in all the nooks and crannies of this spectacular site. Megan and I did a cool little 20 minute of set of improvised noise. I recorded it, so I'll check it out when I head down to the studio and maybe post something if it turned out. Also saw lots of cameras snapping photos, so I'll link to some photos or videos if they come up.

Still a few weeks (at least) until performing gets back into swing. Until then it's studio and organization time. Until then.

Studio-ups

2008-05-22T07:53:00.002-04:00

The funstival was a super intense whirl-wind of music, dance, adventure, mayhem, cake and vagicorns. You had to be there. Pandar and I got a great reception to our duo set and some new Gemini Wolf tunes we debuted.

Now with no shows on the calendar until at least August (except for a small improv show that's taking place around the Popped! Festival - more on that in a few weeks)... it's time to get back in the studio, write and create.

This fall is going to be a very busy time in my life, so it's time to get back to that little orange room at the bottom of my house and create, create, create!

Who Likes Fun?

2008-05-12T09:46:00.005-04:00

So this Friday is the long awaited FUNSTIVAL! I'm not sure if it's suppose to be in all caps, but it seems like it warrants such typography.

Along with Pink Skull, The Hessians, Mural and the Mint and tons of other performances, Gemini Wolf (Pandar and Mikronesia duo-style) are going to be doing a short set of material adding to the carny attitude of the evening.

Megan and I are excited, we've been working on some new Gemini Wolf tunes and are going to be playing them in their work-in-progress stage as an electro-noise two piece.

So it's this Friday May 16 (my birthday eve) at Johnny Brenda's - Girard/Frankford - around 10:30 Da Wolf howls!

Here's the press release for the show so all your detailed oriented people can get your bearings.

PRESS RELEASE
friday may 16th 2007
mascher[space]coop
presents
FUNSTIVAL!
a fundraiser to benefit
mascher[space]co op

MC:Shawn "not sean" Kilroy (to him mc means move the crowd)

DJ Royal T (electro/freestlyle)//special hour dj set by Pink Skull

live music by

The Hessians
shawn kilroy often invents and reinvents his musical projects.for this show he takes it back to an earlier
electro/italian disco meets sisters of mercy approach.featuring 3 sexy & glamorous back up singers and a dj named bilwa.
'nough said.
www.myspace.com/thaistickdragon

Gemini Wolf
stripping down their massive eight person electro-orchestral mammoth
to just some glitchy electronics, tribal percussion and noisy affairs
they will be debuting some works-in-progress from their album, some
covers and re-inventing some old favorites.
www.myspace.com/geminiwolf

Umlaut
Umlaut is a myriad of styles by the multiple members dedicated to having fun, shaking your booty and just being generally silly. The robots are all about bringing a smile to your lovely faces whilst having our tongues firmly in our cheeks. Because it feels good to laugh and life’s too short to be serious all the time...
www.myspace.com/umlautphiladelphia

The Mural and the Mint
"...it dwells on ticklish piano and Kiley’s pretty, near-acrobatic singing, with sharp lyrics that flit from love and fatherhood to “gritty city streets.” (Doug Wallen) Philadelphia Weekly

"All of the songs here practically illuminate with their own unique, beautiful, and quiet strength." -Girl About Town

"Sometimes you stumble upon something that restores your faith in an angry city. Restores your faith in strangers and ideals. Not in a cheesy way; just a nice refreshing way. The Mural and the Mint did that for me." -Ugh News

www.themuralandthemint.com

dance performances by
New extreme Dance Explosions Awesomes "the princess and the vagicorn"...you do the math.
PIMA group "PIMA pump!" a high energycheerleading routine set to music by M.I.A.lead by melissa putz
ChristinaZani/DevynnEmory /Sam Miller perform a kate bush song in music and dance
Megan Bridge and her dancers perform a modern/pole dance on the balcony.
MAPcollective showcase sight specific movement work by Jen Mcginn.

FUNSTIVAL
Friday May 16
Johnny Brenda's
Frankford/Girard Fishtown
www.johnnybrendas.com
www.mascherdance.com
$10 donation. 21+. 8PM

Midnight Winds of London

2008-05-08T09:34:00.002-04:00

Here's a video film maker Dereck Moench and I did a few weeks ago. It's for a Harold Budd Film Festival where people take a new score he wrote "The Midnight Winds of London" and reinterpret it anyway they see fit. It will be playing at the Bath Music Festival 2008,at The Pavilion, Bath, England on 31st May 2008.

Mikronesia - The Midnight Winds of London {2-part reinterpretation} from Derek Moench on Vimeo.

String trio and solo piano audio

2008-04-25T16:14:00.006-04:00

The premiere of my piece, "Daemon En Gauze" exceeded my expectations. Carlos, Martha and Eve played so wonderfully and it was very well received. Below if the audio from the piece which you can download from Archive.org

[MP3]
Carlos Santiago - violin, Martha Savery - viola, Eve Miller - cello. Composed by Mikronesia.
Recorded live at Nexus Gallery - 04/23/2008

[MP3] Mikronesia - piano and electronics
Recorded live at The Rotunda - 04/18/2008

photos by: Pandar

String Trio This Wednesday

2008-04-21T16:49:00.002-04:00

Had a great time at the two performances on Friday. The art opening at Slought was very inspiring and lots of people. Bilwa and I rocked it dual laptop style taking it back to some 90s Warp Records minimal IDM for a while at the opening. People seemed to be really into it.

Then I headed over to GATE, did an improv set of laptop and piano. I got a really stellar recording of this performance and plan on posting it here soon....

This week Wednesday night is the Paraphrase<>Nexus show. The premiere of my string trio, "Daemon En Gauze".

It starts around 8PM at the Nexus Gallery at the Crane Arts Building - 1400 N. American Street (Fishtown).

There's a nice article about the event in this week's City Paper

In addition, composer/sound artist Mikronesia will premiere "Daemon En Gauze," a string trio performed by Normal Love violinist Carlos Santiago, violist Martha Savery of Gemini Wolf, and Rachel's cellist, Eve Miller. Having worked extensively in electronic music, Mikronesia employs acoustic instruments to emulate the textures of electronics in the piece, inspired by the work of Gyorgy Ligeti.

Read the entire article here - http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/04/17/just-do-it-3

Two Performance this Friday

2008-04-16T09:10:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I'll be performing with fellow Snd-er from Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd, Bilwa at Slought Foundation. We'll be doing an improv set of beats, melodies and effects during the opening reception to a new show at the Slought Foundation called 239 Years (Divided by 12 Artists).

So that's this Friday at Slought at 4017 Walnut, starts around 6:30 (complete information below).

Then as that performance is wrapping up, I'll be doing a set at this week's GATE show across the street. This will be a solo acoustic piano and electronics Mikronesia set. Also are the bill are Brown Wing Overdrive and Myo, plus visuals from Marge.

So that's around 8 PM at the Rotunda at 4012 Walnut. So folks in and around Penn's campus on Friday and can definetly get their Mikro on with two performances.

Friday April 18 - 6:30 PM
Opening Reception for 239 Years (Divided By 12 Artists)
Slought Foundation, Philadelphia is pleased to announce 239 years (divided by 12 artists), an exhibition in the Slought Foundation galleries of new faces on the contemporary art scene, on display April 18 - May 18, 2008. The artists featured in this exhibition are working with photography, painting, sculpture, and video and are based in Philadelphia, New York, and Berlin. The opening reception will take place on Friday, April 18, 2008 from 6:30-8:30pm with the artists present, with live electronic music improvisation by bilwa and Mikronesia.

Slought Foundation
4017 Walnut Street Philadelphia
http://slought.org/content/11397/

**********************************************************************

Friday April 18 - 8:00 PM
GATE
Brown Wing Overdrive
Mikronesia
Myo
live visuals by Marge

Free admission
The Rotunda
4014 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA

Begauze

2008-04-14T12:40:00.002-04:00

Something going on this week. Performance-wise, I'll be playing a Mikronesia laptop/ambient set at an art opening reception at Slought Foundation this Friday.

A reception with Mikronesia and Bilwa
Slought Foundation
4017 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3513
Slought.org
Ph: 215.701.4627
7pm

Also this week busy working with Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd on Rashomon V. It's sounding really good we're enjoying working William Fields on this one!

Also the string quartet, "Daemon En Gauze" is now a trio, a couple of factors made it so the 2nd violist couldn't make it and some other things made it so this premier is just going to be a trio. I say "just" but they sound amazing so far, we had a rehearsal going through the piece for the first time and I was blown away at how talented these players are. So that's going to be an exciting night for me.

Also working with Pandar on some new Gemini Wolf songs. We're hoping to debut a few at our duo show at Johnny Brenda's for the Mascher Space Coop Funstival!

NNTS02 - The best of NTNS radio Jan-Feb-Mar 2008

2008-03-31T15:37:00.003-04:00

You download and listen to this comp now. Go forth and listen!

http://www.mystahr.com/NNTS02.html

Contains the Mikronesia track "Royal" from vxvii

String Quartet

2008-03-31T11:07:00.002-04:00

Just finished up my first full length string quartet. It's called "Daemon En Gauze", it will be premiered on April 23 at Nexus Gallery as part of the Paraphrase Nexus series. I'm really excited to have such amazing players to perform the piece as well. It's going to feature violinist Carlos Santiago (from Normal Love), violists Martha Savery (from Gemini Wolf), Asim Jackson and Eve Miller (from the Rachels) on cello.

Also this week is our big Gemini Wolf show at the Barbary. Tell everybody this is going to be a blowout show unlike no other in Gemini Wolf history. We haven't had the opportunity to play a full on Gemini Wolf show in Philly since out show at Johnny Brenda's back in January. As a hinted last week, this may well be our last show until the fall. Our plan to take the summer off to record our follow-up album. Also member of the Gemini Wolf will be traveling and working on some side projects, so it will be time of growth and expansion for the band. Expect all your favorite Gemini Wolf tunes as well as some new songs from our catalog at this extended show.

Here's the info:

Thursday April 3
Gemini Wolf (with DJ's Bilwa and Diamond Girl)
The Barbary
900 Frankford Ave. (Frankford and Girard)
Philadelphia, PA
10PM. $5. 21+

Weeks, Months and Years

2008-03-23T23:24:00.002-04:00

I had a really super time at the latest installment of Perpual Mvmt<>Snd's Rashomon Effect. This was the fourth such performance of a four part interactive round-robin dance and music improvisation. This time I decided to leave all the electronics at home and just go simple and lo-fi. I played a melodica and a severely out of tune auto harp. It became very visceral and immediate for me since I could produce a dense and immediate sound with out having to have my electronics all sorted out before I could make a sound, which can be limiting in an improvisational settings. It was fun to just bash on the side of the auto harp or scream with the melodica when the mood struck me. Something about turning a knob or triggering a laptop sample that doesn't give you that same immediacy.

We also added to this Rashomon Performance to keep it a little more true to the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon, in which four people describe a murder from four different vantage points. Visual artist Blane Sigel choose a provocative video and the performers and audience all saw this video at the same time and we re-told what we saw through our performance. A nice added touch that I hope to work with more in the future.

The next installment of The Rashomon Effect will be on April 26. This will feature another layer of complexity. Myself, Bilwa and electronic musicians, William Fields and City of Horn's Rick Henderson will take a live recording from the March 22 Rashomon Effect and use that performance as source material for the fifth Rashomon. This "remixed" electronic score will be another layer abstraction and memory. I'm not 100% sure how the movement will be re-interpreted and de-constructed, but I'm sure Emily and crew having something up their sleeve.

Next week we will be playing our final Gemini Wolf show (I think) for several months. Since the Josiah release party back in May 2007, the band has been going full steam. We've played shows all over the North East. We've got so many songs in the incubation stage, we just need to bite the bullet and not book any more shows so we can sit down and work out these songs for the next album. So this is your chance to finally come out and see Gemini Wolf, if you haven't already. The show is going to quite a party with DJs Bilwa and Diamond Girl, a special long Gemini Wolf set we're were pretty much going to play our entire catalog and visuals by the Klip Collective. Here's the flyer with all the info

Gemini Wolf
Thursday 04/03
The Barbary
940 Frankford Ave. Philadelphia (Fishtown area)
10 PM - Post-Beach House Show

So April and May are going to quite busy with this show, the string quartet performance, a duet performance with Bilwa at Slought Foundation and the Mascher Space Coop FUNstival at Johnny Brenda's (where I'm going to my best at being a jazz cabaret pianist).

Then afterwards I'm looking forward to writing, recording and enjoying the summer by preparing for the many projects and performance that await me this fall.

Rashomon IV

2008-03-18T08:46:00.002-04:00

Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd presents The Rashomon Effect IV

Saturday, March 22, 2008
8:00p.m.
$5
Mascher Space Coop
155 Cecil B. Moore Ave (Mascher St. and Cecil B. Moore Ave.), Philadelphia
http://www.perpetualmvmtsnd.org

Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd offers a fourth episode in the performance series The Rashomon Effect, an improvised score featuring live music and dance and based on the storytelling method employed in Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film Rashomôn. The term "Rashomon effect" refers to the effect of subjectivity on recollection, by which observers of an event are able to produce substantially different but equally plausible accounts of it. In The Rashomon Effect, the performers inhabit an improvised score in which sound and movement themes are introduced and revisited by each, morphing and expanding as memories do.

Sound: Bilwa and Mikronesia, lap guitarist Jeb Lewis, and violist Martha Savery
Movement: Jil Stifel, Allison Lorenzen, Rebecca Patek, and Emily Sweeney
Visuals: Blaine Siegel

If you can't join us for this one, there will be a fifth installment of The Rashomon Effect on Saturday, April 26, 2008 at 8PM at Mascher Space Coop, featuring additional performers and building on the fourth installment.

NTNS Radio

2008-03-17T11:14:00.002-04:00

The Mikronesia track "Royal" from vxvii, will appear on the next NTNS Radio Compilation coming out March 29. You can download the comp. at radio.intelligentmachinery.net

Updatage

2008-03-05T09:43:00.003-05:00

Been busy working in the studio. Planning some stuff for spring 2008.

First up I'm writing my first full length string quartet. Although I written parts for combinations of string duo, trio and quartet for Gemini Wolf tunes, this will be my first string quartet performance. Not having gone to music school or having formal training in this area, it's been fun and challenging. Megan has been helping me showing me the notations for various bowing techniques. Plus I got a copy of Gyorgy Legeti's First String Quartet Métamorphoses nocturnes. This quartet is about a 20 part piece with short bursts of avant guard string sounds that approximate various electronic music sounds. So using this score, I've been able to see how to notate different sounds I was to hear.

The premiere of my piece "Daemon En Gauze" will be at the Paraphrase/Nexus series at Nexus Gallery on April 23. The players are an great cross section of classical, noise and jazz players. It should be nice since parts of the score are improvised.

In Gemini Wolf news, we're working on the new album recording some tracks tonight. We've got a couple of shows every couple of weeks.

Mar 13 - Zebulon, Brooklyn
Apr 3- Barbary, Philly (after Beach House around 10PM)

Lastly we're getting back to doing a Rashomon Effect performance with Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. Believe it or not our last Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd performance was last year's Fringe Festival. We should be getting the flyers next week for that, which will be

Sat Mar 22 - Mascher Space Coop, Phily.

That's all for now, I forget if I posted all these, but Megan's been ferreting for vxvii reviews and found these. Enjoy and go download the album if you haven't already.

http://www.petcord.com/weblog/
http://www.blogstudio.com/chargingthecanvas/planing%20lakes.html
http://netlabelsnews.blogspot.com/

Gemini Wolf at the Sound Clash

2008-02-14T13:36:00.000-05:00

We're pleased to announce for the second year in a row Philly Car Share has chosen a Gemini Wolf tune for their yearly compilation CD that will be given away to all Philly Car Share customers.

In addition, Gemini Wolf will be competing in the second round of the Sound Clash playing with five other bands at World Cafe Live (downstairs). The contest will feature a 20 minute set from each band and the winner gets cash prizes, recording time, fame and glory!

So come out and support Gemini Wolf. Doors are at 6:00 PM and it's free!

World Cafe Live
31st and Walnut Philadelphia

Iris review

2008-02-08T20:56:00.001-05:00

Reviewed by Massimo Ricci in Touching Extremes

http://spazioinwind.libero.it/extremes/touchinghome.htm

MIKRONESIA - Iris or comfortable too (Gears Of Sand)

Mikronesia is the nom d'art of Michael McDermott. Piano has been his favourite instrument since, as a small child, he was sitting on his grandmother's lap while she introduced him to the infinite world of the 88 keys. Yet, as life brought in its influence under the form of other involvements (namely playing with various bands and solo electronic music), the artist left the original object of interest alone for a long time. In 2007, though, McDermott decided to go back to the big box, exploiting its timbral properties to conceive a brand new composition mixing the best of two worlds (with a Harold Budd/Brian Eno inspiration, just for starters). Modifying the results with a laptop and an assortment of pedals, Mikronesia serves now an album that surely doesn't sound neither "Eno" nor "Budd" and is indeed quite personal, this being the feature that made me focus on it a little bit longer than my usual average in these genres. Many of the sounds heard are kind of suffocated - like perceived with a pillow on our head as we desperately try to sleep, the neighbour's daughter practicing her solfeggio exercises in the contiguous room - and, when in headphones, sometimes a distinct distortion creeps in. Not sure if it was meant to be there - we're not talking Vangelis-like engineering here. But all those strange electro-deformations - reverse reverbs, glitches, broken waves and interrupted drones - amidst this general atmosphere of "ugly beauty" somehow work well, and in the right conditions and circumstances this is a CD that could introduce several nice revelatory moments. Give it a good test. "Amorphous ambient for discriminating minds", anyone?

Another (mostly) nice vxvii review

2008-02-04T22:25:00.000-05:00

"The final curtain call was made and Kikapu left the field with VXXII by Mikronesia. As the cover art suggests, a departure means also a new beginning. In this case the production is opened by a dampened piano and unconnected stutter samples. A deep bass regularily accentuates the first quater note. Tight 4/4th structure. The music is indecisive whether to stick with the melodic similarity to J-pop ballad kitsch or to fall apart in fragmented sonic events, which are more compliant to a typical electro acoustic production. And and therefore noisy samples remain desintegrated ornaments and interfere with the mellow piano line.

Fortunately the remainder of Mikronesia’s VXVII is much more focussed and consistent, where all components work as a whole and contain melodic lines that serve as binding element between the glitchy chord snippets and layers of noise. Moments where Mikronesia unfold their musical potential with soundscapes of iridescent beauty. Hibersea is another strange orchid in the morning sun, with confusing bitonality, distant hallucinatory female voices and pentatonic theme progressions. Mikronesia also undertake forays into Minimalist music, with subtiles changes in modulation and micro details or explore the noisy distortion of the later Oval. Gate could even run as digital Psychedelia with hammond organ emulations and resonant feedback vibrations that come close to the sound of a sitar.

Apart from the opening track, the remainder of the release turns out as a well thought, contrastive and a joy to listen to. Mikronesia’s VXVII is a worthy final chapter of Kikapu’s history and a recommended download in my opinion."

From Petcord

Bittersweet Dirts Video & Philly Car Share Sound Clash

2008-01-29T14:44:00.000-05:00

Gemini Wolf "Bittersweet Dirts" from Derek Moench on Vimeo.

Vote for Gemini Wolf at http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB227DHD7F8ZS

Get Embed with Mikro!

2008-01-24T17:20:00.000-05:00

If you want to embed the new Mikronesia album, vxvii album player on your site, just cut and paste the following code onto your website, myspace, prodigy BBS, abacus or forearm.

"...Satie-esque electronica..."

2008-01-23T11:58:00.000-05:00

The first review in for vxvii. Marc Weidenbaum at Disquiet wrote a very nice review of the album, here's an excerpt.

"The latest Kikapu netlabel release, Mikronesia's vxvii, is one of its best ever - nine tracks of Satie-esque electronica....

....The Mikronesia collection serves as a fitting endpoint for the label, which has long emphasized gentle atmospherics, field recordings, and light glitch. (Kikapu also hosted its share of melodic, beat-driven electronica, which is virtually absent on this album.) The comparison to Satie is particularly strong in the watery piano on the opening piece, "She Brings" (MP3), but it's reinforced throughout due to an approach by which every track, no matter how loudly it is played, seeps into the background. Haunting voices are filtered through bells and reverb on "Hibersea" (MP3), and other high points include the textural white noise of "Moke Cene" (MP3) and the insectoid field recordings worked into "Part" (MP3). Get the full set at archive.org."

Read the entire review here.

vxvii

2008-01-22T08:21:00.000-05:00

I'm pleased to announce a new Mikronesia album has been released today. vxvii is out now on Kikpu. Sadly this will be the last release ever on the formidable net label. They're shutting their doors after seven years of great music. As with all kikapu release, this one's free, so go download it! Kikapu uses one my personal favorite tools on all of the web, archive.org as a way to distribute the free MP3s.

You can download vxvii here at - http://www.archive.org/details/kpu109

The album was recorded mostly in 2007. I actually started it on my birthday in 2006. Those familiar with the Mikronesia sound from 2005-2007 will really like this stuff. It's very melodic and emotional music, with meticulously etched layers of noise and melody. vxvii is kind of a companion piece to my 2006 album about the last few moments of someone's life, Tissue Paper Ghosts. This album is about birth and life.

I'm very proud of this work. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks to Brad for all his dedication to great music through Kikapu over the years and for making this the swan song of his label. Also thanks to William Fields for recording the live track "Gate" for this album as well.

January Time Is Here

2008-01-11T13:19:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who made it out to Johnny Brenda's for Gemini Wolf's show last weekend. We played to probably our biggest crowd since the album release show back in May. The bands were super tight, the crowd was amazing, the sound was booming, Bilwa held it down on the decks. It was a super-duper night all around. Mike O'Brien took some fine pictures, you can view some at Gemini Wolf's Myspace over here.

We're taking at least January off to do some recording and write some new songs. We just started working on new songs this week and were very excited about Gemini Wolf stuff for 2008. We're in the process of setting up some really spectacular shows in March, April and May with Kilo and Pink Skull. Also in the works is another New England Tour for May.

I just got back from a brilliant lecture / interview with Maria Schneider. She's a composer who has studied with Bob Brookmeyer and Gil Evans. She has a very unique approach to composing and explaining her process. At the talk she played some of her pieces on CD and explained the rhythms and motifs she choose and how she bridges traditional jazz and classical theory. It was kind of like a DVD commentary with the director sitting there, explaining their process. Another interesting part of the talk dealt with her label / artists' collective called Artists Share. This label allows listeners to contribute financially and be involved in the music making process with the artist. It's a great way to allow fans to support musicians directly and getting something more than a recorded song out of the process. Artists with Artists Share do things like webcast video of them recording their album, post rough mixes and sketches of their works in progress, allow contributers to come the recordings and get their names listed as executive producers on the album. As giant mega-labels continue to die off, this sort of model, I think, will be the future of music.

Speaking of giant mega-labels, earSnake is slithering along nicely. We're moving things along slowly as we crawl from our holiday egg. After the success of the 12 Days Podcast, we're just gathering our thoughts and planning the next steps. We're in the process now of getting Gemini Wolf's first CD re-packaged. When we initially released the album, it was a limited edition hand made pressing with four different album covers culled from Pandar's "House of Josiah" photo series. The official earSnake release will have some different artwork and packaging. We expect those CD sometime next week. For now you can purchase the CD directly from earSnake.com and we'll ship the new version of the CD when we get it. By March, at the latest, the album will be available on iTunes, Emusic, Napster, Rhapsody, Amazon, etc.

Lastly, my Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd co-collaborators Bilwa and Emily Sweeney will be doing a performance this weekend at the Community Education Center as part of the New Edge Mix series, where they'll be premiering "moved," a new work inspired by the sculptures of Auguste Rodin. The performances are Friday 1/11 and Saturday 1/12 at 8:00 PM and Sunday 1/13 at 3:00. The CEC is at 35th and Lancaster Ave in West Philly.

Johnny Brenda's Show Update

2008-01-03T23:30:00.000-05:00

Jniero Jarel isn't doing the show. He'll be sick on saturday... Hmm... Anyway, we're psyched that Venomous will be filling in. Should be an amazing show.

SATURDAY JAN 5
Johnny Brenda's
1201 N. Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-739-9684

Hessians, Gemini Wolf, Venomous and Bilwa (DJ set)
$8 Door Sales at 8pm
9:00 PM

"A Poet Without Words..."

2007-12-29T19:37:00.000-05:00

Wrapping up a great year of music here in Mikroland.

Many thanks to everyone at earSnake who made the 12 Days Podcast such a success. You can still listen to the holiday and wintertime tracks until Jan 6. So head over to www.earsnake.com to listen in.

As soon as we get back, Gemini Wolf will be playing a stellar show with hip-hop artist Jneiro Janel's Shape of Broad Minds, whirling dervish, Kilroy and Kezoian DJ Bilwa at Johnny Brenda's on Saturday Jan. 5. (See flyer to the left). This will be your last chance to catch Gemini Wolf for a little while. We're taking a month or so off after this show, so don't sleep on it! We've been going non-stop since we put out our album back in May, so we're going to take some tima and write some new songs and work on the next record.

In Mikronesia news, I had a great gig at GATE last week. I got to play a great set, doing live sampling and manipulation of acoustic piano notes and textures as I played piano with the laptop. I look forward to exploring that sound more in 2008. Also in early in 2008 I'll be releasing a new album called vxvii on Kikapu.

As I stated in the beginning of this post 2007 has been a wonderful year. Whether performing on stage at the Annenberg Center with Pauline Oliveros, touring with Gemini Wolf, playing our amazing album release show at Art@Sophi, various recording projects with earSnake and Gears of Sand, performing and working with Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd for the Rashomon series and the Fringe Festival, working with Nexus gallery, playing solo shows, jamming with friends, studying jazz piano, growing Gemini Wolf (breifly) to a nine-piece unit with a string quartet and everything I've forgotten- I'm very grateful for it all and look forward to all thing music that come up my way in 2008.

I'll leave with a recently posted review of my 2007 album Iris Or Comfortable Too by Fred M. Wheeler in Tokafi.

"...What is so remarkable about this CD is that Mikronesia should be called a poet although he uses no words and relies exclusively on instrumental means. His outstanding compositions bear the power to draw peoples’ attention to their inner selves, generate fantasies and trips into their souls in the process, thus working in an almost therapeutic way. A truly outstanding piece of art..."

Read the rest of the review here.

PODCASTIC

2007-12-14T04:23:00.000-05:00

The earSnake 12 Days Podcast is up and running. The newly recorded Gemini Wolf tune, "Snow Song", is the first wintertime treat. It's an ancient song that Pandar had when we first played together. We've played so many versions of it, i think this one captures the more fairy tale and weird aspects of the song. It's pretty different for a Gemini Wolf song, but also pretty familiar. Some other wolfies are doing some solo songs later next week, including Gary Dann, Katie Vigilante and the Gemini Wolf String Quartet.

Head over to earSnake.com and set you controls for the heart of the podcast!

PodGateCast

2007-12-12T16:53:00.000-05:00

Gearing up for the earSnake Holiday Podcast. Putting the finishing touches on some songs tonight and it launches this Friday 12/14!!! Peep it out at www.earsnake.com...

Also next week in addition to the Gemini Wolf Troc show, I'll be doing a Mikronesia set at GATE (info on the flyer to the left).

We've also landed a very nice show at Johnny Brenda's in the new year. Holla!

Holiday Magik

2007-12-06T10:43:00.000-05:00

Lots of fun stuff going on this month!

I'm knee deep right now in earSnake Holiday podcast merriment. Finished up a solo electronic version of a Charlie Brown Christmas song, Aphex Twin style. Also doing some production and keys on Ulysses Slowburn and Spenser Michael's "christmas" tracks. It seems that various factions of Gemini Wolf are going to be putting out songs too, including Gary Dann's anti-holiday tune, Katie Goodrum's new song (?maybe?) and a Gemini Wolf string section redition of "Christmas Time Is Here Again". Not to mention the classic Megan Leigh (aka Pandar) track "Snow Song" with some Mikronesic sprinkles on top.

Also Gemini Wolf is gearing up their last show of 2007 in a week and a half upstairs at the Troc for the Monday Night Club. This performance will feature two sets of Gemini Wolf as well as an earSnake recordings showcase with earSnake artists Bilwa, Mikronesia, Jalima Shani and Spenser Michaels.

Mark your calendars and come out to this festive Yule log of explosive sound.

December 17
Monday Night Club
Hosted by Needles Jones and AD Amorosi
BALCONY at THE TROCADARO
1003 Arch St. Philadelphia PA

An evening with Gemini Wolf plus special guests.

Two Sets of Gemini Wolf
Opening set of Mikronesia vs. Bilwa
Plus intermission set earSnake recording artist showcase with Jalima Shani, Spenser Michaels.

10:00 PM - Free / 21+

If I told you once...

2007-11-26T09:51:00.000-05:00

I don't have idea what the subject of the this blog entry means... It's been two weeks since an update here. I've been off doing some other stuff for the past two weeks.

Coming up this Wednesday our compadre Bilwa is currating his monthly series, paraphrase at Nexus gallery. Also on the Gemini Wolf tip, our drummer Gary Dann is going to accompanying Kathy Ochoa for this performance.

paraphrase/NEXUS returns Wednesday, 11/28 @ 8PM

"paraphrase/NEXUS," a series in which artists of various disciplines and media create performances inspired by exhibitions at NEXUS/foundation for today's art, returns Wednesday, November 28 at 8PM. The performance is free, and takes place at NEXUS/foundation for today's art in the Crane Arts Building, 1400 N American St. Suite 102 in Philadelphia.

For November's installment, Kathy Ochoa, a Canadian-based dance artist, will be joined by Philadelphia-based performance artist J. Makary, a new member at NEXUS, to explore the work of Bonnie Brenda Scott, Tasha Doremus and Bilwa, also new members at NEXUS. Bonnie's drawing and video installation, "ALERT! THE MEDIA!," Tasha's series of photographs entitled "A Poor Memory For The Future," and Bilwa's installation, "set," which invites the viewer to become a performer, provide the inspiration for an evening of original dance and performance.

Independent dance artist Kathy Ochoa has worked with Brooklyn-based dance company, Human Behavior Explorers, and her choreography has been presented in New York as part of Movement Research Works-in-Progress Series, as guest artist for ProjectLimbs Dance Company, and as part of the Metro Dance Project Series. In Canada, she has presented work in Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary.

Philadelphia-based performance artist J. Makary makes movement-inspired video works, though she has recently become more involved in live performance. To see some of her work, visit http://jmakary.com.

In December and January, paraphrase/NEXUS will feature performing artists exploring "Yummy: A celebration of craving, compulsion, and culture," an exhibition of food-inspired art. Wednesday, December 19 will feature dancer/choreographers Meg Foley, Rebecca Patek, and Allison Lorenzon, and performance artist Audrey Culp. Wednesday, January 23 will feature sound/video artist Aaron Igler, dancer/choreographer Scott McPeeters, and more TBA.

Established in 1975, NEXUS/foundation for today's art is as an artist-run, non- profit gallery space dedicated to supporting local emerging and experimental artists engaged in new art practices. Nexus presents challenging, innovative and compelling exhibitions of contemporary art that stimulate creative thought and dialog among the public, increasing awareness to the meanings and methods behinds today's art. Nexus was conceived at a time when very few non-commercial galleries existed in Philadelphia. The founders of Nexus, three artist/educators, sought to create an exhibition space for emerging artists working with new mediums and concepts that would act as a forum on contemporary art. As the first artist-run cooperative in Philadelphia, Nexus was, and continues to be, committed to the professional presentation of the artist's work and the education of the public about contemporary art issues.

For more information about paraphrase/NEXUS and videos of past performances, please visit http://www.nexusphiladelphia.org/ or http://www.perpetualmvmtsnd.org.

Looking beyond this week, Gemini Wolf as well as some of the other artists on earSnake recordings are putting together a podcast of MP3 holiday tunes to help launch the label. It's going to mad busy over the next couple of weeks putting everything together, but I think we'll be able to do it.

ACTION AIDS BENEFIT

2007-11-12T11:23:00.000-05:00

We had a great time at the Landing Pad VII Space Rock show. The bands were loud and crazy and people stayed late for the Gemini Wolf set and seemed to really dig it.

This week, Pandar and I will be doing a special Gemini Wolf show as a duo for the Action Aids Benefit at The Balcony at the Trocadaro in Philly. Here's the info:
ACTION AIDS BENEFIT! Please Come!!

NOVEMBER 13TH, 2007
STARTING AT 8PM
THE BALCONY
(UPSTAIRS AT THE TROCADERO)
1003 ARCH STREET
CHINATOWN, PHILADELPHIA

BRING YOUR FRIENDS! We're asking a sliding scale of $5 to $20, but if you can afford more, PLEASE BE GENEROUS, this is an important night!

HOSTED BY AD Amarosi, CAConrad, and Betsy Andrews

THE EXTRAORDINARY TWO-HEADED DIVA MCs FOR THE NIGHT WILL BE
NEEDLES JONES
&
THE DIVINE MS. JIMMI

PERFORMERS INCLUDE:

THE FEVERFEW

THE ABSINTHE DRINKERS

MY INVISIBLE

GEMINI WOLF

ISH KLEIN

JASON ZUZGA

FRANK SHERLOCK

THEY ARE BIRDS

ASHRAF OSMAN

DOROTHEA LASKY

TARA MURTHA

MARALYN LOIS POLAK

Art@Sophi Performance Video

2007-11-07T14:25:00.001-05:00

Here's a video put together and recorded by DoN Brewer at DoNBrewerMultimedia from my solo Art@Sophi performance. Enjoy!

Art@Sophi Recording

2007-10-31T17:24:00.000-04:00

I've uploaded an excerpt of my three hour performance of solo piano and laptop at Art@Sophi Gallery last weekend. It's a live recording through a room mic, so you can hear lots of people at the gallery talking and stuff and they come and go. So if you can just concentrate on the playing, it's pretty good, I think. This MP3 is a little over an hour in length. I'll be performing in the same style again at GATE at the Rotunda in December.

Thanks again to Monika and all the artists at POST. Special thanks to Mike Murray for wheeling out this beast of a tennis ball-beaten, hammer-smashed, ancient piano into the main gallery for me to play. All in all the piano has a very nice tone and I was grateful to play on something with such a unique and wonderful sound. The sounds of this performance, if you're wondering, is just acoustic piano, sent through an SM-58 microphone into my laptop running Ableton Live. Using a MIDI controller I would record and loop certain phrases, run them through VST pluggins and manipulate the audio data on the fly and create clouds of processed piano sounds over which to play more piano. It's a technique I explored extensively on Iris Or Comfortable Too (Gears of Sand). There's talk of releasing another piano ambient album on Gears of Sand, but all live performance for the Suchness series of limited edition hand pressed CDs. More on that later, for now enjoy the set.

[MP3] http://www.archive.org/download/MikronesiaLiveatartatsohi2007.10.20/MikronesiaArtatsophi20071020.mp3

Slightly off, but still in time

2007-10-29T10:24:00.000-04:00

Grand olde tyme at the Halloween bash this weekend. Thanks to Brett and Mellow Veneer and to all the costumed freaks in the place. Here's a quick video from Carl. Our main man, Derick was taking some footage and projecting some of his ambient video stuff during our set as well. Next up for the Wolf, is the Landing Pad space rock festival on November 10. Until then it's shedding, tuning up and tightening up the reins.

Gemini Wolf at Cafe Habana from Carl Franke on Vimeo.

Electric Candyland

2007-10-23T14:53:00.000-04:00

Friends, it's THE WEEKEND for Halloween parties and masquerades. This Friday, Gemini Wolf, Mellow Veneer and DJ Brett bring you into the heart of the season with some spooky sweet sounds at this rockin' masquerade party. Spread the word.

Friday October 26
Electric Candyland
Cafe Habana
201 S. 21st Street
(21st btw. Chestnut and Walnut)
Philadelphia, PA

with

Gemini Wolf
Mellow Veneer
and DJ Brett

8PM :: $7 ($5 with costume)

Great weekend

2007-10-22T13:45:00.000-04:00

Had a great weekend of music. We didn't post it on the site, because it was a private event, but Pandar and I did a few hours of Gemini Wolf music as a duo at Nexus Gallery last Thursday. It was fun to strip down the setup and jam on some old songs with just guitar and laptop while gallery type people dined on wine and cheese.

Then on Friday I did some beats and piano at Philadanco for the COSMOS dance class. That was a lot of fun and I look forward to working with them on a weekly basis.

Saturday, as mentioned below, I did a nice long set of my new favorite type of music to play, piano and sampled piano sounds. For about three hours I played this old wonky upright at Art@Sophi and sampled certain phrases into the laptop and tweaked them out creating a bed of mangled piano sounds over which to improvise with more piano sounds. It was a lot of fun and I got a great response from the people at Sophi. The artwork from POST looked great, by the way.

This week getting ready for the Halloween show on Friday night with Mellow Veneer and DJ Brett at Cafe Habana. I'll be sending out a press release tomorrow and post the info here.

POST

2007-10-16T09:44:00.000-04:00

I'll be performing my first Mikronesia set in a while this Saturday at Art@Sophi as past of the POST. My performance is from 6:00 - 9:00 pm. I'll be doing some improvisational piano stuff with laptop DSP, similar to the styles heard on Iris Or Comfortable Too (GoS). So come out early enjoy the music and stay late for the The Absinthe Drinkers.

Art@Sophi & Philadelphia Open Studio Tours Exhibit
Featuring Artists Working In South Philadelphia. Oct. 20-28

Opening Reception
Saturday Oct. 20 6pm
Live performances by
Mikronesia & The Absinthe Drinkers

1241 Carpenter St
3rd Floor
(Corner of 13th & Carpenter)
S. Philadelphia

This show will exhibit the works of more than 20 South Philadelphia artists who are participating in the annual, citywide Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST) event. Art@Sophi, in partnership with Zradio will host a weeklong event Oct. 20-28, 2007 to support the visual artists working in the area. Opening reception is scheduled for Saturday Oct. 20th at 6pm.

Featured artists include: Julia Blaukopf, Don Brewer, Kevin Broad, Jennifer Coburn, Alden W. Cole, Charles Cushing, Matt Dougherty, Elaine M. Erne, Rebecca Gilbert, Wendy Goldberg, Kellianne McCarthy, Mike Murray, Harry Murtha, Michele Ortiz, Doris Peltzman, Dolores Poacelli, Arthur Ostroff, Elise Sheridan-Arnold, Monika Turtle, Justin Weaver, Jed Williams and Dina Wind

Nexus Media

2007-10-09T18:24:00.000-04:00

So the show at Nexus two weeks ago was really ace. We've got some video and audio from the performance. It was me, Bilwa on Sound and Emily Sweeney and Rebecca Patek dancing. It was a great installation to work with. On one side were large black and white balloons that made a vertical maze. On the other side were various drawings of bunnies and surreal settings. The whole Paraphrase idea is for artists to come into the Nexus Gallery and do a performance inspired by the work.

For this one for whatever reason the massive balloons made me think of radios. So I did my take on John Cage's Imaginary Landscape No. 4. I played two radios through a series of pedals and sampler. For Bilwa, he had bunch of smaller balloons played through contact mics and as percussion instruments. It was wild and the dance, sound and visuals were very disorienting.

Here's a link to listen to the whole performance (around 22 minutes)
http://www.archive.org/details/PereptualMvmtsndParaphrase20070926

Here's some video action

Gemini Wolf @ Tritone

2007-10-01T17:37:00.001-04:00

MON. OCT 8
9PM $7
Tritone
1508 South Street
http://www.tritonebar.com
http://www.myspace.com/tritone

Sugar Town Presents, A Night of Lady Rockers & DJ's:

PARADISE ISLAND (Jenny Hoyston of Erase Errata) http://www.southern.com/southern/band/HOYST/press/ (Includes hi res photos) http://www.myspace.com/jennyhoystonparadiseisland
Jenny Hoyston made one killer guitar record last year with her band, the Bay Area grrrl punks Erase Errata. Although they used to get lumped in with the New Wave revival, Erase Errata cut their own twisted road on Nightlife -- at a recent show in Brooklyn, guitar freaks crowded by the side of the stage just to watch Hoyston's hands move. This solo project is basically a victory lap: Hoyston, who also has sung in Anxious Rats with Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, tries a few new rhythmic experiments with her signature spazzy post-punk guitar.
She grinds out some math-rock grooves ("Spell D-O-G"), mucks around with engaging low-tech synth pop ("Everyone's Alone") and even strums a surprisingly tough acoustic tune, the four-track bedroom ballad "Break Apart, Reattach." But the strongest moment has to be "Novelist"
-- Hoyston murmurs, "I did not die in vain," while her jittery guitar twitches like a nerve on fire. (Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone)

GEMINI WOLF
http://www.myspace.com/geminiwolf
Calling Gemini Wolf an electronic rock act is like saying Noam Chomsky's just a linguist. It's not enough. This blip-folksy duo — Pandar and Mikronesia — expanded the initial tinyness of their pastoral synth-sound to make something soulful and sweeping. You could blame the addition of a dub-hungry bassist and some chamber string kids. But they're just two more reasons its debut, Josiah, has the makings of an epic. (AD Amorosi, City Paper)

RED SKATE RED
http://www.myspace.com/redskatered
http://www.myspace.com/redskatered
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2004-09-09/music4.shtml
After calling themselves Under Not Over, keyboardist/guitarist/vocalist Stephanie Nelson (The Tunics) and drummer Emil Weintraub (Beat Jamz) decided to revert back to their old band name that they shared with the late activist/performer/force of nature Axi Nue and current Clockcleaner bassist Karen Horner. CP's Pat Rapa described their music as "intense riffs, dancey grooves and a rebellious attitude." Bassist Jen Rice (Club Lyfestiles, The Celebs) replaces Horner.

DJ LIZBOT (WPRB)
http://www.wprb.com/djplaylists.php?id=65
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/view.php?id=9150
Lizbot spins beeps & whirls while records fly deftly through her robotic appendages, resulting in a frothy melange of no wave, prog, folk, noise, funk, punk, serialism & any other genre you can think of.

Another "Iris" Review

2007-09-30T20:37:00.000-04:00

Here's a great review from Hypnagogue

Mikronesia, Iris or Comfortable Too
Mere moments after the first tender piano notes of Iris or Comfortable Too, you know you're headed off to interesting territory. The sound suddenly wavers like a disturbed reflection in water and swarms of electronic burble begin to move under the surface. From there it just gets more intricate as composer Michael McDermott takes Eno-esque ambient piano and tugs, tears, and twists it, submitting it to a host of electronic treatments to create new, unique aural textures. His manipulations run from the extreme to the subtle. In "No Rage" the notes are picked apart element by element and stitched back together in a rough quilt of beautiful, glitch-ridden imperfection. "(The) Lye Owl" is a slow and graceful piece built on carefully layered atmospherics with a distinctly dramatic tone. "Genre" and the closer, "Oil Vet", leave the piano mostly alone as McDermott applies a comparatively lighter hand to the effects and distortions, and his playing show itself as elegant and thoughtful. ("Genre" spends it last minute in a pleasant shower of effects.) "Nyca" throbs its way in like a subtly shifting waveform trying itself out over and over, changing ever so slightly on each pass. "Lebu" rolls in with a sparse, dark beauty, hard-played chords left to stand alone and drift apart in echo, the space between each becoming thick with expectancy.
Since I was compelled to listen to this CD three times straight through right from the get-go, it's definitely a Hypnagogue Highly Recommended CD.

If you haven't picked up a copy yet, please take a listen to the sound samples and pick up a copy at CD Baby

Tour Wrap Up and Nexus

2007-09-25T15:08:00.001-04:00

Got back from the Gemini Wolf New England tour yesterday early. We were all exhausted from driving all night from Vermont. The tour was super fun, it was great hanging out, being silly, playing music and meeting tons of interesting people for a few days.

The beginning of the tour started in Willimsburg, NY. It was a Wednesday night and there were five or so bands playing at Trashbar. We were last, so there wasn't much of a crowd there at 12:30 AM on a Wednesday. It was a great way to warm up for a few days of shows though, we worked out all the kinks of the newer songs. We also got to meet this crazy dude, Mojo who booked the show. He told us all sorts of tales from New York from the past 30 years with hanging out with Throbbing Gristle and tons of other people I never heard of.

After the gig we drove all night to Boston. We got there early and met up with our friends Rich and Jayashree. Three of us stayed with them and the other wolves went to Dr. Lynn's place. We hung around Sommerville, which was nice and did our gig at P.A.'s Lounge. There was a small and attentive crowd and the show went really well. We stayed in Boston for another night and hung out with Rich and Jayashree pretty late. Early in the morning we headed up the Atlantic coast up to Rockland Maine.

We stopped in Portland, ME, which was an awesome little town. We totally loved Maine all around. The gig was in the this outdoor court yard in the middle of Rockport which is an amazing little artsy town. All there people came out and celebrated the end of the summer season with us. Afterwards, our contact Kate hosted us as their beautiful lakeside cabin. We partied with them and woke up to enjoy some lovely Maine nature.

After Maine, we drove all day to Bennington, Vermont. That was another cool town, we mostly stayed on Bennington campus. It was great to hang out with all these creative kids at Bennington, they were super nice and super psyched to have us play there. We did our show, we played pretty much every song we had to the enthusiastic crowd, we even broke out our Radiohead cover "Idioteque" which I thought they wouldn't recognize, but they loved it! We all partied like college kids and enjoyed the beautiful campus the next day which is situated on 470 acres of Vermont mountainous greenery.

Later that day we did the short drive over to Brattleboro. Yet another interesting small town in New England. Lots of punk rocks kids, food coop, good coffee, art galleries all at the base of the Vermont mountains. We did our show to a small crowd for a sunday night at the art space Tinderbox. After we said our goodbyes, we packed the fan and headed back to Philly.

Katie posted some pics here, we'll prob. have some more pics and sounds coming up soon: http://picasaweb.google.com/katie.goodrum/WolfTour07

Now to get to some business for the week. Tomorrow night (Wednesday) I'll be performing with Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd at Nexus Gallery at 8 PM as part of the Paraphrase Series.

PARAPHRASE/NEXUS

Performing artists inhabit work of visual artist to comment on voyeurism

(Philadelphia) PARAPHRASE/NEXUS, a new series in which artists of various disciplines and media create performances inspired by exhibitions at Nexus Gallery, returns this month with a third installment.

On Wednesday, September 26 at 8p.m., members of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd will inhabit Jody Sweitzer's installation entitled Crowd: stumbling through displaced intimacy. In Crowd, the human figure is represented by giant inflatables that create an environment in which to investigate voyeurism and the human reaction to the invasion of personal space. Electronic musicians Bilwa and Mikronesia are joined by dancer/choreographers Rebecca Patek and Emily Sweeney in a performance that attempts to shift the relationship of the stagnant viewer to an active, self-reflecting participant. For more information about Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd visit: www.perpetualmvmtsnd.org. All PARAPHRASE/NEXUS performances are free and are held at Nexus Gallery in the Crane Arts Building at 1400 N. American St., Suite #102.

On to New England

2007-09-15T17:04:00.000-04:00

So last night was the last Fringe performance of Fresh Juice. It was standing room only and the best night yet! They seemed to get better and better each night. I recorded our piece Gasp each night, so I'm going to make a best of mix at some point in a few weeks and post it here. There were several video cameras there each night, so expect some video action as well.

I'm heading to some more Fringe performances today and tonight, then I've got three days off before the Gemini Wolf New England Tour! Who-hoo.

Here's the list of cities and venues on the tour. Anyone in the New England area who has been wanting to see Gemini Wolf, now's your chance. You can check out the MySpace for the exact details of show times, venues, etc. We'll be updating photos, blogs, etc. here and at Gemini Wolf MySpace during the tour.

Wed. Sept. 19 - Brooklyn, NY - Trash Bar
Thur. Sept. 20 - Boston, MA - P.A. Lounge
Fri. Sept. 21 - Rockland, ME- Lulu's Lounge
Sat. Sept. 22 - Bennington, VT - Bennington College
Sun. Sept. 23 - Brattleboro, VT - The Tinderbox

GASP

2007-09-14T15:50:00.000-04:00

So tonight is the final performance of Gasp at the Philly Fringe Festival. It's been a wonderful experience to be part of such a varied, entertaining and artful show as Fresh Juice. Here's an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer - although there's no mention of Mikronesia and Bilwa, we did have something to do with the sounds that the audience hears during the piece ;)

Here's a snipet from Tuesday night's performance by Carl

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"Gasp" by Perpetual Mvmt Snd from Carl Franke on Vimeo.

The Fringe Festival

2007-09-05T13:50:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned last week, September is going to be a busy busy month. First up is five performances for the Philaldelphia Fringe Festival with Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd.

Breifly, we'll be doing a piece that involves five dancers, Bilwa and myself on sound and video artist John Phillips. It's a piece that involves the symbolic life of a moth, from its cocoon stage to and its survival and its death, using the breath as a focal point. Sound-wise, Bilwa and I have a series of microphones setup on stage, and we record and manipulate the dancer's breath and movements creating an improvised score of texture and rhythm. John Phillips is doing something similar with video.

The whole night is part of an evening called Fresh Juice that's being put on by the Mascher Street Dance Coop.

Below are the flyers, press release and more info about show times and tickets. There's obviously a lot going on in Philly the next two weeks with the Fringe Fest, but definetly try and come out and see this performance.

The Fresh Juice Flyers:

The Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd Gasp Flyer:

Large Fresh Juice Main Flyer:

Press Release:

Philly Fringe Festival

Fresh Juice:
Shared evening of dance to feature six Philly artists

Mascher Space Coop in Kensington presents Fresh Juice, a shared evening of dance, video, and multimedia performance featuring the work of six Philadelphia choreographers. Five performances will be offered throughout the Philly Fringe Festival on Thurs, Sept. 6 & 13 at 9PM; Sun, Sept. 9 at 7PM; Tues, Sept. 11 at 7PM; and Fri, Sept 14 at 9PM. Tickets for Fresh Juice are $10 and are available through the Philly Fringe box office at http://www.phillyfringe.org or 215.413.1318. Fresh Juice runs 90 minutes.

Mascher Space Coop is located at 155 Cecil B. Moore Ave. (Mascher St. and Cecil B. Moore Ave.) in Philadelphia (for details on getting to Mascher see the bottom of this page).

Dubbed the “next collective art space” in 2007 by Philadelphia Weekly in their "Next Philadelphia" issue, Mascher Space Coop members Meg Foley, Erin Foreman-Murray, Makoto Hirano, Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd, Zornitsa Stoyanova, and Christina Zani collaborate to produce fresh works, fresh ideas, fresh (as in recently arrived; just come) juice (essence, strength, or vitality).

Meg Foley will present slip with dancers Devynn Emory, Christina Zani, and Jil Stifel, in which formal elements such as accumulation, obstruction, and choice are exploited in order to expose a glimpse of what it means for humans to be human: breakable, feeling, physical beings in relation to one another. Erin Foreman-Murray walks the line between the ordinary and extraordinary, reality and the fantastical in a group work exploring dream states. Makoto Hirano and David O'Donnell try and try again in prototype. In gasp, Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd uses the performers' bodies as points of genesis: dancers are accompanied by their own breath manipulated by electronic musicians Bilwa and Mikronesia, while their bodies metamorphose via live video projection by John Phillips. Zornitsa Stoyanova pushes the boundaries of the audience-performer interaction in her multimedia work, Insert Headset, and Christina Zani tries to reconcile modern life while dancing, talking, and eating her way through an accumulation of movement and images in abun/dance.

Fresh Juice: six Philadelphia choreographers showing experimental works on the outskirts of the city. Could we be any more fringe? For more information visit http://mascherdance.com or http://www.perpetualmvmtsnd.org/freshjuice

Mascher Space Coop provides a supportive home for Philadelphia-based movement artists and small companies to develop and perform their work. Founded in 2006, Mascher produces the In Flux performance series and Philly Dance COSMOS, a community supported class series.

Artists' bios:

Bilwa is a Philadelphia-based musician and visual artist. He is a member of Nexus Foundation for Today's Art, where he curates the performance series PARAPHRASE/NEXUS. Bilwa is also currently co-director of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd and a member of Mascher Space Coop. Past projects include Hoopty Heaven, an ambient dub duo whose cd Elements was released in 2001 by the Slought Foundation, and VERSIONsound, a roots/reggae/dub soundsystem. Bilwa is also co-founder of the Rashomon Effect Performance Project, an electronic music series inspired by the storytelling method employed in the 1950 film by Kurosawa. Bilwa has shown photographs, paintings, and mixed media works at The White Couch Art Room, Rocket Cat Café and Gallery, Soy Café and Gallery, Rogue's Gallery, Crosley Deluxe Gallery, and Spirit Wind.

Meg Foley is an independent dance artist and choreographer based in Philadelphia. She received a BA in Dance from Scripps College and a Professional Diploma in Dance Studies from Laban Centre London. As well as presenting her own work, she has the good fortune to dance/perform for Nichole Canuso Dance Company and for Devynn Emory. Her favorite color at the moment is green.

A native of rural north-central Pennsylvania, Erin Foreman-Murray is a dancer and independent choreographer based in Philadelphia. She received her BFA in modern dance from Temple University and has also trained at the American Dance Festival, Vassar College, and Barnard College. Recently, Erin has had the pleasure of showing her work at the Movement Research Open Performance Series (NYC), In Flux, the FAR Space with Limina Projects (NYC), the Glue Performance Series, and Current. Erin is a resident artist of the Mascher Space Coop and on the team coordinating Philly Dance COSMOS, the community supported class series.

Makoto Hirano was born in Japan and raised in Chicago. He studied dance and theater performance at Columbia College Chicago, and at Temple University where he earned a B.F.A. in Dance. Now based in Philadelphia, his works have been presented by Yale University, Melanie Stewart's Dancehouse, Philadelphia Live Arts Festival, and at the Asian Arts Initiative through the APIA Residency Program. Performer/collaborator credits include: Love Unpunished and Barrymore-nominated Pay Up with the Obie Award-winning Pig Iron Theatre Company, St. Matthew Passion with Myra Bazell, and multimedia installation Still Unknown with Subcircle. Makoto was a performing company member with Paule Turner/COURT (Dance Magazine's 'Top 25 to Watch') in '04-'05. Makoto's writing has been commissioned for Selective Sight (Subcircle) through Brat Production's 'Causeway Series.' His current projects include: Accent - Roko Kawai; TAR - Charles O. Anderson/Dance Theatre X; Wandering Alice - Nichole Canuso Dance Company; Strawberry Farm - OMNiBUS Performance Co.

Zornitsa Stoyanova is a native of Bulgaria and holds her B.A. in Dance and Sound Design from Bennington College where she studied with Susan Sgorbati, Susan Rethorst, Dana Reitz, Eva Karczag, Brendan McCall, Paul Matteson, and Terry Creach. Her improvised and choreographed works have been shown in Bulgaria, Hungary, and at St. Mark's Church in New York City. In addition to recently launching her own performance group, HEREBEGIN DANCE CO., Zornitsa is a member of Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. She is also an experienced sound designer, videographer, and theater technician and has designed lights for numerous dance companies, including Amnesiac Music and Dance and PIMA Group.

Emily Sweeney co-directs Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd, an interdisciplinary performance collective in residence at the Mascher Space Coop in Philadelphia, which she also helps administer. A member of Susan Sgorbati's Emergent Improvisation Ensemble, she has presented her own improvised and choreographed works as part of PARAPHRASE/NEXUS, the bowerbird performance series, and in the Soundfield Festival. Her work will be presented at the CEC during the 2007-08 New Edge Mix series. Emily has danced in the work of Dana Reitz, Susan Rethorst, Doug Elkins, and Nia Love at such venues as the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Bates Dance Festival, and the White Wave Dance Festival. Emily holds her B.A. in Dance and Literature from Bennington College.

Christina Zani is a dancer and choreographer living in Philadelphia. A student of many movement techniques, she has pursued ballet, tumbling, competitive tap, Graham technique, contact improv, release techniques, and Haitian dance, among others. After studies at the University of Michigan, Zani moved to NYC where she performed her own work at CB's Gallery, Bridge For Dance, Jennifer Muller's HATCH series and Fort Greene Park. In 2003 she moved to Philadelphia, where she has shown works at the CEC, Painted Bride, and Mascher Space Coop. Christina held a choreographic residency at the Atlantic Center For the Arts in 2005. She has been immensely challenged and inspired by performing in the works of Douglas Dunn, Ann Carlson, Headlong Dance Theater, Lisa Kraus, Tania Isaac, Anita Cheng, Shapiro & Smith and Jacek Luminski among others. A few of her non-dance related passions are film, cats and homemade pasta.

Mikronesia (a.k.a. Michael McDermott) is a producer, composer, musician and sound artist. Since 1999 he has been performing at theaters, clubs, parties and galleries along the U.S. East Coast as a multi-instrumentalist, laptop based performer and DJ. Mikronesia has been doing collaborative production and performance, concentrating on lending his ambient and DSP skills to artists from all musical genres. His main group, Gemini Wolf, is a seven piece electronic/chamber/rock band for which Mikronesia plays keyboards, laptop and arranges, including traditional rock instrumentation and a string trio. Mikronesia is an original member of the multi-disciplinary improvisation music/dance ensemble Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd. He has also worked with modern classical music collectives like Arts in Motion and The Philadelphia Composers Forum. In April 2007, he was part of a deep listening ensemble with Pauline Oliveros who performed at the Annenberg Center for The Performing Arts in Sound Exchange 2007. Mikronesia has released two albums with ambient label Gears of Sand. Tissue Paper Ghosts (2006), is an ethereal glitch album about the psychic remains of a car crash and Iris Or Comfortable Too (2007) is a breath taking work of minimalist piano and warm electronics.

John Phillips is an intermedia artist. His work has included interactive sound installations both with Carolyn Healy and solo, audio-visual performances, audio tape pieces for dance and theater venues, international electronic art festivals and conferences, and on nationally broadcast New American Radio programs. His work has been supported by numerous commissions and grants including the National Endowment for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Location of Mascher Dance Coop:

Getting to Mascher on the El: Take the A Train (Market-Frankford Line heading East) to the Berks Street stop (one stop north of Girard). Walk one block south on Front Street (under the El). Turn right on Montgomery Avenue, then take the first left onto Howard Street. Walk one block south on Howard Street and turn right on Cecil B. Moore Ave. Walk one block west - building is on corner of Mascher & Cecil B. Moore. Entrance is on Cecil B. Moore.

Show Times for the Next Two Weeks:

Thursday Sept. 6 - 9 PM
Sunday Sept. 9 - 7 PM
Tuesday Sept. 11 - 7 PM
Thursday Sept. 13 - 9 PM
Friday Sept. 14 - 9 PM

Tired

2007-08-26T13:31:00.001-04:00

Long weekend with Gemini Wolf shows of all kind and some Mikronesia music. Thanks to Kilo, Mellow Veneer and Quiet Jack for the fun times. Kind of a roller coaster weekend in terms of sound, crowds, sound people, vibes and milkshakes, but overall a positive experience.

We've got about three weeks off from Gemini Wolf shows until the fall New England tour in mid-September. I'll be performing with Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. You can find out about those Fringe shows and the tour in the shows section.

Also, between shows this past Saturday, I got a chance to score some music for Derek Monach's short film for the 12 Hour Film Festival. He and his team had to write, film and edit a movie in 12 hours. I haven't seen the final product. I scored a bunch of short ambient / film music type pieces based on Derek's script and vision for the piece. Derek is also working on a music video for Gemini Wolf's song "Noah". Here's the performance only edit he did already. This is going to inter-cut with some of his stop action animation and other film sequences. Can't wait to see and hear the final product on both works.

Shows tonight

2007-08-24T15:45:00.000-04:00

site's been down again for a couple of days. i'm switching hosting providers soon, i swear...

many thanks to the super crazy gonzo style Kilo last night for the fun gig at the tritone.

great show tonight in Philly. Gemini Wolf, Mellow Veneer and Naeemah at Cafe Habana at 21st and Chestnut. See the flyer, hear the sounds tonight, smell the roasts in the morning.

Nice mini review of Iris

2007-08-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

From Smallfish Records in UK

"Now this is just a gorgeous CD. Using 2 laternating styles against each other, Mikronesia delivers a deliciously mellow and warm sound using reverb drenched pianos that sound almost classical at times, such is the skill with which the phrases are played. It's simple but incredibly effective and really evokes a certain feeling of depth and sadness... luscious. The flipside of this is the more experimental ambient pieces, once again using pianos as the basis and then treating them via laptop processing. Really quite a lovely piece of work that comes recommended."

http://www.smallfish.co.uk/shop/release/?cat=GOS28

Mikronesia in North Carolina

2007-08-09T20:44:00.000-04:00

I'll be performing a couple hours of improv ambient music tomorrow night at the opening night reception of Leona Cauley's new Water Colors show at Holly Springs Cultural Center.

If you're in the Holly Springs Area, stop on by. It's free, great art and music.

Holly Springs Cultural Center
300 W. Ballentine St.
Holly Springs, NC 27540
(919) 567-4000
http://www.hollyspringsnc.us /dept/park/culture/

Melting crayons dashing cars

2007-08-08T22:23:00.000-04:00

So just been shedding in the studio the past couple of weeks. Planning a lot of shows, events and what have you for this fall. The schedule is going to look something like this

(late August)
three philly Gemini Wolf shows playing some new tunes and re-arranging some old ones with obi-wan-mcBilwa on samples and percussion.

(early sept)
Fringe Festival shows with Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd

(late sept)
Gemini Wolf New England tour

check out the newly re-designed shows section for all the details.

ok now getting ready to install Sebelius to make better string arrangements and work on some other classical type composed music for some other upcoming project.

Zebulon / Brooklyn

2007-07-19T20:24:00.000-04:00

A man a few words these days... New York folks represent.

GEMINI WOLF, CAVEMEN, STATIC TRIO
zebulon
258 Wythe Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11211
718.218.6934

GW @ Habana

2007-07-13T15:11:00.000-04:00

Philly peeps, tonight! Gemini Wolf hits around midnight.

Gemini Wolf @ Johnny Brenda's Video

2007-07-10T12:11:00.000-04:00

From our show last week with Talkdemonic and Grandchildren.

Gemini Wolf at Johnny Brendas from Carl Franke and Vimeo.

also here are some photos from that same show... colorful! Photos by Danette Pascarella.

GW video shoot and photo shoot

2007-07-09T13:11:00.001-04:00

We had a lot of fun at the Gemini Wolf video shoot for "Noah" with video artist Derek Moench. Special thanks to Mike and Monika at Art@Sophi for letting us do it there. I'm sure the final product will be something really special. Here's some photos from Derek. Some are during the shooting and setting up the video. Others are from our roof press photo session with Hiro Tanaka.

More updates later this week.

Iris Or Comfortable Too

2007-06-29T13:10:00.000-04:00

Iris Or Comfortable Too
by Mikronesia

The newest Mikronesia album has been released on Gears of Sand Recordings. It's an album using only piano sounds and textures. Fans of Brian Eno, Harold Budd, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Erik Satie, Debussy and Machinefabreik will definitely enjoy this album. Here's a quote from Gears of Sand label owner, Ben Fleury-Steiner:

"...[Iris Or Comfortable Too] is a masterpiece--it is totally mikronesia but has this deeply realized hypnotic appreciation for the piano--the acoustic warmth and range are never sabotaged--far from it--but elevated into another beautiful poetic and heartfelt realm....the only records that come immediately to mind--and this is one hell of a good thing for me as they're some of my favorites--are alvo nota and ryuichi sakamoto's "insen" and Eraldo Bernocchi and Harold Budd's "Music for Fragments From the Inside"---"Iris" captures the warm subtle glitchiness of the former--particularly in nota's processing of sakamoto's flowing, engrossing piano lines--and the classic, one-of-a-kind spaciousness of budd's piano sound that meshes so effortlessly with bernocchi's spacey synthesis.."Iris" is simply a gem of an album that GoS is honored to release and is sure to cause a buzz amongst reviewers and listeners alike!"

If you are looking for some relaxing atmospheric music, enjoy spacing out to Echos late at night on PRI or are interested in hearing some neo-classical / ambient music, please check out Iris Or Comfortable Too.

I'm very proud of this work and this it's my best solo album to date.

You can order the CD from CDBaby now.

Thanks
Mikronesia

We're talking demonic

2007-06-18T16:00:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone, we have a big Gemini Wolf show coming up next week. We'll be playing with two great bands, one from West Philly on from Portland, Oregon. Talk Demonic is currenly on tour with The National and doing a one-off show at Johnny Brendas with us. JBs is hands down the best club in the city, so come out and help support new music on a Monday night. Gemini Wolf plays first around 9:00 PM, so come out early.

Monday June 25
Johnny Brenda's
1201 N. Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-739-9684
8 pm

Grandchildren - Psychedelic / Classical / Experimental from west Philly. Crazy setup, a must see.

Talkdemonic (one little indian records) - synth / violin duo from portland oregon. currently on tour with The National.

Gemini Wolf - extra-sensory laptop rock with strings from philly.

Also you can purchase a digital copy of Gemini Wolf's new album 'Josiah' from their MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/geminiwolf

Tonight @ Fire

2007-06-12T12:24:00.001-04:00

Hello everyone, thanks to the Philly folks who made it down to Mojo 13 performance last Friday night. As always, thanks to all the interesting people at Mojo 13, a really great place to play.

Tonight we have another Gemini Wolf show at the Fire.

We've got two bands from New York and residents, Natalie Walker, April Smith and Quintero bringing some great music to the Fire this evening.

TUESDAY JUNE 12
Puracane, April Smith, Gemini Wolf, Natalie Walker, Quintero
at The Fire
412 Girard Ave. Fishtown. [directions]

.................................................................................................
Also for those who missed our album release show, we have the entire concert video online at
Enjoy!

Finally we just found out, we'll be opening for a great band, Talk Demonic (featuring members of the Decemberists!!) at Johnny Brenda's on Monday June 25. This band is on tour with The National and doing a one-off show with us. So it's going to be big. More on the details of that show in a few weeks.

Hope to see you tonight at the FIRE.

MOJO 13

2007-06-07T10:13:00.001-04:00

This Friday Night, at Mojo 13 in Wilmington. Gemini Wolf, The Sky Drops and Shade bringing you some psychedelic stew. http://www.myspace.com/mojothirteen for directions. This place is a really cool bar with great people who are into music and you can't been the carnival / freak show ambiance. plus free pop-corn. Gemini Wolf plays first at 10:00, so get there early to catch us!

Also, as many of you know, Gemini Wolf had four limited edition Josiah album covers for our album release show. We are about sold out of them and are moving into the second limited pressing of Josiah. Based on fan feedback, we've settled on the official album cover and here it is. You can pick up a copy today or soon download it from Snocap on Gemini Wolf's Myspace.

Current

2007-05-30T22:32:00.000-04:00

Here's the skinny on Current:

Mascher Space Co'op and Herebegin Dance Co.
presents

Current:
an evening of dance and art
Sat., June 9th

New choreographed works by Meg Foley, Nicole Bindler, Eric Conroe, and Zornitsa Stoyanova.
Music by Mikronesia
Sculpture by Audrey Culp
Poster art by Greg Dunn

8p.m. only $5 at the door

Mascher Space Cooperative
155 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
(Mascher St. & Cecil B. Moore Ave.)
www.mascherdance.com

One night only!!! Local and guest artists show their latest work in an evening filled with dance,music, video and visual art. Gallery opens at 7:30 p.m. when you would be able to enjoy Mikronesia's electronic music, Adrey Culps's sculptures and Greg Dunn's Japanese inspired poster art. Show starts at 8:00 p.m. when guest choreographer from Vermont will show you the latest of his text inspired solo dances. Come see, Nicole Bindler's first showing of "Pia Matter", Meg Foley's new solo and Zornitsa Stoyanova's multimedia performance.

---------

Also speaking on electronic music / dance, here's a cool video from Bilwa/Emily/Rebecca and myself performing at Nexus Gallery from last month.

And here's one from the very first Rashomon with Mikronesia, Helena Espvall, Sean Mattio and Bilwa on Sound and Allison Lorenzen, Emily Sweeney, Zornitsa Stoyanova and Rebecca Patek on the movement tip. That's John Phillips on the video. Wow John Wow! I haven't seen this until now, since that's me in the corner with the video playing behind my back. Pretty, pretty, pretty good!

Album Release - Nice Photos

2007-05-29T11:22:00.000-04:00

Photographer Melessia Hassey has posted some nice photos from the Gemini Wolf album release party at Art@Sophi. You can view them here - http://melassey.phanfare.com/album/296053

Putting the finishing touches on my new Gears of Sand release Iris or Comfortable Too. It's an homage to the founders of atmospheric music, Brian Eno and Harold Budd, but hopefully has a more modern sound. I'm really excited about this release.

I've got three shows coming up in two weeks; two Gemini Wolf shows in Wilmington (Mojo13 - June 8) and Philadelphia (The Fire - June 12). The third show is a new modern dance performance working with dancer/choreographer Zornitsa Stoyanova. The piece is a multi-media performance with video and dance as part of the Current series at the Mascher Space Coop Dance Space. I'll be writing the music for it, although the show is on June 9, I still need to write the music which I'll be doing this week.

Getting Back

2007-05-24T12:23:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone. Finally getting back to reality, I needed to take a week off from everything after the album release show.

The show itself was amazing. Thanks so much to all those who were a part of the show. Especially to Mike Murray and Monika for all their help. The people that came out had a great energy and everything looked and sounded great! We'll have some photos and videos posted in the next couple of weeks.

This summer were going to be doing a lot of behind the scenes administrative stuff both with Gemini Wolf and Mikronesia related projects.

In the next couple of weeks there will be a new Mikronesia ambient album on Gears of Sand. I'll also be perfoming some new music / dance with Zornitsa from Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd.

OK Lots to do, I'll post more later.

m~

Press On

2007-05-16T13:43:00.000-04:00

We're spreading the word like mad about the CD Release Show this Friday!!

We had a nice interview and some songs played on Sapphire Cut's Club Underground show. You can listen to the entire show by following the links listed on her website. We'll have a sample clip from the interview posted here in a few days.

We were at Art@Sophi last night, the space looks amazing, we're so excited about this party. It's going to be one for the books.

So, we're going to take down the Gemini Wolf streaming album from the website this weekend, so go listen now and check out the album before the CD Release.

Josiah Press Release

2007-05-12T15:04:00.000-04:00

Busying working on post-production stuff for Josiah. We just had a small listening party last night with people on the album and band, etc. Expect announcements about the album release for the next six days as we get ready.

Here's the press release that went out last week. If you know any blogs, papers, message boards, etc. Please spread the word about the event.

Gemini Wolf, Philadelphia based electronic rock band celebrates the release of their new album 'Josiah' with art and music party at Art@Sophi, Friday May 18,

----------
Press Release.

An amazing new Philadelphia based band, Gemini Wolf, has just finished their debut album. They recorded and produced the album at their own studios in Philadelphia and mastered it with James Dellatacoma at Bill Laswell's Orange Music Sound Studios outside of New York.

The band's sound is an amalagm of dozens of styles. Over a bed of ambient electronics and keyboards soar ethereal vocals, mellencholly string arangements, pulsating acoustic guitar, thunderous drums and dubby bass. Their songs and sound is often epic is scope, but is all grounded in solid musicianship and classical songwriting and arrangements.

Gemini Wolf has been playing as a full band for about year. They have released singles on Nophi records and have been featured on the Philly Car Share Soundclash CD Vol. 1. They have played various clubs and parties in New York, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Balitmore.

Before releasing the album on a large scale with a label, the band is having an album release party for the Philly fans. They will have a about 100 CDs featuring one of five limited edition 'Josiah' covers. The experimental photography artwork will be paired with a full scale photo show by Gemini Wolf singer / songwriter, Pandar.

The album release show will feature an extended set by Gemini Wolf as well as performance by electro-rockers The Hessians (featuring Kilroy) and a performance by Merle Keith (free jazz improv with live painting). Art@Sophi is curated by Mike Murray and Monika Turtle and will have various artists' work on display for the party. Also during Gemini Wolf's set, visual artists David Gerbestadt will be performing an interactive mixed media performance with video, oil projections and lights.

The event is $5 at the door. Gemini Wolf CDs and other merchandise will be on sale at the event. It's all ages.

Art@Sophi
1241 Carpenter St.
Philadelphia, PA
19147

You can listen to the entire album online for free streaming at www.geminiwolf.net

http://www.geminiwolf.net
http://www.myspace.com/geminiwolf
http://www.artatsophi.com

Josiah
Album Release Party

Friday May 18
Art@Sophi
1241 Carpenter
South Philadelphia

Gemini Wolf
with Hessians (featuring Kilroy)
Late night dance party with DJs Ghost and Nomad
Artwork and videos by David Gerbstadt
Performance by Merle Keith
Art shows, lights, food, drink, CDs for
sale and plenty of live music.

$5 - 8 PM - All Ages

More information and sounds at www.geminiwolf.net and www.myspace.com/geminiwolf

Clown Face

2007-05-08T11:45:00.000-04:00

Correction from the last post, the clown face was in Wilmington.

We'll be back at Mojo 13 - June 9 with The Sky Drops. See you then, Mojo!

Some other summer shows for Gemini Wolf are in the works. More details after the album release party.

Post Weekend shows

2007-05-06T21:56:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to Nerd Parade and all the peoples at the shows. This Friday in Brooklyn was very fun. Pete's Candy Store is a great little venue. The next night at Wilmington's Mojo 13 was awesome. Really nice people and attentive and all around fun.

Here are some quick highlights from the Gemini Wolf mini-tour.
(1) Len stepping in poo, 30 seconds into the tour
(2) Alison nearly burning down Pete's Candy Store
(3) Meg and Gary post-show on Friday telling people about their cats.
(4) The clown head in Brooklyn
(5) Gary exclusive "comp meal deal" with the bar tender Mojo 13
(6) Visko drummer Frenchy coming out of retirement to come to the M-Room on Wednesday
(7) Paying about $20 in tolls to get to Brooklyn, then not realizing that we needed to "pass the hat" to get paid
(8) Hanging out with Nerd Parade

Many thanks to The Nerd Parade and best of luck to them on the remainder of their tour. They're mad talented and going places, I'm sure of it.

Now we're focusing in on the Gemini Wolf album, Josiah, album release show.

Friday May 18, Mark your calendars, it's going to be one for the books. Gemini Wolf, Merle Keith, Nomad and Ghost, Hessians and much more. Art@Sophi - 1241 Carpenter, South Philly.

BOI-BOI!!

On to Brooklyn

2007-05-03T15:15:00.000-04:00

We had a great time at M-Room last night. Thanks to Kilroy, The Nerd Parade and Dan for a great night. Now we're playing Brooklyn tomorrow night at Pete's Candy Store, then Saturday at Mojo13 in Wilmington. Hope to see you there.

New Josiah songs added to MySpace too.

M-Room and new album

2007-05-02T11:09:00.000-04:00

So tonight is the first Gemini Wolf show in about three months. We're kicking it at the M-Room tonight with Kilroy and Nerd Parade. SHould be a fun night.

Also we finally got the Gemini Wolf album Josiah mastered by James Dellatacoma at Bill Laswell's Orange Music Sound Studios. It sounds unbelievably good, I've never heard such and improvement from mastering! James did a great job, warming up the sound, running it through some serious analog gear.

You can hear the results, streaming on the Gemini Wolf website; the entire album is streaming there, so check it out and let us know what you think.

Hope to see some peoples at the M-Room tonight.

Paraphrase / Nexus and Mixing and Mastering

2007-04-25T10:21:00.000-04:00

This has been a super busy week for me. Gemini Wolf is putting the finishing touches on the mixes, we're mastering the new album on Thursday.

Also getting ready for a new performance of electronic music and dance at Nexus Gallery this Saturday. This will be the first Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd show in quite some time, so def. try and make it out. It's free at 8:00. Detailed info below, hope to see you there.

New series invites performance artists to interpret work of visual artists

( Philadelphia) PARAPHRASE/NEXUS is a new series in which artists of various disciplines and media create performances inspired by exhibitions at Nexus Gallery. The series is curated by Bilwa, and its inaugural performance will take place on Saturday, April 28 at 8p.m. and will feature Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd in an improvised dance and music installation interpreting Yukie Kobayashi and Elsabé Dixon’s collaborative show, Kumo Cloud Wolk, and Matthew Pruden’s Magnetic Sleep.

On April 28, Dancer/choreographer Emily Sweeney and electronic musician Mikronesia will perform their exploration of Kumo Cloud Wolk. An installation of handmade paper and silk weavings, Kumo Cloud Wolk is inspired by the ways in which the processes of papermaking and silkworms’ weaving are similar to the formation and lifespan of clouds. Dancer/choreographer Rebecca Patek and electronic musician Bilwa will offer their interpretation of Matthew Pruden’s Magnetic Sleep, a multimedia piece exploring 19th century spirit photography, parapsychology, and Spiritualism – the belief that the human personality continues on after death and can communicate through the agency of a “medium.” Perpetual Mvmt<>Snd is a Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary performance collective dedicated to exploring the intersection of various artistic media, the way these media inform and inspire one another in a perpetual loop, and th e way this intersection creates something that is greater than movement or sound on its own.

The second installment of PARAPHRASE/NEXUS will be Saturday, May 26 at 8p.m. and will feature Philadelphia dancer/choreographers Christina Zani and Devynn Emory investigating select photographs from The Philadelphia Center for the Photographic Image’s annual PhotoImage ’07 competition. PARAPHRASE/NEXUS will then take a three-month hiatus and resume in September.

All performances are free and will be held at Nexus Gallery in the Crane Arts Building at 1400 N. American St., Suite #102.

For more information about PARAPHRASE/NEXUS, please visit http://www.nexusphiladelphia.org/ or http://www.myspace.com/perpetual_mvmt_snd .

Deep Listening

2007-04-19T11:16:00.000-04:00

So I had some personal, family stuff take over this week, but getting back to music and other things slowly.

This weekend is the culmination of the SoundExchange07 Workshop series with Pauline Oliveros. The details are on the events page. Basically Friday night is a concert with Pauline, Roscoe Mitchell and Samir Chattergee. Sunday is the performance with the entire ensemble featuring four Philadelphia composers, Pauline Oliveros. This concert will take place at the Annenberg Center, located on UPenn’s campus at 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. It starts at 4:00 PM and is $20.

Should be a great weekend of new and exciting music.

In the cave

2007-04-10T12:46:00.000-04:00

I've been in the cave for the past three days. Mixing Gemini Wolf album and working on tracks for Iris. Lots of editing and mouse moving. Would like to get back to key / button pushing, knob turning and slider sliding soon.

Soon, we (Gemini Wolf) will be coming out of the cave to blast the land with our sonic spray of attitude.

Before the 'Josiah' mini-tour, I've got two Mikronesia events.

(1) Sound Exchange 2007 performance at the Anneberg Center on April 22.
(2) A performance with Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd at Nexus gallery on April 28.

Ping Performance

2007-04-03T21:39:00.000-04:00

LivePA has posted a link to my Mikronesia set in Toronto from last year's Ambient Ping performance.

Enjoy - http://livepa.blogspot.com/2007/04/mikronesia-live-at-ambient-ping-042506.html

MixingMania VII

2007-04-02T23:41:00.000-04:00

Getting some rough mixes together for Gemini Wolf, Josiah tracks. Mastering in a few weeks. Sounding good. Traveling this week, setting up info for CD Release. Maybe working some Iris chopping.

It's going to be May 18 at Art@Sopi.

<< [ Here's the flyer ] [Here's the press release] >>
Gemini Wolf, Philadelphia based electro-dub-symphonic rock band is releasing their debut LP, 'Josiah'. To celebrate this release the band is having their CD Release party at Art@Sophi at 1241 Carpenter St. in South Philadelphia on Friday May 18.

The band has been playing clubs around Philadelphia, New York, Wilmington and Baltimore for the past two years. They have released singles on Nophi records as well as having a song chosen for the Philly CarShare SoundClash Vol. 1.

Gemini Wolf's debut LP is a sonic journey through dozens of music genres. Combining, dreamy vocals, acoustic guitars, thunderous drums, Philly-style soul string arrangements, glitchy laptop programming, dubby bass, thunderous drums nine tracks are nestled together into tight dramatic composition. The album has been produced and mixed by Mikronesia (Robots in Disguise), Gary Dann (Dootlebug, New Millionaires), Joe Bowie (Silent Assassins) and Bilwa (Hoopty Heaven and Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd).

The CD Release party will feature an extended set from Gemini Wolf, sets from the mixed-media / free jazz group, Merle Keith and The Hessians feat. Kilroy. Spinning a late night set will be the acclaimed DJ Frosty. Visually, Art@Sophi will curate the gallery with various paintings, lighting and video projections. In the main room with Gemini Wolf will be legendary artists, David Gerbstadt, doing some projection interactive art set to the band's music. Also featured at the show will be a 'House of Josiah' photos series, surveying a surrealistic domestic landscape through photos and artwork from the album, by Gemini Wolf singer/ songwriter, Pandar.

FRIDAY MAY 18
Gemini Wolf CD Release Party for 'Josiah'
Art@Sophi
1241 Carpenter St.
Philadelphia, PA
~Gemini Wolf~
with Hessians feat. Kilroy, Merle Keith and DJ Frosty.
Visuals: David Gerbestadt
8PM - $5 - All Ages.
http://www.geminiwolf.net
http://www.artatsophi.com

Archive.org

2007-03-22T16:44:00.000-04:00

Recommended by Gary Dann, I've been using archive.org to host some larger audio files. Mostly complete live shows as Mikronesia and Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd. Here's some info about archive.org.

The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in the Presidio of San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections.

So now by search for 'mikronesia' or 'perpetual mvmt< >snd' at archive.org, you can stream or download audio. I've uploaded mostly all of perpetual mvmt< >snd's performances. These performances have also been added to the Mikronesia player on the left side.

Enjoy.

Some dates

2007-03-21T18:23:00.000-04:00

So there's a lot going on Mikronesia-land from the mid-April to mid-May... Here's the low down so you can sync up your Wizard.

April 20-22 : Sound Exchange 2007. American Composers Forum performance with 15 piece ensemble (including Mikronesia on synthesizer), Pauline Oliveros, Roscoe Mitchell and Samir Chatterjee. at Annenberg Center for the Performing Art.

April 28: New series at Nexus Gallery with Perpetual Mvmt< >Snd.

May 2: Gemini Wolf @ M-Room (with The Nerd Parde and Kilroy)

May 4: Gemini Wolf @ Pete's Candy Shop - Brooklyn (with The Nerd Parade)

May 5: Gemini Wolf @ Mojo 13 (tentative - with The Nerd Parade)

May 18: Gemini Wolf CD Release show at Art@Sophi

more on all this in a few weeks, look for site updates and new sound files too...

Thanks for reading.

Hallelujah

2007-03-19T10:03:00.000-04:00

First off, welcome to the new mikronesia site! It's been a few weeks in development and a few months in conception. We've got a snazzy flash music player to the left that you can choose different playlists that will be constantly updated and kept fresh with tasty new mikronesia sound nuggets.

Also, the badware hack thing that make my site come up in Google as a "site that may harm you computer" has been found and fixed. Hopefully it didn't turn away too many people.

On the music tip - lots in development.

I've got a new collection of work entitled 'vxvii', you can listen to it on the flash player to the left. I'm also working on a new release for Gears of Sand, tentatively titled Iris or Comfortable Too, this new work for GoS is going to be comprised of entirely piano sounds. Initially I wanted to take a new approach to the classical minimal / ambient piano work on Satie or Harold Budd, we'll see how much "piano" makes it though the DSP/processing production on the album. That should be out late May / Early June.

Also on my more beat oriented production, the tracks I've been working on for MC Virya are also on display in the flash player, check under the 'production collaboration' playlist for two tracks. Also in the next week or so, Spenser Michaels and I are finally going to put out that track "Beyond" that we've been working on and off again for about a year and half! We only meet up every couple of months and we've got a few other tracks in the works. He's been busy with the Grand Grand Grand LP anyways.

Finally for Gemini Wolf, we're putting the finishing touches on our debut LP, Josiah. We're going to have CD release party on May 18 at Art@Sophi. At the CD Release party we're going to have limited pressing of the LP with four different versions of the cover art based on the photos series "House of Josiah" by Pandar, which will also be on display at the Art@Sophi gallery.

We're not doing any Gemini Wolf shows until May when we'll do a few warm up shows in Philly and New York culminating with the CD Release show on May 18.

I won't be doing any Mikronesia dates until mid-April for the American Composers Forum Sound Exchange 2007 with Pauline Oliveros.

Now that the new site is up expect updates in the 'News' as well as some tweaks throughout the week as I get the site working correctly on the server.

Cheers!