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Feb 262014
 

Joe-Hertenstein-Jamison-Sevits-Randy-Hunt

Here’s Theatre Intangible episode 110: Hertenstein/Hunt/Sevits, recorded on September 13th, 2013.

Joe Hertenstein is a New York City-based drone/avant-garde/free improv drummer, originally hailing from Germany. He’s played with heavy hitters such as Mat Maneri, Anthony Coleman, Ken Filiano, Frank Gratkowski, Jon Irabagon, Achim Tang, Mikko Innanen, Todd Neufeld, Simon Jermyn, and Thomas Heberer.

How did this all come together? Double-bassist and Theatre Intangible participant Thomas Helton e-mailed me a few days before, letting me know Joe Hertenstein, the drummer in his new trio, was passing through Nashville and might be persuaded to perform. By a stroke of good fortune, I had a show booked at Noa Noa for the upcoming Friday with British noise artist Freudian Slit, the Nashville electronic duo Age, and Knoxville multimedia artists Virginia Griswold abd Morgan Higby-Flowers. Joe agreed to perform, and trumpet player Jamison Sevits and double-bassist Randy Hunt came on board to form an extemporaneous trio.

Everything was falling into place. Now we just needed a set of drums.

Joe wasn’t traveling with a set. My roommate Tommy’s set was with him at a show across town. We decided to Frankenstein together a set using Tommy’s spare drums, broken cymbals, and various bits of metal and wood laying around the basement. A lamp served as a cymbal stand. And yet Joe, Jamison and Randy took this limitation and turned it into something magical.

I also recorded the performances of Freudian Slit, Age, and Virginia and Morgan, and I’m including those recordings as free downloads directly below. I’m also embedding videos that Josh Gumiela recorded of the performances. As always, the podcast itself is in the player at the very bottom of the article. Enjoy.

Right click to download, middle mouse click to stream:
Freudian Slit live at Noa Noa
Age live at Noa Noa
Virginia Griswold and Morgan Higby-Flowers live at Noa Noa

Feb 172014
 

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Here’s Theatre Intangible podcast 109: Lyrebird Artist Showcase, recorded on February 15
th, 2013.

Lyrebird is an experimental improv duo featuring Jeremy Bennett on electronics and Craig Schenker on saxophone and flute. Jeremy takes samples of Craig’s live sounds and weaves them into ever-evolving loops, which also feature field recordings and electronic synthesis. Craig then improvises new parts over Jeremy’s creations. We recorded this session in several short improvs. I later reordered the improvs and performed a bit of editing. You can hear the unedited sessions at the band’s Soundcloud page.

Lyrebird performed live at Noa Noa a month and a half after this podcast was recorded, and I’m including that performance as a free download. Download the live set here.

Jan 052014
 

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Here’s Theatre Intangible podcast #108: Savage Knights artist showcase, recorded in the basement of Noa Noa on April 5th, 2013.

Savage Knights are an avant-jazz and rock n’ roll instrumental band from Raleigh, North Carolina. The band features Mike Isenberg on drums, Joey Chorley on bass, Chris Eubank on cello and Crowmeat Bob on guitar, alto sax, and bass clarinet. On this podcast, they start things out with an experimental improvisation featuring Mike on my Hammond student-model organ and then they perform some of their prepared material. Enjoy!

Dec 192013
 
Still from Age video "0vent" https://vimeo.com/57746407

Still from Age video 0vent .

Here’s Theatre Intangible podcast 107: Age Artist showcase, recorded on March 30th, 2013.

Age is the “horizontal sound composition process” of Josh Gumiela and Luke Rainey, and it’s based around a very innovative technique. One artist presents a sound. The other samples that sound and alters it in some way – perhaps speeding it up, slowing it down, degrading it, or chopping it up. The first artist then samples the altered sound. The other artist then samples the altered altered sound. And so on. Soon the sound becomes unrecognizable and the improv progresses in an indeterminate direction, much like the pointer of a Ouija board.

Age performed this improv in the afternoon. They left their gear set up and performed live later in the evening as a part of a lineup also including Brady Sharp and Lyrebird. I also recorded Age’s live performance, and you can download it here.