Sideways Shows For A Straight-Laced City

Resonant Interval #31: Amy Morrison/Doug Falk/Hsin-Jung Tsai, MFM, Tatsuya Nakatani & Omar Tamez

June continues to be a star-studded month for Resonant Interval. After hosting Cornelius F. Van Stafrin III & Tarr on an extra Houston date of their tour last week, we are treated to two ensembles touring the globe, along some stellar local talent.

First up, the contemporary chamber trio of Amy Morrison (oboe & English horn), Doug Falk (trumpet & upright bass) and Hsin-Jung Tsai (piano) will be performing several new compositions for their unique orchestration. Falk and Tsai are well-known to Resonant Interval regulars, having appeared in several combinations with other musicians across a spectrum of sounds.

MFM trace a circuitous history between Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia and beyond. From their website: “Combining an array of musical instruments, from the traditional to the non-traditional, they offer dense paranormal soundscapes, often accentuated by thick bass hooks, found and appropriated sound, dark piano melodies, and other unexpected noises and visual material that differ performance from performance”.  You can read more here.

MFM Live In-Studio Performance:

Tatsuya Nakatani (drums) & Omar Tamez (guitar) are touring as a duo and will be heading to Houston after performing and conducting workshops at the inaugural New Media Art and Sound Summit in Austin. Nakatani works with a series of extended techniques and an extended drumkit (including several gongs) to improvise in modes both meditative and furious. Tamez is a central force in coordinating jazz and improvised music in Monterrey, Mexico, while touring and collaborating extensively in North America, Europe and Japan.

Tatsuya Nakatani, solo percussion performance:

Omar Tamez, trio performance at Church of the Friendly Ghost in Austin:

Tarr and Cornelius F. Van Stafrin III added to Resonant Interval #30

North Carolina’s Cornelius F. Van Stafrin III and Chicago’s Tarr will be joining the bill for the evening. Here are some examples of what to expect:

Resonant Interval #30: Pete & Spencer Gerson, Michael Waller (NYC)

This week we will be hosting the first father-and-son duo to perform at Resonant Interval– Pete and Spencer Gershon. The elder Gershon is the publisher of Signal To Noise magazine, a quarterly journal dedicated to covering music from various corners of the underground world (free jazz, noise, out-rock et al). Spencer is a young man getting a jump start on his paternal birthright to explore the wonderful world of experimental sound. It is sure to be an enjoyable set for all parties.

Michael Waller returns from New York City for a solo performance, after being introduced to Resonant Interval in a duo with Melanie Jamison. An active composer and performer around New York, Waller focuses on the meditative, transcendent aspects of sound (often culled from field recordings in specifically-chosen places) to tap in to the “Eternal Music” championed by mentors like La Monte Young and Phil Niblock.

Here is a video featuring one of Waller’s pieces, Ownership:

The show begins at 7:45 pm at 2808 Milam at The Exoskeleton, between the bank and the French bakery. a $5 cover goes directly to the performers. Beverages are available from Khon’s Bar, whose generous patronage makes this series possible. Thank you for supporting them, and thank you for supporting the arts!

Resonant Interval #29: Ink On Paper & Elliot Cole

Despite the heavy competition for our ears’ attention from the Free Press Summer Fest this weekend, we are glad to present a concert of two excellent contemporary music this Sunday at The Exoskeleton.

Visiting from Santa Fe, New Mexico is the bass and drums duo Ink On Paper. Here’s what they have to say about themselves:

“iNK oN pAPER is a drum, bass, and electronics duo from Milton Villarrubia III (drums and laptop) and Carlos Santistevan (bass and electonics).   After making music together as a rhythm section in numerous creative projects for over 10 years, Carlos and Milt decided they would further hone their craft in a duo setting exploring the vast possibilities of their respective instruments. Both members play hybridized versions of their instruments with Milton using Midi triggers on his drums to trigger samples and processing using Ableton Live and Carlos incorporating analog live looping and signal processing on his upright electric bass.

The result is a duo that is drags rhythm through the mud in unimaginably glorious ways.”

They are touring in support of a new album, which can be heard streaming at their website.

Elliot Cole is a native Texan who has composed in a wide range of idioms, from his highly melodic chamber pop group Babinagar to his high-concept hip-hop group The Oracle Hysterical to several orchestral works, one of which is in production for performance in New York City. Utilizing MAX/MSP and Ableton Live, along with more conventional instrumentation, Cole brings cutting insight and a healthy sense of humor to the sometimes stuff world of contemporary composition.

Resonant Interval #28: Tour Kickoff for Screwed Anthologies, featuring Gray Tapes and B L A C K I E

This Sunday’s show features three Houston acts all drawing inspiration from our city’s infamous, indigenous subgenre of slow, steady rap music, known most commonly as “Chopped & Screwed” rap.

Screwed Anthologies in their own words:

“Originally commissioned by the gallery labotanica for the exhibit “Screwed Anthologies”, David Dove and Lucas Gorham bring their long history as collaborators to their exploration of an expansive (yet particular) musical sensibility.

Screwed Anthologies connects seemingly disparate musical genres with a deep sense for how regionalism, experimentalism, tradition, and technology cross the lines of genre. Screwed Anthologies makes electro-acoustic improvisation with a love of the layers, thick textures, soulful expressiveness, deep bass, and unusually slow tempos that mark the music of DJ Screw.”

Musical excerpts can be heard here.

The moniker of Pasadena native Michael LaCour, B L A C K I E is a spiritual heir to renegade beatmakers like Dalek and The Bug, compressing grime, rap, noise and punk into a huge wall of speakers and a microphone. A commanding performer, B L A C K I E’s performances eviscerate the distinction between audience and performer, marrying the sweaty, seething ethos of punk rock basement shows to blown-out kick drums and shuddering bass, overlaid with raps taking their cues from South Houston, East London and Western Massachusetts in equal measure.

B L A C K I E live in Richmond, VA:

Gray Tapes performs chopped n’ screwed rap in real time. Aided by a series of vocal effects pedals and self-produced, slowed-down backing tracks, he aims to execute the hypnotic, surreal qualities of Houston’s homegrown subgenre with meticulous imitation of the unique soundworld of DJ Screw’s pioneering Maxwell cassette mixes–the original “Gray Tapes”.

The show begins at 7:45 pm. Gray Tapes, Screwed Anthologies and B L A C K I E. $5-8 admission–these guys are going on tour for 3 weeks & we want to send them off with as much money in their pockets as possible.

Resonant Interval #25: Open Forum

This week at Resonant Interval, we will be testing out a new approach to our series. Rather than presenting specific performers in a player/audience environment, we are presenting this Sunday as an open forum. Anyone who brings an instrument, or video camera, or paintbrush and canvas, will be combined into a few ad hoc groups for 20-25 minutes each, culminating in a large-group piece at the end of the evening. It seems a bit risky, but we are confident that it will help foster one of the enduring goals of our series, which is to encourage the collaboration among the various strands of forward-thinking creative people residing in Houston.

Accordingly, there will be no charge for this week’s show. If you feel the need to apply your spare $5 elsewhere, we encourage you to take a look through the Resonant Interval Distro crate, filled with audio-visual treasures for the discerning collector.

Resonant Interval #23: Paul Connolly/Aaron Bielish & Ryan Edwards

Please forgive this late notice, but we are in fact hosting the 23rd installment of Resonant Interval this Sunday at our new space, The Exoskeleton. As The Husk is now on its way to becoming another boba tea shop, the propietors of Khon’s Bar have generously allowed us to decamp to an unused Cricket Wireless space in the Mekong Center, which we have elected to call The Exoskeleton (surely to the delight of entymologists everywhere). Same time (7:45 pm), same price ($5), same place (2808 Milam).

This week we welcome back two veterans of our series–Paul Connolly and Ryan Edwards. Paul will be joined by violist Aaron Bielish to realize a piece inspired by the David Cronenberg auto/erotic film “Crash”, while Ryan will be performing a solo set for guitar and voice. Please join us for our inaugural show in our new home this evening.

On a side note, due to the impending move of Resonant Interval CEO, HR assistant manager and sanitation engineering foreman Lance Higdon to Atlanta, Georgia, Resonant Interval will be concluding our season at the end of July. If you have ever desired to perform or contribute in some creative way to our series, please contact us with proposals for execution in the next 3 months.

Potential Inclement Weather No Challenge To Conference Call Concert Tonight.

In the event that we have rain this evening, Khon’s is graciously opening The Husk one more time for the concert to continue. Also, there will be a very substantial crawfish boil taking place that afternoon, to which everyone is invited.

So, rain or shine, we will see you at the Conference Call concert tonight at 8 pm. See incredible Loftward Bucolica poster below for more details.

Resonant Interval #22: Conference Call…on the Roof!

That’s right, Resonant Interval junkies, we’re moving proceedings onto the rooftop parking lot of Khon’s for this show. German/American quartet Conference Call will come calling this Sunday, on tour across the US in support of their recent album “What About The…..?”, recorded live in Krakow, Poland. They are an incredible group, rooted in jazz but supremely comfortable and confident in all the nuances of the last sixty years of “free” music. Here is footage of a recent performance in New Haven, Connecticut. Add the image of the Houston skyline and you’ve got a good idea of Sunday’s show.

Resonant Interval #21: Melanie Jamison (ft. Aisen Chacin) & The Great Travis Kerschen

There’s been quite a few things afoot here at Resonant Interval headquarters–interstate job interviews looming, apartment-cleaning, ferreting out every last underground music lover in our fair city to keep this thing going strong. Please forgive our last-minute post calling attention to this week’s bill. In deference to the immanent threat of nervous breakdown, we will simply quote Space City Rock’s assessment of this week’s performers, Melanie Jamison & The Great Travis Kerschen:

…[T]he original guest for tonight, The Drink Up, Honey, couldn’t make it, so instead the show’ll feature Melanie Jamison, an H-town expat dwelling in NYC ’til recently. Here’s the official word on what she’s like:

Melanie is a recent returnee from New York City, where she studied interdisciplinary artforms (including compositions lessons with minimalist scion La Monte Young). She is currently pursuing graduate work in art in Houston & collaborating with a number of artists across several disciplines. We will be performing some electroacoustic pieces this weekend, accompanied by video art by Aisen Chacin.

Also playing is The Great Travis Kerschen, the latest project of local noise/experimental maven Travis Kerschen (duh), known for both the stellar A Thousand Cranes and the new-ish (but promising) Fiskadoro. I dunno quite what it’s going to be like, but I hear it’s more noise-y than his other stuff. Which, um, is a little interesting, since the other stuff is pretty noise-y in itself…

Many thanks to Jeremy Hart for the write-up. In the meantime, we hope to see you this evening at 7:45 pm at Khon’s. Still unsure if the show will occur in The Husk or the unused Cricket space, but either way, the show shall go on.

Travis Kerschen performing under the name A Thousand Cranes:

A Melanie Jamison sound piece from a recent performance art exhibition at Notsuoh: