Trumpet player Peter Evans works in a wide variety of areas, including solo performance, chamber orchestras, performance art, free improvised settings, electro-acoustic music and composition. As a performer, Evans has been working to broaden the expressive range of his chosen instrument and enjoys playing with steady configurations of players and composers – include collaborations with such artists as Mary Halvorson, Steve Schick, Steve Beresford, Okkyung Lee, Clayton Thomas, Jim Black, Evan Parker, Tyshawn Sorey, John Zorn, Tony Buck, Mark Gould, Weasel Walter, Tobias Delius, Joel Ryan, and Christian Marclay.  On November 4th at Roulette, The Peter Evans Quintet debuts a set of newly composed music commissioned by the Jerome Foundation.

ROULETTE: Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.
PETER EVANS: This ensemble is actually a working band.  I am most comfortable working with steady groups of musicians and this particular ensemble has so much potential to realize a lot of different material.  I met them the way musicians meet- you play somewhere, you talk, you see eye to eye about things enough to organize something. I met all these players through pretty different musical/social spheres and they didn’t really have separate histories together before we played as a band.  In 2010 I was commissioned by the Donaueschingen Musiktage in Germany to do something for their “Jazz” day, and at the same time had an idea to make a record of this band, so with both of those pressures on me/us, we learned a set of music which became “Ghosts”.   That album works very directly with manipulations of historic material, so I thought for the next batch of music we should do something different.  The music for the Roulette concert is still taking shape, but I can say that it deals with more detailed relationships of the acoustic musicians to Sam’s electronics.  I am always learning more about everyone’s capabilities and proclivities, not just Sam’s (although his are the hardest for a technologically handicapped person like myself to understand).  So I’m using this knowledge to write a set that deals more with the visceral experience of “pure sound” than any kind of idiomatic conceit or historical area of music. 

R: Are there working artists today with whose work you identify, or rather, who do you consider to be your peers?
PE: Yes, definitely.  We are all in this together!  A short list of peers I identify with and draw inspiration from (separate from the people performing tonight): Tyshawn Sorey, Nate Wooley, Charlie Looker, Jon Irabagon, Steve Lehman, the Wet Ink Composers, Nathan Davis, Yarn/Wire, Ambrose Akinmusire, Weasel Walter, Kevin Shea…

R: What was the last music you listened to?
PE: I am on a steady diet of Joe Henderson piano-less trio records that feature Al Foster on drums.  There are many.  This morning I listened to “Invitation” from “An Evening with Joe Henderson”.  Aside from the fantastic squiggly saxophone solo which quotes “Tico Tico” at one point, there are some fantastic Al Foster beats.  My favorite is the hi-hat closed on beat two and half closed on beat four.  It sounds like a reverse swing cymbal beat at half tempo, and because the recording mix pans the ride cymbal hard right and hi-hat hard left, the effect is that of two drummers in mirror image.

R: What is music?
PE: It can be as varied as any other human activity.  I enjoy it most when it is an uninhibited explosion of human imagination and creative energy.  

R: Do you consider yourself more a composer or a performer?
PE: Since almost all of my playing activity involves some degree of improvisation on my instrument, I would say they are one and the same. 

R: Is there an event or experience that led you to start in experimental media?
PE: A really important listening experience for me as a teenager was  ”Trout Mask Replica”, by Captain Beefheart.  I found the music baffling, frustrating, garbage-y and crowded.  It fascinated me but also made me a little angry.  And I couldn’t stop listening to it!  Developing a kind of curiosity about music and finding out why things are the way they are, then tinkering yourself to see what happens with material seems to be the definition of “experimenting”.   It basically got me through high school in one piece.

R: Who do you see as instrumental in your development as an artist?
PE: Well, of course I could list recordings that had a big effect on me and an assortment of people, some of whom have been dead for a long time, on those recordings.  But the biggest boosts have come from actual people I’ve had the good fortune to play with or study under.  Tim Weiss at the Oberlin Conservatory, Moppa Elliott, my (ahem) “boss” in Mostly Other People do the Killing, Evan Parker, Mark Gould are a few people who have helped me break through some important aesthetic/philosophical walls over the past 10 years or so.  I would say all of them have had a big role in my development.

R: What is interesting to you about your own work?
PE: This must be a trick question.

R: Do you do other things aside from music?
PE: Yes.

Daniel Goode, composer-clarinetist, is founder of the Flexible Orchestra – a new concept in orchestral sound, co-director of the DownTown Ensemble, member of Gamelan Son Lion. On November 9th, Goode brings his Flexible Orchestra to Roulette.

ROULETTE: Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.
DANIEL GOODE: The Flexible Orchestra is my baby. “Invented” in 2003-04. My project is to reform the modern symphony orchestra. Its inflexibility of instrumentation first of all. Yeah, you can add the occasional electric guitar or schmoosaphone, or something, but basically you’re stuck with the old tried and true format. So I made up a paradigm format that expresses the meaning and intent of the orchestra in my opinion (I theorized a bunch in the Letter From Vienna): one large section of one family that gives the “massed” or “chorale” effect (like the strings in the trad. orch.) but DOESN’T always have to be strings. LIke ten trombones, or twelve cellos, or eleven flutes, or now seven (this year five) accordions. THEN, you need smaller numbers of other contrasting and supporting instruments: like 2 clarinets plus 2 double basses, plus piano (to go with the 10 trombones). Given my budget and my rehearsal loft size, I picked 15 instruments as the approximate total (give or take a few) and made those distributions and choices. All this is documented with programs scores, mp3s and pix at the Flexible Orchestra website
http://eamusic.dartmouth.edu/~larry/flexible_orchestra/
Go there and have a ball! I found a really talented young conductor, Tara Simoncic, who has made each concert an artistic success. All work (including arrangements which we happily do) must be commissioned since each combo is unique.

BUT, here’s a fabulous serendipity: we have a large section of trombones or flutes or cellos or accordions as a core to the group, so we can revive pieces written for multiples of these instruments that don’t get many “second” performances because of the difficulty of assembling such. So a ’60′s piece for multiple trombones by Fred Rzewski (“The Last Judgement” – a spin-off of the trombone solo near end of M’s Don Giovanni), Lois V Vierk’s “Simoom” for 8 amplified cellos, Bill Hellermann’s 1976 “to brush up on” for 6 cellos, Guy Klucevsek’s “Spinning Jennie” for 7 accordions, Henry Brant’s classic 1932 “Angels and Devils” for 11 flutes. So we plug these in to a program  of all new pieces by famous or not famous wonderful composers. (See programs on web site). Then, I’m so proud of this: because it’s an idea not a specific group of people the orchestra can spring up anywhere where these combos can be assembled. So next July 14 in Wroclaw, Poland (that’s “Vrotzswaff”) we are funded to do a concert using the first format, 12 cellos-flute-clarinet-trombone, with local Polish composers and some of our American repertory.

R: Are there working artists today with whose work you identify, or rather, who do you consider to be your peers?
DG: Well, the composers I like are, as you might expect, the ones we program on the Flexible Orchestra: Barbara Benary, Kamala Sankaram, Bill Hellermann, Guy Klucevsek, Jordan Nobles (Vancouver), Christian Wolff, Philip Corner, Skip LaPlante, Jim Fox, and on and on (see programs).

R: What are some defining characteristics of the musical scene you would fit yourself into? What elements of your scene differentiate it from what has come before, or what is happening now?
DG: I’ve been on the scene in NY since 1971 (not counting grad school at Columbia in the ’60s. I’ve always been in the avant-garde or whatever the new music scene is or was from the world of Cage, minimalism, world music (or new music for gamelan ensemble—Gamelan Son of Lion). Did lots of solo clarinet (extended and circular breathing techs) at XI and Roulette—of West B’way days. Started with Bill Hellermann the DownTown Ensemble in 1983 because there were NO repertory groups of the very new (only Composer X’s Ensemble–you know who I mean) type of thing existed based on the one-man show art exhibits. So we dissented from this as non-communitarian art. Our friends and us had no ensemble taking care of our needs. New groups, high-technique conservatory trained groups not composer-performer groups which we were, added to the scene in the late ’90s. I think they are more conservative than we are at the DownTown Ensemble. Our ties go back to the original revolutionary composers of the late ’50s through the ’60′s etc. I recently deplored the world of the Stone which lets the composer shoulder the financial burden of the concert—which is where we all began. I titled my two little articles “We’ve Been Demoted” (see attachment).

R: What was the last music you listened to?
DG: Just finished listening to a CD from Australia called “Ecopella.” Fun madrigal and folk-song style chorus on original pro-environment lyrics and music. Why not! But New York Kool it’s not! Last night I went to the new Freddy’s Back Room to hear my friend and sometime collaborator, Bonnie Barnett, improvising experimental vocalist playing with bassist extroadinaire, Ken Filiano. Great. She also did a set at ABCnoRio with guitarist extraordinaire, Anders Nilsson.

R: Is there an event or experience that led you to start in experimental media?
DG: In the late ’60′s I discovered myself on experimental clarinet. And started really enjoying playing other’s new music scores in ensembles.

R: Who do you see as instrumental in your development as an artist?
DG: No one person to point to in going into new music. The scene in Southern CA at UCSD was hot with composers, performers, ideas flowing all over the place. Then continuing in Soho in the ’70′s.

R: What is interesting to you about your own work?
DG: I’m really pushing all my inner resources now. Continuing instrumental orchestra music with my Flexible Orchestra pieces since 2004. Now adding opera and political cantata type of music. I’m working on my “One-Word Opera.” And my first opera, “French Arithmetic.” Working on a second one-act: “Puppet Dance, and Opera-Ballet.”

R: Do you do other things aside from music?
DG: I’m writing more about music now, and in a personal voice. Published by Frog Peak Music, and in occasional issues of the blog, “Deliberately Considered.” I’ve got my own blog now, http://danielgoode.com/

Born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, trombonist Ben Gerstein’s music has come to focus primarily on free-improvisation as its means of composition, energy and exploration to liberate influences seeking integration with visual art, subconscious drama and fantasy, history, culture, nature and the outdoors. Over the years he has collaborated fanatically, leading many different groups and projects, as well as recording works on trombone by composers such as Conlon Nancarrow, Elliott Carter, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, Erik Satie, J.S. Bach and Carlo Gesualdo.  On November 1st at Roulette, Ben Gerstein presents his Jerome Foundation Commission – FREEDOM CHOIR! with Gerstein on trombone; Tony Malaby on C melody saxophone; Jonathan Moritz, Chris Speed, Andrew Bishop, Ohad Talmor on tenor saxophone; Tim Berne, Michael Attias, Darius Jones, Loren Stillman on alto saxophone; Dan Weiss, Ches Smith, Mike Pride, Randy Peterson on drums.

ROULETTE: Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.

BEN GERSTEIN: Freedom Choir… A cathartic, improvisational service for trombone, five tenor saxophones, five alto saxophones and four drummers…

In music, in life, it has become increasingly important for me to tap into my fullest energy; a clean slate for the most open instrumental-spiritual energy… This event on November 1st will be probably the highest culmination of this for me, an event which couldn’t happen in the smaller venues, but which I feel has to happen for us now as projecting-expressive musicians, improvisers, human beings, lovers,  in this city today, in this world today… The wavelengths of the earth and history beyond the city, a frequency of improvised sound out of jazz stripped down to horns and drums which is so ferociously large, hearing on a different, wilder plane… drums like bonfires, horn players like tribal members… And I knew this could only happen at Roulette… It was in February of this year, back home in Santa Barbara practicing trombone on the beach that the visions finally came to me for this, an ocean of feelings, sun beaming into my heart, a high tide from practice outdoors at full voice and gesture, nature with its wash of sound, the revitalizing open air, so free to move, just a part of life and the earth as it is, with these raw concepts for expression rising above the exercise of energetic balance… I was spinning with excitement for it, imagining this enormous, primal outdoor volume and inner complexity finally projecting its powers indoors with such a unique conglomeration of improvisers I’ve worked with over the past 15-some years… I began wildly drawing sketches and diverse combinations of who to get for it, envisioning the whole thing like an ecstatic church service for everyone present, catching praise, celebrating, dancing, purging, a communion where we could all finally let go together so ecstatically, infinitely safe and beyond anything heard before, almost frightening in its unknown intensity through a totally improvised creation and evolution of sound for over an hour. Horses at the starting gates, gun goes off, horses leap off the track into the air with wings spiraling into the sky like starlings, spectators begin spinning, believing, remembering, and lifting off from the stands too…

It was shortly after returning back to New York City from this revelation that I received a letter out of the blue from Jim Staley informing me that I was being offered a Jerome Commission at Roulette. What timing… It landed directly in my stomach. It was just meant to be… I want us all to be so completely free to vibrate and unite with song for this life… To never forget how strong we can be. To use It, sing It!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmm7tTTldRU

CLICK TO READ FULL INTERVIEW:

Magda Mayas is a pianist living in Berlin.  Developing a vocabulary utilizing both the inside as well as the exterior parts of the piano, using preparations and objects, she explores textural, linear and fast moving sound collage.  Lately she has also focused on the clavinet, an electric piano from the 60s with strings and metal chimes, where she engages with noise and more visceral sound material, equally extending the instrumental sound palette using extended techniques and devices.  On September 29th at Roulette, Magda joins forces with one of Australia’s most creative and adventurous exports – percussionist Tony Buck.

ROULETTE: Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.

MAGDA MAYAS: Tony Buck and I met in Berlin in 2003 and have worked together since – mostly in Duo, but in the last couple of years in different formations as well (in a quartett with Andy Moor and Christine Abdelnour, with Peter Evans and Clayton Thomas as well as in Tonys project TRANSMIT).  We dont or hardly ever make any plans prior to a concert – we have noticed from the first time we played together, to have a very similiar approach and especially time feel I think, we structure and articulate music often in exactly the same way, to the extent of not knowing where the music comes from even while playing. I think thats also to do with the instruments and the way we play them,  they are very close sonically. Our vocablary has extended over the years – I think  for me, especially exploring and working with the clavinet as well, opended up many possibilities that translate into our Duo. And in the last couple of years engaging with different kinds of music, such as (north)african ethnical music, traditional blues and maybe noise.

R: What was the last music you listened to?
MM: An Algerian groove cd and Chris Abrahams solo piano.

R: Do you consider yourself more a composer or a performer?
MM: I think all performers are composers as well.

R: Is there an event or experience that led you to start in experimental media?
MM: Although I did start playing music much earlier, and being kind of open minded to different styles, attending a concert of Cecil Taylor at age 16 definitely left me totaly amazed and inspired.

R:  Do you do other things aside from music?
MM: I love cooking and photography

HELP SUPPORT ROULETTE

BECOME A MEMBER TODAY!

Roulette’s Grand Opening Celebration begins September 15th with performances by Henry Threadgill, Kaija Saariaho, Margaret Leng Tan, Sylvie Courvoisier + Mark Feldman, Laurie Anderson + Lou Reed + John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Fred Frith + Shelley Hirsch, Ethel, and Cosa Brava! Help support Roulette as we transition to our new space – AND save money on tickets – by becoming a member!

By becoming a member of Roulette you support our original and ongoing mission to present and support innovative composers, musicians, sound artists and interdisciplinary collaborators.  Our memberships are designed to support you, our audience members who attend our concerts regularly.  We appreciate your commitment, and our membership offers you substantial savings.

ROULETTE MEMBER  -  $60

$5 off the general admission ticket price for ALL performances in Roulette’s season for ONE YEAR Additional reductions for special events Invitation to annual Members Only Event

ALL ACCESS MEMBERSHIP  -  $250

Attend ALL performances in Roulette’s season for FREE for ONE YEAR Invitation to annual Members Only Event Advanced notice of upcoming programming

CLICK HERE TO BECOME A MEMBER
http://www.roulette.org/support.php/MEMBERSHIP

NOTE: Roulette memberships do not apply to Benefit Concerts and outside productions. The first three nights of Roulette’s Grand Opening (September 15 – 17) are benefit concerts to help pay for our awesome new space – but Sunday’s COSA BRAVA concert is your first chance to save $$!

4 DAY GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION!
Thu Sep 15 – Sun Sep 18th – 8:00 PM

The long wait is finally over! Roulette re-opens – bigger and better than ever – in Downtown Brooklyn. With a newly renovated Art Deco concert hall, seating for up to 400 people (600 standing!), expanded multi-channel sound system, massive projection screen for film and multi-media events, state-of-the-art lighting system, modular stage, and a specially designed floor to accommodate dance – the new Roulette promises to be one of the most exciting places in New York City to experience adventurous music and art. Join us as we kick off our inaugural season with a huge four day Grand Opening Celebration!

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TICKETS ON SALE NOW

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Henry Threadgill’s Zooid
Kaija Saariaho
Margaret Leng Tan
Sylvie Courvoisier & Mark Feldman Duo
Thu Sep 15 – 8:00 PM
$100 Front Row (Includes Pre-Concert Reception)
$35 General Admission
*No student, senior or member pricing

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Marc Ribot’s Film Noir Project
ETHEL
Fred Frith & Shelley Hirsch
Fri Sep 16 – 8:00 PM
$100 Front Row
$35 General Admission
*No student, senior or member pricing

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Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, John Zorn Trio
Sat Sep 17 – 8:00 PM
$100 Front Row
$50 General Admission
*No student, senior or member pricing

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COSA BRAVA
(Fred Frith, Carla Kihlstedt, Zeena Parkins,
Matthias Bossi, and the Norman Conquest)
Sun Sep 18 – 8:00 PM
$100 Front Row
$35 General Admission
$25 student, senior or member pricing

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ROULETTE is now located at 509 Atlantic Ave at the corner of 3rd Ave in Downtown Brooklyn
For more info visit www.roulette.org

On July 23rd, we opened up Roulette’s new home – just for kids!  DJ Jeannie Hopper taught a workshop on the art of DJing, Andrew Drury led the group in a Junk Percussion Jam, and Tatyana Tenenbaum and Brandin Steffensen led a Workshop in Sound & Movement.
Thanks to all the parents and kids who braved the heat wave to participate in this fabulous event!

Our John Cage MUSICIRCUS was a great success!

OVER 100 ARTISTS PERFORMED FOR MORE THAN 1,000 PEOPLE OVER TWO DAYS OF MUSIC, DANCE, VIDEO AND PERFORMANCE!

Artists and audiences, old friends and new, collaborated in this invocation of chaotic simultaneity, awakening this beautiful, historic space to its new life.

We’re now preparing for our Grand Opening Weekend – September 15-17!

FULL LINEUP TBA.

WE’RE OPENING UP OUR NEW BROOKLYN HOME FOR A MASSIVE, TWO DAY CAGE-IAN MUSICIRCUS!

This will be our first public event in the new space!  A sneak peek before our official grand opening September 15th.  We’ve got an insanely wonderful lineup – check it out!

FREE!
June 4th & 5th
1:00 – 6:00PM

A carnival of all things experimental, the Roulette MUSICIRCUS brings a cornucopia of musicians, dancers, video artists, and performance artists from all corners of New York City’s artistic community together for a celebration of chaos and and the harmonies of simultaneity.  A collage of genres and forms, the Roulette MUSICIRCUS will unfold over the course of two full day events, with the audience invited to wander freely and choose their own sonic and visual relationships.

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First performed in 1967, John Cage’s MUSICIRCUS is simply an invitation for performers to assemble and play together – a “happening” where multiple performances occur simultaneously to create new and unusual configurations.

“seen from a particular point of view, music is simply the art of focusing attention on one thing at a time. In my works, I have tried not to focus the attention on one thing at a time, and have used this principle that I call “musicircus”- of having many things going on at once; the simultaneity of unrelated intentions.” JOHN CAGE

509 Atlantic Ave (at 3rd Ave)
MAP
2, 3, 4, 5, C, G, D, M, N, R, B & Q trains and the LIRR

Buckminster: Brad Henkel, Nathaniel Morgan, Peter Hanson Brown Wing Overdrive: Chuck Bettis, Derek Morton, Coralie Lonfat Margaret Leng Tan Cori Olinghouse “Ghost line (work-in-progress)” Ha Yang Kim Keiko Uenishi (o.blaat) / Melissa Lockwood / Ana Santos “Daily Routines” Matana Roberts Michael Vincent Waller – Raga Brooklyn (2011) accompanied by James Ross; Michael Vincent Waller – 4’32″ for John Cage (2011) Miguel Gutierrez MV Carbon “Stabilimenta” Natalie Elizabeth Weiss AKA Unicornicopia (DJ SET OF THE FUTURE) Ashcan Bell Choir Twisty Cat Zeljko McMullen Lucas Geronomus MERCE (Shelley Burgon, Maria Chavez) Kagel Nacht Shiraishi Tamio Zach Layton Daniel Fishkin & Tristan Shepherd Himalayas Lainie Fefferman Katherine Liberovskaya Bruce Eisenbeil Michael Evans Fast Forward Sally Silvers Abraham Gomez-Delgado Alfredo Marin Hammer of Hathor: Heather Vergotis, Mark Kaylor, Kelvin Pittman, Dann Pell “For Guylene” Liliana Dirks-Goodman “#8″ Mariana Valencia Tristan Shephard w/ guests Eric Silberberg (bass) and John Stanesco (bass clarinet) Gabrielle Herbst Katie Young/Clara Latham Kenny Wolleson, Nicole Federici & Sonic Smithies Tristan Perich Loud Objects Sam Mickens Zach Mangan Jennifer Monson Koosil-ja, Geoff Matters, David Or Dan Joseph Cori Olinghouse Elliott Sharp Justin Frye “Aborted Scraps” Lesley Flanigan Sasha Welsh/Bradford Reed Nine11Thesaurus Greg Fox Jim Altieri

The 2nd in the series of interview/documentaries about the past and future of Roulette – this time with Jeremiah Cymerman, Matana Roberts and Mary Halvorson!

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REMEMBER THE EASY NOT EASY FESTIVAL?
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The Easy Not Easy Festival  (October 7 – 9, 2010) was a three night benefit festival to help raise money for Roulette’s new home in Brooklyn. Using the idea of “Simple Scores” as a starting point, we asked a wide array of some of NYC’s most exciting young artists to compose and perform a series of “simple” new scores as well as some scores by more established artists.  The results were unbelievable.

If you missed it – its now all online + FREE + on the FREE MUSIC ARCHIVE

Stay tuned for more free music from Roulette on FMA!

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CHECK IT OUT!

German-Argentine composer Mauricio Kagel is arguably one of the most radical 20th century avant-garde composers, often incorporating bizarre, hysterical theatrics into his compositions. Kagel Nacht on May 1st - ROULETTE’S LAST CONCERT IN MANHATTAN – gathers a stacked deck of musicians from Brooklyn’s artistic multiverse, performers deeply situated in theater, performance art, classical, and experimental music worlds for an evening exploring Kagel’s diverse oeuvre, including “classical” works, electro-acoustic compositions, multi-media pieces, radio plays, and some of his most daring and hilarious works of “instrumental theater”. With interpretations ranging from strict to fully recontextualized, Kagel Nacht breathes new life into these important and underperformed works by joining them into one, multi-stage, panoramic event.

ROULETTE:  Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.
SAM SOWYRDA:  Stephe first introduced me to Mauricio Kagel’s work sometime in late 2007, around the time we started working together in both musical and performance art groups.  After that we both researched his pieces, and performed our own, Kagel-influenced, theatrical improvised music under the name Living Things.  Sadly though, it wasn’t until Kagel passed away in 2008 that it occurred to both of us to put on a night dedicated to Kagel’s great body of work.  It was pretty easy to find performers in New York who wanted to contribute; Kagel’s music is so unique and vastly underperformed that people jumped at the opportunity to perform it, including the amazing soprano Beth Griffith who had worked closely with Kagel in Cologne for years.
We put together a full length (almost 4 hours!) show of everything from strict readings to complete reinterpretations (such as Kagel’s epic open-form electro-acoustic composition Acustica performed as a giant audience-directed jukebox).   We wanted to not only present Kagel’s rarely performed works, but also to allow young artists to choose how to present the works in the most creative, and Kagel-inspired way.  We didn’t think Kagel’s music necessarily fit the classical performance conventions, and if left to the music-devouring canon-monster many of his greatest, and difficult-to-program pieces, might well be forgotten.  We got such great feedback from so many different people that we decided it had to be done again, ideally as a tour.  We started organizing again in late 2009 and here we are, about to take Kagel Nacht on its first tour.

R:  What is music?
SS / STEPHE COOPER:   That to which I listen.

R:  Do you do other things aside from music?
SS:  Yes, I do a lot of other things. Professionally I have been doing timber-frame carpentry for the past few years, mostly rebuilding historic barns in Connecticut.  I also built a diesel engine from scrap parts for an old Jetta I got a few years ago, then converted if to run on vegetable oil; that’s somewhat more than a hobby for the past few years.
SC:  I mostly write and play music and work as a sound engineer in an experimental music venue, but I also like to play chess, ride my bicycle, cook vegetarian food, and fantasize about living in a society without oppressive hierarchal structures.

Richard Garet is a multimedia artist whose work weaves together moving image, sound, live performances, and photography. On April 30th at Roulette’s MIXOLOGY FESTIVAL, Richard will join forces with multimedia artist Katherine Liberovskaya for an audiovisual collaboration in real time.  Combining analog and digital processes, the duo merges visuals in a continuous flux of appropriation – reprocessing and feeding back of imagery into the room while  simultaneously translating light into sound through field recordings, audio feedback, and computer processing.
ROULETTE: Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.
RICHARD GARET:  Katherine Liberovskaya and I will join forces and collaborate visually and sonically. We will use a variety of visual and audio components combining analog and digital processes, appropriate and feed back each other’s material, and generate imagery and audio in real time.

R:  What was the origin of the project?
RG:  We have known each other for many years and have yet to do any work together so we thought that this could be the perfect opportunity to join forces. We talked about it and proposed the work to Roulette.

R:  How did you meet your collaborators?
RG:  We met in NYC years ago in the downtown experimental sound and moving image scene.

R:  What’s your history with your collaborators?
RG:  We are just friends and fans of each other’s work. We have curated each other in events that we have organized but this will be the first time collaborating together.

R:  How long have you been working on the project?
RG:  We started rehearsing for this around February.

R:  What are you exploring, either in terms of imagery behind the work or performance tools?
RG:  The idea behind this collaboration is to combine our materials and create a constant flow of appropriating each other’s work that is then reprocessed in the moment and fed back into the room.

R:  Are there working artists today with whose work you identify, or rather, who do you consider to be your peers?
RG:  I rather not reveal who I like in particular. I never do….

R:  What are some defining characteristics of the musical scene you would fit yourself into?
RG:  I’m not interested in tonality as a departing point (or music as language). I’m interested in process, materiality, and sound as a concrete force. I’m also interested in technology and in combining both analog and digital environments. Where would that place me?

R:  What elements of your scene differentiate it from what has come before, or what is happening now?
RG:  The most obvious differences are technological developments which consequently provide a broader range of possibilities. I’m talking about the tool and the material. The tool is what really helps to shape the imagination, helps the processes that the artist focuses on, helps to create the form, and so forth. However, I believe that the tool is not the art, nor is the material, until it is molded and transformed—until it becomes significant to it self and to the artist. Much has happened in lets say 50 years. In my opinion art comes from art and we are creatures that learn by observation, response, and repetition.Therefore, continuity in art is crucial because that’s the beginning of moving creatively in any direction and placing ourselves in any context. Although on that path of continuity many things seem to have been hitting a wall for a while, and appropriation and reconfiguration seem to have become the obvious method besides modernist practice. Therefore, I would say that technology is that thing that keeps moving. It has modified the way we live, think, and work. So much is possible today that was not possible 50 years ago for example. So I think that thanks to technology and innovative techniques we still manage to reinvent ourselves creatively.

R:  What was the last music you listened to?
RG:  Our Telluric Conversation by John Duncan and Carl Michael Von Hausswolf
I just got gifted this record by a friend and today it happens to be the very last record or piece of music I listened to.

R:  What is music?
RG:  I like to think that music is the organization of sound. However, so is speech or sound art. So I would simplistically say that music is organized sound that exists in a very specific context, it is intended for listening, it emerges out of its own laws, and it functions within a series of very specific social dynamics and biological responses.

R:  Do you consider yourself more a composer or a performer?
RG:  I consider myself an interdisciplinary artist. Within my practice I do both compose and perform. I also utilize for both not only audio but also moving image. However, not always the mediums have to be married. Sometimes I focus just on one or the other or both.

R:  Is there an event or experience that led you to start in experimental media?
RG:  Hmmm–not really. It has always been a natural condition to be curious about things and to be inclined to empirical processes where meaning and discoveries emerge from the act of doing. An instinctive and intuitive drive too. But if I have to think about it really is about being in the moment and getting surprised at the same time.  I realized that experimenting, process, and phenomena of the media and the material, and how this affects the body, is what I really like and I feel that this comes naturally to me. So I just went with it.

R:  Who do you see as instrumental in your development as an artist?
RG:  The list would go on for long time. However, I would say that the time I spent working with Larry Poons was very inspirational and his teaching has absolutely filtered into all the medias that I deal with. And working with Maryanne Amacher in summer 2008 and a short period of summer 2009 was definitely nurturing and inspirational. Also being obsessed with listening and viewing…

R:  What is interesting to you about your own work?
RG:  Light and moving image informing sound and vice versa. Abstraction. Sensory overloads….

R:  Do you do other things aside from music?
RG:  I compose experimental sound based works. I perform live. I do installation work intended for very specific environments such as the gallery and museum space, the public space, and other function-specific areas. These works range form stereo to multichannel situations. Additionally, I work with moving image and digital photography. I have a background in visual arts so I have always treated sound from a very materialistic perspective. I do not like to call what I do sound-wise as music. I think of them as sonic constructions…

R:  Other thoughts? 
RG:  I’m excited about what is going to be possible in 25 years or so.
Or even in 5 years….

With roots in metal, modern composition, jazz, indie pop and Early Music, Charlie Looker’s music has always been an intuitive synthesis of diverse influences. A core member of the notorious Brooklyn “brutal chamber” group Zs, Looker formed his own band Extra Life in 2007 to explore more fully his vocal writing, folk-based forms and synthetic instrument sounds.  Other notable projects and credits include work with Dirty Projectors, John Zorn, William Parker, Tyondai Braxton, Daniel Carter, Elliott Sharp, Christian Wolff, Seductive Sprigs and Time of Orchids.  On March 11th at Roulette, Charlie Looker presents his new experimental folk project, Seaven Teares.

ROULETTE:  Tell us as about the work you’ll be doing at Roulette.
CHARLIE LOOKER: I met each of my Seaven Teares bandmates through different channels, but all through hearing their work with other bands and being really impressed. This band is the first time I’ve played with any of them and the first time they’ve played with each other. I assembled the band last summer because I wanted to do something quieter, more folk and pop based than other things I had been doing. Something with simpler songwriting, with room for collaboration on the arrangements. I wanted to play with people who were willing and able to get into very detailed complexities but who were also open to total simplicity. The male/female vocal harmonizing is also very important to my conception of this project, not just sonically but on a poetic level as well. Feminine energy is important and I think I need more of it within me, both on a human level and creatively.

Are there working artists today with whose work you identify, or
rather, who do you consider to be your peers?
CL: Well, “peer” can be a presumptuous label to give to someone else because it assumes that the respect is fully mutual… But without taking any huge risks, and excluding the awesome musicians who I play in bands with, some friends who I draw inspiration from are Sam Mickens, Nat Baldwin, Owen Pallett, Jamie Stewart, Chuck Stern, Tyondai Braxton and Mick Barr.

R:  What was the last music you listened to?
CL: Sam Mickens’ new solo EP “Sinistra Secco”. It’s absolutely demonic, masterfully conceived and executed. Some people are saying this is the best of Mickens’ work to date and I think they may even be right. He is a very thoughtful composer and performer but at the same time this record bristles with a certain “outsider” vibe, probably because it was written and recorded very quickly and impulsively.

R: What is music?
CL: Oh come on man.

R:  Is there an event or experience that led you to start in
experimental media?
CL: It’s funny, my recent music has been getting so much poppier and more accessible I don’t even know if I’m even officially working in the “experimental” field anymore at all. But I have deep roots in experimental music. One event which thrust me into that world was seeing John Zorn’s Cobra at the Knitting Factory on Leonard St when I was in high school. I had no idea what was going on but I was absolutely blown away. Yamantaka Eye conducting, and this ensemble including all these musicians from totally disparate scenes, playing this noise. I found it incomprehensible, yet I could see and hear that it was meticulously controlled in some way.  I remember feeling like, wow I really have no idea what’s out there. Like I have no idea what thought process is behind that composition, what performance process I just witnessed or what social process brought those musicians together.  Before that, I had already been about what the weirdest music out there might sound like. That Cobra show gave me the first of many great answers to that question.



  

R:  Do you do other things aside from music?
CL: When I’m not making my own music I’m teaching music to little kids, both at an elementary school and in private piano and guitar lessons. That’s my actual day-job, which really is pretty lovely as far as things go. Other than that, I read as much as I have time to. I spend a lot of time writing emails and sorting out business minutia which is a fucking pain in the ass but has to get done. I used to kind of have a social life but not so much lately.