Interdisciplinary vocalist Odeya Nini and The Chutneys share an evening of physical sound and real-time composition. Evolving over the last nine years, A Solo Voice, composed and performed by Nini, is an investigation of resonance, extended vocal techniques, performance practices, and pure expression, exploring the relationship between mind and body and the various landscapes it can yield. The work is a series of malleable compositions and improvisations aiming to dissociate the voice from its traditional attributes and create a new logic of song that is not only heard but seen through movement and action. Also premiering this evening is a new piece for vocal trio performed by Gelsey Bell, Paul Pinto, and Odeya Nini.
The second half of the evening is dedicated to the New-York-based experimental improvisation trio The Chutneys, whose members include vocalist Gelsey Bell, guitarist Chris Cochrane, and percussionist and composer Fast Forward. The cross-generational experimental supergroup, first formed in 2011, returns to Roulette to celebrate the recent release of their debut album, Home. Individually having worked with Robert Ashley, Matthew Barney, Joan La Barbara, Neil Greenberg, Zeena Parkins, John Zorn, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, The Chutneys draw on a multivalent lineage of avant-garde, noise, folk, and punk music forms to create a unique style of creative song that often travels paths both cacophonous and serene, haunting, and ebullient.
Odeya Nini – voice
Paul Pinto – voice
The Chutneys
Gelsey Bell – voice
Chris Cochrane – electric guitar
Fast Forward – percussion
Odeya Nini is a Los Angeles based experimental vocalist and contemporary composer. At the locus of her interests are performance practices, gesture, textural harmony, tonal animation, and the illumination of minute sounds, in works spanning chamber music to vocal pieces and collages of musique concrète. Her solo vocal work extends the dimension and expression of the voice and body, creating a sonic and physical panorama of silence to noise and tenderness to grandeur. Odeya has collaborated extensively with dancers, visual artists, filmmakers and theater directors as both a composer and soloist and has worked with and appeared in works by artists and ensembles such as Meredith Monk, Butch Morris, Lucy & Jorge Orta, The Industry & Wild Up. Odeya’s work has been presented at venues and festivals across the US and internationally, such as Resonant Bodies Festival, Banff Centre, The LA Phil, MONA and Art Basel Miami, from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, Australia, Mongolia, Madagascar and Vietnam. She leads vocal sound baths – Voice Baths, seminars, workshops and retreats exploring the transformative and healing qualities of embodying the voice. Odeya holds a BFA from the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and an MFA in composition from California Institute of the Arts. www.odeyanini.com | www.voicebath.com
Gelsey Bell is a singer, songwriter, and scholar. Described by the New York Times as “a charismatic and fiercely intelligent performer” whose performance of her own music is “virtuosic” and “glorious noise,” she is a member of thingNY and Varispeed, and has worked with numerous artists, including Robert Ashley, Matthew Barney, and Jonathan Bepler, Joan La Barbara, Dave Malloy, John King, Kate Soper, Odeya Nini, Gregory Whitehead, and Anaïs Maviel. www.gelseybell.com
Chris Cochrane is a songwriter and guitarist who has been playing in New York since the 1980s. He has played with Zeena Parkins, John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Billy Martin, Davey William and many more. He has composed music for Dennis Cooper, John Jasperse, Neil Greenberg, Nayland Blake, Ishmael Houston-Jones and Circus Amok. He was in the bands No Safety and Curlew, and currently works with Brian Chase, Kato Hideki, and Kevin Bud Jones. He is a member of Alphawhore with Gordon Beeferman and Kevin Shea, and periodically plays with Chris Rael’s Church of Betty.
Fast Forward is a composer/musician who makes music with almost anything. He toured extensively with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company under the musical direction of Takehisa Kosugi during the period 1995–2011. He directed and performed in composer Robert Ashley’s legendary opera That Morning Thing at The Kitchen. He composes large scale music-theatre works for diverse instrumentation, such as Feeding Frenzy, a culinary concert for musicians, cooks, waiters, and the audience. www.mrfastforward.com
