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to concert schedule Friday, December 12, 2008 @ Vox Populi: Bryan Eubanks, Andrew Lafkas, and Vic Rawlings Jack Wright, Ben Bennett, and Jon Barrios Tim Albro and Ian Fraser Vox Populi Gallery, 319 North 11th Street, Third Floor, Philadelphia, PA (map), $5-10, 8pm. Sponsored by Bowerbird. A real treat for those who love names; there's eight of them in this show. Our most "improv-y" show yet has the potential to reveal some real surprises and some real gems. Bryan Eubanks and Andrew Lafkas have been playing together for years, not so much developing as honing a super-focused, minimal yet rich wealth of electronic tones and bass bowings. It's held together by their impeccable taste, restraint, and sense of timing. Local geniuses Jack Wright and Jon Barrios are to be joined my mystery man Ben Bennett on percussion, but if their audio clip and past performances of Barrios and Wright are anything to go on, this should be fantastic. An acoustic counterpoint to the other two sets of gritty electronics. Tim Albro are Ian Fraser are two Philly stalwarts who share an affinity for surprise and constant tweaking of their set-ups. Guitars? Laptops? Electronics? CD players? Radios? Some or all of the above should appear, either in thick noisy bursts or in carefully doled out filigrees of sound or maybe both or maybe neither. YOU HAVE TO COME TO FIND OUT. Bryan Eubanks and Andrew Lafkas  Bryan Eubanks and Andrew Lafkas - "Albany" Andrew Lafkas (doublebass/electronics) and Bryan Eubanks (electronics) have been developing music together since their first meeting in 2001. Since 2005 they have been collaborating as an electro-acoustic duo, an electronics duo, and as part of an acoustic chamber ensemble on a weekly basis, in addition to individual activities with various musicians. Together they have toured most of the US, curate concerts in New York (Seven Concerts, Sigogglin, Three Days, and one-offs), and continually develop their individual approaches to improvisation and musical vocabulary. www.rasbliutto.net/bryaneubanks www.rasbliutto.net/artists/andrewlafkas.html Vic Rawlings  photo: Seth Tisue Vic Rawlings and Tim Feeney - "two" Vic Rawlings is active as an improviser and instrument builder, specializing in modifications of existing instruments, creating extensive cello preparations. He also continually develops an electronic instrument from extant exposed circuitry, producing, in effect, a modular analog synthesizer with a highly unstable interface. This electronic instrument is paired with a flexible array of exposed speaker elements, chosen for their often unpredictable and idiosyncratic acoustic qualities. He performs as a soloist and as a member of undr quartet, the bsc, and in duo and trio ensembles with Mike Bullock, Greg Kelley, Bhob Rainey, Sean Meehan, Jason Lescalleet, James Coleman, Liz Tonne, Tatsuya Nakatani, and Howard Stelzer, among others. Collaborators have included musicians as diverse as Eddie Prevost (AMM), Donald Miller (Borbetomagus), Daniel Carter (Other Dimensions in Music), Laurence Cook, Jaap Blonk, Masashi Harada, and Stephen Drury. Jack Wright  photo: bowerbird Sexagenarian Jack Wright, renowned for his impersonations of ducks, pigs, and other blowhards, will be attempting to play the saxophone exclusively with his feet and anus (as he does on the trio mp3). He learned that technique whilst employed at (subsequently fired from) the Phila. zoo to entertain monkeys and encourage them to copulate. Before that, he was a boring lounge act, garnering the most applause when he pretended to hang himself with his sax strap, and one time it was almost not a joke. Occasionally he remembers the proper use of the instrument and its ideological purpose of propping up the universe. He lives in Easton but comes to Philly in order to fall off ladders in his Spring Garden House. Jon Barrios  Jon Barrios (1973—), Venezuelan American musician, composer and improviser. Manipulating the many diverse uses of stringed instruments, computers, electronics, moving images, psychology, anatomy, architecture and sleep deprivation. Barrios has often been described as the archetype of the "Werewolf", a man whose "unquenchable hunger" is equalled only by his ante-deluvian resourcefulness. He currently resides in Philadelphia. and Ben Bennett Jack Wright, Jon Barrios, and Ben Bennett: This trio originated as one grouping of the Spring Garden Music workshops last January. Ben Bennett came to Philly from his home in Columbus OH just for the sake of playing sessions with a large variety of players. (He also proved to be a superb dumpster-diver, so we were in no lack of almost-fresh food.) Jack had met Ben through his dad, a professed non-poet living in Columbus with whom Jack had been playing since the mid-eighties. The three of them, called Rotty What had done a few shows on the east coast earlier, and more since then, together also with Michael Johnsen (Rotty What meets Truant Runts). Following this performance Friday will be a week of sessions with philly's finest--improvisers, that is... Ian Fraser  Ian M Fraser (b.1980) is a performer and composer of electronic music. His playing uses a wide palette of digital and analog means to create long-form improvisations involving patience and restraint. Collaborations include the electro-acoustic quintet Benito Cereno with Jesse Kudler, Tim Albro, Dustin Hurt and Chandan Narayan, and Common Senses with Tim Albro. He is also a contributing member to the band Relay. Tim Albro  Born in Worcester, MA in 1980, currently based in Philadelphia, Tim Albro received a BA in English at Wesleyan University. Since Wesleyan, he has done ethnographic work on gospel music in West Philadelphia, composed music for a dance ensemble, as well as participate in the vibrant improvised/creative music community growing in Philadelphia. This work as an improvising/creative musician includes performing on the 12-string electric guitar /w electronics, on the prepared guitar/electronics/radio in the duo HZL, and recent solo work with home built radio transmitters. Current research interests include: the life of milarepa, green anarchism, and good advice. www.myspace.com/timalbro |