Soundwave ((6)) SonicLAB

07/18-13

Deep Sea NightLife

Featuring renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle, musician Christopher Willits and special guests.

California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park
6:00p-10:00p

tickets

 

Soundwave guides audiences into the deep in a very special NightLife event with renowned oceanographer and TED prize winner Sylvia Earle speaking, musician Christopher Willits conducting down in the coral reefs and more special guests to be announced. Featuring Cal Academy’s special exhibition “Built For Speed” on the ocean’s speediest inhabitants from sharks to sailboats.

 

BIOGRAPHIES
The Mantles are a San Francisco/Oakland band who have been charting a unique path through the Bay Area’s storied garage/pop scene since 2007.  The early shows were loose & loud Velvets/Nuggets-bashing, always with weirdly catchy songs & oddball chord changes.  Now onLong Enough To Leave, The Mantles still color outside the lines but dial a cleaner, more infectious sound.  By foregoing the theater of retro psychedelia, The Mantles end up innovating in an area of guitar music where many bands get lost fawning over fashions, styles and trends.Long Enough To Leave instead stakes their claim as writers and players of distinction, building a sturdy catalog of excellent songs and increasingly accomplished records. Website

Christopher Willits creates patterns of vibrations with sound and light. He occupies a unique corner of the electronic-art-music universe—hovering above the intersection of electronic production’s nuts and bolts, new media art, and a wide-open creative mind. “i am a conduit of the process, a kind of gardener,” he says. “I simply imagine, intuit, respond and do the work laid before me.” Willits’ tireless responding and doing and working has produced 20 albums in 10 years—solo and in collaboration with artists including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Matmos, Zach Hill, and Taylor Deupree—and an organic, multi-faceted sound that expands like the vines of an electro-acoustic kudzu plant. Christopher Willits is a teacher, a label owner (the experimental hub Overlap.org), a meditator, a tech geek, a visual/new media artist, and virtuosic musician in one. In other words, there’s no one out there quite like him. Website

Sylvia Earle is a National Geographic Explorer in Residence, Founder of SEAlliance, Mission Blue, and Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc., and Chairs Advisory Councils for the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies; the Ocean in Google Earth; the Marine Science and Technology Foundation and the Schmidt Research Vessel Institute. She has a B.S. degree from Florida State University, M.S. and PhD. from Duke University, 19 honorary degrees, has lectured in more than 80 countries, appeared in hundreds of radio and television productions and has authored more than 175 scientific, technical and popular publications
including Exploring the Deep Frontier, Sea Change, Wild Ocean, Dive, The National Geographic Atlas of the Ocean and The World is Blue. Website

Ben Davis is the visionary and catalyst behind The Bay Lights, the world’s largest light sculpture by artist Leo Villareal currently on display on the Bay Bridge. Ben is the owner, cretaive director and founder of Words Pictures Ideas. Ben has 25 years direct experience working on major civic projects for some of the Bay Area’s largest public and private investment projects.  He has also taken on public safety and preparedness issues, working with the Bay Area Red Cross and the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management. In 2008, he launched WPI’s purpose driven design offshoot firm, I Shot Him Because I Loved Him, Damn Him with the mission of Changing Hearts, Minds and Habits. Father, home-owner, small business operator, employer, driver, bicyclist, pedestrian, public transit rider, shopper and active participant of San Francisco’s arts culture and nightlife, Ben brings a wide-ranging and real world perspective to the unique set of behavior-change and communication challenges facing WPI’s clients. Ben is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley with a B.S. in political science.Website

Eug is a Dj, Label Director and Designer that has been heavily involved within both the design and music worlds for well over a decade now. Having started out Dj’ing in the early 90’s, he eventually collected his musical efforts under the “Public Release” label / project umbrella in 1999. Through Public Release, he has released over a dozen mix CDs which have sold at key shops such as Colette, I Heart, the Reed Space and aNYthing. This limited CD series featured the exclusive artwork of renowned artists such as Evan Hecox and Parra, and has led to coverage from magazines such as L’Officiel Homme, Arkitip, Nylon, and others. Eug also produces the infamous FACE parties with partners Bootsy, J.Montag and Rishi. They also program FACE for the Brooklyn station Viva-Radio. Website

 

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07/27-13

AudioBus Pacific Ocean
Featuring musician Danny Paul Grody

Bus Station: 3 Fish Studios, 4541 Irving Street, San Francisco
Day Tour: 5:30p Check-in
Sunset Tour: 6:30p Check-in
Twilight Tour: 7:30p Check-in

tickets

 

The AudioBus is a moving venue, giving audiences an adventurous sonic experience like never before. The sound artists and musicians curated for the AudioBus compose their San Francisco route and perform live scores to the scenery moving past them. For AudioBus: Pacific Ocean, musician Danny Paul Grody performs live as you ride along the Great Highway among the breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean – the endless foggy horizons and powerful seas transporting the passenger into a moving atmospheric experience that honors the life and essence of Earth’s largest oceanic forces.

 

BIOGRAPHY
Danny Paul Grody is a solo musician and founding member of San Francisco based bands Tarentel, The Drift, and Moholy-Nagy. He is a self-taught guitarist, and the melodies at the core of Danny’s songwriting bring to mind his love of West African kora, Takoma style fingerpicking and all things minimal, repetitive & hypnotic. His first solo album Fountain was released in 2010 on Root Strata followed up by In Search Of Light on Students Of Decay in 2011. Danny also composes music for documentary films including the award-winning soundtrack to October Country that garnered several honors, juried prizes, and awards including “Best Musical Score” at the renowned Cinema Eye Honors in NYC. Summer of 2013 will see the release of his third solo album, Between Two Worlds on Three Lobed Recordings.Website

 

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08/04-13

Water @ Battery Townsley

Festuring sonic artists Danishta Rivero, Krys Bobrowski and Zachary James Watkins

Battery Townsley,Fort Cronkhite, Marin Headlands
5:30p Arrive atRodeo Beach*
6:00p Concert
*There is a 20-minute hike to performance site

tickets

 

Up in the hills of the Marin Headlands, atop the vast oceans lies a structure steeped with history, Battery Townsley at Fort Cronkhite (http://www.nps.gov/goga/historyculture/batter-townsley.htm).  Artists explore concepts of water using the extreme resonant spaces to amplify sounds. Artist Danishta Rivero uses her invented instrument the Hydrophonium to create sonic atmospheric improvisations.  Sound artist Krys Bobrowski conducts a symphonic experience with her Gliss Glass, a water instrument of her own design that are drained and filled while they are played. Artist Zachary James Watkins composes a water performance that will reverberate through the tunnels of the fortification.

 

BIOGRAPHIES
Danishta Rivero is a musician and sound artist who resides in San Francisco. She performs solo improvisations on the Hydrophonium, a water-based electro-acoustic percussion instrument.

Danishta also performs with Jacob Felix Heule as Voicehandler. She does vocals and digital processing in Blood Wedding, a just intonation noise duo with Chuck Johnson on steel guitar and modular synth.
She co-founded Optiphonal Wonder Machine, a multimedia collaboration with Jennifer Rannells and Stefan Smith. Website

Krystyna Bobrowski is a composer, musician and sound artist. She designs and builds her own instruments using natural materials and everyday objects, often modifying an object’s sound through physical manipulation and/or the use of electronics. The sounds of rocks and rocking chairs, seaweed and wine glasses, twigs and motors, leaves and water-filled tubes, have all found their way into her pieces. Krys received her M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College and her B.A. in Computers and Music from Dartmouth College. Recently, she was an Artist in Residence at the Exploratorium with the P.I.E. (Playful Inventive Exploration) group. She lives in Oakland and teaches at the College of San Mateo (CSM) where she instituted the CSM Electronic Music Program.

Zachary James Watkins is a California based sound artist who has earned degrees in composition from The Cornish School and Mills College. Zachary has received commissions from Cornish, The Microscores Project, The Beam Foundation, Somnubutone, the sfSoundGroup and the Seattle Chamber Players. Zachary received a Subito Grant for the composition: Movable, written for piano in just intonation and a newly invented piano extension called the “Piano Monster” built in collaboration with NYC artist Ranjit Bhatnagar premiering at the Wayward Music Series in Seattle, WA.  His work entitled Designed Obsolescence, “spoke as a metaphor for the breakdown of the dream of technology and the myth of our society’s permanence,” review by ARTLIES.  Zachary has had artist in residence at both the Espy Foundation and Djerassi. Website

Andy Strain received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance at the University of Nebraska in 2001. He then spent 5 years in southwest Germany earning a German Masters degree in trombone literature and performance. During that period, he performed in various orchestras and ensembles around Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. Andy moved to the Bay Area in 2006 to study free improvisation at Mills College. After earning his MA there, Andy spent two years on the road performing with harpist Joanna Newsom. He has been a featured soloist with various orchestras, including Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, for which he wrote and performed a program for families and young people. Currently, Andy teaches brass class to 4th and 5th graders, directs two after-school middle school brass bands, and performs regularly in libraries and schools for young audiences. His mash-up band, the “East Bay Brass Band,” can be heard regularly at Cafe Van Kleef in Oakland. In 2013, Andy will tour with the musical “Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage” in Australia, Boston, and England. Website

 

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09/08-13

Impressions on Water

Legion of Honor, 100 34th Avenue, San Francisco
1:00p-3:00p
in conjunction with the ‘Impressionists on the Water’ exhibition at the Legion of Honor

free event

The final Soundwave SonicLAB event, in anticipation for the grand 2014 festival, invites the most exciting musicians to compose impressionistic performances that explore how WATER affects our lives. Evocative violist Christen Lien uses looping electronics and guitar effects to create a gorgeously haunting performances. Classically trained guitar and violin duo Kriika create a beautiful world-influenced sound experience. Set in the Legion’s stunning Court of Honor overlooking the seas at Land’s End. In conjunction with the ‘Impressionists on the Water’ exhibition at the Legion of Honor.

 

BIOGRAPHIES
Kriika is Justin Houchin and Matthias McIntire, classically-trained musicians who began collaborating, composing and recording together at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. They have performed as a duo across the Bay Area, including a long-running engagement at the famous San Francisco jazz club, Yoshi’s. Matthias McIntire is a violinist, improviser and composer Originally from Canada, he has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and China with many world-renowned soloists and orchestras such as Magik*Magik Orchestra on the soundtrack for the 2012 movie Looper. He had a brief stint as sitting concertmaster for the Bay Area Summer Opera Theatre Institute (BASOTI) orchestra and a violin instructor at the New Mozart School of Music holding a Masters of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Justin Houchin is a guitarist and composer fluent in Jazz, Popular, Folk, Spanish, South American and Improvisation. In 2013, he returned from an eight month tour of Europe absorbing the musical cultures of Spain, Portugal, Germany, and France. He has performed throughout the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Europe, and holds a degree in Guitar Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied with Grammy-award-winning guitarist Sergio Assad.

Christen Lien is a classically trained violist who performs original compositions on viola that are a beautiful mixture of classical and postmodern, acoustic and electronic influences. Lien incorporates layers of live electronics effects with her viola through the use of guitar effect processors and looping pedals, creating hybrid music and haunting, evocative performance art. Lien’s music has been used in the feature films Alice Walker: Beauty In Truth and Occupy Love, Midway: A Message From the Gyre, numerous short-form media, commercials, live theater, and dance performances. Her music has also been used to support environmental, political, artistic and scientific campaigns with organizations such as The Burning Man Project, 350.org, The Plastic Pollution Coalition, The Overview Institute and GOOD Magazine, and is a featured artist in the unreleased documentary Undiscovered LA. Lien’s work forays into new musical territory with compositions that bridge electronic, industrial and classical genres, and redefines how the world understands and experiences the viola as an instrument. Website

 

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