Wood Street Galleries

Recap: Host Skull, Justin Hopper, Wood Street Galleries, Recent Listening

Submitted by dbernabo
on Wed, 2011-05-18 04:06

It has been a time of constant activity these past few weeks. Host Skull released their first output, Fourth River, on Chicago's Contraphonic record label. Now, we are busy preparing our debut LP on Antephonic. We are very excited about it. There are a number of guests on it. Here are some of the major contributors: Brandon Masterman, Liz Adams, Kerrith Livengood, Vince Camut and Jim Siders. We'll provide more details later - also, a sneak peak at the artwork.

Host Skull is gearing up for a few European shows and trying to figure out how to realize local performances, too. More to come on that. On the Pittsburgh performance calender, I have a few shows:
- 05/28 Jeff Berman/David Bernabo/Soy Sos @ ModernFormations Gallery with ABLAYE CISSOKO and AND VOELKER GOETZE
- 06/03 Assembly @ Howler's with The Carribbean and All Tiny Creatures
- 06/17 Gia Cacalano/David Bernabo @ Wood Street Galleries - a special performance of improvised dance and music

A few other things of note:

Sometimes collaborator, Justin Hopper, posted more about his fantastic Public Record project on the Congress for the New Urbanism site. http://www.cnu.org/publicrecordpgh

Host Skull received some big Pittsburgh Post-Gazette coverage for Fourth River. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11118/1142357-388.stm

A couple of new projects are in the works. A new band featuring members of Marichal, drugdealer, and Atmosphere. A new classical guitar/percussion album? and some Host Skull stop-motion videos courtesy of Hugh Twyman and myself. 

And a list of recent listening here at Woolslayer Travelling Studios:

The Sea and Cake - The Moonlight Butterfly
The Doobie Brothers - Minute by Minute
Arve Henriksen - Cartography
Motorpsycho - Heavy Metal Fruit
Scorch Trio - Brolt
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
Brad Hales' Northern Soul Mixes http://www.100limousines.com/in-the-modern-room-2/

 

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host skull
justin hopper
hugh twyman
public record
fleet foxes
Wood Street Galleries

Jem Finer's "Shortplayer"

Submitted by dbernabo
on Thu, 2010-09-16 01:40

I was lucky enough to be included as musical director for Jem Finer's "Shortplayer" project.  The project finds local musicians, horns and reeds, making their way through a very interesting, shifting piece by Jem, based on his 1,000-year composition/installation, Longplayer. Justin Hopper, who initiated the project, writes about it much more eloquently below. Hope to see you out on Oct 1 at Wood Street Galleries.

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On Friday, October 1, at Wood Street Galleries, artist, composer, and musician Jem Finer presents the world premier of “Shortplayer” – a new live setting of his world-renowned 1,000-year-long musical artwork Longplayer. 

Along with a group of Pittsburgh’s finest musicians, the London-based Finer celebrates the Pittsburgh opening of Longplayer as part of the sound-installation show Audio Space with a live performance of this new composition based on the principles of Longplayer.

Jem Finer is a unique voice exploring issues combining science, technology, and philosophy such as “deep time” through sound installation, autonomous technology, and astronomical sculpture. He has been artist-in-residence at Oxford University’s department of Astrophysics and in 2005 won the PRS Foundation New Music Award for “Score for a Hole in the Ground,” and is co-founder of famed Irish-punk band The Pogues.

The "Shortplayer" performance begins immediately following the Downtown Cultural District Gallery Crawl and opening of Audio Space (including the Longplayer listening post).

Local musicians performing with Finer include musical director David Bernabo, Ben Opie, Roger Dannenberg, Mark Fromm, Brandon Masterman, and Roger Day. Admission is $10 ($8/students).

Wood Street Galleries, 601 Wood St. Pittsburgh, PA

9:30PM - 11:00PM

Facebook Event: Jem Finer's "Shortplayer" - World Premiere

Longplayer website: http://longplayer.org/

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Tags: 
Jem Finer
Longplayer
Wood Street Galleries
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