Gears of Sand Showcase / August 7

Gears of Sand (Gos) Recordings was launched by Ben Fleury-Steiner in 2001 originally as a philosophy (inspired by John Cage, LaMonte Young & Tetsu Inoue, among others) as well as a platform for his own musical experiments. By 2004, after “meeting” (via the Internet) a community of artists who shared his love for drone, noise, textural ambience, and other unclassifiable experimental musics, Fleury-Steiner decided to transform GoS into a vehicle for releasing works of artists he came to admire, establishing the GoS ethos as based on aural explorations without boundaries, encompassing the phrase “sounds of impermanence.” In the last few years GoS has issued over 50 releases by artists from more than a half-dozen countries from around the world.

Stylistically, the label’s releases expose quite a cornucopia of genre; there’s a bunch of talented folks at work here, and virtually the entire catalog offers a splendid sampling of gauzily atmospheric, aurally tantalizing noises. We invite you to witness three of GoS’s finest tickling the senses in varying ways and perhaps in varying combinations: whether it’s in tandem with Fleury-Steiner’s mbira-derived drones, William Fields‘s mutant ambient glitch fantasies or Mikronesia‘s delicately-balanced software drift, their respective Gears should mesh beautifully in the OTP listening space.

> Gears of Sand • http://www.gearsofsand.net
> Ben Fleury-Steiner • http://www.myspace.com/bfsprojects
> William Fields • http://www.williamfields.com
> Mikronesia • http://www.mikronesia.com
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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Saturday, August 7

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK MYCOMMUNITY ICON FOR ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE/RESERVATIONS:

John Vorus / July 23

According to John Vorus, “I see working with sound as mapping vibrations in air. By matching together different vibrational patterns, it is possible to create, in three-dimensional space, the subtlety and atmosphere of a place that is reflected in your consciousness. When I hear a sound I can see its shape, color, texture, and movement in my head. So, for me, sound is a visual art that you see with your mind.”

Vorus’s weapon of choice is the didgeridoo, that primitive Australian soundmaker the Aborigines carved out of local wood, each one utterly unique in its tonal phrasing, composition, & aural fingerprint. Schooled in the technique of circular breathing, the traditional, most direct connection to the didg’s particular sonic codex, Vorus wrings out all manners of tones, both earthly & unearthly, from the magical instrument. The fact that he harnesses the sounds of electronic processes to the didg’s mainframe doesn’t detract in the slightest; on the contrary, this unholy merger of primitive analog with contemporary digital electronic atmospheres serves to heighten and emphasize the dynamic range of both idioms.

Vorus’s debut album, Transmuting Currents, raises many visual spectres via his particularly colorful and vibrant melding of sounds, allowing the deep sonorities of the didg to seamlessly blend, blur, and whirl within deftly sculpted electronic textures and sharp rhythms. Like Steve Roach’s similarly forged techno-tribalisms, Vorus’s creations also conjure ancient and contemporary sound mystics, a shamanistic music of great breadth and power.

> www.johnvorus.com

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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Friday, July 23

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK MYCOMMUNITY ICON FOR ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE/RESERVATIONS:

Malcolm Cecil (TONTO’s Expanding Head Band) with Spitznagel & Trevor Pinch / July 17

OTP is both honored & thrilled to present An Evening In the Company of the Joy Circuits featuring TONTO’s Expanding Head Band pioneer Malcolm Cecil, in his first U.S. performance in over 30 years, along with aural sculptors Spitznagel & Trevor Pinch.
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Synthesizer pioneers comprise a fairly small, if exclusive, club, but in both arts, technology & music circles, few have achieved the legendary status of Malcolm Cecil & TONTO. TONTO’s Expanding Head Band were an influential electronic music duo from the 1970s conceived by Cecil and Robert Margouleff, two Grammy-winning musicians and sound designers. TONTO itself is an acronym for The Original New Timbral Orchestra, the world’s first (and still largest) multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer, designed and constructed by Cecil. Its warm, rich timbres were particularly noteworthy and still cannot be recreated by the current breed of MIDI digital synthesizers and samplers. TONTO has been in the private ownership of Cecil since 1975 when Margouleff left the Head Band; currently TONTO is alive and well and resides in its own studio in upstate New York close to Woodstock.

TONTO’s Expanding Head Band’s first recording, Zero Time, released in 1971 (and eventually remastered and reissued on CD along with the complete 2nd album It’s About Time), attracted the attention of many leading artists of that era because of the unique, warm, musical sounds that TONTO was capable of generating. Chief among those artists was Stevie Wonder, whose involvement with TONTO started with Music of My Mind and continued through Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness’ First Finale and the Spike Lee movie Jungle Fever, all projects which featured Margouleff and Cecil as associate producers, engineers and programmers. Indeed, the remainder of the 70s and 80s featured TONTO on albums from Quincy Jones, Bobby Womack, The Isley Brothers, Gil Scott-Heron and Weather Report, as well as releases from Steve Stills, The Doobie Brothers, Dave Mason, Little Feat and Joan Baez, among others. In the early 80s, Cecil also released the criminally underrecognized album Radiance under his own name, but featuring TONTO in all its atmospheric, many-tentacled glory.

For his OTP debut, Cecil will not only bring a number of the original TONTO synth modules but his trusty upright bass as well, all of which to bring forth a stunning hybrid of keyboard virtuosity, 70s synth-jazz, and his own brand of post-classical-flavored electronic music.

Spitznagel (left) is no stranger to odd tonalities, either. Out of his large art/studio in upstate New York (where he works with digital imagery in addition to sonics), Spitznagel artfully bends circuits, relays, delays, and all combinations of hard & software into a tasty pretzel logic for the ear. He has realized his innovative sound recreations across a modest catalog of releases spread out through his Level Green label, operating across a plethora of aliases that take in ambient jazz-glitch, alien exotica, and drunken mechanical abstraction, all of which colaesce into mind-boggling mini-symphonies of harmonically stressed, rhythmically energized bleep and bluster. Spitznagel will be joined by writer & musician Trevor Pinch, co-author of the book Analog Days, possibly the definitive work on analog synthesis and the engineers & musicians who gave notoriety to the first generation of electronic instruments.

Together, Cecil, Spitznagel & Pinch bridge multiple generations of electronic artists, their music continuing to resound within the work of contemporary laptop musicians & old-school analog enthusiasts united by their fascination with strange, new sounds.

**Advance ticket purchase is strongly suggested as seating is limited.**

We look forward to seeing you at this very special event.

> Malcolm Cecil • http://www.tontosexpandingheadband.com
> Spitznagel • http://www.levelgreen.com

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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Saturday, July 17

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK MYCOMMUNITY ICON FOR ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE/RESERVATIONS:

Peter Biedermann / June 12

Peter Biedermann has been playing guitar, composing and performing live since 1977, both solo and in his bands PING and White Light. PING started out as an instrumental guitar duo with Ian Smit in 1984; the idea then, as now, was to combine acoustic and electronic elements and create electroacoustic soundscapes originally developed by the likes of Robert Fripp, Brian Eno, Jon Hassell, and David Torn (who produced PING’s 1987 cassette-only release). In 2000, Biedermann’s focus shifted to writing, performing and recording solo guitar pieces, many incorporating a hybrid style of acoustic & electronic ambient soundscapes composed in real time. 2002 brought forth the incorporation of rhythmic elements albeit with more modern electronic processing equipment, the results documented on three recordings: White Magick (2002), Centerpoint (2004), and Live—April 19, 2004 (2004). Biedermann’s work moved into yet another phase with the addition of Jim Stagnitto on trumpet, flugelhorn, keyboards and laptop electronics, an ensemble which became the group White Light, who issued two recordings in 2005. It is this continuous bridging of categorical worlds, of recontextualizing the guitar into regions partially familiar yet adjunct, that provides the artistic motivation for Biedermann’s continually reinvented persona.

> http://www.peterbiedermann.com

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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Saturday, June 12

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK MYCOMMUNITY ICON FOR ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE/RESERVATIONS:

Spyra & Robert Rich highlights

Click on the images of Spyra & Robert Rich for a ten-minute excerpt from each of their recent OTP performances.

Spyra @ OTP 5/8

Robert Rich @ OTP 5/15

Northern Valentine / May 22

Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Northern Valentine is an experimental ambient/post-rock group that consists of the husband & wife team of Robert and Amy Brown and a host of multi-instrumental musicians who join them from time to time. A typical Northern Valentine live setting often features band members switching instruments several times during the performance. Their music is largely improvisational, blending traditional and non-traditional electric and acoustic elements, allowing their sound to span from quiet, meditative drones and soundscapes, to loud and fuzzy instrumental post-rock. Their sound has drawn comparisons to artists from Labradford, Windy and Carl, and Stars of the Lid, to Eluvium, Ennio Morricone, Seefeel and Spacemen 3.

The group started recording music in 1997 and compiled countless hours of material, leading up to 2004, when they released their debut, Pictures from the Lake on their own label, followed shortly in 2005 with Forest in the Sky. Both of these recordings feature a nearly percussion-less, often tribal/ambient sound that represents a more structured and planned approach to music. 2008 saw the release of the utterly sublime, gauzily atmospheric The Distance Brings Us Closer on Silber Records, representing the first Northern Valentine recording composed entirely of improvised music. The album features heavy effects layered upon electric guitar and loops, as it delves into powerful instrumental music comprised of dark, industrial drones and jazzy, piano-laden soundscapes. Recent years have also seen releases on the Gears of Sand imprint, where the band’s monolithic tone sculptures go from cosmic murk to terrestrial fug sometimes within the same lengthy pieces. Augmented by the band’s arresting and phantasmagoric home-made films, a live Northern Valentine performance conjures quite palpable near-hallucinogenic dreamstates.

>www.northernvalentine.com
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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Saturday, May 22

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK MYCOMMUNITY ICON FOR ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE/RESERVATIONS:

Robert Rich / May 15

Across three decades and over 30 albums, Robert Rich has helped define numerous electronic music genres, be they ambient, dark-ambient, tribal and trance, yet his music remains hard to categorize. Part of his unique sound comes from using homemade acoustic and electronic instruments, microtonal harmonies, computer-based signal processing, chaotic systems and feedback networks.

Rich began building his own analog synthesizers in 1976, when he was 13 years old, and later studied for a year at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA), releasing his first album, Sunyata, in 1982. Most of his subsequent recordings came out in Europe until 1989, when Rich began a string of critically acclaimed releases for Fathom/Hearts of Space, including Rainforest (1989), Gaudí (1991), Propagation (1994) and Seven Veils (1998). His two collaborations with Steve Roach, Strata (1990) and Soma (1992), both charted for several months in Billboard. Other respected collaborations include Stalker (1995 with B. Lustmord), Fissures (1997 with Alio Die) and Outpost (2002, with Ian Boddy.) Rich’s contributions to multi-artist compilations have been collected on his solo albums A Troubled Resting Place (1996) and Below Zero (1998).

Live albums such as Calling Down the Sky (2004) and the three-CD set Humidity (2000) document the unique improvised flow of his performances. Rich has designed sounds for television and film scores, including the films Pitch Black, Crazy Beautiful, Behind Enemy Lines and others. His musical scores grace films by Yahia Mehamdi (Thank You For Your Patience, 2003) and Daniel Colvin (Atlas Dei, 2007, with 90 minutes of Rich’s music in surround) and a video installation by Michael Somoroff (Illumination, 2007).

Rich works closely with electronic instrument manufacturers, and his sound design has filled preset libraries of many a soft-synth program. Live, his music is a stunning sensorium of liquified electronic textures underpinned with multi-kulti rhythms, wind instruments, and twinkling acoustics, an experience not to be missed.

> www.robertrich.com
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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Saturday, May 15

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK MYCOMMUNITY ICON FOR ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE/RESERVATIONS:

Spyra / May 8

Having transcended such pat genre stereotypes as Berlin School and krautrock, Wolfram der Spyra has steadily assumed a rightful position as one of Germany’s finest exporters of progressive electronic music. Born in the early 60s, he was already producing music both solo & in various bands as the 80s commenced, making his presence known within the international underground cassette movement, writing scores for dance, and staging installation & exhibition pieces. A fascination with radiowaves & broadcast signals, passed through a sieve of Eno-esque ambience & 90s dance rhythms resulted in the first Spyra recording, Home Listening is Killing Clubs.

As a regular participant at such festivals as E-Live and Hampshire Jam, Spyra’s forged partnerships both live & in performance with Bernd Friedmann, instrumental builder Robert Rutman, Detlef Keller & Mario Schonwalder, as well as playing as part of the Ricochet Gatherings musicians collective. His chroma-key atmospheres and tense rhythmic patterns eventually led to a continuing affiliation/collaboration with pioneer Pete Namlook & his Fax imprint, though from the 90s up til today Spyra’s produced a slew of fine recordings for such labels as Wigwam, Manikin & Ricochet Dream. His most recent Fax release, January in June, seamlessly marries keyboard prog wizardry to his patented analog fundamentals, demonstrating Spyra’s chameleonic habit of straddling numerous soundworlds, a rich, powerful blend of layered post-Tangerine Dreamisms and dense, percussive workouts.

> http://www.derspyra.de
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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Saturday, May 8

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK MYCOMMUNITY ICON FOR ADVANCE TICKET PURCHASE/RESERVATIONS:

OTP May Sweeps featuring Spyra, Robert Rich and Northern Valentine

Announcing OTP’s May Sweeps, comprising a veritable trifecta of innovative electronic musicians whose performances promise to be some of the highlights of our already eclectic schedule:

> MAY 8 — SPYRA • Germany’s finest current import, marrying keyboard/synth prowess to innovative prog style-shifts, post-Berlin School tropes and contemporary rhythm/space trucking. • www.derspyra.de

> MAY 15 — ROBERT RICH • Rich’s dynamic body of work is already sui generis in the electronica community, culminating in the densely-woven tapestries of his recent Ylang, tribal exotica from the fourth world bleeding across landscapes etched in silicon beauty. • www.robertrich.com

> MAY 22 — NORTHERN VALENTINE • Pennsylvania’s premier spheric drone masters, using guitars, drums & keyboards to create strangely hauntological climes of twilight zone shadings, dark stars of the id. • www.northernvalentine.com

Seating is limited for all our events, and as pre-sales have already begun, it is strongly advised to purchase tickets in advance to secure a reserved seat — click here:

www.mycommunitytickets.com/organization_info.asp?orgid=1521

We hope to see you at these performances!

Don Slepian / April 24 & Highlights

Click on the image below to view excerpts from Don’s two sets @ OTP VI, both solo & accompanied by EWI player Stuart Diamond (via the OTP YouTube Channel).

Don Slepian is an internationally known electronic musician, recording artist, and concert performer. Described by Rolling Stone magazine as “one of the genre’s major talents”, Slepian’s live electronic concerts have been sponsored by radio stations, scientific groups, computer societies and universities, and his recordings broadcast on National Public Radio via the syndicated program “Music From The Hearts of Space”. A consultant on computer music for Yamaha International, Bell Telephone Laboratories, and Bell Communications Research, Slepian’s technical articles have been published by the National Radio Institute and industry bible/magazine Electronic Musician. He has produced many fine recordings, most notably Sonic Perfume and Reflections (both originally released on the legendary Audion label), long acknowledged as classics in their field.

Appearing to effortlessly merge synthesizer technology with elegant classical stylings now for nearly four decades, Slepian’s body of work has been described by The Newark Star Ledger as “…a dazzling smorgasbord of computer sonorities, all of them fascinating, some of them achingly beautiful…undisputably a master of his medium.”

> www.donslepian.com
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DATE OF PERFORMANCE: Saturday, April 24

DOORS OPEN @ 7:30 PM / PERFORMANCE @ 8 PM

ADMISSION:
> $15 for advance/reserve seating
> $18 at the door

CLICK THE ICON BELOW FOR TICKET PURCHASE: