Leisure is a monthly social exchange at 319 Scholes involving music & visual performances.

Saturday, October 8, 8pm

$10 at the door.

Artists:

toktek (NL) vs. Simon Berz (CH)

http://toktek.org/Site/toktek.html

http://www.simonberz.ch/index.php?/work/rocking-desk/

toktek (NL) vs. Simon Berz (CH) toktek (Holland) and Simon Berz (Switzerland) battle it out in supercharged music sessions. Playing their self-made electronic instruments/interfaces, they turn pure human emotion and body language into sound that results in a spasmic, sweaty conversation between toktek, Simon and their machines.

Over the years, toktek has mastered the art of sampling anything that makes sound. Nothing is more entertaining than watching toktek build up his palette of sounds from random musical objects and then blissfully play them on his controller. He’s like a modern day Robinson Crusoe enjoying his castaway life in electronic music wonderland.

During his professional drumming career, Simon Berz has invented new ways to communicate with his drum kit. By using DIY analog electronic devices, his drum kit creates feedback and communicates back to him. The ensuing dynamic exchanges range from loud arguments to the whisper of sweet nothings. toktek and Simon first met each other during a tour in Switzerland last winter. Scheduled as two separate solo performances they soon had the urge to combine their powers. Thanks to the great outcome of this collaboration they will tour this September and October together as a duo.

After touring in Europe − performing in Zurich, Switzerland, at the STIEM center in Amsterdam, Holland and many other places − they will travel to the U.S. where they will kick off in NY before finishing off their tour in New Orleans.

Phillip Stearns

http://phillipstearns.com/

Phillip Stearns’ work lies at the intersection of art, philosophy, and science, drawing upon a variety of disciplines including installation, audio-video, circuit sculpture, writing, performance art and musical composition. Deconstruction, dissection, and reconfiguration are methods he commonly employs in the interrogation of materials ranging from electronic objects, biological systems, images, light, video, and sound. His process is that of reduction aimed at revealing hidden macrocosms of potential, new materials for expression, and new paths for inquiries into understanding the state of things. In his work with technology, the machine is understood as the living manifestation of human intentions where the development and application of our technologies, machines and tools reveals our desires and dreams—both conscious and unconscious. His work generates phenomenological experiences that become pathways for interconnecting metaphorical spaces implied in the selection of specific materials, processes and media.

Jeff Donaldson vs. Philip White

http://notendo.com/

Jeff Donaldson has performed and shown work at galleries internationally including LABoral Gijon, Spain, iMAL Bruxelles, Belgium, vertexList NYC, and Museu de Arte Moderna Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. He currently lives & works in Brooklyn, NY and is a contributing writer for Artpulse magazine.

http://www.prwhite.net/

Philip White‘s performances center on a non-linear feedback system, which consists of a mixer and several homemade circuits. In addition to his work with analog and digital electronics, White has written extensively for chamber ensembles and created a large body of intermedia pieces that explore meaning in information transmission.

Currrent projects include thenumber46 (with Suzanne Thorpe), with chuck johnson with philip white and collaborations with Ted Hearne, Taylor Levine and Phil Stearns. Recent performances/exhibitions include Diapason (NYC), ISSUE Project Room (NYC), The Stone (NYC), Sonic Circuits (DC), Redux New Media Festival (Charleston, SC), Galerie Neurotitan (Berlin), Princeton University, Bent Festival 2010, NYCEMF 2010, Floating Points Festival 2010 and a featured spot on free103.9.org. He has performed with Toshimaru Nakamura, Gene Coleman, Kenta Nagai, ADACHI Tomomi, MV Carbon, Michael Schumacher and Nisi Jacobs. He has received grants form Meet The Composer and Electronic Music Foundation.

Twistycat
www.twistycat.org

http://www.simonberz.ch/index.php?%2Fwork%2Frocking-desk%2F