Soft Pieces

Cynthia Combs and I were asked to reprise our collaborative performance of improvised sound (me) and connecting the audience in a web of yarn (Cynthia / The Human Crochet Project) for this year’s Queering Sound festival… the theme is String Theory.

Our goal is to make this year’s performance a SPECTACLE. Ideally, we
will have dozens of Human Crochet Project volunteers. Please tell/bring your friends! The goal is a fun, diverse, and inclusive event that everyone will remember.

Even if you don’t know how to crochet, we can use your help.

* * There will be a dry run in the middle of Dupont Circle on
Wednesday, May 26th at 6:30pm. (In the event of rain, we will meet at Soho Tea & Coffee.)

* * The actual Queering Sound performance will take place at the
Pyramid Atlantic Gallery in Silver Spring on Saturday, June 5th.
Volunteers should arrive by 7:00pm.

Yarn and crochet hooks will be provided for both events.

Please email me to RSVP or if you have any questions!

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Please see this page for video of last year’s performance.

I first met Wendy Hsu and Carey Sargent when I shared a bill at The Bridge PAI, in Charlottesville, VA with their band Pinko Communoids. It was an all-night event – twelve straight hours of performances – and I have to cop to being half-asleep by the time they took the stage. In spite of that, maybe more importantly than that, I talked to Wendy about Yoko Ono and talked to Carey about Emile Durkheim. And: We ate early morning waffles together. (From an adjacent room, Carey mistook the steam from my waffle iron for smoke and got understandably concerned.)

Through that chance meeting and similar events in the years since – and separate from thinking they are great people who I am lucky to know, period – I’ve become a huge fan of Carey and Wendy’s work, both as 2/3rds of Pinko Communoids and in their Grapefruit Experiment form. Their ability to fuse focus and abandon, seriousness and play is incredibly inspiring. So, I was humbled by the chance to collaborate with them on the improvisations that became Cut | Vital | Connection.

The three of us were explicitly interested in coming together as individuals with studied connections to our individual instruments, while also removing any artificial solemnity from the process. (In fact, we chose to remove laughter from the ends of several of the performances when we were preparing these MP3s.) It’s my hope that some sense of the fun and excitement that existed in the room comes through in these recordings.

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Please click here to download a ZIP file containing the record (as 256kbps MP3s) and the cover (in two resolutions).

It’s called Circulator and it represents a new high (or low, depending on your taste) in my use of abstract, non-musical forms. Check it out.

Available now for free download from Zeromoon as a FLAC or MP3.

Below is the latest information about this year’s Visions in Feminism (VIF) conference.

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Online Registration is now available for the  2010 Visions In Feminism Conference, “Dictated by Authority: Feminists Confront State Violence”.

Saturday, March 27 at 8:00am to  5:30pm.
Where: American University – Ward Building.

This year’s keynote speaker is Andrea Smith, a co-founder of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, an editor of The Color of Violence: The INCITE! Anthology & The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, and Assistant Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California, Riverside.

Workshop information is forthcoming, and we are excited to report that the topics are as diverse, challenging, and engaging as always.

While you can pay the $10 registration fee at the conference, paying via paypal here ( http://vifconference.wordpress.com/registration/ ) will allow us to better gauge food and beverage needs.  Additionally, if you pay more than $10 the additional funds are paid forward to a scholarship attendee.

To see more details and RSVP, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=339203139710

After you register, please tell your friends, link the site on Facebook, post it on your blog and/or  mention it on Twitter (#ViF) and generally spread the word.  A conference is as much about the diversity of its attendees as it is the workshops.  What you bring to our conference is just as important, and we can’t wait to see what we all bring to the event.

Go here to download Cosmic Heat Death, the first release by Wax Wing Wane; a collab by Pilesar, Amber Dunleavy, Daniel Euphrat and me.

Soft Pieces – The New Brutalism

Available now from Panic Research!

This is my most abrasive CDR, so far. The main tools were feedback, ring modulation, and repetition. You can hear full tracks on my MySpace page. 

It’s so new that it’s not even up on the Panic Research site yet… but don’t sleep on this. Like the other Manilla Series CDRs, it’s strictly limited to 50 handmade copies. 

$5 for the CDR. $3 for shipping. (Each additional copy adds $1 for shipping.) Please contact Panic Research honcho Jeff Bagato to order.

Last week, I was interviewed by the Washington Post. Here’s what made it into this week’s Weekend section:

Zach Mason, who plays a digital synthesizer and performs as Soft Pieces, speculates that people are pushing for new music and are that much more inclined to look up artists such as John Cage or Jandek. (Even actress and singer Mandy Moore recently tweeted about her interest in Jandek.) “You have the explosion of Internet research,” Mason says. “I think people’s influences, like roots on a tree, they’re sort of reaching out further.”

He recounts a recent performance that drew newcomers: “People were asking, ‘Is there going to be a Q&A? Is someone going to explain this to me?’ “

Be sure to check out the full article for more from Jason Mullinax (Pilesar) and Jeff Surak (Violet).

(It helps if you picture those giant tribunal faces from Superman II.)

And here’s a PDF should you have the means and motivation to print and promote.