Center for New Music
55 Taylor St SF
Click for Venue page

An evening with Bjll Dingalls and Heule/Rivero/Nishi-Smith.

In the blur between acoustic and amplified, synthetic and analog, algorhythm and improvisation, clarity is forged anew only if you look ahead. Swinging serious sonic sledgehammers for a threefold lifetime now, Bjll Dingalls (Tom Djll, Bill Hsu, and Matt Ingalls) lay the railroad into terra incognita.

Tom Djll studied electronic music with Stephen Scott at the Colorado College, working with the EMS Synthi 100 system at Packard Hall. He spent the years 1981-1993 working with the Serge Modular Music System before enrolling in Mills College Contemporary Music Program, where he extended his quest to develop and integrate a personally developed extended trumpet language into an electronic sound environment, while also pursuing advanced improvisation studies, formally, with Pauline Oliveros, and, informally, with Jack Wright. While at Mills, Djll concentrated on microtonal composition, split-tone trumpet technique, and computer music. He also worked extensively with Chris Brown, resulting in contributions to Brown’s recordings LAVA (Tzadik) and DUETS (Artifact). Further refinement of trumpet languages and free improvisation with his band GROSSE ABFAHRT was undertaken from 1999 – 2010, with international CD releases resulting on the Emanem, Creative Sources, and Setola di Maiale labels.

Bill Hsu works with electronics and real-time video. His work mostly involves using gestural interfaces to control animation and sound synthesis, and building real-time audio-visual systems that interact with human performers. He has built interactive pieces and installations in collaboration with Peter van Bergen, Chris Burns, John Butcher, James Fei, Matt Heckert, Lynn Herschman, Jeremy Mende, and Gino Robair, among others, and performed in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Reviled for his "shapeless sonic tinkering" by the Los Angeles Times, oakland musician Matt Ingalls is a composer, clarinetist, concert producer, and computer music programmer. Often incorporating elements of improvisation, his music is heavily influenced by his long involvement in computer music. His composerly solo improvisations explore extended clarinet techniques that interact with the acoustic space, often as combination tones. Matt is the founder and co-director of sfSound, a new music series, ensemble, and internet radio station devoted to new ideas and traditions of experimental music, performance art, live electronic music, Bay Area composition, and the various facets of contemporary improvisation.

Jacob Felix Heule is an improvising percussionist with a special interest in friction techniques. His music is shaped by intuition, listening, and following where the sounds lead. He embraces limited instrumentation — like a single drum and a single cymbal — as a commitment to exploring the depth of his instruments. Heule frequently collaborates with Danishta Rivero, Guro Moe, Håvard Skaset, Bill Orcutt, Tom Djll, Matt Chandler, Kanoko Nishi-Smith, Kyle Bruckmann, and John McCowen. He also curates the monthly Active Music Series, and runs a monthly improvisation workshop, Doors That Only Open in Silence. Heule’s practice is informed by his work as an audio engineer. In addition to regularly doing live sound, he has recently worked on albums by Burmese, Las Sucias, and Black Spirituals.

Kanoko Nishi-Smith is a performer currently based in SF/Bay Area. Though classically trained on piano, receiving a BA in Classical Music Performance from Mills College, her recent interest has primarily been in performing 20th century and contemporary musical compositions for piano as well as for koto (Japanese 13-string zither), and free-improvisation in various different contexts, with musicians, as well as dancers, poets, and visual artists.

Danishta Rivero is a musician and sound artist based in Oakland. She is a vocalist who performs on electronics and the Hydrophonium, a water-based electro-acoustic percussion instrument she created. Rivero performs solo as well as with her electro-acoustic duo Voicehandler with percussionist Jacob Felix Heule. She is also half of Las Sucias, a feminist noise reggeatón duo with Alexandra Buschman. Previous projects include Blood Wedding, a just intonation noise duo with Chuck Johnson.

Cost: $15 general / $10 members

Audio samples in which musicians at this event play:

Videos featuring musicians playing at this event