Final stop of the spring tour was Rivolta, a huge, multi-building facility just outside of Venice. Early in the evening a big summer storm blew up and dumped heavy rain and heavy lightning. Luckily nothing got fried, and by midnight a cool breeze dried up everything and thousands of folks showed up to party in four simultaneously happening rooms till past dawn.
SAXIMUS & Jozefius played a 25 minute set consisting of Intelligent Designs and Labyrinth of Leaves, Scanned at Flutter-Speed for Ultra-Violet Nectar Glow.
Fiddlus & Crotalius had to split for the states because of earlier commitments, but SAXIMUS blew up a storm of his own! Concert was Saturday May 26 -- many, many thanks go out to Massimo Massarotto NWEAMO rep in Italy, for coordinating an awesome event (more notes below!)
Thursday, May 31, 2007
SWARMIUS in Berlin
Following week we headed down to Berlin (see notes below) for a total change of pace -- underground, grassroots artists occupy former east Berlin and the results are important dialogue on the future of experimental (formerly classical) music. SWARMIUS was featured at NWEAMO-Berlin on Friday, May 18.
It turned out that borrowing a vibraphone in Berlin was a major hassle (in Stockholm the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble generously loaned us a set) but we were rescued at the last minute by the lovely young Annika Handrock -- an idealistic scientist-musician-artist, who happens to be an avid vibes player and owner of a top-of-the-line gold Yamaha in perfect shape. Not only did she loan us the vibes, she let us take over and practice in her apartment for 4 hours/day for 3 days prior to our gig.
Concert was at the very underground, alternative space Zentrale Rantlage (there is no sign on the door) run by super idealists Xenia and Rene.
NWEAMO-Berlin was conjured by NWEAMO players Paula Mathusen and Keith O'Brien, who worked for months to pull off a great event.
It turned out that borrowing a vibraphone in Berlin was a major hassle (in Stockholm the Kroumata Percussion Ensemble generously loaned us a set) but we were rescued at the last minute by the lovely young Annika Handrock -- an idealistic scientist-musician-artist, who happens to be an avid vibes player and owner of a top-of-the-line gold Yamaha in perfect shape. Not only did she loan us the vibes, she let us take over and practice in her apartment for 4 hours/day for 3 days prior to our gig.
Concert was at the very underground, alternative space Zentrale Rantlage (there is no sign on the door) run by super idealists Xenia and Rene.
NWEAMO-Berlin was conjured by NWEAMO players Paula Mathusen and Keith O'Brien, who worked for months to pull off a great event.
SWARMIUS in Stockholm
Mid-May brought us to Europe, far north, Stockholm, to a famous and beautiful facility for experimental music (funded by the Swedish government) called Fylkingen, located in an old breweri on the water along with EMS (Electronic Music Studios), another cultural landmark (founded 1964), a fabulous 5 studio complex open to the public (again funded publically) and run by a dedicated crew. We were sponsored by SEAMS, and treated like royalty -- we stayed in the countryside at the beautiful old-style Swedish home of composer and bee-keeper Torsten Rutstam. SWARMIUS played Sat. May 12, the culmination of a 3 day festival of U.S. electronic music (Friday featured Paul Rudy of SEAMUS with a cross-section of SEAMUS greatest hits.)
The festival was coordinated by composer Jens Hedman.
The festival was coordinated by composer Jens Hedman.
SWARMIUS in Morelia
SWARMIUS has been lucky to have received the help and support of many awe inspiring folks in the past few months. This time period has taken us since April to:
• Morelia, Mexico (April) where we were in residence at CMMAS http://www.cmmas.org/
Purpose was to work out a new piece incorporating new SWARMIUS member Crotalius (aka Joel Bluestone) on a new work featuring the vocalizations of 7-month-old Lucas of Oslo, Norway. The result is Lucas, the Bringer of Light, which was premiered in a full concert by SWARMIUS at CMMAS. There we were treated most wonderously by the great composer and impressario Rodrigo Sigal and his excellent team headed by Fransisco Colasanto.
• Morelia, Mexico (April) where we were in residence at CMMAS http://www.cmmas.org/
Purpose was to work out a new piece incorporating new SWARMIUS member Crotalius (aka Joel Bluestone) on a new work featuring the vocalizations of 7-month-old Lucas of Oslo, Norway. The result is Lucas, the Bringer of Light, which was premiered in a full concert by SWARMIUS at CMMAS. There we were treated most wonderously by the great composer and impressario Rodrigo Sigal and his excellent team headed by Fransisco Colasanto.
SWARMIUS: European tour, summer 2007
Just returned from a little 3 week tour -- performances in Stockholm @ Fylkingen, Berlin @ Zentrale Rantlage, & Venice @ Rivolta. Really different venues, and cities, with populations having very different aesthetics.
Berlin, especially former east Berlin, is a special place right now, having a sort of renaissance due to lots of inexpensive flats and squats (though these are going away and gentrification is already well under way) -- a huge amount of creative work happening there, with a local dynamic spiralling around de-centalized noise improv. A very knowledgable audience, who will sit and pay rapt attention to high decibel minimal noise. The proprietors Xenia and Rene at Zentrale Rantlage are dedicated to promoting the leading edge as they see it.
Just outside of Venice, Rivolta is itself a former squat -- a factory taken over and turned into libertine music space, run by volunteers, who use the facilty in the winter to provide housing for the homeless, and where the police are not permitted, anything goes, the music does not begin until midnight, and when we strolled away after a satisfying performance at 4:30 A.M. the music was still going strong, and the birds were waking up. The place has a very different vibe than Zentrale Rantlage, and playing here was a very different sort of experiment.
Berlin, especially former east Berlin, is a special place right now, having a sort of renaissance due to lots of inexpensive flats and squats (though these are going away and gentrification is already well under way) -- a huge amount of creative work happening there, with a local dynamic spiralling around de-centalized noise improv. A very knowledgable audience, who will sit and pay rapt attention to high decibel minimal noise. The proprietors Xenia and Rene at Zentrale Rantlage are dedicated to promoting the leading edge as they see it.
Just outside of Venice, Rivolta is itself a former squat -- a factory taken over and turned into libertine music space, run by volunteers, who use the facilty in the winter to provide housing for the homeless, and where the police are not permitted, anything goes, the music does not begin until midnight, and when we strolled away after a satisfying performance at 4:30 A.M. the music was still going strong, and the birds were waking up. The place has a very different vibe than Zentrale Rantlage, and playing here was a very different sort of experiment.
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