Our June 2019 Frequency Fridays show features musician/maker/open source advocate/inventor of beatjazz Onyx Ashanti (DET), art rock group Saatjak (DET), and electronic musician/producer Jed James (CMH). Accompanying James on visuals is Columbus-based digital projection artist Phil Liddell. Date: Friday, June 7th 2019. Location: 13 E. Tulane Rd. 43202. Admission: $10 for one, $15 for two. Doors open 8pm. All ages, BYOB. Our Frequency Fridays 2018-2019 season is supported by grants from the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Columbus Foundation.
About the artists:
Onyx Ashanti is designing a process for reprogramming himself utilizing his own musical comprehension and sound design, which he calls Sonocybernetics. He believes that musical comprehension of information, grafted into “sonomorphic” structures built within PureData, a Digital signal processing language, will result in thought forms that are more capable of representing higher order thought resonances; a new kind of imagination where thoughts are transduced into data-music, called Metabit and capable of projecting information that is simultaneously understandable as human musical structure and computer data.
Channeling the textural experimentalism of electronic music, the catharsis of tragic opera, the growl of punk rock, and the urgency of polymetric grooves, saajtak “smelts its sonic influences into a maelstrom almost orchestral in nature and theatrical in its depth” (Sonic Circuits, Washington, D.C.) With a repertoire of compositions that range from complex epic forms to short frenetic noise pieces and a heavy incorporation of improvisation, the quartet is constantly developing environments that defy genre and the traditional roles of each instrument. This vastness of influence and appeal is evident in the diversity of acts they have shared the stage with, including Xiu Xiu, Gaelynn Lea, Vicky Chow, New Music Detroit, Laurie Amat, Alec Redfearn and the Eyesores, Alan Licht, and more. The Detroit-based ensemble was formed in late 2014 by vocalist Alex Koi, electronic artist Simon Alexander-Adams, drummer Jon Taylor, and bassist Ben Willis. Each member is an avid composer, improviser, and performer. Individually, the members of saajtak have performed with My Brightest Diamond, Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Liebman, Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, Michael Formanek, Jaribu Shahid, the members of Wolf Eyes, and more. Together, the ensemble of friends shares an affinity for experimental music and sound art and creates truly one-of-a-kind work.
Jed James aka Paul Maul is a painter, producer, DJ & founding member of the Midwest Fresh crew in Columbus Ohio.