Our May 2017 Frequency Fridays show features experimental musicians Al Margolis (clarinet, violin, objects, electronics) and Tom Hamilton’s (electronics) duo project If, Bwana (NY), experimental musicians Brian Werstler (guitar, electronics) and Eoin Bell-Games’ (guitar, electronics) duo project Abghyr (CMH), experimental percussionist Aaron Michael Butler (OH) and dancer Ani Javian (OH), and experimental/noise/drone musician Daniel Rizer (electronics) (OH). Date: Friday, May 5 2017. Location: It Looks Like It’s Open (13 E. Tulane Rd., 43202). Admission: $10, $15 for 2. Doors open 8pm. BYOB, all ages. Our Frequency Fridays 2016-2017 season is supported by a grant from the Greater Columbus Arts Council.
About the performers:
Tom Hamilton has composed and performed electronic music for over 40 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, participating in a residency at the foundation’s center in Umbria.
Hamilton’s performing and recording colleagues have included Peter Zummo, Bruce Gremo, Karlheinz Essl, Bruce Arnold, Bruce Eisenbeil, Rich O’Donnell, William Hooker, Thomas Buckner, Al Margolis, and id m theft able, and he has also performed with Composers Inside Electronics.
Hamilton has released 16 CDs of his music; his CD London Fix received an award in the Prix Ars Electronica, and a 2 CD set of his electronic music of the 1970s was named one of The Wire’s Top 50 Reissues of 2010, and a recent CD City of Vorticity was included in the Best of 2016 by Perfect Sound Forever. Since 1990, Hamilton has been a member of the late composer Robert Ashley’s opera ensemble, performing sound processing and mixing in both recordings and concerts. His audio production can be found in over 70 CD releases of new and experimental music.
Al Margolis (If, Bwana) has been an activist in the 1980s American cassette underground through his cassette label Sound of Pig Music and was co-founder of experimental music label Pogus Productions, which he continues to run.
Active under the name If, Bwana since 1984, making music that has swung between fairly spontaneous studio constructions and more process-oriented composition. He has recorded and/or performed with Pauline Oliveros, Ione, Joan Osborne, Monique Buzzarté, Katherine Liberovskaya, Adam Bohman, Ellen Christi, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jane Scarpantoni, Ulrich Krieger, David First, and Dave Prescott, among others. Performed as part of GRM Présences Electroniques Festival, the 50th anniversary of INA GRM in Paris, the 15th Brooklyn College Electroacoustic Music, and the 6th Sonic Circuits DC festivals; has had installations at Diapason in NYC and the Santa Fe Electroacoustic Music Festival. Margolis continues to collaborate live with video artist Katherine Liberovskaya and performs as part of a laptop duo with Doug Van Nort and an electronic/acoustic duo with Tom Hamilton.
Abgyhr is a collaboration between a beamed gelling rose and Young Herkimer. They create an improvised, flowing, sound tapestry to stir your imagination.
Aaron Michael Butler is a percussionist/composer currently based in Athens, OH. He regularly presents concerts of contemporary solo and chamber music, and has been active in the creation of new works through commissioning composers of his generation. Recent performance highlights include the 2013 Athens International Film Festival, 2012/14 Percussive Arts Society International Conventions, the 2014 Ohio University World Music and Dance Festival with marimbist Pei-Ching Wu, a performance with Luciano Chessa’s Orchestra of Futurist Noise Intoners in 2015, and the 2016 Nelsonville Music Festival. In 2010 Aaron founded the NOBROW.collective; in conjunction with the Athens International Film Festival NOBROW has commissioned Deep Earth – a large-scale, multimedia work – from composer Matthew Burtner which was premiered in April 2014.
In his own work he frequently collaborates with artists from other disciplines; he has been commissioned by choreographers Ani Javian and Travis Gatling, filmmaker Chris Lange, and Bristol-based potter Steve Carter. In 2015 Aaron presented a live performance of his score for ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ during Halloween at the Athena Cinema.
Aaron holds degrees in percussion performance from Ohio University and Centenary College of Louisiana where he studied with Roger Braun, Guy Remonko and Chan Teague. He is currently adjunct professor of music at Ohio University.
Ani Javian is a performer, choreographer, and teacher. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance at Ohio University where she teaches modern and ballet technique, improvisation, composition, and repertory. She has also taught at Denison University and The Ohio State University. Ani’s choreography has been presented at various New York City venues and around the Midwest, and has received funding from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, The Greater Columbus Arts Council as a 2015 Individual Artist Fellow, and The Ohio State University. Most recently, Ani received a 2016 Individual Excellence Award in Choreography from The Ohio Arts Council. Ani has danced for Molly Lieber, Paige Phillips, Betsy Miller, and Natalie Desch, among others. She was a member of Naomi Goldberg Haas’ Dances for a Variable Population, with whom she led community-based, multi-generational dance and wellness classes. She was a member of Dance/NYC’s Youth Advisory Committee (2008-09) and was awarded a 2008 Dance/USA Access Scholarship. Ani has an MFA in Dance from The Ohio State University and a BA in Dance and English from Connecticut College.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, and currently located in Dayton, Daniel Rizer is an abstract sound and visual artist primarily focusing on the use of magnetic tape and archaic electronics to create stuttering and hypnotic tapestries of looped sound. His roots trace back to his involvement with Dayton noise and industrial unit Yes, Collapse and evolved into various projects including Shitty Vibe Smasher and Budweiser Sprite upon temporarily moving to Portland, Oregon in 2005. Rizer also operated Together Tapes, a relatively short-lived cassette label with high quality and artful releases that appeal to both senses of sight and hearing. Although his recordings under other aliases have found a home on such labels as Iatrogenesis Records, Throne Heap, Crucial Blast, and 905 Tapes to name a few, his debut solo full-length titled “Contaminated Time” released on Skeleton Dust Recordings is a pinnacle statement of Rizer’s carefully honed approach to capturing sounds which are further arranged and refracted through an alternate lens.