Featuring:
Solomon / Ellis / Sargent
Bill Solomon (percussion), Lief Ellis (laptop/electronics), Matt Sargent (laptop/electronics/guitars) are members of the Hartford Sound Alliance, a flexible, CT-based collective of composers, performers, sound engineers, and artists. They regularly perform as a trio, creating visceral, improvisation-based music that especially focuses on the real-time recycling of live sound, collaborative processing, incorporation of field recording in live performance, and group composition. They have recently performed as a trio at Real Art Ways (Hartford, CT) [in collaboration with video artists Liz Stephens and Devan Mulvaney], the New Britain Arts Alliance Gallery (New Britain, CT), and the Hartford Art School (West Hartford, CT).
In addition to their work within this ensemble, each of the members maintains an active and varied schedule. This summer, Bill Solomon will perform the solo vibraphone part for Pierre Boulez's Repons in collaboration with the Lucerne Festival, IRCAM and Mr. Boulez. Other upcoming appearances include performances at the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice at New England Conservatory. An active performer of new music, Bill has commissioned and premiered over thirty works for percussion. He also frequently performs with cellist Katie Kennedy in the duo, The Uncanny Valley.
Matt Sargent’s multi-channel installation works are currently on display in SPCTCLR VWS @ One Brooklyn Bridge Park (Brooklyn, NY) and Art-o-matic (Washington D.C.). His work is informed by his appreciation and ongoing study of natural resonance, field recording, and outdoor listening. Most recently, he has been creating a series of collaborative multimedia pieces for Space Between, an ongoing collaborative project with visual artists JT Kirkland and John M. Adams (works-in-progress can be seen and heard at http://spacebetweenblog.wordpress.com). Among his contributions to this project is Ghost Music, a concert-length composition for solo percussionist (composed specifically for Bill Solomon), accompanied by live wall drawings by John M. Adams.
Lief Ellis’s recent work as a composer and sound engineer has been focused on the creation of hybrid instruments and the transformation of commercial hardware into dynamic MAX/MSP-based musical interfaces. His latest compositions and collaborative projects have included by a performance of The Rings of Yggdrasill by the Hartt School Bass Ensemble (directed by Robert Black), and a series of interactive installation pieces presented at the Hartford Art School with Ken Steen (composer), Bill Solomon (composer), and Rebecca McDonald (video artist).
For more information about the trio, please visit http://www.hartfordsoundalliance.com, http://www.mattsargentmusic.com, and http://www.liefellis.com.
Brian S. Ellis, spoken word poetry
Brian S. Ellis is a poet who performs writing of his own devising. He has been reading in the New England area for four years, and has been touring nationally for two. This includes but is not limited to several local and national slam poetry competitions. His first full book of poems was published in two thousand eight with Write Bloody Books. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize twice. For more information go to http://www.myspace.com/brianstephenellis
Sean Peuquet, laptop and live electronics
Sean Peuquet will be performing a live improvisation using a mixture of sound materials, including pre-recorded audio samples, realtime computer synthesis, and guitar. Throughout the improvisation, rhythm and pitch are dealt with in very simple terms; through speed and delay. He is a composer of both electronic and instrumental music, an audio software programmer, and sometimes a music hardware designer. He grew up in southeast PA, outside of Philadelphia, and now lives in Gainesville, FL. His compositions have been played at a number of places, mainly along the east coast. He is currently a student in composition. Over the past few years he has explored the topic of Discoverable Composition, which deals with writing pieces where an audience is not explicitly aware of music happening in their environment. In undergraduate school, he studied music, psychology, and astronomy; the combination of which has led me to approach experimental composition as a unifying field of study.
Generally, he am interested in how music can interact with extra-musical ideas. Sean's compositions often aim to represent or suggest extra-musical ideas directly through the compositional process. His focus is on exploring physical phenomena, experiences, and relationships through compositional forms, methodologies, and performance dynamics. As a result, tension emerges between the abstracted experience of music and the composition's concrete underpinning. It is this tension that he finds interesting and fruitful. For more information go to: http://www.ludicsound.com/
