I started a new project: I’m going to try to use a tumblr account to track influences, updates, etc. It’s here.
Since you asked:
‘TH TMPST RUNS 8 BIT CHIPTUNES INTO COLLABORATIVE SPOKEN WORD INTO TEXT FROM SHAKESPEARE’S PLAY INTO MUSIC FROM JEAN SIBELIUS’ 1925 SCORE.’
My man Stefan ‘Big Dirt’ Tarras is dropping in to town to, well, drop bombs:
I will be closing out the night, probably on my shiny new Serato setup: only five years behind the times. I am also leaving for Boston for the summer the next week: if you Must See Me DJ, now’s the time!
The man with the smuggest looking press shots in Dance Music played at Lotus several weeks ago: I acci-went, and had a really, really good time: he played a lot of vinyl, has that odd, casual, Detroit mixing style, and knows how rooms work. And I got to hear someone other than me play Strings Of Life, which made me happy. And now it turns out that Lotus is closed, which makes me doubly glad I went: I spent a LOT of time down there when I lived in Vancouver, and it taught me a lot about how records and people work
Links:
Someone wrote some python code that tells people where you are. Creepy, indeed.
Someone else displayed all 48,000-some characters of Unicode, in order. In a way, all human knowledge is in this one video.
hertmitage – hermitage by Fractal
I made some techno, based on a few videos that I took last summer in Berlin. It’s lush and Detroit and has, I feel, some level of purity associated with it.
Did I mention that this Friday my second string quartet is being played, my computer music project for violinst and heartbeat sensor is being played?
And that my partners in crime, Alex Jang & Nathan Friedman, are having their colossal graduating pieces played on Saturday night?
AND, that I’m DJing at the Computer Music Course Union party at Felicita’s on Monday?
It just, as they say, don’t stop.
That was a week, let me tell you. Orchestra readings, string quartet readings, the premier of my setting of The Walrus & The Carpenter, narrating for another composer’s piece, DJing at Crush v.5, and getting abused by the time change.
With that said, Crush was rad, the readings went well, and my piece was a spectacular success. Recordings of the quartet and the orchestra readings follow:
Thor Kell – String Quartet No. 3
This is what happens when you put a Morton Feldman shaped bomb under Brahms’ Lullaby. Many, many thanks to the Bozzinis for doing a wonderful job reading this. Also featuring Mrs. Tubby the teddy bear on music box duty.
Thor Kell – The Chandrasekhar Limit (Excerpt 1)
Thor Kell – The Chandrasekhar Limit (Excerpt 2)
A piece based on stellar evolution, the periodic table, and nuclear fusion. Sounds like me. The first excerpt is the first half of the main section, the second is the development and coda, as it were.
The UVic orchestra is reading my piece on Monday. It is called The Chandrasekhar Limit, and it is about stellar evolution. I have never been more afraid in my entire life. (Well, that’s a lie…but I am filled with trepidation.)
It is 16 minutes long; each player has their own part; my former composition teacher called it ‘he singularly most unusual orchestral composition I have ever seen in my life’. I will post a recording as soon as I have one.
It’s that time again:
The CRUSH original four return for another all-night tag set, covering deep house to heavy techno to everything in between. We’d love to see you out.
I’ll be helping out Natron at Common Ground at Whitebird this Saturday, from 10 to midnight. Except deeeeeep haaaauuus, lots of Detroit vibes, and hints of Chicago.