untitled, or not yet | Michael Bullock – James Coleman – David Gross – Steve Roden
GrD 07 | Audio CD > [Sold Out]
untitled, or not yet is an exciting recording of improvised music form 2003. A limited edition CD packaged in 1 of 4 different printed vellum and cardstock packages.
1. Low Drifting. Beneath Beams Of Wind.
2. Resonant Planes. Hums And Blisters.
3. Falling Into Sound. Falling Into Owls.
4. Steam Engines. Lilting Dances.
5. From Somewhere Out There. Unseen Dreaming.
Michael Bullock – contrabass
James Coleman – theremin
David Gross – alto saxophone
Steve Roden – voice, objects, electronics
This recording is indeed one from the vaults, having languished for more than five years. Unlike the name of the place where these musicians first had a meal together, you dear listener, are in for a treat, which is more than simply ‚pure luck‘. New American Improvisation masters Coleman, Bullock, and Gross (with transplanted trombonist Tucker Dulin) met up with renowned sound artist Roden in LA for a set in May of 2001 at an art gallery where Christina Ricci was the matron saint. Based on the success of that meeting, the group met again in November at the now infamous club, The Smell, where their set was cut short by thumping salsa basslines from the restaurant next door. Fast forward a year and a half, to February of 2003, Roden, on an East coast tour met with the lads in Pete’s Basement Studio for the magical moments you’ll find on this disk. It’s taken a while to see the light but listen well, it’s got a lot to give back to you. It is in fact the document which blurs the line between New American Improvisation and sound art. No worries about that though, just sit back and enjoy!
Edition: 350
Package Design and layout: Chris Bryan
Cover Photo: Steve Roden
Gruenrekorder / Germany / 2009 / GrD 07 / LC 09488
Michael T. Bullock is a composer, sound artist and visual artist based in Troy NY. The range of his work includes contrabass, banjo, electronic music, video instrumentalism,and illustration.
Bullock performs across the entire US and in Europe, collaborating with a huge range of artists, including Christian Wolff, Steve Roden, Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley of nmperign, Mazen Kerbaj and Theodore Bikel.
His groundbreaking solo contrabass playing has brought him to medieval chapels and the side of a mountain. He also performs with the BSC, an octet of Boston-based improvisers; as the trio MAWJA with Kerbaj and Vic Rawlings; and in the multidisciplinary duo rise set twilight.
Bullock is the founder of Chloë Recordings. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the Arts Department at RPI in Troy, where he researches noise and haptic feedback.
steve roden is a visual and sound artist from los angeles. his work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, film/video, sound installation, and performance.
roden’s working process uses various forms of specific notation (words, musical scores, maps, etc.) and translates them through self invented systems into scores; which then influence the process of painting, drawing, sculpture, and sound composition. these scores, rigid in terms of their parameters and rules, are also full of holes for intuitive decisions and left turns. the inspirational source material becomes a kind of formal skeleton that the abstract finished works are built upon.
in the visual works, translations of information such as text and maps, become rules and systems for generating visual actions such as color choices, number of elements, and image building. in the sound works, singular source materials such as objects, architectural spaces, and field recordings, are abstracted through humble electronic processes to create new audio spaces, or ‚possible landscapes‘. the sound works present themselves with an aesthetic roden describes as "lower case“ – sound concerned with subtlety and the quiet activity of listening.
roden has been exhibiting his visual and sound works since the mid 1980’s, and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally.
recent solo shows and projects include susanne vielmetter berlin projects, nicole klagsbrun gallery new york, studio la citta gallery verona italy, san francisco art institute mcbean gallery, fresno metropolitan museum of art and science, tang teaching museum skidmore college, and gallery e/static torino.
recent group exhibitions include the mercosur biennial porto alegre brazil, centre georges pompidou paris, the san diego museum of contemporary art, the ucla hammer museum los angeles, the sculpture center ny, the museum of contemporary art EMST athens, and the drawing room london.
roden has performed his soundworks at various arts spaces and festivals worldwide including the serpentine gallery london, the san francisco museum of modern art; the ucla hammer museum, MIT boston, the walker art center, minneapolis; the dca dundee scotland; the musee de beaux artes nantes; as well as performance tours of brazil and japan. he has also released over 20 cds of audio works on labels worldwide.
roden received an mfa from art center college of design in pasadena, ca in 1989, and a bfa from otis parsons in los angeles in 1986.
grants include: nimoy artist in residency grant, COLA grant from the city of los angeles, california arts council grant, subito grant from the american composer’s forum, city of pasadena artist’s grant, and the durfee foundation.
recent & upcoming projects include: a site specific collaboration with stephen vitiello for marfa texas; soundwaves: the art of sampling at the MCASD san diego, a new audio work commissioned for the james turrell skyspace at the henry museum in seattle; a commissioned work for the 100th anniversary of edvard grieg’s death in oslo norway; a sound/sculptural installation for the mercosur biennial, and a solo exhibition of paintings and sculpture at susanne vielmetter berlin projects, berlin germany.
Called "One of Boston’s steadfast explorers," by the Boston Globe, saxophonist David Gross has been performing for nearly a decade. Among a slew of others whose names are perhaps not as recognizable, Mr.Gross has performed with Le Quan Ninh, Eddie Prevost, Steve Roden, John Olson, Gino Robair, Martin Tetreault, Tom Carter, Glenn Spearman, Raphe Malik and many members of the Boston free-improv scene including Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley, and Laurence Cook.Currently, Gross is transforming the saxophone into exactly what it is: a metal tube with keys, mouthpiece, and a reed. Reviews of his recordings have been as varied as "The range of textured noise that he cajoles from his instrument is impressive" to "lengthy episodes of fingernails ripping at a blackboard". He has performed throughout the US including at festivals as diverse as The KNOB (Wichita, KS), Big Sur Festival of Experimental Music (CA), High Zero (Baltimore, MD), Improvised and Otherwise (NYC), The No Idea Fest (Austin, TX) and Autumn Uprising(Boston, MA) which he created in 1997. Future releases include a studio recording with James Coleman(theremin), Mike Bullock (contrabass) and Steve Roden (electronics).
Review:
BULLOCK & COLEMAN & GROSS & RODEN – UNTITLED, OR NOT YET (CD by 1pt8 Records) It has been quiet from the side of Steve Roden, or perhaps some of his recent releases come in such small editions, that they are, unfortunately, not always easy to follow. Two of his recent releases are CDRs only, in small editions, such as ‚Vester Fields‘, a charming work for various sounds including an accordion, a record player, voice, violin, field recordings and even plants or ‚A Christmas Play Joseph Cornell‘, which is more like a season release (not this season) with an old christmas record, a vietnamese string instrument and more field recordings. Both works are the Roden we appreciate and know so well: delicate sound textures, slow movements, layered yet spacey. However the work we are dealing here with today, is the Roden that is also delicate, but also a side of Roden we don’t know very well: that of an improviser, together with the more well-known players from the scene, such as Micheal Bullock (contrabass), James Coleman (theremin) and David Gross (alto saxophone), while Roden plays objects, electronics and voice. This is the sort of improvisation that I really like. The careful examination of the instruments, their qualities in what they have to offer as both an instrument as well as an object. The delicate but loose structure, the waving of electronic tones along with the apparently random tones of the ‚real‘ instruments. Four people listening to what the others are doing, carefully, thoughtfully. As said, it’s not a side of Roden we know very well, but it’s certainly something he should be doing more.
(FdW)