Preservation Sound

Above: a picture of a picture of a picture (via internet): take that Baudrillard

How y’all doing on this fine day,,, before I head off to the sad+moldy basements of lower Fairfield county to hunt for more piles of ancient electronic arcana for the 1000th consecutive Friday morning, I wanted to LYK about next weekend’s OPEN STUDIO event.

Located in the former American Fabrics building in Bridgeport’s far East side, Preservation Sound will open our doors to the public for this once-yearly event along with all the wonderful artists and craftspeople who occupy this circa 1900 factory.

It is free and open to all.

See all the details, get directions, etc, here.

The AmFab building, home to the studios of 30-40 artists, is only one of several large art-spaces in Bridgeport that is taking part in this event.  You can also visit The Nest and 305 Knowlton and a host of other venues on this weekend.  It’s fun and family-friendly and always a lively good-time.

I will be working in the shop(pe) through the weekend, probably on some sort of tube mic preamp that I am late in delivering to a customer, and also… SELLING… reams of stuff.

Because we’re moving.

And this is probably our last open-studio event for some time.

I’ve had two shops for a few years now and that’s just one-too-many.  So I’ve decided to consolidate and shut down this location.

I’ll be selling loads of LP records, musical gear, guitars, sound equipment, drums, and tubes tubes tubes tubes.  Tools, transformers, parts, you name it.

And no, I don’t have a list so pls don’t ask.  If I was that organized of a person I would sell the stuff on eBay at much higher prices.

Come on down, chat, and enjoy a complimentary beverage and/or rectangular piece of cheese.

This Thursday Oct 23 2014 will be my first-ever solo performance.   I’ve created a system of pulse-synchronized analog synths and four-track cassette machine that I will manipulate live with a quadraphonic sound system.  I will be improvising on the disparate themes of: the creation of the world, the death of a loved one, and the Twentieth Century.  The performance is part of the University of Bridgeport/ Housatonic CC “One Plus One” show of art and design-school faculty.  Here’s the details from the press release:

University of Bridgeport’s Shintaro Askatsu School of Design & Housatonic Community College Co-Host Faculty Art and Design Exhibition

 “One Plus One” Show Opens with Oct. 23^rd Reception, from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at Schelfhaudt Gallery

 Faculty members from Housatonic Community College and Shintaro Akatsu School of Design will show their own work in a collaborative exhibit named “One Plus One”. The show features graphic design, painting, photos, sculpture, video art, drawing, digital arts, typography, installation, and illustrations created by 27 faculty members from both schools.

The opening reception on Oct. 23^rd from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. is free and open to the public.

Shintaro Akatsu School of Design (SASD) on the University of Bridgeport campus is located in the Arnold Bernhard Center (ABC), 84 Iranistan Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604.

For more information about this and other upcoming exhibitions, contact Gallery Director Peter Konsterlie at 203.576.4034, or schelfhaudtgallery@gmail.com.

I’ll be doing the 22 minute piece between 6 and 7.  It is free and open to all.

Earlier this year I had the chance to work with composer Nathan Halpern on director Jeff Dupre’s documentary “Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace.”  Wiley is one of the most significant contemporary painters;  his work manages to accomplish many of the traditional functions of portraiture while intensely exploring issues of race, class, and hegemony.

You can view the entire program for free at this link (PBS dot org).

The 44-minute documentary won the short-form doc category at SXSW earlier this year, and had its broadcast television debut 9/5/14 on PBS.  You can get all the details here, and view the trailer at Vimeo.

The score was made primarily using the minimal setup you see above here:  an Arturia mini-brute and a Korg MS20 with the oft-maligned but oh-so-versatile Line 6 POD Pro XT effects processor; my el-cheapo Alesis midi controller was also on-hand to operate various soft-synths since it can’t all be monophonic, all the time,,,,.  Drums were primarily recorded at the big room at Gold Coast Recorders.   If you’ve been reading this blog for a while and have ever wondered, ‘but what does he DOOOOOO with all that stuff?’, well, here’s your chance to find out.  I write a lot of music for television, but rarely is a project so near+dear to my heart, both musically and thematically.