Music for Hard Times [Episode 128]

Published on Mar 23, 2019 CatSynth TV

Anyone ID what's below the Buchla?

"We return to the Luggage Store Gallery in San Francisco for a performance featuring Music For Hard Times - Paul Winstanley and Tom Nunn - plus special guest Thomas Dimuzio on modular and other synthesizers.

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Music For Hard Times is a duo with Paul Winstanley, electric bass with multiple effects pedals, and Tom Nunn, original experimental instruments such as space plates, electroacoustic percussion boards and various "skatch" instruments. MFHT has worked together since 2010 and has recorded over 200 sessions, from which nearly a dozen limited run/online CDs have been produced as well as a published CD, "City of Cardboard," and a vinyl record, "Giant Powder Dangerous." MFHT has performed in the Bay Area at venues including Center for New Music, The Makeout Room, [etc.]… In 2015, MFHT was invited to perform as part of the Sudden Sound Festival at the Krannert Art Center in Urbana, Illinois, as well as performing at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago. Paul’s sounds range from staccato noises to a vastness of sustained tones, using refined implements and highly developed techniques that, at times, defy recognition. Nunn’s space plates, skatchboxes, Lukie tubes and harmonic rods bring a truly unique sound universe to the group that variously blends with, complements and contrasts the “expanded” electric bass. "Music For Hard Times never hit the listener over the head in order to get their attention. They simply get down to the Zen of their other worldly duo exchanges, and, if one is inclined to go along, one will surely find much intrigue." - Mark Pino

Paul Winstanley is an improvising electric bass player from New Zealand who specializes in extended techniques for that instrument. In addition to trying to make his bass sound like electronics he is interested in making electronic music that sounds like natural environments. He has several solo projects including Sci Hi (electronic feedback), Speed Cook (music from sound samples and non-musical sounds) and The Complete Recordings (artificial simulations of field recordings). Paul lived in Auckland, New Zealand for 10 years where he was part of the growing local and national experimental/improvising music scene, playing in groups w/luminaries like instrument inventor Phil Dadson, percussionist John Bell, radical concert brass band The NZ Dominion Centenary Concert Band, folk icon Fats White, abstract electronic supergroup Plains and improvising electronic trio Audible 3.

Tom Nunn has designed, built and performed with original musical instruments since 1976, having received a B.Mus. and M.A. in music composition from the University of Texas at Austin and S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, and post-graduate work at U.C. San Diego. His instruments typically utilize commonly available materials, are sculptural in appearance, utilize contact microphones for amplification, and are designed specifically for improvisation with elements of ambiguity, unpredictability and nonlinearity. Tom has designed and built well over 300 instruments, representing three basic types: space plates, electroacoustic percussion boards, and skatchboxes. Nunn’s work with experimental instruments since 1975 is thoroughly reviewed in Sudhanshu G. Tewari’s doctoral dissertation, “Confluence: Tom Nunn’s Sculptured Musical Instruments for Improvisation,” University of California Santa Cruz, Dec. 2017.

Thomas Dimuzio is one of unsung artistic figures whose influence and abilities have substantially outstripped his visibility. Composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound designer, experimental electronic musician and recording studio owner, Dimuzio has been busy doing his thing(s) since the late 1980s with critically acclaimed releases issued by the legendary house of audio misanthropy, RRRecords and former Henry Cow drummer (and current Dimuzio collaborator) Chris Cutler’s well-regarded ReR Megacorp label. Equally fluent in a nearly every contemporary post-techno style, Dimuzio’s work clearly demonstrates an insider’s knowledge of older experimental musical forms such as musique concréte and electroacoustic, as well as contemporary ambient-industrial and noise. Thomas Dimuzio has performed and recorded as a solo artist and collaboratively with Fred Frith, David Lee Myers, Dan Burke, Due Process, 5UU'S, Matmos, Wobbly, and many others."