Burnt Dot Quartet in Concert: February 17th

"Burnt Dot Quartet performs improvised music for trumpets and modular synthesizers in quadraphonic space. Featuring Sarah Reid on trumpet, Ryan Gaston on Eurorack and Serge synthesizsers, and special guests Kris Tiner on trumpet and telematic performance by Todd Barton on Buchla and other synthesizers.

The concert is taking place on February 17th at 8pm PST at:

The Wild Beast Pavilion
California Institute of the Arts
24700 McBean Parkway
Valencia, CA 91355

This concert is FREE, open to the public, and streaming at:
https://music.calarts.edu/wild-beast-webcast

Burnt Dot is an improvisational duo formed by Sarah Belle Reid (trumpet) and Ryan Gaston (modular synthesizer) in 2014. From violent gestures to undulating textures and sparse flickers, Burnt Dot uses open forms to explore and extend the unique vocabulary of each of their instruments, and aim to discover just how much of the area beyond their typical sonic territory is still unmapped. Burnt Dot specializes in free improvisation, prompt-based performance, and interpretation of graphic scores."

"Kris Tiner (b. 1977) is a California-based trumpet player, composer, and improviser. Featured on NPR Music as one of a handful of new trumpet voices impacting modern music, his playing has been described as 'extraordinarily inventive' in Signal to Noise Magazine, and the LA Weekly claims 'Trumpeter Kris Tiner can turn barbed wire to beauty.'"

"Todd Barton is a composer, sound designer, multimedia performer, analog synthesist specializing in Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments. Todd is a praised improvisor, composer, and consulting artist for Buchla Electronic Musical Instruments."

Upcoming Performances by Todd Barton Featuring the Buchla Music Easel & More

via Todd Barton:

"Hi Friends,

I'm excited to announce these upcoming concerts at the Schneider Museum of Art on the SOU campus:

Spatial Frontiers
Noon, Friday, May 22, 2015
Schneider Museum of Art

Todd Barton and Bruce Bayard, with special guest Eden Monomyn. All three artists will be playing the Buchla Music Easel, each using a special program card designed by Todd which brings focus to the incredible expressive power of this electronic instrument. Additional controls to the placement of sound in space is also featured.

This concert is free and open to the public.

AND . . .

Special Edition
Noon, Thursday, May 28, 2015
Schneider Museum of Art

Todd Barton and Bruce Bayard, are joined by special guests Sarah Belle Reid and Ryan Gaston from California Institute of the Arts.

This concert is free and open to the public.

Sarah Belle Reid is a trumpet player, intermedia artist, and improvisor who is described as having an onstage presence that is both captivating and passionate. Sarah is an endlessly curious artist, one who collaborates closely with composers, choreographers, actors, and multimedia artists, and is always eager to experiment and explore novel approaches to expression. More than a trumpeter, Sarah has been described by audiences as a true “character” and “story-teller”; a musician whose drive to innovate and re-imagine performance is at the heart of her artistic vision. Sarah holds an MFA in trumpet performance from the California Institute of the Arts.

Ryan Gaston is a composer, bandleader, and sound artist from Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently a candidate for an MFA in Experimental Sound Practices at the California Institute of the Arts, Ryan's work centers around musical interface/instrument design, modular synthesizer performance, network music, and research into techniques for sound spatialization and strategies for notation and analysis of electronic and timbre-based music. Fascinated by developing new modes of listening and performing, Gaston writes both performed and recorded music that seeks to exploit the unique possibilities of its own venue of realization--be it a concert hall, dingy dive bar, art gallery, or a pair of headphones.

all best wishes, hope to see you there,
Todd"

Exquisite Dialog

"Here is a fun experiment and dialog between Todd Barton (Buchla 200e) in Oregon and Ryan Gaston (Serge Modular Music System) at CalArts in California.

Over spring break Todd and Ryan engaged in the Surrealist parlor game known as the Exquisite Corpse en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exquisite_corpse

It began with a single minute of composed material on the Buchla of which only the final 10 seconds was sent to Ryan and his Serge. Then Ryan composed a one minute segment and sent along just the last 10 seconds. This process continued until we had a 6 minute piece. Neither of us heard the entire piece until all the segments were finished. What you here hear are all the pieces edited together in the final composition: Exquisite Dialog
Enjoy!
Be sure to check out Ryan's soundcloud:
soundcloud.com/search?q=ryan%20gaston"

Scentury Cedar Custom Luthier Wood Eurorack Cases

This one in via Ryan Gaston: "I'm contacting you today because I wanted to make you aware of a new Eurorack case luthier--a small carpentry shop in Booneville, AR (the town in which I grew up). Several months ago, I confronted them about making me a Euro case for my own use--they've been making gorgeous boutique furniture for years and I absolutely loved their visual aesthetic. So I helped them learn about modular synths, showed them where to get vector rails and threaded inserts, power supplies, etc. so that they could make me a case. They decided that it was fun and new enough that they want to continue to make and distribute these cases.

I want to stress that this is not made from wood purchased at a hardware store--these come from trees that this company has harvested purely based on each tree's unique imperfections. These trees were born and grew in Arkansas and are crafted into these gorgeous cases completely by hand and with a tremendous degree of attention to detail.

I'm not commercially affiliated with the company--they're just good friends and trusted people who are trying to branch their business in a new and interesting direction. They wanted me to check in to see about spreading the word, so I thought I'd send you an E-mail in case you're interested in sharing the information.

For any inquiries, you can contact Kim from Scentury Cedar at:
scentury@magtel.com
(479)675-5894

Or I'm glad to relay any messages that you send to me here or to strawpolygon@gmail.com."

Note this is the first Scentury Cedar post.

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