…life under hylaster

Brett Ingram’s film Rocaterrania is finished and about to make the rounds on the festival circuit. The documentary portrays the inimitable Renaldo Kuhler of Raleigh, NC and Rocaterrania - the imaginary country that has sprung from Kuhler’s inner life and imagination via countless illustrations, invented languages, and personal mythology. I am honored to have participated in the creation of the film’s original soundtrack, along with the other members of Shark Quest.

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My friend and former Mills colleague Philip White has just released a slew of works recorded during his last few weeks at Mills in the spring of 2008. I am lucky enough to be on one of the releases, as one half of the project we call with chuck johnson with philip white. Philip and I share a fondness for sounds created by chaotic analog systems. Here is Philip’s description:

with chuck johnson with philip white is the collaborative effort of two
electronic musicians performing on homemade or otherwise hacked
electronics. After co-founding Charleston’s New Music Collective, White
met Johnson, a fellow native southerner, in Oakland, California. The two
soon developed a common interest in building and performing on erratic
electronic equipment. With a sound owing as much to John Cage as it does
Merzbow, with chuck johnson with philip white straddle experimental and
noise musics with forceful and visceral performances.

There are several options for buying the music here.

Philip’s solo work and recordings with the duo project he has with Suzanne Thorpe called thenumber46 are also highly recommended and can be purchased here.

Speaking of Suzanne…. She and I have an electroacoustic drone duo we call D2 Affinity and we are opening for My Bloody Valentine (!!) at the Concourse in San Francisco on Sept 30. Spectrum is on the bill as well. I think there are still tickets available via Ticketmaster or some such godawful thing.

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TONIGHT Saturday Dec 29 - Mahasamatman (me, Chris Eubank, Shannon Morrow) have been added last-minute to the Nightlight benefit show lineup. Des Ark and Max Indian are playing too.

NEXT SATURDAY Jan 5 - Pykrete (plus Robert Biggers ) along with Phil Blank, Dom Flemons and lots more:

And while I’m self-promoting, I should mention a couple of upcoming shows in New York:

January 7 - Suzanne Thorpe, Betsey Biggs, Ayako Kataoka, Chuck Johnson (flute, steel guitar, electronics, video) - ParisLondonWestNile at 285 Kent Ave, in Williamsburg.

January 11 - Pauline Oliveros and Miya Masaoka with CC Three (Oliveros, Suzanne Thorpe, Chuck Johnson) - Renee Weiler Concert Hall at 46 Barrow St in Manhattan.

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At 8:04PM tonight I had just sat down with dinner when I heard what sounded like a large truck speeding by outside and then everything started shaking. My first thought was that wind caused by the “truck” was blowing the building around, but I quickly realized that it was, in fact, my first earthquake. Twenty minutes later I am still feeling a little shaky. Apparently this one was centered near Alum Rock between the East and South Bay areas on the Calaveras fault.

According to local news 5.6 magnitude is one of the bigger ones experienced around here in a few years, but it is still considered to be on the high end of the “moderate” range. Nothing fell or broke in my apartment, but everything was definitely wobbling and the floor seemed to turn to mush for a few seconds. It was an eerie feeling and made me realize that I have no idea what to do in a quake. As I type this the local news is pointing out that a moderate Alum Rock quake was a lead-up to the “Big One” in 1989. Great….

This weekend I have two concerts with Pauline Oliveros. Friday night I’m playing at the Sacramento State Festival of New American music. Pauline is the featured composer at the festival this year and Friday night is a program of her music. I’m playing on a piece called “Red Shifts,” for trombone solo (Monique Buzzarté) and four analog oscillators (me and some fellow Mills grad students.) Then on Saturday I’m playing a short improvised set with Pauline and fellow Mills student Suzanne Thorpe at Oakland’s Chapel of the Chimes.

Filed by chuck j at 10:52 pm under events, self-promotion
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