Karen Stackpole with Dan Webster, photo essay, 9/11/2011 Ex'pressions Sound Stage, Emeryville, CA

Disaster Amnesiac met up with recent pal Andrew Joron, to listen to Karen Stackpole play some of her vast collection of gongs. Karen is probably the preeminent gong player in the S.F. Bay Area. She's a master of coaxing sounds from her metals. With the help of laptop processor Dan Webster, she transported the audience at Ex'pressions into otherworldly sound spaces.

Karen dances with her gongs!

Karen and Dan played about five pieces total. All with strange, scientifically inspired titles. Karlheinz Stockhausen would have been proud. The audience was quietly awed.

All sounds were pumped through Sunn cabinets. Yeah!