Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Live shot(s) #142!

 All shots taken at Miami Art Works, Miami AZ 10/13/2024.

Below: Loud Obnoxious Bass. Miami Noise from Lob Instagon!


Above: Aphrodites Polyp. Tucson Electro-Acoustic. Lap Steel guitar used to great effect. 

Below: Dummy Rifle from Phoenix. Densities and aggro.




Above: Ceremonial Abyss. Portland Drone. Should have played longer, but I will see him tonight at Screening Room if the world isn't nuked by then.

Monday, October 14, 2024

dustsceawing-s/t; eh? Records #127, 2024

 

Minneapolis and so-called Minneapolis and Oakland trio of Miri Karraker, Noah Ophoven and Mitch Stahlmann have been exploring a shared interest in "lowercase music, small sounds, and questions around instrumental proficiency" since about 2017. eh? Records has documented parts of their progress on dustsceawing, one which presents two side-long cassette pieces. 

The first piece, firn, was recorded by the trio in in 2018 and features a quiet, slow moving activity among the three of them. The ways in which the group mesh their sounds shows an ensemble that is focused upon listening to each other and responding within appropriate duration, after silence or as a prelude to additional silence. Of note here at mi casita has been the element of surprise from the timbre of viola, cornet and flute. The fascinating question of "which one did that", always an aspect from the satisfying Improvised Music listening session, is one which has arisen often as Disaster Amnesiac has listened. Staring out my window now, big, puffy white clouds float past in the Sonoran sky, and dustsceawing's music matches them with a sort of perfection.  This is enjoyably float-ey music, made more enjoyable by the calmness of its presentation. The group plays with fine interconnectivity.

On side two resides fold, a piece which had Karraker, Ophoven, and Stahlmann performing and recording simultaneously at their respective residences, via Zoom. A very interesting dynamic of this 2022 session is that they each were muted from one and other, essentially playing solos at the same time (does that statement even make sense?) The press sheet describes the result as "[S]trata stack and form something solid" a descriptor which Disaster Amnesiac can hear and most definitely agrees with. The various layers of sound combine with a "stacked" nature that, if listened to closely, do evince touches of the adjacent lines to be seen within stratum. As an experiment, fold's principal dynamic is fascinating. Is it braveness or folly to tell their public about the method? I can't say, but it must be assumed that this method is one in play more often within improvised settings. 

Special note must be made too of dustsceawing as a physical object. The cover art is sublime and mysterious, and the actual cassette is clear with green glitter printing. Noice. 

The players who produced this release went deep, and you can too.

Random shot!

 

Discrete elements on an outside wall. Sullivan St., Miami AZ. Sometimes minimalist elements can jump out at a viewer with the most powerful of impact.

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Random shot!

 

Casey Sonnebend's paints and some of this brushes and canvases. Capitola CA April 2012.

Saturday, October 5, 2024

Live shot(s) #141!

 All photos taken at Screening Room Tucson 10/4/2024.

Below: Dollblood. Blended songwriting and Drone. Really excellent crescendo to end a short set.


Above: MMRA. Floating cities of the electron.

Below: Cecyl Ruehlen pulled wonderful feedback and overtones from six floor-based fret boards. Heaviest act of the evening with film that Clement Greenberg would have found nicely saturated. 


Above: Lauren Sarah Hayes does Noise Aikido. Rather too short of set, Disaster Amnesiac wanted more! Gestural twitches from interactive cybernetic looping action. 

Below: Twig Harper. Out on a long tour. Static-ey mastery. Fascinating wind instrument paired with an influential Noise rig. He just calmly destroyed. 


 

Before the acts played, and in-between sets, Wave Archive and Desert Drone, co-curators of the show, played older Country and Hillbilly music over the PA system. I pondered the terrible destruction in southern Appalachia, especially the images I've seen from North Carolina. Praying for all of those affected by the terrible Hurricane Helene.



Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Random photo!

 

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. July 2020.

Monday, September 30, 2024

Goodbye Pete Rose

 

Pete Rose has died and it's a true Goodbye 20th Century Event for Disaster Amnesiac. I'm just old enough to recall his glory days the 1970's Cincinnati Reds a bit, and his Superstar era with the Philadelphia Phillies quite a bit more. His work ethic was mind boggling in its breadth. His love for baseball and his commitment to developing performances worthy of the public's attention were never fake, despite the ignominious fall from grace which hit him in 1989. It appeared as though that the time since his lifetime ban from Major League Baseball was spent on a kind of shameful apology tour. A time shrouded in Tragedy to be sure. Still, if one thinks back to the years leading up to that fall, one will surely be inspired by the actions of a man of deep focus and rough hewn, American grittiness. Pete Rose worked really hard to get to his spot among the top baseball players ever. It's hoped that he held on to the satisfaction of that sheer determination to just keep going, despite all of the obstacles. Hopefully now the MLB Hall of Fame will deign to recognize him for his brilliance within the sport. Hopefully, in some other dimension, Pete Rose is doing a hard slide into a base that's being manned by Bart Giamatti, cleats up and breathing fire.