Wednesday May 3 * 7pm * TICKETS
Join us for an astounding double bill. Both groups will include both solo and duo performances. Chicago improvisers Emily Beisel (bass clarinet, electronics) and Bill Harris (drums, electronics) utilize electronics, amplification, and feedback to augment their acoustic sounds, creating a sonic space that can at times be aggressive, dense, and massive, as well as subtle, spaceous, and sensitive. We're pretty sure that range of descriptors will be apt for what Camilo Ángeles (Mexico CIty; flute, electronics) and Levi Lu (Baltimore; voice, computer) do as well. And yet you will only know what sublime variations on these themes occur if you are in the room. Don't miss it!
Camilo Ángeles: Flutist, composer, sound artist, researcher, and music curator born in Arequipa, Perú, lived several years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, now based in México City. Works with interest on the hybridization of aesthetics, standing outside specific genres, the search for an own aesthetic vision through a deconstructed approach on his own instrument and musical language; the sonorous re- exploration of the flute, a non traditional approach crafted by his own history as a human being, as an immigrant and as Latin American artist. The axis and core of sound in his music is the search for an identity. His music is built of explosive sounds created with different extended techniques, preparations on the flute, microtonal textures, electronic processing and hyper amplification of the flute, altering its sounds to make microscopic air gestures become big waves of sound. He is constantly focussed on the obsessive study of ways to expand the sound spectrum of the flute. In his music, improvisation and composition are procedures used for the same purpose: the construction of a particular identity and space for expression.
Qiujiang Levi Lu is a Baltimore-based composer, free-improviser, and sound artist whose works explore the spatiality of electroacoustic sound, audio-visual interactivity between performer and audience, and phenomenology of sound. Lu’s compositions range from purely acoustic to experimental electronic and incorporate their love of listening to everyday sounds and using them in creative ways.
As an innovative composer, Lu is interested in combining sensors and programming languages with acoustic instruments to flourish his creativity. Lu has written a broad range of compositions, including solo acoustic, chamber orchestral, electroacoustic, and fixed media works. Among their compositions and performances, Lu focuses on designing artful experiences in most of their works. Lu received the Edith Salvo Award and the Elizabeth Ball Kurtz Award for their outstanding accomplishments during their undergraduate study in music. Lu is also the recipient of the 1st place Prix D’Été composition competition in 2022 for their work Listen, Move, and Speak for microphone-speaker feedback system. Lu’s works have been performed at NYCEMF(New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival), Yarn/Wire Festival, Splice Institute, and IRCAM Forum.
Lu is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Computer Music Composition from The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Lu holds an undergraduate degree in music and two minors in Jazz Studies and Music Technology from SUNY Stony Brook University. Lu has studied composition with Sam Pluta, Margaret Schedel, Reiny Rolock, Edward Rosenberg III, and Joseph Bohigian; jazz performance with Eli Yamin, Thomas Manuel, and Ray Anderson; and voice performance with Ju Hyeon Han and Sidney Outlaw.
Emily Beisel is a Chicago based improvisor, curator and woodwind specialist. Beisel is known for her visceral bass clarinet performances combining extended instrumental techniques with heavy amplification and timbral effects. Her work is an intuitive recombination of fragments that range from noise and folk music, math-core, free jazz, contemporary classical and doom metal. Beisel is deeply committed to social change through curatorial practices. She runs the Pleiades Series which elevates women, trans and non-binary creative performers and includes a monthly improvisation workshop for femme and nonbinary musicians in the Chicago community. Beisel is a passionate advocate of new music and performs with the contemporary ensemble Fonema Consort premiering the works of living composers including James Dillon and Richard Barrett with recent performances in Sao Paulo, Brazil, NYC, and Chihuahua, Mexico. Beisel holds her Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208.
Bill Harris is a Chicago-based drummer and improviser working at the fringes of improvisation, noise, rock, folk, and bluegrass. His work has been presented at places ranging from centers for improvised and creative music such as Elastic Arts, Constellation, and ESS; to vital rock and indie clubs such as The Empty Bottle, The Hideout, Evanston Space, Beat Kitchen, and Spot Tavern; to concert halls and centers for the arts such as Lincoln Hall, Old Town School of Folk Music, Navy Pier, and The Chicago Museum Of Contemporary Art.
Some of his primary groups are Je'raf; an improvising trio with Jeff Kimmel and Ishmael Ali; Hearsay, with Allen Moore and Ishmael Ali; Joybird, with Jess McIntosh and Aaron Smith; and Errata, with Ishmael Ali and Eli Namay. Some of his most frequent collaborators include Ishmael Ali, Jake Wark, Carol Genetti, Emily Beisel, Allen Moore, Timothee Quost, Dave Rempis, Jess McIntosh, Jim Baker, PT Bell, Gerrit Hatcher, Eli Namay, Peter Maunu, Matt Piet, Brianna Tong, Wills McKenna, David Fletcher, Aaron Smith, Jeff Kimmel, Molly Jones, and Keefe Jackson.
In 2015 he started Amalgam, a 100% artist-run collective and label dedicated to showcasing works of improvised and experimental music in Chicago and elsewhere, with a bi-monthly series at Cafe Mustache. Bill is also an audio engineer working in both studio and live situations, and operates an independent studio in Chicago with engineering, mixing, mastering, and production credits on labels such as Amalgam, Astral Spirits, No Index, 577 Records and Ears&Eyes. In 2020 he started and co-operates a recording studio called Marmalade with Ishmael Ali, PT Bell, and Louis Clark.