Indexical Podcast

This podcast features an interview Madison Heying and Andrew C. Smith recorded in January 2018 with Ben Bennett and Arrington de Dionyso at the Radius Gallery in Santa Cruz. They discuss approaches to improvisation, a concert for families with children De Dionyso produced in Oakland, and Bennett’s hit youtube show “Sitting and Smiling.” Throughout the episode you’ll hear excerpts from their concert at Radius Gallery. We’d love to hear your thoughts and questions about this episode! You can reach out on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, at our handle @anindexofmusic. You can also reach Madison via email at [email protected].

This podcast features an interview that Madison Heying and Jon Myers recorded in October 2017 with Paul Metzger and John Saint Pelvyn at Wind River. They discuss their approaches to experimentation, the need to create novel instruments and performance practices in the search for new sounds, and different ideas about musical communities. Throughout the episode you'll hear excepts from Metzger and Pelvyn's performance at Wind River including: Paul Metzger, “Death's Other Kingdom” John Saint Pelvyn, "A Clerical Error In Shasta County Shouldn't have to Ruin a Saturday Night (excerpts from an eternal song cycle)" If you have thoughts or questions about this episode or the Indexical podcast in general, we’d love to hear from you! You can reach out on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, at our handle @anindexofmusic. You can also reach Madison via email at [email protected].

Laura Steenberge (https://www.indexical.org/artists/laura-steenberge) is a composer and performer based in LA who has performed on a number of Indexical concerts, on instruments ranging from viola da gamba, to miscellaneous objects hanging from the rafters, to harmonica, to the clear plastic tubing pictured above. Her work often seems to engage with the physical limits of the material, and likewise takes conceptual inclinations to their (often absurd) logical ends.

In this podcast, Laura takes a walk through the woods with producer Madison Heying and Jon Myers. They discuss her work, alongside thoughts surrounding language, myth, and song. We'll hear a number of musical excerpts of Laura's work throughout the podcast:

Lampstands (for 2 voices and keyboard) (w/ Julia Holter singing)

Alleluia Caligula (solo voice and lap harp)

Victory Over the Sun (solo contrabass and voice)

The King and Queen (solo voice)

Earthworms (piano and voice)

Special thanks to Jake Foley for assistance editing this podcast.

From a May 2016 event in Santa Cruz

Laura Steenberge

Laura Steenberge is based in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. As a performer, she sings and plays viola da gamba, contrabass, piano, guitar and other things, in traditional and untraditional song styles. As a composer, she primarily writes vocal music. As a scholar she researches connections between music and language. Her current research is about the compositional practices of medieval composers of Byzantine chant, a study that has inspired a body of creative work about ritual and metaphors of the supernatural. She will be graduating from Stanford University in June 2016 with a DMA in music composition.

Laura Steenberge is a composer and performer based in LA who has performed on a number of Indexical concerts, on instruments ranging from viola da gamba, to miscellaneous objects hanging from the rafters, to harmonica, to the clear plastic tubing pictured above. Her work often seems to engage with the physical limits of the material, and likewise takes conceptual inclinations to their (often absurd) logical ends.

In this podcast, Laura takes a walk through the woods with producer Madison Heying and Jon Myers. They discuss her work, alongside thoughts surrounding language, myth, and song. We’ll hear a number of musical excerpts of Laura’s work throughout the podcast:

Lampstands (for 2 voices and keyboard) (w/ Julia Holter singing)

Alleluia Caligula (solo voice and lap harp)

Victory Over the Sun (solo contrabass and voice)

The King and Queen (solo voice)

Earthworms (piano and voice)

Special thanks to Jake Foley for assistance editing this podcast.

In this episode of the Indexical Podcast, Andrew Smith talks with David Kant of the Happy Valley Band and Jon Leidecker (AKA) Wobbly. They discuss Wobbly’s use of networked mobile devices for making live electronic music and how surveillance and labor is implicated in the use of these devices. They also talk about The Happy Valley Band, how it has influenced David’s understanding of machine hearing, and what it’s like to perform the arbitrarily complex music.

Check out Jon Leidecker's own podcast Variations, for more (http://rwm.macba.cat/en/variations_tag/).

Throughout the podcast we will play several pieces by Wobbly and the Happy Valley Band:

It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World, Happy Valley Band

Monitress, Except from Wobbly’s live set

Monitress, Except from Wobbly’s live set

In the Air Tonight, Happy Valley Band

In this episode of the Indexical podcast, Madison Heying, Jon Myers, and Andrew C. Smith talk to Michelle Lou and Scott Worthington of the duo bass2bass. They talk about how bass2bass formed, and how they came up with their name, as well as their similar backgrounds studying jazz and classical bass technique.The conversation gets pretty nerdy as Michelle and Scott debate the ideal bass supergroup and the bassists with the best chops. Speaking of which, make sure you stick around to the end to hear Jon Myers’s James Jamerson and Jaco Pastorius mashup.

Throughout the podcast you will hear clips from:

stanchions by Weston Olencki

HoneyDripper by Michelle Lou

A Flame that Could Go Out by Scott Worthington

In this episode of the Indexical podcast, Madison Heying, Jon Myers, and Andrew C. Smith talk to Michelle Lou and Scott Worthington of the duo bass2bass. They talk about how bass2bass formed, and how they came up with their name, as well as their similar backgrounds studying jazz and classical bass technique.The conversation gets pretty nerdy as Michelle and Scott debate the ideal bass supergroup and the bassists with the best chops. Speaking of which, make sure you stick around to the end to hear Jon Myers’s James Jamerson and Jaco Pastorius mashup.

Throughout the podcast you will hear clips from:

stanchions by Weston Olencki

HoneyDripper by Michelle Lou

A Flame that Could Go Out by Scott Worthington

In this episode, Jon Myers and Madison Heying talk to composer/flautist Anne La Berge. They discuss the program for her March 10th concert with Indexical and the various characters she assumes in each piece. In their conversation, Anne considers her flexible roles as composer, performer, and improviser. Lastly, they discuss Anne’s evolving relationship with technology: over the last 30 years, Anne has used a range of technologies as both a performer and composer, including synthesizers, HMSL, MAX/MSP, and most recently Kyma. The following pieces will be heard throughout the interview:

David Dramm, Telemachus

Anne LaBerge, Utter

Yannis Kyriakides, oneirocriticon

In this episode, Jon Myers and Madison Heying talk to composer/flautist Anne La Berge. They discuss the program for her March 10th concert with Indexical and the various characters she assumes in each piece. In their conversation, Anne considers her flexible roles as composer, performer, and improviser. Lastly, they discuss Anne’s evolving relationship with technology: over the last 30 years, Anne has used a range of technologies as both a performer and composer, including synthesizers, HMSL, MAX/MSP, and most recently Kyma. The following pieces will be heard throughout the interview:

David Dramm, Telemachus

Anne LaBerge, Utter

Yannis Kyriakides, oneirocriticon

In this episode of the Indexical podcast, Jon Myers, Andrew C. Smith, and Madison Heying talk to composer Jack Callahan who operates under the moniker die Reihe. They discuss his piece Housed, which consists of various arrangements of sampled chords from house music. Jack talks about a composition by Michael Pisaro that he released though his imprint Báhn Mì Verlag. And lastly Jack talks about studying with Jürg Frey and his connection to Wandelweiser. Just like Callahan, the conversation maintains serious undertones even as it strays into the silly or ridiculous. The following pieces will be heard through the interview:

"Housed (Side B)" from Housed by die Reihe, on NNA Tapes (https://nnatapes.bandcamp.com/album/housed)

"Add Red(Grey Series No. 3)" from a split LP with Matthew Sullivan, on Báhn Mì Verlag (http://www.banhmiverlag.com/releases)

"Les tréfonds inexplorés des signes 36-39 and 40-43" by Jurg Frey, performed by The Dream Team. From an Indexical concert curated by Jack Callahan, Jan. 26, 2013, at Willow Place Auditorium (https://www.indexical.org/events/2013-01-26-ii-1-jurg-frey-unhorbare-zeit)