Signifying Something with Safie Flato

Today’s episode is all about identity and understanding yourself through your own creations. Sarah Hennies joins us and premiers the piece “Pressure”, which is created entirely from one piece of percussion: the hi-hat. By varying the pressure of the foot pedal on the hi-hat, Sarah changes the quality of the sound and the various tones that are emitted. Different speeds on the metronome are set and multi-tracked, and the results are presented as they were recorded. The result is a cascade of overlapping percussion sounds that can be felt physically in the body.

Sarah discusses how a piece like “Pressure”, which is one of the first recorded examples of her composed music, gave her clues about herself. At one time, it seemed like a good idea to use this approach in her music. She came back to the idea of music that can be “felt” later in life, and realized she touched on it with “Pressure” at a previous time. Looking back with renewed clarity, Sarah was able to gain insights about herself at that time in her life and use this to create a more refined work. At another point, Sarah decided that physically demanding, labor intensive performances were going to be her focus. What does that say about her? There was a reason she came up her ideas at a specific time in her life. Sarah saw inadvertent signs in her music, and now she uses these signs and layers of meaning purposefully as tools in her compositional process. 

 

Intro & background music by Steve Flato

Featured music "Pressure" by Sarah Hennies

David Kirby is a software programmer by trade and a musician primarily working in the medium of cassette tapes, making rhythmic tape collages that surprise and confuse. He describes his work as “an open air experiment exploring psychophysical defecation in virtual spaces.” Using handheld recorders, he manipulates and molds his sounds by physically interacting with the cassette players by varying the pressure on the buttons as well as other mysterious techniques. He does not employ effects but rather lets the tapes and his interaction with them speak for itself. His cassettes come from wherever he can find them, and no sound is out of the question. Often unexpected, incredibly rhythmic and playful, and sometimes completely confounding, David’s tape works are represented by the piece showcased today, “Mixdown".

He and Steve Flato have known each other for quite some time, crossing paths via various internet platforms like Soulseek and web forums over ten years ago. Their conversation is as playful and unexpected as David’s music, covering a wide range of topics such as David’s experience living with a medicine woman in the mountains of South Carolina; his net label Homophoni; psychedelic drugs and experimental music; dimensional listening; the connection between improvised music and failure; his current avoidance of four-track tape machines and preference for simple handheld recorders; the falling availability and rising cost of cassettes; what the format of cassette tapes offer as a unique experience separate from vinyl or digital; the distinction between using tapes as instruments vs. as an end-product for the listener; David’s thoughts on recordings of improvised music and the loss of data involved; the loss of physical media as digital distribution becomes more widely adopted; the connection between electroacoustic improvisation and jazz; and booty shorts.

 

Intro & background music by Steve Flato

Featured music "Mixdown" by David Kirby

Matthew Revert is a writer, musician and designer from Melbourne, Australia. His music has been released by labels such as Kye, Erstwhile Records, No Rent Tapes and caduc records. Today he joins us on Signifying Something and presents an outtake from an upcoming LP, entitled “borntwo”.

Fear, risk, and expressivity are the themes that Matthew and Steve Flato discuss on today's episode. Topics include why Matthew feels it’s important to be out of his comfort zone while engaging in the creative process; why he wouldn’t describe his music as “experimental” — or describe his music as anything but “songs”; music as a therapeutic process; how Matthew approaches words in his music vs. words in his novels; not being embarrassed by using “hackneyed” tools (like drenching your voice in reverb) in his creations; how he recorded an entire record while suffering from the flu; and the importance of empathy in film scoring and how Revert approached his first project for the screen; and why labeling your art before you make it can be paralyzing.

 

Intro and background music by Steve Flato

Featured music "borntwo" by Matthew Revert

On this initial episode of Signifying Something, Steve Flato and Bertucci play and discuss her composition Oracle (Quartet Version). From there, the conversation goes onto explore Lea’s process in making a composition for voice— an instrument she has not studied— and how she demos and listens to these scores without being a vocalist herself; beating patterns in notes, microtonality, and just intonation; her focus on the spatial aspects of the room where her works are performed; Schoenberg and “New Music”; systematic composition and rule-based work; the pieces made at her Issue Project Room residency— Cepheid and Cepheid Variations— and their exploration of resonance; extended instrumental techniques; Lea’s multichannel piece, Double Bass Crossfade (which appears on her new NNA release All That Is Solid Melts Into Air); her approach to her tape music and her view of digital processing in that context; Lea’s ongoing concert series Dense Mesh; and how to know when you’ve finally finished a composition.

Links:

Artist Statement Generator: www.500letters.org/form_15.php

Lea Bertucci's website: http://lea-bertucci.com/

On today's episode, Steve Flato speaks with Matt Weston. Steve and Matt discuss Matt's musical upbringing; his time studying with Milford Graves and Bill Dixon at Bennington College; his time in Chicago in the mid 90's; and Matt's trajectory over the course of his career. 

Weston plays percussion and electronics, and has performed throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. He has appeared on CNN, VH1, and CBS TV. He has studied and/or collaborated with Arthur Brooks, Bill Callahan/Smog, Bill Dixon, Kevin Drumm, Paul Flaherty, Charles Gayle, Milford Graves, Mary Halvorson, Le Quan Ninh, Bob Marsh, Ben Miller (ex-Destroy All Monsters), Roger Miller (Mission of Burma), Jim O’Rourke, Jeff Parker, Jack Wright, and many others.

His work has earned critical praise from such publications as the Wire, the Village Voice, Signal To Noise, Cadence, All About Jazz, Grooves, and Bananafish. His solo works have garnered international acclaim, as have his recordings with Barn Owl, Tizzy, and Thrillpillow. He has recorded for the Tautology, Sachimay, Breaking World Records, Imvated, Crank Satori, BoxMedia, and Drag City labels. He currently records for his own 7272Music label. In addition to his solo work, Weston is currently a member of the Arthur Brooks Ensemble V; and Arc Pair with drummer Amanda Kraus.

Visit signifyingsomething.bandcamp.com to donate to the show and get a lossless download of Matt Weston's "Fear of Insomnia".

On today's episode, Steve Flato talks with Christina Carter (Charalambides). During a terrible period of loss from 2008 to 2014, Christina created some of her best solo music. Much of it is unheard to a large audience as they were released in very small editions on CD-R and never released digitally. Steve and Christina discuss her solo discography as well as her early childhood influences; the art school system; her improvisational approach to songwriting; the artist/listener relationship; a transformative live experience with Joe McPhee; the importance of participation in the artistic process; the difficulty of singing other peoples songs; the live experience and the life energy of live music, and why Christina didn't want to play live at first. Check out signifyingsomething.bandcamp.com for a free/pay-what-you-want download of the episode as well as "Poetry" from Christina's Texas Modern Exorcism album. 

 

Intro / bed music - Steve Flato34:25 "Centerpiece" - from Masque Femine by Christina Carter53:50 - "Poetry" - from Texas Modern Exorcism by Christina Carter1:05:30 - "Letter L" - from Imaginee by Christina Carter1:09:13 - "Ascend Mem" - from Imaginational Anthem Vol 2 by Christina Carter1:32:25 - "Ice" - from upcoming a capella record by Christina Carter1:35:40 - "Lady Friend" - from Texas Blues Working by Christina CarterEnd / bed music - Steve Flato

On today's episode of Signifying Something, Steve Flato talks to Johnathan Cash (aka Sunk Cost). Johnathan formerly played under the alias Breakdancing Ronald Reagan. Since moving to Hollywood, Johnathan has been recording under the alias Sunk Cost; a love letter to Japanese and American harsh noise and experimental electronics. Eschewing the noise/comedy parody of Breakdancing Ronald Reagan, and his youth, he and Steve explore Johnny's recent changes, his shows in the Austin and Denver noise scenes, and other topics surrounding his past & future. 

"Sometimes you get so deep into parody that you lose the original intention of what you were even focusing on. It's like, I was making fun of noise so much that I was like, damn, I do like noise, though... Noise is fun... it doesn't have to be funny, but it is fun to hear. It's a cool, fun sound." - Johnathan Cash

 

Intro Music: Steve Flato

"Falling Rock Zone" by Sunk Cost is featured after the intro. 

"Metal Slug" - featured track

"Breakdancing Ronald Reagan - Small Pile of Sausages on an Isolated White Background" - outro music

On today's show, Steve Flato speaks with Seth Graham. Seth Graham is a Ohio based visual artist, composer and co-owner of Orange Milk Records with an academic background in Philosophy. He focuses on compositions which highlight tropes across a broad range of musical genres using midi data, Max MSP and samples. His intention is to manifest intersections of classical avant garde and modern popular music with compositions ranging from playful sample arrangements to dense digital synthesis. Seth Graham’s work has been published by music imprints Orange Milk, Noumenal Loom, We Time Audio. He was commissioned by the Russian Ensemble Kymatic to write 4 pieces in tribute to Philip Glass that was performed during 2017 at the Museum of Media and Arts in Moscow. He has been written about in Rolling Stone, NPR, Tiny Mix Tapes, Impose, FACT, and other publications.

We discuss Seth's discography, particularly the new record with Mari from More Eaze, "The Heart Pumps Kool-Aid" under the alias ---__--___. We also get into Seth's ultra-conservative parents and his upbringing in Japan as an English-speaking boy from Ohio; intuition in the creative process; the importance of an artistic space and managing home life with time for art and music; composition and the process behind "Gasp" and "No.00 in clean life" (Seth's previous solo albums). 

Music video link for "When you're hot around the narcs" by ---__--___:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmZJgwS7oVQ

Intro Music: Steve Flato"Julius Eastman - NY metro xylophone player (feat meteronori)" is featured after the intro. "From The Valley" - featured track"When you're hot around the narcs" - featured before outroOutro music: Steve Flato

Steve Flato sits down with artist and musician Jen Kutler to discuss her piece “In Loving Memory of Being Touched”. Jen Kutler is a multidisciplinary artist that often works with queerness, femininity, and intimacy. Her performances feature many of her instruments incorporated with immersive field recordings to explore common and discrepant experiences of familiar social tones in immersive sound and media environments.

 

Using discarded hospital equipment, Jen created this piece at the beginning of quarantine out of a yearning for one of the most basic human needs— touch. The listener hooks electrodes to their body (similar to a TENS pain relief device) and gentle shocks “touch” the listener in time to music played via WebMIDI on a website. The whole thing is housed in a clear cube filled with circuits and LED’s that connects to your computer via USB, and features a beautiful illustration of hands, reaching out to something, printed on one of the circuit boards. 

 

Steve and Jen discuss the process of creating and the context for "In Loving Memory of Being Touched" as well as an upcoming record (out Feb 12) that uses empathy as a device to generate sound. Previous projects have sonified the female orgasm, used vibrators as instruments, all in an attempt to re-contextualize and transform the common themes found in her work. 

 

If you want to support Signifying Something, you can directly donate to [email protected] via Paypal, search for us on Patreon, or buy the episode on Bandcamp. Great chat with Jen! Here's to many more of these in 2021!

On the show today, I’m joined by Keith Rowe, who was a founding member of AMM, a free improvisation group from the mid-1960s. With him is Jon Abbey of Erstwhile Records, who over the last 20 years has seen his label closely intertwined with Keith’s work. Since the late 1990s, Erstwhile Records has been releasing some of the most exciting and challenging recordings within this area of music, many of them involving Keith. Keith Rowe is a musician and visual artist, perhaps best known for popularizing the “prepared guitar” — that is, an electric guitar, laid flat on a table and played with various objects- motors, springs, toothbrushes, you name it. Keith is also well known for his use of the radio as a musical instrument. This interview was recorded in October 2018 while Keith was in New York performing what was likely his last American show following a diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. Keith was kind enough to give us an unreleased piece to accompany this podcast called “A Response to Treatise”. It’s available for a free lossless download at our Bandcamp with accompanying notes and annotated pages of Treatise. credits for A Response to Treatise (2002): recorded Feb 8, 2002 in Austin by Tom Carter mastered by Toshimaru Nakamura thanks to Rick Reed, Richard Pinnell & P.G. Moreno/Epistrophy Arts dedicated to Sherrie Lynn Streeter (1959-2010) (Please see the .pdf included with the Bandcamp download for further notes by Keith - https://signifyingsomething.bandcamp.com/album/episode-008-keith-rowe-jon-abbey)