Super-Cooled Voltage-Controlled Liquids
Saturday, May 11 – 8 pm
Satori
3003 Locust
Admission: $15 / $10 students, artists

The new multi-discipline production, Super-Cooled Voltage-Controlled Liquids, refers to the original inspiration for the piece – the use of stained glass windows in innovative ways to filter video projection.  This new production represents a collaboration between many veteran St. Louis artists, including Van McElwee and R D Zurick (video), Tom Brady (performance), Lea Koesterer (stained glass artist), and musicians Rich O’Donnell, Doc Mabuse, and Kevin Harris on electronic synthesizers.

Light and shadow dance through stained glass, beckoning audience members to hidden places.  A symphony of synthesized sounds orchestrates the movement of figures.  R D Zurick and Van McElwee’s video works (Butterfly and PANsIam – Zurick; Transfinite Loops – McElwee) create this fantasy world using a technique created in conjunction with Rich O’Donnell and Lea Koesterer.  Koesterer is a St. Louis stained glass and mosaic artist who serves ‘as the interface between the viewer and nature,’ hoping to transform other with her work.  By using Koesterer’s stained glass and translucent scrims, certain light frequencies are filtered in a way that creates the illusion of 3-dimensional imagery.  Combined with the use of reflection and shadow, the movement of light creates complex dimensions and depths of perception.

In addition to the video works, performance artist Tom Brady will weave movement with light and self-created art-objects to add a live visual element to the evening.  Along with the video pieces, Brady’s work is accompanied musically by digital synthesists Rich O’Donnell, Doc Mabuse, and Kevin Harris.

“You call that MUSIC?” Series

HEARding Cats invites you to an evening of music, food, and discussion featuring…

Symprov Super Trio

What defines “new” in new music?  Why is it that some new music sounds unpleasant, cacophonous, and like disordered ‘noise?’  What are modern composers and performers thinking!?  In this participatory event (that means YOU), we’ll explore all of these questions, and many more – with your input – on this special evening.

In addition to your interaction, Rich O’Donnell will perform a retrospective of his work MIKROTIMBRE I – a solo tam-tam piece.  This is followed by a performance of Symprov Super Trio, a group featuring three virtuoso musicians who combine free improv and machine interaction with live performance.  As alums of the SLSO, the trio highlights Timothy Myers’trombone timbral explorations, Asako Kuboki’s aggressive yet precise violin, and Rich O’Donnell’s percussive magic along with electronic

manipulation on the KYMA.  The performance allows each member solo sections, but also musical combinations with each other and in response to synthesizer-

generated sections.  The acclaimed ensemble debuted in February 2012 to a sold-out audience at Satori.

Hors d’oeuvres and drinks to follow, along with much discussion!  We hope you can join us!

The Four Cats

Missing Link
Saturday, Feb. 9, 2013 – 8 pm
Fort Gondo
3151 Cherokee
Free and open to the public

HEARding Cats Collective is excited to present a new poetry collaboration entitled Missing Link.  The event features several of St. Louis’ most active masters of the spoken word, including K. Curtis Lyle, Anna Lum, Brett Underwood, Stef Russell, and Treasure Shields Redmond.  The evening will feature new poetry works from each artist in solo and duo combinations along with musical accompaniment by Doc Mabuse and Zimbabwe Nkenya. 

K. Curtis Lyle performs regularly in St. Louis as a solo artist and with various musical ensembles.  He has performed in North America’s major intellectual and cultural centers over the last 50 years, and as a founding member of the Watts Writers Workshop in Los Angeles in 1966, was an important part of the renaissance the group incited.  Lyle’s powerful delivery and crafting of language creates suspenseful tension of anticipation, while calming listeners gently in the next sentence.  His controlled oration roars across the stage, unsettling one’s gastric juices, yet a moment later, diminishes to a whisper with the careful articulation of a veteran artist.

Anna Lum began performing and publishing poetry in the 1970s in River Styx and Webster Review.  She has collaborated with numerous musicians and dancers over the years in live performance.  Her poetry combines personal experience with social commentary, and a keen eye for observing life’s “small things.”  In addition to her gifts as a performer, Lum has served selflessly on numerous arts boards in and around St. Louis over the years, including RAC’s advisory panel, MAC’s review panel, The Forum for Contemporary Arts, and many others.

Brett Lars Underwood is a bartender and a gadabout who writes, promotes and produces happenings and mishaps.  He’s quicker with the stink eye than verbal reprimands and favors the brushback pitch over preemptive warfare. Once upon a time, he co-published a ‘zine entitled Lick My Squaggle Noose, Clam Tick.  He penned Zen koans for The RFT and St. Louis Magazine, as well as many journals of suburbia.  His verse and riddles have been published by THE BICYCLE REVIEW, 52^nd City and BAD SHOE and included in FLOOD STAGE: An Anthology of Saint Louis Poets and can also be found in his chapbook SUNLIT INSULT.

Stefene Russell is St. Louis Magazine’s Culture Editor, and is a member of Poetry Scores, an arts collective that translates poetry into other media. In 2007, Poetry Scores translated her poem Go South For Animal Index into music. The poem, with essays by Russell and Poetry Scores artistic director Chris King, was released as a letterpress book with a CD of the score, printed by Firecracker Press. Russell is also a former co-editor of 52nd City and Prinsesstarta literary magazines, and was featured as part of River Styx’s Hungry Young Poets Series, the Observable Poetry Series (including 2005’s “Three Stephanies,” reading), the Archive Reading Series, and the Pulitzer’s Sound Waves series.  Her work has appeared in Pif, Gadfly, The Lumberyard, Bad Shoe, and Otis Nebula.

A Mississippi native, Treasure Shields Redmond is a St. Louis-based poet, performer and educator. She has published poetry in such notable anthologies as Bum Rush the Page: A Def Poetry Jam, Breaking Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cane Canem’s First Decade and in journals that include The Sou’wester and The African American Review.  She has received a fellowship to the FineArts Works Center, and her poem, “around the time of medgar” was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Treasure is a Cave Canem fellow and has received an MFA from the University of Memphis. Presently, she divides her time between being an assistant professor of English at Southwestern Illinois College and doctoral studies at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

HEARding Cats Collective will present a strange and wonderful interactive soundscape of “small sounds” entitled Inside/Outside.  Inside/Outside allows each individual audience member to choose the order of their experience.  Multiple audio stations with special interactive instruments created by four St. Louis artists (Rich O’Donnell, Kevin Harris, Doc Mabuse, and Bryan Erdmann) for this event will be set up inside Kerr Foundation.  Because the listener chooses their path – and how to interact with the instruments – each individual’s experience will be unique to them.

Rich O’Donnell’s career as a professional musician spans a half century.  In addition to his virtuosity as a percussionist, O’Donnell is a prolific composer, innovator and inventor of percussion and electronic instruments, a teacher, and a writer.  He’s been creating acoustic and electronic instruments for more than 50 years to create sounds and experiences that are unavailable using commercially available equipment.  For this concert, O’Donnell will make use of several new concepts including “formant tubes,” “skull phones,” and inverted timpani bowls.

Kevin Harris is a longtime advocate and performer of synthesized music.  His career as a working artist has taken him on tours of the U.S. and Europe over the last two decades.  Harris is an accomplished synthesist using multiple formats ranging from self invented instruments to old analog units, and even computers for digital music creation.  Harris cites “ice cream,” and “the inferiority of squares to circles,” as “food or ideas, which may be important to the music being presented.”  Yet he also considers “the disadvantages of rational thought,” and “interpersonal information selection and distribution (the process by which humans distribute information about their thoughts, ideas, and experiences to other humans,” as keys to his artistic process.  With such dichotomous influences, Harris is at once complex, sophisticated, and highly creative.

Doc Mabuse developed his chops at North Texas University’s esteemed jazz program in the 1970s.  While he primarily studied bass at that time, he developed a passion for analog synthesizers along the way, and has applied his skills as an engineer and computer programmer to the creation of unique electronic instruments for the last three decades.  He regularly performs around St. Louis, and shares his knowledge with willing converts at annual synthesizer building workshops here in town.

Bryan Edrmann has been an audio engineer and sound designer for nearly 40 years.  He cut his teeth as a live engineer for the now legendary Mississippi River Fest in the 1970s.  Erdmann’s design and installation work include systems at The Fox Theatre (St. Louis and Atlanta), Powell Hall, Sheldon Concert Hall, and more recently, Plush.  He’s worked with major performers from Keith Richards and Chuck Berry to Leonard Slatkin and David Byrne.  He was the house audio engineer for the famed film Hail, Hail Rock n.’ Roll. For Inside/Outside, Erdmann uses his lifetime of experience in audio engineering and design to create exciting and surprising interactive sound stations.

For more info, visit www.heardingcatscollective.org.

S.A.N.E (Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble)
Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012 - 8 pm
S. Carmody Gallery
2707 Sutton
Admission: $10 / $5 students, artists
*this is a limited engagement with seating for 25 - 
please RSVP to drmabuce@gmail.com for reservations 
**S.A.N.E. thinks small is beautiful - this is a "tiny" concert 
in which they'll play at a very low volume

We’re issuing an APB for four strange looking musicians who have escaped from the State Infirmary for Improvising Musicians.  The ensemble, while harmless, operates under the moniker of S.A.N.E. and is purported to be heading toward Maplewood…

(Semi-Acoustic Noise Ensemble), as its name suggests, is an ensemble that blends electro-acoustic instrumentation with improvisation.  Though their ideas and aesthetic may be described by

some as bordering on the insane, there’s no doubt about the musical pedigree and quality of the musicians.  St. Louis analog synth guru, Doc Mabuse leads the ensemble, which also features longtime collaborators tory z starbuck, Venus Slick, and Bruce MacLaughlin.

Doc Mabuse developed his chops at North Texas University’s esteemed jazz program in the 1970s.  While he primarily studied bass at that time, he developed a passion for analog synthesizers along the way, and has applied his skills as an engineer and computer programmer to the creation of unique electronic instruments for the last three decades.  He regularly performs around St. Louis, and shares his knowledge with willing converts at annual synthesizer building workshops here in town.  Fellow collaborators tory z starbuck and Venus Slick – both multi-instrumentalists have appeared alongside Mabuse in various iterations over the last 20 years, adding stimulating musical and visual variety to S.A.N.E. performances.  Bruce McLaughlin rounds out the ensemble on percussion, providing spontaneous fits of punctuated effects.

(sliding scale in effect!)

‘Tis the season to watch a local band with aerialists flying in the air, Mexican folklorico dancers twirling, an orchestra kicking up the thrilling moments, live-video animations triggering a compelling story, and a 40-person holiday choir singing along with their contagious dance moves.

Only in St. Louis.

St. Louis artists, musicians, and aerialists have joined forces to recreate the holiday myth as a united multi-media show, “May These Changes Make Us Light.”

Led by LOVE-O-RAMA Records, the HEARding Cats Collective and the Community Arts and Movement Project (CAMP), more than 20 artists will layer their talents to tell a collaborative tale.It’s a story about time-deaf twin sisters who journey through human memories to understand the concept of time. Their love and gratitude for each other triggers a shift in time’s increasing acceleration. The shift may be just what the new world needs to survive – for now.

For more info, visit http://uslight.wordpress.com

HEARding Cats Gelatinous Orchestra
Saturday, Nov. 17, 12 - 8 pm
William A. Kerr Foundation
21 O'Fallon
Admission: $10 / $7 students, artists

NEWSFLASH!  A semi-identifiable group of St. Louis improvisors are said to be congealing just north of Laclede’s Landing on a Saturday in November.  All reports indicate this gathering to be peaceful, yet, note a cacophony of strange and wonderful sounds emerging from the ether at the Kerr Foundation.  Be advised – your brain may liquify, spilling out nose, ears, and mouth as you succumb to the phenomenon that is…HEARding Cats’ Gelatinous Orchestra.  

The HEARding Cats G.O. is an “occasional ensemble” whose improvising members gel, rather than jam around a set of loose musical ideas.  The group sometimes coagulates, other times separates.  Each member has a different musical viscosity – the way they and their instrumentation flow throughout the soundscape – yet common threads run between members: no grooves; no repetition; say only what is important.

Many veteran St. Louis improvisers comprise the G.O. including the interplanetary percussion being, Rich O’Donnell, who has spent the summer in his deep space laboratory dreaming up new techniques.  O’Donnell is joined by longtime collaborators Doc Mabuse (analog synthesizers) and Venus Slick (synthesizers, theremin) – who are better known as members of the tory starbuck project.  Multi-instrumentalist Deb Summers (yang-qin), woodwind player Dave Cheli, and St. Louis synth-junkie Kevin Harris round out the ensemble with fresh blood and ideas – keeping in the spirit of the G.O. as an organic group with a rotating cast of talented musicians.

HEARding Cats Collective is proud to announce the shooting of a new video work entitled, Original Self, created by St. Louis filmmaker Van McElwee.  The video shoot begins at 9:30 am, and will feature a circular parade of performers (dancers, musicians, performance artists, and costumed troublemakers) filmed simultaneously from seven different video cameras.  The event is free and open to the public – who may be included as part of the video shoot as well!

St. Louis Filmmaker Van McElwee is currently a professor at Webster University’s School of Communications.  His work has been shown internationally for three decades and throughout multiple continents.  He recently was named a Guggenheim Fellow, and has received The American Film Institute Independent Filmmaker Award, as well as 7 fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.   McElwee will serve as artistic director for Original Self, directing performers to flow around the cameras to the cadence of percussionist Rich O’Donnell’s instruments.  The footage from the 7 video cameras will become precious raw material for a new film edited by McElwee and premiered during HEARding Cats Collective’s 2013-2014 season.

HEARding Cats Collective is thrilled to kick off our 2012-13 season with a rare St. Louis appearance of The Rileys – featuring legendary American contemporary composer/pianist/vocalist Terry Riley in a duo concert with his son, guitarist Gyan Riley!  The Rileys’ concert is co-presented in

conjunction with the Sheldon.  Tickets go on sale August 11, range from $15 – $30 and can be purchased online via Metrotix or at 314-534-11.  We’re letting you know now, folks – so you can get your tickets – and don’t have to tell you later, “You should have been there.”

Terry Riley’s impact on music over the last 50 years has influenced artists ranging from classical composer Philip Glass to the rock group The Who.  The London Sunday Times listed Riley as “one of the 1000 makers of the 20th Century.”  His breakthrough work, IN C, premiered in 1964 and helped launch Minimalism in contemporary music by exploring new musical forms based on interlocking repetitive patterns.  Riley also developed an interest in north Indian music especially – which influenced his explorations in tonality and improvisation.  Over the years, his commissions and collaborations have been numerous, including world premiers at Carnegie Hall.  Riley has had longstanding relationships with La Monte Young, North Indian

Raga vocalist Pandit Pran Nath, and David Harrington (Kronos Quartet – for whom Riley has written numerous works), among many others.

Guitarist Gyan Riley was the first full-scholarship graduate guitar student at the San Francisco Conservatory. He then spent 15 years touring as a classical guitar soloist and in various ensembles, including performances with Zakir Hussain, Michael Manring, and the San Francisco Symphony.  Riley has completed various compositional projects, including those commissioned by the Carnegie Hall Corporation, the American Composers Forum, and the New York Guitar Festival. As a teacher, Riley has served on the faculties of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, California State University Sacramento, California State University East Bay, and Humboldt State University.  Recent performance highlights include Carnegie Hall, London’s Barbican Theatre, the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival, the Big Ears Festival, Moogfest, and soloing with the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra at The Kimmel Center.  Over the years, Riley has performed throughout Europe, Canada, Latin America and the US, both as a soloist and in various ensembles.  Riley’s diverse work now focuses on his own compositions, improvisation, and contemporary classical repertoire.

For more info, please visit www.thesheldon.org, terryriley.net/enter.htm, or gyanriley.com.