This weekend, our pal Nels Cline -- fresh off a tour with Das Viclo and a mother-of-invention of a performance of the music of Jimmy Giuffre at the Angel City Jazz Festival last week (read Greg Burk's live diary here) -- will play a group improv at MONA and solo set for his bro Alex Cline's Open Gate Theatre Concert Series.
On the latter bill is Nels' frequent collaborator, guitarist Jeremy Drake [pictured above], who himself dabbles in concert curating as a board member of SASSAS (The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound). Drake, along with Cindy Bernard, Danny Gromfin, Joe Potts and Tom Recchion, is behind the vanguard sound. at the Schindler House summer series. Their next event on Saturday, Sept. 20th, proves to be a doozy.
"Exquisite Corpse II", billed as "L.A.’s only surrealist/improvisational concert," is based on the Surrealist technique of Cadavre Exquis, in which words or images (or in this case, sounds) are assmbeled in a group context. Six Los Angeles area improvisers will present a series of overlapping solo performances that will "explore the mystique of accident." According to the press release: "In a musical interpretation of this technique, the musicians will separate into groups of three positioned in the two rooms flanking the main courtyard of the Schindler House. The first musician plays solo for a brief period of time, and is then joined in a duet with a musician in the other room. After approximately five minutes the first musician will drop out, leaving the second musician to perform solo. The process repeats, alternating solo and duet and room to room, until all musicians have performed."
The 2008 concert will be performed by six acclaimed Los Angeles improvisers that includes some names from the extended Crypto Famdamily: Joe Baiza, electric guitar; Dan Clucas, coronet; Alicia Mangan, tenor saxophone; Dwight Trible, voice; Kira Vollman, voice and multiple instruments; Rich West, percussion.
For reviews of the first Exquisite Corpse concert from 2004, go here. Tickets for the Sept. 20 show may be purchased online at www.soundnet.org. Go here for archived recordings from the sound. series.
There are also two CDs available of sound. performances from Gregg Bendian, Carla Bozulich, Alex Cline, Nels Cline, Extended Organ, Vinny Golia, Kraig Grady, Lynn Johnston, Pauline Oliveros, The Polar Goldie Cats, Rod Poole, Joe Potts, Rick Potts, Devin Sarno, Solid Eye, Mike Watt, Rich West and more.
