Music Features

Decisions, decisions

Excited strings, Swiss sound art and utter mayhem

By SUSANNA BOLLE | September 10, 2008

Zimoun

Sometimes even when your cup runneth over, life still isn’t fair. Such is the case this Tuesday, September 16, when two excellent experimental-music shows collide. Here are your options in alphabetical order (as it happens, from A to Z). The illustrious minimalist ARNOLD DREYBLATT — student of La Monte Young, Alvin Lucier, and Pauline Oliveros — will perform with his Orchestra of Excited Strings at the Middle East upstairs. With his ringing overtones and intense, chugging rhythms, Dreyblatt’s take on minimalism is ecstatic and almost primally affecting at high volume.

But that same night, two young Swiss sound artists, ZIMOUN and PE LANG of the Leerraum label, will make their Boston debut at the Piano Craft Guild. Using vibrating motors, glass plates, and a variety of small objects, they’ll create atmospheric, architectural soundscapes. The two will perform both solo and duo sets (on a multi-channel system with visuals for extrasensory mesmerization), as well as a trio with local musician and Leerraum labelmate ASHER THAL-NIR.

Some nights, on the other hand, your choices are clear-cut. This Friday, September 12, if it’s sonic mayhem you’re after, look no farther than the NEW MONUMENTS show in downtown Boston. The New Monuments are a bona fide noise supergroup featuring C. Spencer Yeh of Burning Star Core, Ben Hall of Graveyards, and Don Dietrich of Borbetomagus. Also on the bill are local firebrands HEATHEN SHAME, cassette manipulator HOWARD STELZER, and the formidable duo of sound artist/reel-to-reel maestro JASON LESCALLEET and saxophonist BHOB RAINEY. This concert is under the radar, so for additional details, including the all-important location, e-mail gregelkgel@yahoo.com, or click here.

Related: Solid gold, Boston music news: April 25, 2008, The Boston Horns, More

Topics: Music Features , Entertainment, Music, Concerts and Tour Dates, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY SUSANNA BOLLE

ASSAULT AND BATTERIES | February 20, 2009
After a brief stint in Pittsburgh, guitarist and electronic musician GEOFF MULLEN is back in his native Rhode Island, and the New England music scene is so much the better for it.

SO MUCH IN STORE | February 10, 2009
Australia's the NECKS are the sort of band who thwart classification.

A COMPROVISATIONAL WHAT? | February 02, 2009
Local saxophonist and electronic-musician JORRIT DIJKSTRA combines a variety of styles ranging from jazz to electro-acoustic improv and noise to create his own emotive and often idiosyncratic music.

WINTRY MIX | January 26, 2009
There are so many interesting and unusual musical happenings this week, it's almost more than this little column can bear.

RARE FREQUENCIES: CALLITHUMPIAN CONSORT, THURSTON MOORE AND BILL NACE | January 20, 2009
Although composer JOHN CAGE is best known for 4'33" of silence, he could raise a ruckus when the mood struck.