New York City’s Ace Hotel invited my friend and collaborator Pat Noecker, a.k.a. RAFT to host an ASSEMBLE event in their lobby this fall. The result was a performance of RAFT’s ensemble piece, “Transmissions, Long Tones in A and E” performed on Saturday, October 19 at 8 p.m. in the hotel’s lobby, for free to the public. The all-star ensemble brought together for the evening included Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Sabisha Friedberg, Dana Schechter, Greg Fox (Guardian Alien/Z’s), J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus), Camilla Padgitt-Coles, Melissa Moore, Rachel Mason, Daniel Schlett and Pat Spadine (Ash Can Orchestra) and yours truly on video projections.
J.G. Thirlwell describes the Assemble experience thusly: RAFT gathers performers from NYC underground + experimental music scenes, scatters them around a room, and sets them loose — creating a personalized, fully immersive music experience that alters depending where you’re standing. The performance in its simplest form is 11 musicians working to sustain the notes of A and E.
This was one of my favorite performances of all time, and I feel incredibly honored to have been a part of it.
Above: video of ASSEMBLE XI, “TRANSMISSIONS in A and E” by Torsten Meyer
“Rebecca Gaffney’s Spun O Lith installation at Fitness Gallery, during which the split’s recording was taken. The video itself, mixed by Matthew Caron and Peter Shapiro, is full of eplileptic-averse flashing and uncanny valley-oblitering facial distortion. Guess it’s that time again to freak out the squares.” – Mike Sugarman, Ad Hoc
Music: Long Distance Poison
Video: Matthew Caron and Rebecca Gaffney
Available as part of the Fin Records LP/DVD release Gliese Translations by Long Distance Poison
Buy Gliese Translations from Fin Records http://finrecords.com/store/gliese
Matthew Caron and Rebecca Gaffney’s collaborative video A Passage Above is a direct investigation into the inner workings of contemporary and antiquated technology. “A Passage Above” employs projection, lights, mirrors, and cameras to craft a feedback chasm representing a journey into the innerspace of the camcorder, the VCR, and the Edirol V-4 video mixer.
A Passage Above first appeared in the real world as part of Manifest Destiny at Outlet Fine Art on April 19, 2013. It premiered on the internet at Decoder Magazine on June 11, 2013.
I curated and performed live visuals for the 10th installment of the ongoing sound and performance series ASSEMBLE, founded by Pat Noecker of RAFT. Projections and video installations were stationed throughout the massive Knockdown Center space by myself, Peter Shapiro, Eric Drasin, Reid Bingham, Sofy Yuditskaya and Matt Romain of Fast Food Music Video.
The musical performance featured Pat Noecker of RAFT leading 16 superb performers in long sustained notes of A and E. The list of performers is as follows:
Alexandra Drewchin JR., Bonnie Baxter, James Corrigan, Jeanann Dara, David First, Kate Henderson, Laura Ortman, Michael Durek, Camilla Ha, Daniel Schlett, Sto Len, Ted McGrath, Jason Poranski, Sadaf H. and Adam Holquist.
Also featured were special performances by Ash Can Orchestra with contortionist The Amazing Amy, and Onewayness from Erie, PA.
Shattered Shards– the freeform, visual collab curated by wayfaring Brooklyn souls Matthew Caron and Rebecca Gaffney– is less of a directorial excursion than a freeform video jam session. No more clearly is this seen in their spastic, claustrophobic visuals for Brooklyn’s PVRE MATRIX (a.k.a. Daniel Moore). Taken from a set at La Sala, the video is built upon on a frenetic display of glitched video feedback, whip pans around the venue, and mirrored, kaleidoscopic original footage that’s all attack and no release, a sound match for PM’s tightly coiled, tension-riddled version of industrial music. – AD HOC
Long Distance Poison performed Signals To A Habitable Zone on October 12th and 13th, 2012 at The Autumn Bowl as part of Whispers: A Sound + Art Series. It was our first performance as a group in conjunction with an arts festival. Whispers: A Sound + Art Series presented a weekend of sound-based and sound-inspired art performance, establishing The Autumn Bowl as a new site for innovative musical and visual experiences. Presented by Nuit Blanche NY, The Autumn Bowl lasted through the month of October and featured artists working with light, sound, and projection and offer a range of events in conjunction with co-presenting cultural organizations within a 360-degree video projection and sound environment.
I collaborated with my friend Eric Drasin on video design and VJ duties for the Four Stories Launch Party at the W New York Downtown on August 9th, 2012
The scene on the red carpet of W New York – Downtown was electric Thursday night as Roman Coppola, The Directors Bureau, W Hotels, and Intel kicked off Four Stories, a short film series and competition. The party inside the hotel was even livelier than the scene on the street. DJ sets by Michaelangelo L’Acqua, W Hotels global music director, Theophilus London and DJ EIKO from Tokyo rocked the crowd. Michael Pitt and James Ransone — who are members of the competition’s judging panel — joined about 200 cinema-loving revelers to celebrate the opening of Four Stories. Roman even delivered a toast to the spirit of creativity, innovation, and collaboration.
W New York Downtown’s living room was decked out with large-scale movie posters, cinematic projections and an interactive display. Intel-inspired Ultrabooks™ powered cutting edge animated GIF booths that virtually transported guests to four iconic W Hotels destinations across the globe. Roman and his production company, The Directors Bureau, will produce four short films at W Hotels in Doha, Mexico City, The Maldives, and Washington DC.
Read more about the Four Stories Launch Party at Intel
Shattered Shards (Matthew Caron and Rebecca Gaffney) performed live visuals at La Sala on March 17th 2012 for a show organized by Avant Ghetto NYC, featuring Wretched Worst, Form A Log, Opponents and High School Confidential (Mr. Matthews of Telecult Powers).