Thanks to everyone who joined us for the Pre-MMiX Party at Theaterlab last night! Brilliant vibes, wonderful people, cool new music…and mojitos!
More photos after the tag…but we’ll have video from this event soon!
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It’s another hot, steamy Monday evening in the city. You’ve been plug-in away all day and your circuits are fried. Well, we know one place where you can cool your compressors and chill out to some great new music…
It’s “The Pre-MMiX” at Theaterlab, a benefit party for The MMiX Festival of Interactive Music Technology, happening on August 24th, 2009 at 6:30pm. The Pre-MMiX Party will offer a sampling of the kind of vibrant works we’ll feature this October 8-11 at MMiX, and will also serve as a fundraiser for the festival.
If you can not make it, and would still like to contribute, you can also make a tax deductible donation HERE.
At the Pre-MMiX, we’ll present special performances by Kathleen Supove (The Exploding Piano), Patrick Grant (sTRANGEmUSIC) and LB (aka Pound): a new duo made up of DJ Scientific (Elan Vytal) & 6-string electronic violinist String Theory (Matt Szemela).
Kathy Supove is well-known for displaying her virtuosic and theatrical keyboard skills in her Exploding Piano series, and she’s curator of the Music With a View concerts at The Flea Theater.
Kathleen Supove
We talked to her earlier this summer about her work with interactive electronics in this bit of audio:
Elan Vytal, the boundary-breaking DJ who cut his teeth in the clubs and went on to scratch it up in opera houses and museums, has also appeared on this blog with 6 string violinist, Matt Szemela. He sent along this video which features a cut off Elan and Matt’s forthcoming album as the group, LB (Pound).
Patrick Grant, a composer of multiple disciplines, from string quartets and club music, to hip-hop marching bands and not-so-subliminal advertising, creates scores and soundscapes for film, theater and media, is curator of the MMiX Festival in October, and will talk a little bit about the mission, the artists and the technology behind MMiX, and will school ya on some of his “sTRANGE mUSIC” at the Pre-MMiX party.
Patrick Grant
So next Monday evening, August 24th, come on up and escape the summer distortion at the Pre-MMix Benefit Party. The event starts at 6:30pm at Theaterlab’s studios and a wine reception follows the performances. Theaterlab is located at 137 West 14th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenue, and near the F and L train, as well as Union Square. The suggested minimum donation at the door will be $10.
See you there!
– JOCELYN
The sun beats down on a Brooklyn street and the neighbors are outside chatting or watering the plants. But inside DJ Scientific‘s secret lair, the beats are flowing, the strings are popping and the DJ’s cat is just confused by it all. I’ve just walked a few blocks from the G train to spend some time with composer/turntablist, Elan Vytal.
DJ Scientific is Elan Vytal, who mixes his unique beat juggling and scratching with classical and world musicians. His is a lush, but gritty, hybrid urban sound. Rocking nightclubs from Oakland, CA to New York City, performing live in opera houses and concert halls around the world, Elan’s numerous collaborations have taken him far beyond the standard notions of a DJ. One could say he’s a virtuoso on the decks, always striving to develop his “instrument.”
You may have heard of Elan through his work with composer/violinist DBR, Daniel Bernard Roumain. Elan is a member of DBR’s nine-piece ensemble, DBR & THE MISSION. From Elan’s bio: “The duo began collaborating extensively, creating and premiering a series of new works, including Call Them All, a laptop concerto written by DBR with sound design by Elan Vytal, commissioned by American Composers Orchestra, which premiered at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in 2006, and Sonata for Violin and Turntables, an hour-long touring program co-produced by Elan Vytal and DBR…”
Hanging with Elan Vytal at his Brooklyn apartment, he told me about how he made the switch from rapper/MC to DJ, how he’s developed his career, and about his interactive relationship with live musicians using turntables, Serato Scratch Live and Ableton. You can listen to his comments and bits of his music here:
As a special treat, Elan invited six string violinist Matt Szemela (also known as String Theory) to jam on a couple of songs they’re writing as the group LB (Pound). So here, they did a demo of their set-up and performed two pieces for our home video cameras:
– Jocelyn
The MMiXdown 