Cerberus Percussion Group @ Red Light Cafe 11/19/10

Hi everyone -

Cerberus Percussion Group is playing the Red Light Cafe at 9PM on Friday, 11/19/10. Alt-country/folk acts EB Reece (GSU student!) and Adam Klein open at 7:30 and 8:00, respectively.

On the program:
Catfish - Mark Applebaum
Pachamama - Adam Scott Neal
The Frame Problem - James Romig
Attica - Frederic Rzewski


Admission is $7, but supporting contemporary music is priceless.


Feel free to RSVP via facebook here.


Program Notes:

Catfish (2003) - Intense, but always with a sick Californian sense of humor, Catfish is a vexing and delightful listening experience. -John Zorn

Pachamama (2009) is a piece for percussion trio. Each player has a 'melodic' instrument (conch shell, ocarina, melodica), some kind of drum (up to them), another 'rhythmic' percussion instrument (shaker, stones, log drum) and an 'atmospheric' instrument (frog guiro, box of pebbles, paper and plastic bags).The form is based on a 9x9 magic square. The number in each square determined the number of measures (in 4/4) that each instrument, dynamic, or rhythmic pattern would last. It will sound a lot less arbitrary than that description. What to listen for, in a nutshell - different instruments will come and go. They will gradually fall into a groove, the groove may become less apparent, then appear again. If you listen closely, you may notice that each player is actually in his own meter. -Adam Scott Neal

The Frame Problem (2003) The title refers to a primary difficulty in designing robots and computer programs with "artificial intelligence." Human brains have a remarkable ability to "frame" information: in an instant, we are able to observe and organize an enormous amount of data, sorting and categorizing what is relevant and what is not. When listening to music, one of the primary hierarchical "frames" we create is that of meter. In this percussion trio, multiple distinct meters occur concurrently—in different lines, at constantly shifting dynamic levels, and in different timbral aggregations—providing human listeners with the opportunity to resolve multiple overlapping “frames” simultaneously. Robots in the audience will probably just be confused. -James Romig

Attica (1972), the earliest work on tonight’s program, is also one of Rzewski’s earliest compositions to feature an overtly political message. A lush repetitive tonal sequence is punctuated by a narrator’s intoned text, gradually expanding one word at a time; the sequenced is derived from a statement made by Richard X. Clark, one of the organizers of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, upon his release in February 1972: “Attica is in front of me.” Although Attica is being presented on its own this evening, it was originally conceived as a companion piece to the more visceral Coming Together, whose narration is based on the words of a less fortunate Attica inmate, radical antiwar activist Sam Melville (“Mad Bomber” Melville), who was killed by police during the uprising. -Kyle Gann

less is more (more or less) @ Eyedrum, this Friday, March 20

A concert featuring new works by Atlanta-based creative artists (in alphabetical order):

Stuart Gerber, percussionist
Mark Gresham, composer
Al Matthews, video artist
Jen Mitchell, composer/dj
Darren Nelsen, composer

...plus front-edge music and performance art by:

John Luther Adams
Alexandre Babel
Giorgio Battestelli
Frederic Rzewski
Stuart Saunders Smith
Christian Wolff

Friday, March 20, 2009 @ 8:00pm
Eyedrum
29 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. SE, Suite 8, Atlanta, GA 30312
$10 at the door / $5 students with student ID
(sorry, no credit cards!)

For those who have never been to Eyedrum:

Eyedrum is located on the northeast corner of Hill St. and MLKjr Dr., the entrance to the gravel parking lot faces MLKjr Dr. (Do not park across the street, as you will get towed.) Note that Google tries to locate the address one block to the east and down a dead-end street--wrong location! When you enter Eyedrum's parking lot, the door on the left next to the silo is the traditional entrance to the front gallery, through which you'll go to get to the performance space behind it.

It's going to be a great show. Hope to see you there!