Sunday, November 2, 2014

SoundOut 2015 Artist bios




SoundOut 2015 Artist Biographies

Carolyn Connors: vocalist: Melbourne

Carolyn’s vocal work expands the possibilities and extremes of the acoustic voice, where sonic territories are variously presented, extrapolated, mined, and developed via composition, and in solo or ensemble improvisational settings. The Sonata for voice and objects and Sonata for voice and paper enhance the acoustic possibilities of the unaccompanied voice via preparations. Material Mouth is a theatre performance where various vocal techniques are presented scenically, creating the possibility of theatre for listening to. She performs in her trio Hammers Lake with cellist Judith Hamann. Her solo appearances include Adelaide and Melbourne festivals, Densite (France), Melbourne and Adelaide fringe festivals, the Now Now, and Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Carolyn has been a contributing performer to many works by Australian composers including David Chesworth, Liza Lim, Quiver New Music Ensemble, Alex Garsden, Ren Walters, Cynthia Troupe, David Tolley, Stevie Wishart, Warren Burt, Jill Orr, Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey, and Chris Mann.
Carolyn is equally active in theatre performance. She is currently the lead in Still Awake Still which toured the US in 2014,  and will tour around Australia during 2014. Companies she has worked with include Finucane and Smith (Carnival of Mysteries, Gotharama); Perilous Productions (Golden Valley, The Chapel Perilous); and The Museum of Modern Oddities. Carolyn is an instrumentalist. She plays piano accordion in French music duo Un Petit Purr, and performs in festival and cafe environments as a soloist. Her songs for ukulele have been crafted into two award-winning theatre shows, and she works regularly as a pianist.

Christian Kobi: saxophone: Switzerland
Born in Berne (Switzerland). Studied classical music at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel with further studies undertook in Paris (Cité Internationale des Arts), Lucerne (postgraduate degree) and Zurich (Master of Music in Performance) in the fields of improvisation and contemporary composition. Numerous appearances at home and abroad, solo and together with various improvising music ensembles. Recordings and public performances with musicians Fritz Hauser, Katharina Weber, John Butcher, Lionel Marchetti, Christian Wolff, Sylvie Courvoisier et al. 2004 Founder and artistic director of »zoom in«, a festival for improvised music at Berne Minster. 2006 Co-founder of the new music label «CUBUS RECORDS». 2012/13 Artistic director of Szofa Budapst (supported by Pro Helvetia). His music is available on various recordings. His latest is the 2013 album  r a w  l i n e s .

Clayton Thomas: Bass - Sydney
Clayton is a double bass player who's most common approach to making music is through improvisation; that doesn't mean he doesn't make plans - he does, often quite systematic and considered ones. When these systems are deployed, however, is usually triggered by an in-action musical moment, not a preconceived plan of events. Although working with a rather well researched and focused set of language devices - from extended techniques to preparations - he often finds himself struggling with a technical issue directly influenced by the spontaneous choice of technique which he has to then contend with in as musical a way as possible. He has gone through these issues with some of the worlds most experienced and recognized creative musicians, including; Peter Brotzmann, Jon Rose, Jim Denley, Paul Lovens, Marilyn Crispell, John Butcher and Evan Parker to name not many. He founded the NOWnow festival, the Splinter Orchestra and its European sister group SPLITTER. He has lived in Berlin for 6 years, and comes from Tasmania. 
Frode Gjerstad: Alto saxophone: Norway,   FG trio
Frode Gjerstad has for many years declared his enthusiasm towards small line-ups, and especially trio (see trio members Paal Nilsen-Love and Jon Rune Strom). The trio line up gives space for the musicians, but is at the same time very depending on the musician's physics and musicality. With over 20 recordings as a leader he has established himself as a major saxophonist on the international scene. His trio´s has included Johnny Dyani, Kent Carter and John Stevens, William Parker and Rashied Bakr, and; William Parker and Hamid Drake, whom he toured in Europe with in 2010. The trio had their debut concert at the Blow Up festival in Oslo, Norway; summer 2011. Since then they have toured Norway and recorded a CD, which will be released on CTO records, summer 2011. Although this is a new trio, Gjerstad and Nilssen-Love´s collaboration goes back to 1992 when Frode formed Circulasione Totale Orchestra together with a rock band and Paal. Since then, they have worked together in various settings as duo, trio and quartets; sometimes featuring guests like Jeb Bishop, Bobby Bradford and Peter Brötzmann. CD releases include a handful of 12 titles with various groups on different labels all around the world. Amongst them are "The Blessing Light" from 2001 on Cadence rec., "Sharp Knives Cut Deeper" on Splasch rec. with Peter Brötzmann, "Last First" on Falcata Galia rec. and "St.Louis" on FMR rec, "Mothers and Fathers" and “Nothing is Forever” on CTO rec. The trio's music has its roots in the free-jazz tradition, the way it was defined by Coleman, Mingus, Dolphy and Coltrane. All tough, the trio also takes inspiration from the European free scene.
Hermione Johnson: Pianist (New Zealand)
Hermione is a composer and pianist living in Auckland, New Zealand. In recent times she has improvised with Frode Gjerstad , Cor Fuhler, Dave Brown, Ingebrigt Haker Flaten and Sean Baxter, John Bell, Gerard Crewdson and Jeff Henderson etc. She has appeared solo at Sydney's Paddington Uniting Church alongside Chris Abrahams and Monika Brooks, and with Louise Curham's 'Drunken Flower' at the Lines of Flight Festival in Chistchurch. She has performed at the Nownow, Fredstock, iiii ,Bomb the Space and SoundOut 2013 Festivals. Her solo album 'colourcode' was released by the iiii label in July 2013 and is a Tayloresque tour de force of tonal whirlwinds and clusters of musical brilliance.


Jason Kahn: electronics | drums percussion: Switzerland
Jason Kahn is a musician, artist and writer. He was born 1960 in New York and grew up in Los Angeles. He moved to Europe in 1990 and is currently based in Zürich. Kahn exhibits his installations in museums, galleries, art spaces and public sites internationally. These works focus on the idea of space: the conceptual and physical juncture points, its production and dissolution, and our relation to it as a political, social and environmental medium. As an electronic musician and drummer Kahn collaborates regularly with many musicians, both in improvised settings and in the context of graphical scores which he composes for specific groups. Kahn's other activities include sound pieces for radio, film, dance and theater. He has also designed numerous CD, LP and cassette covers. As a writer, his work has appeared in books, magazines and as liner notes to many audio publications. Performing regularly around the world, Kahn has given concerts throughout Europe, North and South America, Australia, Egypt, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Turkey and South Africa. From 1998 until 2008 Kahn ran the label Cut, releasing twenty-five CD's which included both his own work and that of many other artists. In 2011 Kahn started the Editions imprint to publish his own recordings and writings.    http://jasonkahn.net/index.html
John Porter: alto/tenor saxophone – Canberra   Psithurism trio

Born in Toowoomba in 1985, John is a formidable young saxophonist with a deep interest in free improvisation. After starting on the clarinet at an earlier age he switched to the tenor saxophone and never looked back.  In 2003 John moved to Brisbane to study music full-time, completing a Bachelor of Music in 2005 and a Master of Music in 2008 where his thesis was on the avant garde composer Cornelius Cardew. It was during this time that John received his first exposure to improvised music, participating in a number of groups in and around Brisbane. He has since played with a number of artists including Shoji Hano, Jeff Henderson, Kris Wanders, Madoka Kouno, Elliott Dalgleish, and the Stasis Duo, and appears on recordings released by the [Array] and Homophoni labels. John is currently in a saxophone trio with Richard Johnson and Rhys Porter called Psithurism Trio. He loves playing music to birds and animals in a dialogue with the sound-scapes around him, as it were.

Jon Rose: violin/multi-instrumentalist: (Sydney; Berlin)
Jon Rose performs his group projects and solo music in upwards of 50 concerts every year - in North America, Japan, Australia, South America, China, Scandinavia and just about every country in West & East Europe. He is featured regularly in the main festivals of New Music, Jazz and Sound Art e.g. Strasbourg New Music Festival; New Music America; Moers New Jazz Festival; European Media Festival; The Vienna Festival; Ars Elektronica; The Northsea Jazz Festival; Dokumenta; Roma-Europa Festival; Festival D'Automne; Festival Musique Actuelle; The Berlin Jazz Festival, etc. Rose has also been invited to curate Contemporary Music Festivals in Germany (e.g. Berlin Urbane Aboriginale) and Austria (e.g. Wels 'Unlimited'). He has curated his own festival "String 'em up" of radical string players and their instruments, taking place in Podewil, Berlin in 1998 and Dodorama and V2, Rotterdam in 1999, Tonic, New York in 2000, Mains D'Oeuvres, Paris in 2002, and IPR, New york in 2010. In March 2012 Jon won the Australian Don Banks composer award in Sydney.
Jon Rune Strøm: double bass: Norway,   Frode Gjerstad trio
Jon Rune Strøm is one of the new leading bass voices of Scandinavian jazz and improv scene. Known as an extreme high energy free player with extraordinary stamina, he’s leant his bass muscle to both straight ahead jazz projects as well as free improvised settings such as Frode Gjerstad’s trio with drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. Jon Rune is also working with other known improvisers including Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Steve Swell and Raymond Strid.  Now record his debut under his own name with " Jøa " Stone Floor Records. The music is freely improvised, but with distinct borders and shapes. Use of alternative techniques expands the repertoire and challenge the contrabass limitations as a solo instrument. Inspired by bass heroes like Gary Peacock , Peter Kowald and Harry Miller , Jon Rune created a rhythmic and energetic expression.

Klaus Filip: computer: composer/performer:  Austria

Almost all of klaus filip's art projects have been driven by technological possibilities and the social need to change structures. Among them subVoice (an underground tapemagazine), sigis bruder (early electronic songs together with singer sigi ecker), christof kurzmann's orchester 33 1/3zentrifuge, music for short films, theatre, dance, sound-installations. He is the musical and electro-mechanic father of BigBaby, an outstanding intermedial project around a sculpture build by red white and brought to life by the movements of cynthia schwertsik. Filip is the inventor and never sleeping developer of the open-source software lloopp, a musical instrument on the computer to provide open structures for live-improvisation, used by many well-known electronic musicians while he used to play on the edge of a computers abilities in the past years, he is now reducing the processes to mere sinus-waves, overlapping with themselves and the ever sounding surroundment of a place; searching for the individual limits of perception, in loudness and movement collaborations with radu malfatti, werner dafeldecker, dieb13, christof kurzmann, boris hauf, christian fennesz, jason kahn, john butcher, sabine marte, gilles aubry, noid, cordula bösze, silvia faessler, taku unami, taku sugimoto and toshimaru nakamura.

Laura Altman: Clarinettist and composer, Sydney    Great Waitress trio
She is an important voice on the Sydney improvising scene and The Splinter Orchestra for a couple of years now. Her delicate clarinet playing suggests a new way of thinking about the instrument. Laura is currently studying composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and writing an honours thesis. She has also studied at the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatorium, in The Hague. For the past two years, Laura has toured throughout various countries in Europe, performing improvised music. Most recently, she appeared as a special guest at the inaugural ‘Sound Out 2010 Festival in Canberra, alongside Richard Johnson, Jim Denley, Clayton Thomas and Kim Myhr. http://lauraaltman.net/

Meredith Maloney: pianist Frankfurt, Germany.  

Maloney studied jazz and improvisation at Universität der Künste, Conservatorium van Amsterdam in 2001 under Misha Mengelberg and completed a diploma at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler under Georg Graewe in 2005. During this time she began developing a specific set of techniques for inside-piano performance. Maloney has concentrated her musical investigations on the piano and its sonic possibilities, utilizing extended techniques, amplification and preparations as a process of abstraction, whilst focusing on the physicality of both internal and external parts of the piano. As a continuation of this research Maloney founded the festival Tasten-Berliner Klaviertage featuring contemporary and innovative approaches for the piano. Maloney performs internationally in a variety of roles as interpreter, solo and in collaboration with a large number of musicians and composers: in a duo with TB, in the trio with Michael Renkel and Sabine Vogel, the Quartet Maloney/Nutters/ Olsen/Galvez and as part of the Amsterdam based N-Collective. Over the years Maloney has performed with many leading figures in improvisation such as Andy Moore, Steve Heather, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann, Axel Dörner, Michael Zerang, Johannes Bauer, Christoph Kurzmann, Thomas Lehn, Tristan Honsinger, Frank Gratkowski and Michael Moore.

Miroslav Bukovsky: trumpet – Canberra

Miroslav was the head trumpet teacher for the ANU School of Music Jazz department in Canberra for many years until just recently when the entire ANU SM jazz department was abolished along most of the Classical School by a new VC. . He was one of the founders of the renowned Jazz ensemble the Ten Part Invention (TPI) with Roger Frampton and John Pochee; has played with the Free Boppers, the KMA Orchestra and the Australian Art Orchestra. He has led the award - winning ensemble Wunderlust for many years and remains active composing and performing with them and TPI. He has also played in the experimental jazz trio Pollen Trio with Austin Bucket and Evan Dorrian and in a trumpet trio with James Greening and Reuben Lewis recently. He is a staunch experimenter and improviser and relishes the opportunity that new grouping provide.

Monika Brooks: accordion -  Sydney      Great Waitress trio

Monica Brooks hails from the mountain tops of the western plains, primarily focusing on the relationship termites have to astronomical phenomena such as the aurora australis. Monica is often found playing few notes in slow succession on the piano accordion in West Head Project, Splinter Orchestra, Mayas/Altman/Brooks Trio, and made Z grade celebrity status in the band formerly known as Ubercube. She also amuses herself with radios and guitar pedals in a trio with Anna Vo and Nadene Pita. Monica on occasion delves deep into the superficial habitats of indie music as a perpetual novice of the piano and computer, and thoroughly enjoys a good yodel with other beer-swilling slags around the Sydney sub-tropics. Monica has made a number of attempts to transform into an artist/sound sculptor, and used to spell her name with a ‘k’ to appear more exotic.


Paal Nilssen-Love: drums: Norway,   FG trio
Paal Nilssen-Love is Norway's most active free jazz drummers and has established himself as a powerful and a most dynamic musician. Before turning 30 Paal has cemented his position as one of the most profiled drummers in Europe today, he has made numberless performances at festivals and clubs in Europe and USA and participated on more than 50 recordings. He runs his own annual festival – All Ears - for improvised music in Oslo, which is an important part of his musical life, and he plans to start his own recording label for vinyl productions. Like Pat Metheny put it in 2002, after having played with Paal at Molde International Jazz festival: “He is simply one of the best new musicians I’ve heard during the latest years!” And after having heard Paal in 9 different settings at the same festival, Down Beat reporter Dan Quelette stated: “His week at Molde proved a revelation: Nilssen-Love is one of the most innovative, dynamic and versatile drummers in jazz!”  He has played in many bands, although various styles and musical versatility in general, represent important pieces that make up a total, and all bands are formed or joined with a clear vision. Today Paal’s portfolio includes Atomic, School Days, The Thing, Frode Gjerstad Trio, Sten Sandell Trio, Scorch Trio, Territory Band, FME, and various duo projects such as with reedmen Ken Vandermark, John Butcher, Mats Gustafsson, organist Nils Henrik Asheim and noise wizard Lasse Marhaug. And he was a part of the Brilliant and successful but recently disbanded Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet.

Paul Heslin: electronics - Canberra
Canberra-based composer/producer/whatever. He is a graduate of the Centre of New Media Art at the Australian National University and has performed regularly nationally and oversees, most notably at the This Is Not Art/Electrofringe Festival and the Australasian Computer Music Conference. His work explores an intersection between musique concrete and the extraordinary potential of recent developments in mirco computers. He has released music in a wide variety of formats (including videotape and floppy disk) and has collaborated with artists across three different continents
Rhys Butler: alto sax – Canberra   Psithurism trio
Rhys has come to know the cities he has lived in through improvised and noise music. The trio Dinner Sock (Stephen Roach (drums), David Keyton (feedback), and Rhys Butler (saxophones)) formed from the weekly Fugue State Sessions in Guanzhou. The group performed with local experimenters such as Yan Jun, Feng Hao and Li Zenghui and collaborated with musicians transiting China such as Uwe Bastiansen (Faust) and Lucas Abela. Despite living in different corners of the world, Dinner Sock has continued to participate in China's experimental music scene and played Beijing's Sally Can't Dance festival and NOIShanghai in 2012. In Santiago, Chile, Rhys participated in events run by Productura Mutante and played in the free-for-all Collective Improvisation NO. Now residing in Canberra, Rhys has been working in a duo with Reuben Ingall (live processing) and more recently in a reeds trio Psithurism with John Porter and Richard Johnson.

Richard Johnson: wind instruments – Canberra   Psithurism trio

Richard performs with the texture of sound on soprano/baritone saxophone and bass clarinet and in the last couple of years has been experimenting with instruments made from the conical gourds from PNG. These particular gourds allow the stripping back of the wind instruments to their most visceral and most sensuous form and allow for the exploration of the fundamentals of sound production with extended techniques. He has performed at the What is Music Festival, Nownow Festival; the Make it Now performances; also performances with the Brice Glace Ensemble and the 102 Club Orkestra in Grenoble France 2004; “Whip it“ series in Sydney; various Precipice annual Improv workshops hosted by Tony Osbourne as well as hosting local/interstate/international improvisation nights in Canberra and as being the Producer/Director/Curator and performer at SoundOut 2010 – 2014. As a sound artist he was commissioned by the Casula Power House in Sydney to collaborate with renowned Artist Savanhdary Vongpoothorn to produce a 30-minute Soundscape for the Australia Exhibition at The Casula Power House in Sydney 2008; in 2010 he collaborated with glass/conceptual artist Denise Higgins on a soundscape for her show in Melbourne. He has performed with the likes of Jaap Blonk, Jon Rose, Mats Gustafsson, Robbie Avenaim, Jerome Nottinger, Xavier Querell, Jim Denley, Kim Myhr, Clare Cooper, Annette Giesreigl, Rodrigo Motoya, Antonio Panda Gianfratti, Clayton Thomas, Isaiah Ceccarelli, Yan Jun, Laura Altman, Michael Norris, Evan Dorian, Christine Abdelnour, Philippee Lauzier, Eric Normand, Sam Pettigrew and Rishin Singh etc. Currently he is working in a wind trio with John Porter and Rhys Butler called Psithurism, which intends to release a cd in the near future.










Sam McAuliffe: guitar: Melbourne

Sam McAuliffe is a graduate of Monash University, where he studied jazz performance, specialising in guitar. Sam had the pleasure of studying guitar/composition under the mentorship of well-known/renowned musicians such as James Sherlock, Doug DeVries, Stephen Magnusson, Ren Walters, and Jordan Murray, to name a few. Sam was awarded a letter of recommendation by the Dean of Monash and was fortunate to complete a summer exchange program at New York University. Whilst a student at Monash University Sam also had the privilege of performing and recording with such internationally recognized musicians as George Garzone, Vince Jones and Sam Keevers. Separate to his student life, Sam co-founded the not-for-profit organisation The Melbourne Improvisers Collective with fellow contemporary musician, Travis Woods. Sam also founded and still actively runs a similar not-for-profit initiative The Re-Think Project. Through this initiative, Sam has been able to collaborate with numerous Australian musicians such as Stephen Magnusson, Scott McConnachie, Ren Walters, David Brown, Anita Hustas, David Tolley, Marc Hannaford, Erkki Veltheim, Tony Hicks, and Adrian Sherriff to name a few. Sam performs regularly throughout Melbourne in a variety of musical genres, including theatre productions, pop music, blues, jazz, and experimental/avant-garde.


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