Audiophiles unite!

The New England Phonographers Union + the BSC
By SUSANNA BOLLE  |  August 19, 2008

080822_rare_main
The BSC's Bhob Rainey

This Tuesday marks the debut of the NEW ENGLAND PHONOGRAPHERS UNION, a loose confederation of sound artists and field recordists who work with untreated and unprocessed recordings of the rich and varied sounds around them. The hum of an electrical appliance, the whip and whistle of wind, chattering voices, the clang of machinery, and a host of ostensibly non-musical noises are all grist for the phonographers’ mill.

The project is modeled after the Seattle Phonographers Union, which was founded in 2002 and has spawned like-minded groups in New York, Chicago, London, and Montreal. Local Union organizer Ernst Karel says the first half of this first concert by the New England chapter will have various Union members performing short sets, with each piece flowing uninterrupted into the next. (He likens this to “a sequence of phonographic solos.”) In the second half, the phonographers will undertake a collaborative improvisation, selecting, cross-referencing, and mixing sounds from their individual collections.

Whereas their instruments are for the most part traditional, the BSC make music that is by no means run-of-the-mill. The line-up includes some of Boston’s most innovative electro-acoustic improvisers: BHOB RAINEY (soprano sax), GREG KELLEY (trumpet), JAMES COLEMAN (theremin), CHRIS COOPER (prepared guitar), HOWARD STELZER (tapes), VIC RAWLINGS (cello, electronics), MIKE BULLOCK (contrabass), and LIZ TONNE (voice). Large improvisatory ensembles are often ungainly creatures, but the BSC play with uncommon subtlety and cohesiveness. And though the music can be breathtakingly quiet, that doesn’t mean it isn’t intense. For their concert this Tuesday at the Piano Craft Guild, the group, lacking Bullock and Tonne, will be a lean, mean, streamlined sextet.

THE NEW ENGLAND PHONOGRAPHERS UNION | Mobius, 725 Harrison Ave, Boston | August 23 at 8 pm | $5-10 | 617.638.0020 orwww.mobius.org | THE BSC + OPHIBRE | Piano Craft Guild, 791 Tremont St, Boston | August 26 at 8 pm | $5-10 |http://semataproductions.blogspot.com

Related: Quiet riots and class acts, What's wrong with Augusta?, Artists get the shaft, More more >
  Topics: Music Features , Business, Jobs and Labor, Howard Stelzer,  More more >
| More


Most Popular
ARTICLES BY SUSANNA BOLLE
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   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.

 See all articles by: SUSANNA BOLLE