saturday march 27 8pm
mcalpin auditorium, woolworth center
princeton university [map]
free
A member of the thriving Cologne experimental music scene associated with Mouse on Mars, Nonplace Urban Field, Air Liquide, Mike Ink, and the A-Music, Electro Bunker, and Karaoke Kalk labels, Marcus Schmickler is one of the more "composerly" contributors to that conglomerate's growing renown. A formal student of electronic composition, Schmickler—along with schoolmates Carsten Shulz (aka C-Shulz), Frank Dommert, and Georg Odijk—was a member of late-'80s performance ensembles Pol and Kontakta, two freewheeling experimental/improv groups following in the footsteps of Cologne's most notorious musical lab technicians, Can. Schmickler has since released a growing number of critically acclaimed electroacoustic recordings of various levels of abstractness through Mille Plateaux (as Pluramon) and former bandmate Odijk's A-Musik label (as Wabi Sabi). Schmickler's Kaspar-Hauser studios (named in reference to the early 19th century tabula rasa child, memorialized by Werner Herzog in his 1974 film, The Mystery of Kaspar Hauser), are located in a disused warehouse space at the outskirts of the city, and provide something of a window on Schmickler's musical conception: vague constructions of random and apparently inert sonic matter re-formed into fascinating environments of ambient and electroacoustic, occasionally beat-oriented electronica. Sean Cooper, All Music Guide
Since the early 1980s Thomas Lehn has been working as a performer, interpreter, composer and improviser of contemporary music. His individual style of musical expression is rooted in the experience of a broad spectrum of musical fields. After studying recording engineering at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Detmold (Germany), he moved to Cologne and studied both classical and jazz piano at the Hochschule fuer Musik Koeln.
As an interpreting pianist he has played concerts since 1982—performing both contemporary new music including numerous first performances and traditional composed music of the classical and romantically period. In 1989 he initiated the chamber ensemble Trio Dario and four years later the Mengano Quartett, focussing on performing compositions of the contemporary avant-garde.
Parallel to his work as a pianist, he concentrates on composing and performing electronic music. Based on his background as an interpreting and improvising pianist in classical, contemporary and jazz-music, he developed his individual language in live-electronic music. The electronic equipment he uses consists of analogue synthesizers of the late 1960s. The facilities of these instruments—e.g. to modify electronic sounds very directly as well as to combine and to control several parameters at the same time—allows him to spontaneously act and react in close contact with the process of tension, space and structure of the music during its performance. In 2000 his first solo CD 'Feldstaerken' has been released on German label random acoustics.
His present ensemble activities include duetts with Gerry Hemingway and Marcus Schmickler, whos CDs 'Tom & Gerry' and 'Bard' has been released on Erstwhile Records, Guenter Christmann, who published the CD 'temps duree' on his own label edition explico, and Eugene Chadbourne, with whom he published 'c inside' on grob. Other duos with Paul Lovens and Raymond Strid are preparing their first record releases. Moreover he collaborates in trios with Tim Hodgkinson and Roger Turner (KONK PACK; CD 'Big Deep' out on grob), Phil Minton and Axel Doerner (TOOT), Radu Malfatti and Phil Durrant ('beinhaltung' and 'dach' released on Fringes and Erstwhile), Peter van Bergen and Gert-Jan Prins (E-RAX, 'live at the bimhuis' out on X-OR), Andreas Wagner and Guido Hafner (Die Klangraeumer, 'Mangelware' out on hybrid), John Butcher and Andy "Ex" Moor, Hannes Loeschel and Josef Novotny (ANTASTEN) and with Wolfgang Fuchs and Fabrizio Spera (LINGUA; 'Lingua' out on oaksmus). Larger ensembles are VARIO 34 a sextet with Guenter Christmann, Alexander Frangenheim, Mats Gustafsson, Paul Lovens and Christian Munthe ('vario-34' and 'water writes only in plural' released by edition explico and concepts of doing); GLASSBAND, a quintet with Phil Wachsmann, Evan Parker, Alexander Frangenheim and Roger Turner; and last, but not least MIMEO, the Music in Movement Electronic Orchestra, which includes 12 representatives of contemporary electronic music from 7 European nations.
Thomas Lehn lives in Cologne.
Tim Barnes: Sound designer, percussionist, composer, archivist, and record label operator living in NYC.
His gesturalistic drumming style reaches for the pause in music through textural possibilities, as well as pointillist punctuations.
He has performed solo and group works in Japan and in the U.S. with such visionaries as Jim O'Rourke, Ikue Mori, Toshimaru Nakamura, Nagisa Nite, John Zorn, Okkyung Lee, and Neil Michael Hagerty (to name a few). Since 1998, Tim's record label, Quakebasket, has released records by Angus MacLise, Minamo, On Fillmore, Michael Schumacher, and Glenn Kotche. His sound design work has been heard around the world in television commercials, and in the film Hearts In Atlantis.
Other recent projects include drumming for Tzadik recording artist Raz Mesinai, releasing a duo cd of percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani and the late bassist Peter Kowald, releasing a trio cd of Marina Rosenfeld, Toshio Kajiwara, and Barnes himself, recording music for both the Avant and Erstwhile record labels, and editing/mastering archival recordings of Henry Flynt and the "American Avant-Garde's best kept secret," Christopher Tree.
"The missing piece of the New York avant-garde puzzle." Time Out, NYC
Sean Meehan became musically active in the late 80s at the amica bunker series for improvised music which was then housed at abc no rio in New York City. Meehan's interest in improvisation and collaboration has taken him around the world where he has performed solo and with local artists ranging from players of folk instruments to computer artist to avant guard flower arrangers. In 1994 he visited Japan for the first time and returns regularly working with many musicians including Taku Sugimoto, Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetzui Akiyama, Mamoru Fujieda, Sachiko M, Kiyoharu Kuwayama and many others. Additionally he has performed throughout North and South America, Asia and Eastern Europe.
Current performances generally find Meehan playing only the snare drum in a manner that sheds conventional usage and reconstructs the conception and function of the instrument. Concert activities, both at home and away, are generally divided between playing in conventional settings for experimental music and in seeking out unique locations that are often in the unwatched and unconsidered corners of the city.
Meehan's recordings document some of his collaborations including work with Sachiko M; Mamoru Fujieda and Michihiro Sato; Edwin Torres and Muigel Algarin; and Tamio Shiraishi. other contributions to the material world include the construction of performance objects that serve as "compositional things." Included in this are the pieces gift iii which musically activated a sink full of dishes; gift iv for woodblock; and audio, a boxed set of four cassettes to be played in the mind.
tim-sean-2.mp3 [2.8MB]
thomas-marcus-1.mp3 [2.1MB]
thomas-marcus-2.mp3 [3.2MB]