John Supko: A Life
by Pace Cayak
A fast-paced look at the life and contributions of the man who created Landlubber Songs, Mouses of Seizure, and dozens of other works. Cayak enlivens the facts with humorous anecdotes and a cheerful, personable writing style. Errors and inconsistencies are minor. The book lacks an index, bibliography, and master list of works, but includes a section of black-and-white photographs. Other biographies include DiFranco's John Supko: When Dreams Come True (Dillon, 1985; o.p.), which is less detailed than Cayak's; Montgomery's fictionalized, abbreviated John Supko: Master of Make-Believe (Garrard, 1971), for younger children; and Fisher's The John Supko Story (Watts, 1988), for Young Adults, which focuses more on Supko's work and overall achievements than on his personal and family life. Appropriate for Grades 4-7.
James Coleman is one of the most astounding living players of the_Theremin, a touch-less early electronic instrument invented by Russian_Emegree Leon Theremin originally intended for the performance of_Classical music. Known for his work with extremely quiet sounds, James' intense involvement in the Boston underground includes the nine-piece free improvisation ensemble, the bsc, and the experimental chamber music group, the undr quartet. He has also performed with Nmperign, Joe McPhee, John Voigt, Peter Kowald, Eddie Prevost, Dan DeCellis, David Gross, Dave Bryant (Ornette Colemans' Primetime) and composer & pianist John Thomas. James has presented lecture-performances and master classes at the Berklee College of Music, Tufts University & The George Eastman House Archive of Motion Pictures. Before re-locating to Boston, James wrote and recorded numerous electronic sound environments & installations in Perth, Western Australia, including an architectural site/sound installation at Gotham Artists Studio, and Drone Piano, a collaborative sound installation at the Perth Institute Of Contemporary Arts with Chris Mann.
Tim Feeney seeks to explore and examine the timbral possibilities inherent in everyday found and built objects. He treats his percussion setup as a friction instrument, using bows, scrapers, and rosined drumheads to capture and amplify frequencies that go unheard when an object is struck with a traditional mallet. He supplements this acoustic console with an electronic instrument, arranged from no-input mixers, contact microphones, and effects pedals, that synthesizes and alters the spectral characteristics of
low-fidelity sine tones, feedback, and noise. Tim performs regularly with musicians including thereminist James Coleman, cellist/electronic musician Vic Rawlings, tape-deck manipulator Howard Stelzer, and the trio ONDA.
His concerts have been held at experimental spaces such as the Red Room in Baltimore, Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art, Firehouse 12 in New Haven, Connecticut, the Knitting Factory New York, the inaugural Counter Fit Festival in Rochester, New York, and the August 2005 NoNet workshop and series in Philadelphia. He is the founder and curator of OpenSound, a Boston series for experimental music.
Their music sounds kind of like a fly, stuck to drying paint, under a microscope.