Critical Bands + Turntable Solos

Critical Bands – A new multi-channel audio piece by Thomas Martinez.

Drawing from subliminal tactics used by commercial advertisements to program social habits and consumption, Thomas will perform live by broadcasting a similarly mimetic soundscape to three locally audible FM radio frequencies. The piece will make use of liberated iTrip radio transmitters (via ExiTrip – www.exitrip.org) to disperse sound samples of found and synthetically produced material across seven FM Radio receivers placed throughout the gallery. During the performance, attendees will be encouraged to move around and re-arrange the position of the portable receivers, adding an element of collaboration and sociality to the piece.

Turntable Solos – Tristan Shepherd will be performing using a combination of modified records and custom dubplates as source material. Tristan Shepherd’s compositions consist of a sonic counterpoint and bricolage which reanimates the musical gestures ‘frozen’ on the records.

Thomas Martinez is a NYC based composer and improvisational guitarist from Los Angeles, CA. He is the recipient of the Jacob Druckman Memorial Prize for “innovation in music composition’ and has given instruction on practices in digital media at Harvestworks and Stonybrook University. In July he performed in a group ensemble for Christian Marclay’s Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work consists of multi-channel sound installations, compositions for guitar/interactive dance instruments, and audio pieces using digitally processed field recordings. The music produced in these settings evolves slowly and stresses the ‘non-event.’ Texturized shades of various sonic elements are explored in order to re-configure and discover the audible world.