
Two tracks as part of SoundLab Channel, curated by John Kannenberg and originally part of the Perth Biennale of Electronic Art 2004, included in NewMediaFest 2020: WOWretro: the retrospective 2000-2020, 26 December 2019 to 31 December 2020.
Two tracks as part of SoundLab Channel, curated by John Kannenberg and originally part of the Perth Biennale of Electronic Art 2004, included in NewMediaFest 2020: WOWretro: the retrospective 2000-2020, 26 December 2019 to 31 December 2020.
Southern California Soundscape Ensemble performed two sets as part of Flow | Obstruction, an exhibition curated by Carolyn Schutten at The Collaborative, 421 W. Broadway, Long Beach, 21 July 2018. Participating members: Glenn Bach, Jorge Martin, Marco Schindelmann, and Angela Willcocks.
I performed a four-hour, improvised set at SoundPedro, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA, 7- 11 PM, 2 June 2018.
Atlas Place @ soundpedro, a program of sound and dialog, will take place on Saturday, 3 June 2017, 5-11 PM, as part of soundpedro, an evening of sonic happenings, Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA. The program will feature sets by Yann Novak, Robert Crouch, Steve Roden, and the Southern California Soundscape Ensemble. At 6 PM, I will moderate a panel discussion, Atlas Place: Living Sound in Los Angeles, with Yann, Robert, and Steve. Admission is free.
I will be a guest curator for Sound Pedro, a sound art event at Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro, CA, June 3, 2017, 5-11 PM. More details to follow.
Southern California Soundscape Ensemble (SCSE) will perform two sets at a preview party for the next iteration of Flood‘s multi-genre installation event planned for multiple sites in 2017. SCSE hits the stage at 6:30 and again at 8:00, 1 October 2016, WE Labs at the historic Packard Building, 205 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach. Admission is free, but RSVPs are required.
I will give a talk about my work for the Composition Colloquium directed by Dr. Alan Shockley, Composition and Theory, Bob Cole Conservatory of Music, CSULB, Wednesday, 19 September 2012.
“Standing on a rocky ridge looking out over a vast expanse of landscape in one of Wisconsin’s State Parks beneath an endless sky. The clouds are great citadels of enormous height moving slowly and casting their shadows over the grasslands below. The air is cool and the sun is high.
Long Beach, California sound artist Glenn Bach recorded Radia at various State Parks in California and Wisconsin. The field recordings were then combined with guitar feedback in an extremely subtle way. Released on Brian Lavelle’s Dust Unsettled label, the work is decribed as ‘an exploration of the blurred boundaries of geography, place and memory’, which pretty much nails it.
Radia is a subtle, organic paean to the vast North American wilderness. Rather than grandeur and monumentalism (tropes which have been done to death by numerous painters, photographers and composers), Bach focusses on the clear air and expanding horizons. The solitary figure in the landscape, attentive to the languages and nuances of his environment. Maybe at times there is no figure at all?
Tendrils of guitar generated sound hang in the air like vapour trails, dissolving and reforming in the lucid atmosphere. Sometimes like streamers being twisted in the wind, sometimes like a mist clinging to the ground.
Somehow the music generates these expansive spaces in the listener’s consciousness too. Of course this requires some effort on the listener’s part, but what work of any worth doesn’t? It is a two way process and deep listening yields rewards. Time dilates and the mind is cleansed by clear North American air. I would encourage using headphones and just surrendering.
The field recordings are presented as understated and intimate signs. Rain, grass, birds. At one point a plane flies over, the sound of it’s engine mirroring the drifting feedback that often arches across the tracks on this CD. Planes always draw attention to the spaces above. The extent of the atmosphere, and the fact that wherever you are, the human world is still liable to intrude.
This type of work is often described as ‘lowercase’ music, along with the output of such artists as Steve Roden and Bernhard Günter. However, other than being quite quiet and having few dynamic peaks, it is hard to see the similarity. Although there is space in Radia, there is actually very little silence and there is plenty of detail and development. Also all playback devices have volume knobs these days. You can always turn it up a bit.
Certainly one of my favourite recent releases due to the way it unfurls and the images it conjours. To be able to make a little 5″ silver disc carry such a huge amount of land and sky is quite something.”
–Chris Whitehead, The Field Reporter, 13 May 2012
“Moraine” and an excerpt from “Basin 1” from Radia appeared on The Field Reporter Radio #5, 31 March 2012.
The next collaboration in the Atlas Sets project will be with composer Philip Mantione. Our inital meeting will take place 4 May 2012 in West Los Angeles. Additional information on recording dates will be announced here and documented on the Atlas Sets page.
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