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WEST OAKLAND SOUND SERIES a weekly new music and experimental sound series every sunday presented by new performance traditions and sfSound 
dresher ensemble studio :: 2201 poplar street, oakland california $10-$25 sliding scale (cash & venmo accepted at door - order advance here) ample parking! please park perpendicular when past the trees on poplar :: late arrivals follow instructions on door to get buzzed in :: sunday november 24, 2024 danniel ribeiro + eda er / dan plonsey understanding human behavio sunday december 1, 2024 euphotic / thea farhadian + chris brown sunday december 8, 2024 robert blatt + manfred werder + kevin corcoran / giacomo fiore performance proposals sign up to our mailing list view previous concerts here |
| NOVEMBER 24 2024 7pm $10-$25 |
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EDA ER + DANNIEL RIBEIRO DAN PLONSEY: Understanding Human Behavio, Part 2: The Doll House  
EDA ER and DANNIEL RIBEIRO debut their dynamic duo, blending vocals, electronics, electric guitar, and video. Their work incorporates transducers and extended techniques within a structured improvisation setting, highlighting their shared exploration of sound, collaboration, and multimedia expression. EDA ER is a composer, multimedia artist, and vocalist based in the Bay Area. Her work integrates electronic music, classical composition, installation art, and theater, often using storytelling to explore themes of belonging, memory, and generational trauma. Eda's practice bridges new media, improvisation, and sensors, with a focus on the interaction between sound, visuals, and space. She frequently collaborates with renowned ensembles and artists and is known for her interdisciplinary approach, combining performance art with cutting-edge technology to create immersive experiences. DANNIEL RIBEIRO is a Brazilian composer based in the Bay Area. His work explores instrumental music through project-specific techniques, preparations, sculptural objects, amplification, and transduced electronics. Focusing primarily on the guitar, he expands its expressive range and investigates the instrument’s evolving stylistic devices. His performances span spontaneous composition, recorded and transformed performances, collaborative projects, and the exploration of augmented instrument capabilities. Danniel has studied composition in Brazil, Canada, France, and the USA, and has participated in various international festivals as a resident composer. DAN PLONSEY: Understanding Human Behavio, Part 2: The Doll House Mantra Plonsey: words, songs, voice Dan Plonsey: composer, saxophones, clarinets, etc. Cory Wright: saxophones, clarinets, flutes Matthew Welch: bagpipes, suling, accordion, etc. Masha Albrecht: violin Sarah Willner: viola Mary Artmann: cello Jordan Glenn: drums, percussion Ward Spangler: drums, percussion Kattt Sammon: tableaux, voice Post-pandemic, I have begun to present performances which integrate many of the compositional principles and practices I’ve played round with for over 46 years. The music is: emotional/colorful, soulful/animal, egalitarian, practical, mysterious, and is written specifically for friends – I've worked with most of these performers for decades. Of musical practices, these works employ polyphony, short simple compositions, repetition, use of multiple idioms, and improvisation with various constraints, including the reckless, unconstrained sort. A critical component in these performances is my wife Mantra, who supplies most of the words and vocals. And for this particular venue, I’ve enlisted Kattt to assemble a series of tableaux, which will be projected onto the giant plain back wall. The title “Understanding Human Behavio” belongs to my solo oboe/keyboard/voice CD (1998); I'm returning to it at this time because there's now even more to understand. -- DP |
| DECEMBER 1 2024 7pm $10-$25 |
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THEA FARHADIAN + CHRIS BROWN EUPHOTIC [ CHERYL E. LEONARD + BRYAN DAY + TOM DJLL ]   
CHRIS BROWN (piano/electronics) and THEA FARHADIAN (violin/electronics) come together for their first time improvised duo performance. EUPHOTIC brings together three seasoned sonic experimenters, each with a unique approach – put in simple terms – natural, physical, and imaginary. Natural - bones, driftwood, stones, sand, wind and water; physical - gravity, friction, resonance, kinetic forces; imaginary - technological circuitry making hitherto imaginary sounds real via plotted electricity. CHERYL E. LEONARD is an auditory explorer in a quite literal sense — she’s brought back aural artifacts from Antarctica, Svalbard, and Australia, among other places. She collects field recordings from these far-flung locales as well as sticks, stones, bones, shells, leaves, and sand. Using these materials as musical instruments she re-casts her experiences for new audiences. BRYAN DAY builds instruments that exploit physical forces like gravity, friction, resonance and kineticism. These constructions often take fantastical forms and emit sounds that confound expectations based on their visual configurations, eliciting delight. Bryan assembles collections of these sonic sculptures according to the needs of the performance at hand. TOM DJLL never lost his interest in electronically generated sounds since working with Buchla, Moog and Serge electronic instruments at Mills College. Using modular synthesizers patched into complex systems, he creates swarms of multicellular critters that fill the air and surround the listener, motivating psychic transportations. |
| DECEMBER 8 2024 7pm $10-$25 |
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ROBERT BLATT + KEVIN CORCORAN + MANFRED WERDER GIACOMO FIORE   GIACOMO FIORE presents Lost Horse Wash Drone - a series of works composed after one week in residence at the Lou Harrison House in Joshua Tree California, contemplating matters of tuning, improvisation, and our environment. The music is built on small just intonation modes, played on fretless electric and refretted resophonic guitar with live electronic manipulation, and accompanied field recordings from day-long hikes into the desert, in an attempt to bring environmental and improvised sound together. photo by Dominic Guzzo In a performance including 35 mm slides, analog tape, field recording, found documents, text, typewriter, and voice, ROBERT BLATT, KEVIN CORCORAN, and MANFRED WERDER collectively realize an assemblage of their work engaging the concept of history through its intersections with art, land, and politics. ROBERT BLATT is a composer, artist, performer, and writer. His practice explores expanded situations that reevaluate sound and listening through environment, community, and language. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. KEVIN CORCORAN works with sound in contexts of music, art, communication, and place, with recent projects focused on field recordings expanded across media. He lives in San Francisco while often in transit tracing places of interest and inquiry. MANFRED WERDER is wandering through the abundance in which he traces all possible enunciation regarding the world. His recent works [ the inscription of the sun ] and [ the music of history ] continue the practice of reflection and inscription of both found materials through the sun and typewriter and the public space through dérive. Lives in situ. image: Angelus Novus (1920) by Paul Klee. Manfred Werder’s presence has been made possible in part by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia. 
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PROPOSALS Our focus is on the bay area experimental and new music community, hopefully encouraging crossover among sub-scenes (composition and improvisation; established and emerging; institutional and underground; etc.) We strongly suggest local musicians attend concerts before requesting to perform on the series. Visiting aritsts are also welcome, ideally splitting a concert with local musicians. We are also seeking compositions (in all forms of notation) to be performed by the sfSoundGroup. We have a 92-key (down to a Low F!) 1953 Bösendorfer 7’4” Model 225 Piano (no sostenuto pedal; inside/prepared is OK). The venue hosts a Meyer Sound System, drum kit, additional piano, lighting, and projection equipment. Please send proposals to mattingalls@me.com. |
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