Fire Museum Presents:
Thollem McDonas solo
Bill Fieger/James Strong duo
Echo Den
Saturday, November 1st 8:00 PM
House Gallery 1816
1816 Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA
$8-$10 sliding scale
Thollem McDonas:
"A fresh, disciplined avant-pianist with an attractively extreme viewpoint” (LA Weekly), Thollem is a peripatetic pianist/keyboardist, comproviser, singer-songwriter, educator, and social critic. His musical compositions and performances range from post-classical, to free jazz, to noise to punk rock. He has been touring perpetually throughout North America and Europe since 2006, performing solo works and collaborating with an array of musicians, dancers, and filmmakers. He is the founding director of Estamos Ensemble, a project bringing together improvisers and composers across the Mexico/U.S. border, as well as groups as diverse as Tsigoti, Bloom Ensemble, Soar Trio, Magimc, Hand To Man Band, and Bad News From Houston. Thollem has been dedicated to the acoustic piano for most of his life with 41 albums to date on 17 different vanguard labels. He has recently lept into the electric sphere with an array of new releases. - bio...
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Fire Museum Presents:
Thollem McDonas solo
Bill Fieger/James Strong duo
Echo Den
Saturday, November 1st 8:00 PM
House Gallery 1816
1816 Frankford Ave
Philadelphia, PA
$8-$10 sliding scale
Thollem McDonas:
"A fresh, disciplined avant-pianist with an attractively extreme viewpoint” (LA Weekly), Thollem is a peripatetic pianist/keyboardist, comproviser, singer-songwriter, educator, and social critic. His musical compositions and performances range from post-classical, to free jazz, to noise to punk rock. He has been touring perpetually throughout North America and Europe since 2006, performing solo works and collaborating with an array of musicians, dancers, and filmmakers. He is the founding director of Estamos Ensemble, a project bringing together improvisers and composers across the Mexico/U.S. border, as well as groups as diverse as Tsigoti, Bloom Ensemble, Soar Trio, Magimc, Hand To Man Band, and Bad News From Houston. Thollem has been dedicated to the acoustic piano for most of his life with 41 albums to date on 17 different vanguard labels. He has recently lept into the electric sphere with an array of new releases. - bio
“An intense and virtuosic keyboardist" (Time Out New York) Thollem has been traveling perpetually throughout many countries over the years, challenging himself experientially, constantly working with different artists in extremely different contexts. He has been delving into the piano, excavating depths of sound and energy for 47 years. Myriads is a collection of adventurous music reflecting Thollem's experiences at the piano and on the road, engaging the imagination differently from moment to moment with a stream of unique musical worlds. Thollem spontaneously spins webs of sound with musical seeds he has formed from childhood to the present moment. "Thollem inhabits a world uniquely his own, rhythmically, harmonically and formally. A true original.” - Terry Riley
Bill Fieger/James Strong Duo:
Bill Fieger: "I started playing the guitar at age 14 and have been playing music ever since. I am now 50 and play many different instruments. I've been into composing and performing electronic experimental music for the past 20 years. I started recording my music in 1997 and have produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered over 50 CDs of original music. Around 30 CDs of solo electronic music under the name Oblivious Solitude. 14 CDs with Heather Lind as Stares to Nowhere and 3 CDs with Mike Hunter as Mayakara. Recently I've been going in a more acoustic direction with things and have released a couple of solo acoustic guitar albums. I have done extensive research into micro tonality. And alternative tonal structures most notably the Bohlen-Pierce scale I collect and restore old instruments such as zithers and banjolins. I am an inventor of musical instruments modifying and creating new instruments to take the music to new places." Tonight Bill will be performing on koto.
James Wadsworth Strong is an Experimental Instrument builder and Interdisciplinary artist. He also curates performances of experimental sound and poetry under changing names (American Shrimp Girl, Grow New Buddhism In Seminar etc. ) in different venues in Philadelphia.
EchoDen:
EchoDen is a duet improvising ensemble with vocalist Carol Genetti and dancer Asimina Chremos. We work with our bodies, voices and breaths; creating improvised events that are deeply emotional and often inscrutable. Our hair, our skin, our bones, our flesh—we bring it all with us. There is an animalistic quality to much of what we do. Often we move erratically, edging along between poles of easy intimacy and howling isolation. Our performances take place mostly in galleries and places that support experimental music and dance.
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