Nameless Sound Presents Charles Curtis + Donald Miller at 14 Pews

A Nameless Sound/Houston Exclusive: After a more than 15-year absence from freely improvised music, cello virtuoso Charles Curtis will perform with Donald Miller, the influential guitarist from the seminal improv/proto-noise trio Borbetomagus.

Charles Curtis has forged a distinct career as an interpreter of composed works that require intensive collaboration with some of the most important composers in experimental music, including LaMonte Young, Alvin Lucier and Éliane Radigue. Much of this repertoire includes major works created expressly for the distinctive qualities of Curtis’ cello playing, including Radigue’s hour-long solo Naldjorlak I, which he performed last year at The Rothko Chapel. He may view his role as being part of the tradition of interpretation in classical music, but Curtis is typically the only cellist capable of executing these highly specialized pieces. His working relationships with these composers define an intensely creative, though still interpretive, role. Curtis’ unusual career has included many diverse threads. Once the principal cellist in the Symphony Orchestra of North German Radio in Hamburg, he was also a founding member of the cult-rock band King Missile (where he played both cello and guitar)....

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A Nameless Sound/Houston Exclusive: After a more than 15-year absence from freely improvised music, cello virtuoso Charles Curtis will perform with Donald Miller, the influential guitarist from the seminal improv/proto-noise trio Borbetomagus.

Charles Curtis has forged a distinct career as an interpreter of composed works that require intensive collaboration with some of the most important composers in experimental music, including LaMonte Young, Alvin Lucier and Éliane Radigue. Much of this repertoire includes major works created expressly for the distinctive qualities of Curtis’ cello playing, including Radigue’s hour-long solo Naldjorlak I, which he performed last year at The Rothko Chapel. He may view his role as being part of the tradition of interpretation in classical music, but Curtis is typically the only cellist capable of executing these highly specialized pieces. His working relationships with these composers define an intensely creative, though still interpretive, role. Curtis’ unusual career has included many diverse threads. Once the principal cellist in the Symphony Orchestra of North German Radio in Hamburg, he was also a founding member of the cult-rock band King Missile (where he played both cello and guitar).

Donald Miller and Charles Curtis, who possess two seemingly disparate artistic temperaments, were connected through their mutual interest in LaMonte Young. Along with Keith Rowe and Fred Frith, Donald Miller stands as one of most influential “prepared” guitarists in improvised music. Miller is most famous as a member of Borbetomagus. Founded in 1979, his trio with two saxophonists took a post free jazz energy music into new levels of noise and intensity, making a mass of sound that dwarfed the punk and post-punk grinding out of some of the same downtown New York venues at that time. Important influences on Miller’s contribution to the band included the extremes of minimalism and 20th century composition (Scelsi, Xenakis, Young). And though he may be most known for his densely high-volume contribution to Borbetomagus (who are still actively performing), Miller too has very contrasting sides to his musical output. As a soloist and collaborator in other contexts, he’s active not only on electric, but acoustic guitar. Miller’s acoustic playing sometimes reflects the influences of fingerpicking masters like John Fahey, where arpeggios generate spectral overtones along with hypnotic rhythms.

The program will begin with solos by Miller and Curtis, with Curtis performing early Morton Feldman solos Projection 1 and Intersection 4. An intermission will be followed by a duo improvisation set.

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