27 May 2006 12am - 12am
Please join us:
Music in Alternative Spaces #6: Colin Clark
Saturday, May 27, 9pm, at Mercer Union
FREE
The Lions band will play verbal, graphic, and indeterminate scores by John
Cage, Colin Clark, Christopher May, Michael Parsons, and Christian
Wolff in their own idiosyncratic way. This concert includes the
premiere of Staggering Numbers by Colin Clark.
The Lions band is:
Eric Chenaux: guitar + lap steel
Colin Clark: ukulele, harmonica, banjo
Aimée Dawn Robinson: casio, vocals
Alex Geddie: banjo
Janet Macpherson: synth, harmonicas, vocals
The programme will include:
Instrumentalist(s)/Singer(s), Christian Wolff
Instrumental #1 from Scratch Music, Michael Parsons
Looking North, Christian Wolff
#1 from Scratch Music, Christopher May
Five, John Cage
Staggering Numbers, Colin Clark
Composer’s Note:
The notation of Staggering Numbers was designed to communicate
material as plainly and unobtrusively as possible, allowing the
players (who are friends of mine) to alter the music according to
choices made during performance. Given this austere compositional
approach, Staggering Numbers is founded on the trust that the
particular musicality of each performer readily fills in the
notational blanks to breathe life into to the piece. For me, this
band exemplifies the richness possible in such an approach to music
making.
This piece is an inward-looking composition–an almost closed system,
constantly and contemplatively turning over and reassessing small
amounts of musical material. These concerns are rooted in my ongoing
curiosity with how overlapping or uncoordinated material impacts the
perception of harmonic relationships as they unfold loosely in time.
Staggering Numbers is structured loosely on a Kurt Schwitters poem
called “Wound roses roses bleed” and named after a song by Willie
Nelson. For me, the title points at several associations–not only
the notion of staggering in a technical and literal sense (in that
the piece consistently offsets and spreads out instrumental
relationships organically in time)–but also the potential for a
sense of astonishment and unpredictability.
After studying interdisciplinary art and cultural theory at York
University, Colin Clark has developed a body of work as a composer
that draws inspiration from visual and organic structures. His music
has recently been concerned with unusual intonation and an
idiosyncratic approach to time, allowing the musicians to directly
influence the way the music unfolds during a performance. He has been
involved in a number of interdisciplinary collaborations and is keenly interested in the intersection between composition and experimental film. Colin has composed soundtracks for films which have been shown at film festivals and cinematheques internationally. He is a curator with the Loop Collective and a member of the Toronto art-pop ensemble The Thorpe.
Mercer Union, A Centre for Contemporary Art
37 Lisgar Street, Toronto ON M6J 3T3 CANADA
(west of Dovercourt, south of Queen)
416 536 1519 info@mercerunion.org
Mercer Union >> Contemporary Art Centred