This Tight Rope + the number 46 June 16, 2007

.:. T e n P o u n d s T o T h e S o u n d .:.
p r e s e n t s

T h i s T i g h t R o p e
Maria Chavez - turntable (NYC)
Chris Cogburn - percussion (Austin)

+

the number 46
Suzanne Thorpe - flute, electronics (Oakland)
Philip White - electronics (Oakland)

Saturday, June 16th at 8pm
Okay Mountain
1312 East Cesar Chavez Ste. B
(Cesar Chavez + Navasota)

$5 - $15
sliding scale admission

Ten Pounds To The Sound is pleased to present a night of electro-acoustic music, featuring two distinct duos working within and around the borders and crevices of pitch and timbre, texture and form, architecture and space. Recent Dia Beacon/Merce Cunningham Artist-In-Residence Maria Chavez and Mercury Rev co-founder and flautist Suzanne Thorpe bring their respective duos to Austin for a night of avant-collaboration with improvising percussionist Chris Cogburn and multi-media sound artist Philip White. A rare intersecting of talents, this is a night not to be missed.

The concert in Austin kicks off ambitious tours for both groups - with the number 46 heading through the Southeast with final stops in New York City and Boston; while This Tight Rope embarks on a three week tour of Mexico with stops in Monterrey, Merida (Yucatan) and Mexico City.

.:. artist bios below .:.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

This Tight Rope
Maria Chavez - turntable, NYC
Chris Cogburn - percussion, Austin

Maria Chavez is an avant-turntablist from Peru who focuses on electro acoustic sound of vinyl and needle. She has a collection of needles from immaculate to ruined that she calls her "pencils of sound" and a collection of records that provide the palette. She has toured with Christina Carter (Charlambides, Scorses), recorded with Kaffe Matthews, and performed with Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth in her New York City debut. The artist in residence at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn during the fall of 2006, she was recently selected to participate in a 2008 residency program with Merce Cunningham Dance Company at the Dia Foundation`s museum in Beacon, New York.

For more information on Maria Chavez, go to:
http://myspace.com/mariachavez
+
Austin-based improvising percussionist Chris Cogburn is an active composer, performer, educator and organizer within an expansive global community of creative artists. Approaching the physical nature of his chosen instrument with an interest and attention to the drum's subtle and overlooked timbres and textures, Cogburn's music gives rise to unexpected sound worlds suffused with meanings and forms, acute yet infinite. Moving across, atop, below and around a single drum with a variety of percussive objects and implements, Cogburn's fluid physicality provide a rich dynamic to an expanding complexity of sound. Highly original in his investigations of the acoustic drum, Cogburn's music conjures timbres, textures and forms often believed to only exist in electronic sound sources.

Primarily working in the field of Creative Improvised Music, Cogburn has collaborated with many of the premiere international artists in contemporary music, including: John Butcher, Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Dave Dove, Joelle Leandre, Jaap Blonk, Sean Meehan, Joe McPhee and avant-rock outsider Jandek. Other projects include work with the trio Perruque (with Ringling Brothers clown Aaron Tucker and Toronto guitarist Kurt Newman); For Forms (with NYC poets Joshua Beckman and Jen Bervin, NYC avant-turntablist Maria Chavez, and New Orleans dancer/acrobat Scotty Heron); frequent duo collaborations with Vancouver percussionist Jeffrey Allport, avant-vocalist Liz Tonne and Seattle-based pianist Gust Burns.

Since 1998, Cogburn has led workshops on creative music making around the US and Canada, working in contexts as diverse as inner city community centers, homeless shelters, battered women's shelters, public and private high schools and elementary schools, art spaces, dance studios, a church and Pauline Oliveros' Deep Listening Space. He has recently received performance and teaching grants through Meet The Composer, Creative Connections and The Yellow Fox Foundation; held residencies through Seattle Improvised Music, Nameless Sound and Gallery 1412; and has performed at the No Idea Festival, the Seattle Improvised Music Festival and the No West Festival. In October 2006 Cogburn was fortunate enough to travel on the Wave Books Poetry Bus, performing solo and with poet/Wave Books editor Joshua Beckman, with a final performance at James Turrell's Roden Crater.

As an organizer, Cogburn has previously hosted performances by international improvisors, always in direct collaboration with local artists. Beginning in the summer of 2003, Cogburn's Ten Pounds To The Sound has hosted an annual festival of improvised music - the No Idea Festival - showcasing a handful of Texas' premiere creative musicians in collaboration with improvisors from around the U.S., Europe, Japan, Mexico and Canada. Regarded as "one of the finest creative improvised music festivals in the world" (Paris Transatlantic) NIF aspires to connect creative musicians, providing the space and time where creative relationships can flourish, leading towards new areas and approaches in the music.

For more information, see:
No Idea Festival (http://www.noideafestival.com)
+
Chris Cogburn Audio Library (http://www.rasbliutto.net/artists/chriscogburn.html)

the number 46
Suzanne Thorpe - flute, electronics, Oakland
Philip White - electronics, Oakland
http://www.myspace.com/thenumber46

Suzanne Thorpe is an electro-acoustic flutist, improviser, composer, teacher and curator. As a founding member of Mercury Rev, Thorpe composed, performed, recorded, produced and toured with the band, from 1989 through 2001, earning numerous critical accolades. Thorpe is a member of The Wounded Knees, with Jimy Shields (Rollerskate Skinny, Lotus Crown), Look It and The Forest for the Trees, with Cindy Wheeler (Caulfield Sisters, Pee-Shy), Hocket, with Marshall Trammell, and Cor Craft with J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr., Witch). She has also been known to accompany Mascis on solo gigs. Thorpe has found herself sharing the stage with Bob Dylan, Hole, Spiritualized, Pavement, High Llamas, Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, Porno for Pyros, Hum, Cat Power, Secret Machines, Ride, Sonic Boom, Cranberries, St. Johnny, Sonic Youth, and more. As an improviser, Thorpe has performed with Chris Cogburn, Rob Cambre, David Dove, Annette Krebs, Maggie Nicols, Liz Tomme, and Bhob Rainey.

Currently, Thorpe is an MFA candidate at Mills College, in Oakland, California, studying electronic music and media with Chris Brown, Maggi Payne and John Bischoff, and creative improvisation with Joelle Leandre and Fred Frith.

For more information on Suzanne Thorpe
http://www.suzannethorpe.com
+
A native of Lancaster SC, Philip White received his BA in Music from the College of Charleston in 2003 with a double emphasis in composition and jazz performance. Shortly thereafter, he developed an interest in computer-based music and sound. This led to many multi-media projects including 2005's Variations on a Dream, a collaboration with film artist Kevin Taylor which was featured on the Seattle-based television program The American Avant Garde. Also in 2005 Philip co-founded the New Music Collective, a non-profit organization deliriously promoting and producing new music and art in the Southeast. In addition to his work as a composer, Philip has also presented a number of sound installations in and around the Southeast and California, worked as an audio engineer/producer, and can regularly be seen performing on laptop, guitar, and handmade electronic instruments. Philip is currently pursuing an MFA in electronic and recorded media at Mills College in Oakalnd, California.