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STRimriG mECHHnism
New Experimental Label Debuts in Athens
m aybe you just have to really understand the rules
before you can break them. That seems to be the
case with the artists featured on Quartet Solo
Series, the first release from the new experimental
label Striking Mechanism. Each featured performer is classically
trained with a stellar resume in performance and composition,
but the works here are anything but conventional.
"As classical musicians, we're pretty willing when we impro
vise to just throw all that out the window as much as we can,"
says label founder and featured artist Jonathan Chen. "Some
people might argue that that's not possible, but generally
speaking, we can be pretty willing when we really want to do
something different than playing covers of Mozart and stuff
like that."
There will definitely be no covers at ATHICA tonight.
Instead, the four artists featured on the Quartet Solo Senes
will each perform a 20-minute set of his/her own experimental
work. Chen, who has a master's degree in violin performance,
will perform a set consisting of creating feedback through
various acoustic spaces and altering it through electronics.
"The resulting sounds can vary from being uncannily similar to
woodwind or brass instruments, to sounding like a car without
its muffler," says the official press release.
Andrew Dewar's set will consist of a work for solo soprano
saxophone exploring "the harmonic spectrum and polyphonic
possibilities of a single cross-fingered trill through a slow,
gradual shift in the performer's embouchure and the seal pres
sure of the instrument's keys." You don't have to know what
that means to appreciate that this will not be a traditional sax
solo. Likewise, Marina Peterson will playing her cello in ways
you may have never seen before—making use of crumpled
paper, clothespins and other objects applied to the strings to
alter the sound. Finally, Phillip Schulze joins us from Germany
to perform abstract yet compositional electronic improvisa
tions. This is an exploration in sound more than song, but if
you're eager to hear something different, then ATHICA is the
place to go.
Athens is the official new home for the Striking Mechanism
label since Chen moved down here from Chicago in October. He
admits the label is still in its formative stages, but was eager to
provide an outlet for unconventional musicians to share and dis
tribute their works. "It's just a way to start and represent artists
that aren't as noticed in the commercial framework," he says.
Striking Mechanism isn't limited to just sound or music,
either. On www.strikingmechanism.com, Chen features experi
mental video collections submitted from around the world. His
latest project, actually launched initially in 2006, calls for art
ists to submit videos that are either one, two or three seconds
in length. It's startling how diverse and innovative these short
pieces are, and Chen hopes to release the collection on DVD in
the future.
For now, though, the focus is on the Quartet Solo Series.
Although the label was Chen's innovation, the first release was
really a collaborative effort between Chen and the other musi
cians whom he met while studying at Northwestern University
and Wesleyan University.
"It was really Phillip Schulze's idea to have the first initial
releases be solo releases," says Chen. "The thought there was
that it would be really focused." Although all the artists are
compiled on one physical CD, the spotlight is on each artist
independently. "The way I wanted to think of it is as if there
were four separate short albums on a CD," Chen explains. Some
of the artists have several tracks on their section of the record
while others, including Chen, have just one long track.
Chen moved down to Athens at the insistence of his
girlfriend, who got her MFA from the University of Georgia.
Although he's still new to town, he's been impressed with how
eagerly the students and local musicians alike have taken to
his experimental projects.
"It's been an extremely open-minded city," says Chen. "I
think that's just kind of the intellectual curiosity that people
in Athens generally have."
Even for those rock artists who aren't classically trained,
Chen has found that the willingness to experiment in sound is
driven more by attitude than education.
"My experience with rock musicians in Chicago is that some
times they tend to be more open-minded than people who have
a lot of training behind them, whether it be jazz or classical...
Really everything comes down to attitude in a lot of ways.
There are people who are really educated, and people who are
uneducated, and anyone can have the attitude that nothing
new is ever done, and that's when the danger comes in."
Chen says that sometimes having an intimate knowledge of
the history of music can feel like a hindrance, because some
musicians risk feeling like everything's already been done
before them. "When in fact," says Chen, "there
may be subtle differences between what you do
today and what was done in 1960, for example,
and that subtle difference might matter and
might be interesting."
Of course, that education can also play a
huge part in awakening the creative mind to
a new world of sonic exploration. Tonight's
performance should be an eye-opening experi
ence for those musicians who feel bound to the
rigid guidelines of classical performance, and
for the traditional rock musician as well. Even
though Chen and the other artists are students
of music, he says that an experimental perfor
mance doesn't necessarily demand a higher level
of understanding or appreciation than any other
concert.
"I can go to an experimental show and just
have a beer and hang out like anything else,"
says Chen. "I'm not doing complex math or
something while listening to it, or necessarily
analyzing it. In a way, I either like it or I don't... and I'd like
to think that other people would listen in a similar way."
In addition to the solo performances taking place during
the CD release concert on Saturday, May 17, there will also be
a free meet and greet with the Striking Mechanism artists on
Sunday, May 18 from 2-4 p.m. This will also include a "compo
sition demonstration and collaborative performance."
Michelle Gilzenrat
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WHAT: Striking Mechanism CD Release Concert
WHERE: ATHICA
WHEN: Saturday, May 17
HOW MUCH: $6 (suggested donation)
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