CMS March 23 Workshops with Zeena Parkins & HxH

Two workshop offerings from CMS on March 23 located at Figure 8 Recording in Brooklyn! Participants can register for one or both workshops! Both workshops are open to musicians of all backgrounds & ages. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.

The Continuous Presence
Or
Navigating our Infrastructure
The Morphology of Free Improvisation
with Zeena Parkins

3-5PM

Open to improvisers: some experience helpful- all instruments welcome
Listening and Energetic Awareness to all details through the continuous presence. Interoception tracks our internal states, sonic movements, grand gestures, minuscule moments, balance, out of balance, intuition, focal points, to articulate our sense of place, locating our horizon line in improvisatory circumstances…
Zeena Parkins is a harpist, composer, improviser, educator who has valued collaboration as a primary component of her sonic practice and experiences. She has worked extensively with filmmakers, writers, and choreographers. She taught at SMFA in Boston, and for many years at Mills College in Oakland , CA. Currently Parkins is visiting faculty at Bennington College in Vermont and this spring will be working with students from the Luzern University of applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland. Zeena has performed and/or recorded with Bjork, Ikue Mori, William Winant, Laetitia Sonami, Pauline Oliveros, Butch Morris, John Zorn, Yoko Ono, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp, Nels Cline, Magda Mayas, Tony Buck, Ryan Sawyer, Brian Chase, Craig Taborn, Sussana Silva Santos, the Eclipse Quartet, TILT BRASS, Shayna and Nava Dunkelman, gabby fluke-mogul and Denis Charles. Zeena is working with electronocist Matthew Ostrowski on Tejedura, (inspired by the wire constructions and paper weavings of Venezuelan visual artist, Gego) a new instrument system built in MAX that will explore the weft and warp of her sonic materials, expand and diffuse her improvisatory compositions on the electro-acoustic harp.

STARK PHENOMENA with HxH

6-8PM

In this workshop with HxH, we'll dive into approaches of augmenting instruments, voices and various sound sources via Ableton Live and the use of pedals. We ask that you bring in tracks / field recordings / instruments etc for experimentation and be curious about electroacoustic improvisation.Cellist Lester St. Louis and trumpeter Chris Williams are the electroacoustic duo HxH (as in “H by H”). Together, they blend acoustic sound, grainy electronics, breaks, cuts, and beats into a kind of expansive, post-techno experimentalism that unfolds with a sense of limitless possibility.

Lester St. Louis (b.1993) is a New York born and based Composer, Improviser, Cellist, Sound Designer, producer and Curator. His work traverses through performance, installation, curation, artistic research and recording. His works are rooted in dynamic environments of improvisation both sonically and socially, ecstatic sound worlds, interaction and flow. He has performed internationally throughout The U.S, The E.U, Canada, China and South America. Lester has performed, recorded and produced with artists such as Chris Williams [under the moniker HxH], edi kwon, jaimie branch, Rob Mazurek, Don Byron, Pheeroan Aklaff, Shahzad Ismaily, Moor Mother, Lukas Koenig, Ben Lamar Gay, Lea Bertucci, Miho Hatori, Dre A. Hočevar, Ash Fure, Charmaine Lee, Yo La Tengo, Yaeji, Isabel Crespo Pardo, Irreversible Entanglements, TAK Ensemble, The International Contemporary Ensemble, Found Sound Nation, Wet Ink Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Carig Taborn, Immanuel Wilkins and many more. As a composer, Lester has been commissioned by artists such as The JACK Quartet, RAGE THORMBONES, Jennifer Koh, String Noise and Ghost Ensemble and most recently International Contemporary Ensemble among others. Lester has collaborated with visual artists such as Terrence Nance, Torkwase Dyson, Fields Harrington, Ephraim Asili, Random International, Atelier Impopulaire, William Pope. L, Lilleth Glimcher, Emeka Okereke and Superblue.
Chris Ryan Williams is an interdisciplinary artist and musician based in Brooklyn, NY. His work takes the form of electroacoustic composition and performance installation and deals with decoding family history, ambience, and time-space compression. His debut EP ‘Live’ received praise from Jazz Right Now and The Quietus for “dazzling collaged pieces that ricochet between improvised passages and written material” (Peter Margasak, The Quietus). He has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe, has been commissioned by WasteLAnd and International Contemporary Ensemble. He has been in residence with BANFF Centre for the Arts, Foundation of Contemporary Arts, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Musik Installationen Nürnberg and is 2023 American Composers Forum Fellow and 2024 Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow. He has collaborated with creators including Eyvind Kang, Patrick Shiroishi, Bennie Maupin, Nicole Mitchell, Imani Dennison, Wendy Eisenberg, Luke Stewart, Pink Siifu, and Marjani Forte-Saunders.
Williams also has an ongoing collaboration with cellist Lester St. Louis under the moniker HxH, a duo which has “embraced the challenge of bringing laptop instrumentalism into a wide personal world by making sounds that are at once art-minded and accessible, and true to the tenets of spontaneous composition and “social music,” (Piotr Orlov, Pioneer Works)

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