SOLO ORGAN
Something along the lines of free gospel drone blues jazz n roll. Douglas Katelus playing alone on Hammond Organ is the final extension of ones obsession with the instrument. Pulling away everything from the extremity and keying in on the soul source… the organ/leslie speaker sound. Freeing oneself from the main structural being of what the Hammond sound is considered. Pulling outside of the structured musical genres one normally expects from the instrument. While still inspired by great players such as Jimmy McGriff, Larry Young and Wild Bill Davis SOLO ORGAN is an attempt to strive away and grow off these influences.
Allowing them to become into something “other” something from within. The long chords holds and lack of rhythm of this project are as far from organ jazz as you can get. But that’s still where it all comes from. dk
http://www.douglaskatelus.com/ solo-organ.html
BLACK SPIRITUALS
Black Spirituals is a collaboration between two soloists who have found a new platform for the intersection of tone-generating electronic technology and the heart-thumping technology of acoustic percussion. This duet features a new tradition in conversant, duo vernacular dynamics that sparked a revolution in our conceptions of space, stage, ritual, performance, geography, praxis, brotherhood, relationships, rockin’ out, and more.
Multi-Aesthetic percussionist Marshall Trammell’s STTRCRFT platform articulates his commitment to the study of the worlds’ percussive arts in his multi-limbed Improvisation system. Utilizing super bananas electronic and guitar sounds, live processing, and heavy-heavy percussion Mr Watkins “weaves…undulating dronescape(s), of deep sonic swells and muted electronic buzz, utilizing analog synths, guitars, drums and percussion, cassette, Casio, bass, and of course electricity(!)“
http://blackspirituals.com/
ETTRICK
San Francisco Weekly review, John Graham, Feb 2010
“Jazz for the Aftermath”
The reeds-and-rhythm duo of Ettrick plays an improvisational, tabula rasa-type of thrashing free jazz that’s almost post-apocalyptic. At the very least it’s unconstrained by any normative form of architecture, occupying the wide open terrain vague between the turbulent saxophone cyclones of free jazz and the nuclear blast beats of avant-metal: imagine German sax titan Peter Brštzmann getting into a wild ‘n’ woolly rumble with Naked City drummer Joey Baron, or Anthony Braxton battling Orthrelm. In Ettrick, however, both members Ñ Jacob Felix Heule and Jay Korber Ñ play both instruments, tag-teaming each other by swapping instruments in mid-set, or both playing drums or saxophone simultaneously, inevitably choosing to do whatever causes the maximum amount of musical ruckus. It’s an exhausting, frenetic spectacle that, by dint of the effort expended at each gig, can only last a few minutes before either the players or the instruments end up half-wrecked. But all is not wanton destruction in Ettrick’s world: after the show, a few smiles are always sure to bloom like flowers amid the debris.
http://ettrick.org/
http://www.douglaskatelus.com/ record-release.html
Kerry Laitala’s camera-less, electro-photographic images lie at the direct intersection between science and superstition, belief and manifestation. Using an electrical generator, she exposes light-sensitive 4×5” film with the build-up of ions that creates a corona discharge on the surface of conductive objects. The light generated comes directly from electricity; the corona discharge creates the photographic impression. This body of work takes into consideration Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” with regard to the aura of objects. Laitala works directly with small metal objects such as souvenirs, charms, or other artifacts that have been made conductive with the application of metal paint. Working with this process is rather new to her practice, but she has been experimenting with it for over three years. She merges digital technologies with analog processes for greater control over the composition at all stages of its creation.