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Under the arches and pipe organ inside the Washington Square Church,
soprano saxist Holland Hopson and guitarist James
Keepnews assembled a collection of powerbooks, rack
electonics and pedals, performing for two hours as a
duo and in trio with Tom Chess on tenor
sax and oud, and Damian Catera on guitar, powerbook
and electronics.
Starting with sirens and politically charged samples,
the duo- both of whom's racks
included anti-war stickers- worked subtle
sax riffs and passionate guitar chords in juxtaposition
to the samples. Hopson's playing was
generally continuous, twisting around the samples with
odd harmonic interactions generated by his computer.
The umbilicus of cables trailing from his sax included
an altitude sensor with which he could control various
aspects of the generated sound, at times creating a
chorus of saxes playing in multiple registers and
tonalities. Keepnews jumped between the powerbook,
his rack and his guitar, controlling the flow of the
samples and occasional sampled rhythms, even
dropping in the Casey Casum quotes that caused
Negativland so much legal trouble. The results were a lovely juxtaposition of ugly
sentiment and beautiful playing, as the two created a
21st century improvisation, cajoling odd signal
twists from their electronics.
After performing two pieces the duo was joined by Tom
Chess for two improvisations. On the first Chess
played tenor sax, opening with a powerful tone over
which the three developed an abstracted interplay.
Here Chess was an excellent foil for Hopson and
Keepnews as his lower register playing complemented their higher octave strategies. The
piece slowly developed into a duo between Hopson
and Chess, an interesting contrast of acoustic tenor
and electronic soprano. For their second piece Chess
switched to the oud, playing middle-eastern melodies
over which Keepnew s' haunting samples wailed. The
communication between the three was excellent,
interacting with each other as Keepnews varied the
piece through samples of voices and rhythms, slowly
bringing itself to a peaceful and coherent conclusion.
Hopson and Keepnews then returned to duo format
with the most structured piece of the evening which they
described as having a "modicum of a plan." They
described the piece as taking the audience to the
"South East instead of Central Asia (along the axis of
evil)." The piece began with samples of traffic noises
and a slow tabla led rhythm over which Hopson played
clustered figures against Keepnews' distorted guitar
riffs, making a meandering journey into a dark world.
After the break the two returned for two more
improvisations, interactions with squiggly noises and
strident distortions, whistful pieces that never
completely congealed, but which wafted about the
church in interesting ways.
Damian Catera then joined the duo as the final guest of
the evening. This introduced one more powerbook and
another guitar to the fold, as Keepnews and Catera
built sheets of drones over which Hopson looped sax
lines. A rich, thick noise tapestry was created out of
which identifiable beats played forward and backward
while samples appeared and dispelled themselves.
The music took interesting turns with dense dynamic
drops, the three interacting with bold structures and
ideas.
The concert ended with a final duo improvisation using
no processing. The subtle interactions between
Hopson and Keepnews showed the musicality that
provided the foundation for their electronic excursions,
a lovely ending to a dynamic and interesing
performance.
See Harsh House at Squidco
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