Sep 15, 2023
I'll be playing at Supplemental Space at Fouroneone next Sunday, Sep 24th. I'll play around 8pm, but the performances start from 4pm with Theoxenia, R.A. Jones and Off Pink! Free! Many thanks to Record Grouch and see you all there!
Mar 6, 2022
I'll be hanging with Roderick Wolgamott of Sky Cries Mary at Revision Lounge NYC on April 7th, chatting about our new vinyl releases, screening some of our music videos, and generally nerdin' out in public. Save the date and join us from 7pm!
Feb 4, 2022
Selected Live Recordings is the third in a series of three limited-run vinyl reissues of my music spearheaded by De la Catessen Records, and is now available for preorder (and digital download). This is a little different from a straight reissue, in that it contains some previously unreleased material, such as the keyboard/delay piece "Burial Music" and a full 15-minute version of "Rose Street Womb".
The tracks were re-selected from the MOTM archive by Luke Altmann (with a little input from me) and was re-mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi in 2021. It includes an insert with beautiful liner notes written by Jon Dale, and cover design by Sam Songailo.
Preorder or download HERE.
Nov 5, 2021
De la Catessen Records is already working on my next vinyl reissue, Excavation Patterns.
This album was recorded in Adelaide in 2004, during a brief period when I had 24-hour access to a (shared) recording studio. I used to wait until midnight when no one else was using the space, then drag in armfuls of amps and repurposed guitars (like the baritone guitar I used on this album) and record all night. Damn the consequences!
De la Catessen has given this album new life with Sam Songailo's awesome design work, Luke Altmann's touching liner notes, remastering by Frank Merritt at The Carvery, and DMM cut by Tom Haunstein at The Entire Sound Spectrum.
Preorder now from this limited hand-numbered vinyl pressing by clicking HERE.
Sep 14, 2021
I'll be officially celebrating the release of my LP Chord from the Second Delphic Hymn (De la Catessen Records) with a live performance at NYC's 3rd & B'zaar! I'll be performing on the live audio delay system, screening some brand new video delay works, and selling copies of the record.
$10 suggested donation at the door. Drinks available.
Mar 5, 2021
Extremely proud to announce the 12" LP vinyl reissue of Chord from the Second Delphic Hymn on De la Catessen Records.
AVAILABLE NOW TO PRE-ORDER!
FROM DE LA CATESSEN'S PRESS RELEASE:
This is the first ever vinyl release from the archives of Music of Transparent Means, the constantly evolving minimalist ensemble of up to 21 players active in Adelaide, Australia from 2002 to 2007.
Long celebrated by a tiny circle of initiates and hardcore minimalism aficionados, Music of Transparent Means shaped the sound of its native city to its most euphoric and immersive state with a series of terrifically intense concerts of original compositions. After its leader Alex Carpenter was lured to New York in 2007, the surviving artefacts - coveted CD-R editions handmade by Carpenter himself - were circulated only among the most trusting fans.
De la Catessen Records proudly presents Chord from the Second Delphic Hymn alongside Music of Transparent Means' anthem Emerging like an Infant from the House of Truth, recorded live at an evening performance at De la Catessen Gallery in 2005 and remastered in 2021 under Carpenter's supervision by Schuyler Tsuda.
Lovers of the music of La Monte Young, Phill Niblock, Tony Conrad and Arnold Dreyblatt will discover much on this album to rejoice.
"Joyous sensory over-stimulation (...) a kind of blissful, obliterated exhaustion (...) the music is, quite simply, a head-fucking blast to listen to and swim through" - Jon Dale
Available to pre-order from a hand-numbered vinyl edition of just 100 copies from now on BANDCAMP. Pre-order copies will be shipped September/October 2021.
Nov 7, 2014
OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCING THE RELEASE OF ALEX CARPENTER'S BOOK/CD/DVD "FOR ALMA". A MILLION THANKS TO THE 94 GENEROUS FUNDERS WHO MADE THIS PROJECT POSSIBLE. LIMITED COPIES STILL AVAILABLE FOR $40 (USD) PLUS SHIPPING - PLEASE VISIT THE DISCOGRAPHY PAGE FOR DETAILS. FOR MEDIA-RELATED INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT ALEX HERE.
May 10, 2014
I'll be talking to Grahame Dudley about For Alma on the "Continuum" program on Radio Adelaide, Thursday May 15 at 9:10am (Australian Eastern Time) / Wednesday May 14 at 7:40pm (North American EST). That's 101.5FM in Adelaide or Listen online!
March 25, 2014
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I am very proud to officially let you know about For Alma. This book and album—inspired (and/or created) by the mythical ghost Alma—represents the last 2 years of my life, work and thinking. This mammoth collection of work is now complete, I just need a little bit of help to set the printing machines in motion, self-publish and get it out there! Please check out my campaign page, including the cool little vid Maegan Hayward helped me make (in which I explain more about the project), and please consider getting on board! Anything you can give will help immensely. Rewards start from just $10. THANK YOU!!!! --Alex |
From the campaign page:
In late 2011, I began regular recording sessions on the 3rd floor of an empty house in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C., which was introduced to me by my friend Nicholas Syracuse and his family. I considered this just a place to record and nothing more, until Nick's family started talking about the "ghost" who lived there. I heard stories of phantom singing sounds, mysterious sensations and visions, and a framed photograph that kept appearing in a cupboard despite several efforts to remove it.
The mythology surrounding the house really interested me, and started to become my main focus when going there to record. I named the ghost "Alma", and she came to personify the unknown energy appearing and living in the empty spaces I set up in my music. I started to emphasize these empty spaces, as if to "invoke" Alma, invite her to speak.
This made something special happen. Complex structures were suddenly allowed to grow from the smallest building blocks with very little instruction from my learned artistic vocabulary. I started to wonder, what other "ghosts" were my cultural habits preventing me from seeing? Could Alma be showing me a way into this elusive region?
Or maybe Alma wasn't there to help me at all. Perhaps she was simply bound by habit herself, trapped in her familiar surroundings, unable to let go and see what was really present for her. Perhaps it was Alma who needed me.
From these ideas came the album and book For Alma, which I am happy to say is now ready to see the world.
For Alma is an album of audio pieces, as well as a collection of essays, photos and performance-based video works captured in the Virginia space, presented as a hard cover book with two embedded media discs. The works are my most structurally-diverse delay system improvisations to date, and include collaborative contributions from Alexis Maxwell (dance, portrait modeling) and Nicholas Syracuse (portrait modeling). For Alma draws links, in a poetic yet accessible way, that connect the ghost's symbolic enclosure, the physical enclosure of the house, and the various "closures" that define cultural communities and languages. The book also outlines in detail the evolution of the audio and video performance systems responsible for conjuring Alma in the first place.
At its heart though, For Alma is a ghost story; a study in engaging with the unknown, in clearing away what obscures the truly present for us. If it really was Alma who I met behind these layers, this is what she showed me..
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The business side: I believe this is an extremely unique project, but a challenging one to fund through the regular, established channels, not least because it traverses multiple disciplines and formats. That's why I'm relying on YOUR SUPPORT to put this work together properly.
My goal with this campaign is simple: to self-publish For Alma and fund an initial print run of 150 hand-numbered books. These will go to preorder customers (that's you!) and press, with a view to gaining wider distribution and interest. All the components of this project are designed, edited, mixed, authored and READY TO GO, I just need your help to set the printing machines in motion!
There are lots of goods on offer for your contribution of just $10 or more. All contributions of $30 or more are considered preorder purchases of the book itself, and will secure you (in addition to other perks) your very own hand-numbered copy of For Alma, to be delivered as soon as printing is complete. Additional goods on offer include bonus tracks taken from the Virginia sessions and personalized photographic prints. Please take a browse through the contribution categories for more details, and THANK YOU in advance for helping make For Alma a reality.
--Alex
March 20, 2014
New York friends: Next Thursday March 27th I'll be supporting the incredible Thurn & Taxis with Six Acre Lake at St Vitus, Brooklyn. 8pm / $10. More info here.
March 20, 2014
Adelaide friends: Catch a piece from my upcoming multi-format release For Alma this Saturday March 22 (8pm) at Sounding Off, alongside works by Warren Burt, Jim Denley, Brigid Burke, Tristan Louth-Robbins and many others.
August 19, 2013
About 18 months ago, I began regular recording sessions on the 3rd floor of an empty house in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington D.C., which was introduced to me by my friend Nicholas Syracuse and his family. The place was really just somewhere to record and nothing more, until Nick's family started talking about the "ghost" who lived there. I heard stories of phantom singing sounds, mysterious sensations and visions, and a framed photograph that kept appearing in a cupboard on the 3rd floor after several efforts to remove it.
The mythology surrounding the house really interested me, and started to become my main focus when going there to record. I named the ghost Alma, and she came to personify the unknown energy appearing and living in the empty spaces and channels I set up in my music. I started to emphasize these empty spaces, as if to "invoke" Alma, and invite her to speak.
Alma's story also seemed to represent so aptly the human experience in general. Who among us does not inhabit his/her own "house"? Aren't we all engaged in maintaining those structures of meaning that so convincingly and reassuringly fortify us against the great unknown? And is this a useful shelter, or a self-made prison? What are we closing ourselves off from in the name of preserving this shelter?
From these ideas and the artwork created in the Virginia space, the book and album For Alma was born, which I am excited to say is now in its final stages. I'm really excited about this project, and can't wait to share the last 18 months of my work with you. Keep an eye on this space!
July 10, 2013
My video delay work Limb Piece will screen as part of Thinking MEDIA III (curated by Jinsik Shin, Jung Hee Choi and Jung-Chul Hur) at the Chungmu Art Hall Gallery, Seoul, Korea, from August 14 to 20.
May 8, 2013
Tune into Continuum on Radio Adelaide (101.5FM or listen online) tomorrow morning 9:10-11:00am (Australian central time) to hear me talk with Graham Dudley about tomorrow's event and play some of my music!
May 1, 2013
I will be presenting some of my new audio-visual work and research at the Elder Conservatorium of Music's Sonic Arts forum next Thursday (May 9) at the University of Adelaide. It's officially a presentation for students, but non-students are also welcome (free event). This work has been many months in the making and I'd love to share it with you. See official spiel below. Hope to see you there! --Alex
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Alex Carpenter is an Australian musician and visual artist living in New York City. Currently, Alex works chiefly with extended delay processes to create modes of live improvisation that draw on foundational elements or otherwise hidden nuances within audio and visual material.
Through Alex's delay systems, performed actions are captured and layered continuously upon playback with previous cyclical generations, providing material that can be built on in a largely "unthinking" way. The goal of these systems is to engage the performer in a focused, ecstatic process of observing and responding as the accumulating material suggests paths to follow and takes on a life of its own.
In Alex's recent work, a mythical ghost "Alma" has come to personify this potentially unrealized path, and is thus "invoked" in the music and video as a kind of invisible collaborator.
At Thursday's Sonic Arts Forum, May 9th, Alex will present a collection of 3 recent works recorded and shot in the Virginia building Alma reputedly haunts. Alex will also talk about his current performance practice, and read excerpts from his upcoming book release "For Alma."
--
Details:
EMU Studio, Schulz Building, 5th Floor (above Scott Theatre)
University of Adelaide
Thursday, May 9th, 2pm (FREE)
Sep 29, 2012
Sep 12, 2012
INFINITE BODY COLLAPSE
Screening of New Video Delay Works by Alex Carpenter with Dancer Alexis Maxwell
Microscope Gallery
4 Charles Place, Brooklyn, NY 11221 [map]
Saturday October 6th, 7pm ($6)
Perhaps ghosts don't exist "between" normal points of focus, but reside at the core of these points. The essence of things lies within the things, not somewhere else. We don't need to make the things softer and more delicate, just because we imagine an essence that is itself soft and delicate. If anything, we need to make the things LOUDER, MORE forceful, MORE singular. Maybe then, once our perception tires of the surface layers, becomes exhausted, we will at last see the fragile core that has always eluded us.
"Infinite Body Collapse" is a collection of new works by Alex Carpenter, drawn from recent video delay sessions with dancer Alexis Maxwell, as well as audio delay recordings made this summer in an allegedly haunted house in Alexandria, Virginia.
Through Alex's video delay system, performed actions (danced, drawn, light-operated) are captured and layered continuously upon playback with previous cyclical generations, providing material for the performer to build on in a largely "unthinking" way. The system engages the performer in a focused, ecstatic process of observing and responding, as normal points of focus are saturated, obliterated, and a space is cleared for the unfolding of activity on a different scale.
PROGRAM: Building Dwelling (20'), Portrait of Alexis Maxwell (6'), Limb Piece (6'), Portrait of Nicholas Syracuse (12'), Infinite Body Collapse (16'). [TRT approximately 60 minutes.]
Jul 27, 2012
More pieces and photos from my most recent (and in fact first ever dancer/human-subject-based) live video delay installation can now be found in the event archive. Here is a sample of my "portrait" of Nicholas Syracuse:
Jul 16, 2012
Excerpt from my recent live video delay sessions with dancer Alexis Maxwell:
May 25, 2012
The Rodanti Bros and myself are helping Nicholas Syracuse exhibit excerpts from his epic road documentary project Highway at Artomatic this June in Crystal City, VA (DC area). Come to the Carl Cordell Film Theater, 1851 South Bell St, Crystal City, June 2nd 4-6pm. Excerpts from Highway with live audio delay accompaniment by myself, plus screenings of my video delay pieces and Rodanti Bros' The Lonely Pair.
May 3, 2012
In Alexandria (VA) again this weekend recording with the live audio delay system. You know the drill! If you're in the area and would like to sit in on any of this weekend-long open recording session/performance, call or text 917-675-1973 for details. Hours: 12-7pm, Saturday and Sunday.
Apr 28, 2012
Another from the recent (and ongoing) haunted house sessions in Old Town, Alexandria, VA. Even though I'm a skeptic, I still identify the house as "haunted" because of the stories that abound about the ghost who lives in this building. On one level this music is for her: If she exists she is engaged in an ingenious strategy to avoid being released back into "nothingness", by hanging on to the building that sheltered her from nothingness during her life. On another level, it is for every living soul inhabiting a metaphorical shelter. Including myself.
Apr 22, 2012
From last month in the Old Town space:
Apr 18, 2012
Happy to report, the second Rodanti Bros' film I scored, "The Lonely Pair", was awarded Special Jury Mention for Short Film at Ashland Independent Film Festival.
Apr 16, 2012
3rd composited panoramic shot of the ongoing audio delay project space in Alexandria, VA. Photo/s by Nicholas Syracuse and myself / compositing by me. I love these composites. They seem like such an apt way to represent the location of a music similarly "composited" from small pieces.
Apr 7, 2012
Old Town, I've missed you! This time we're opening up the space all weekend, so if anyone is in DC / Alexandria (VA) anytime from now until Sun night, and wants to sit in on some multi-amp live audio delay in an empty 19th-century house, call or text 917-675-1973.
Apr 2, 2012
Composited panorama of the latest live audio delay system setup in Old Town, Alexandria, VA, March 24-25.
[Audio samples from this performance: HERE!]
Mar 22, 2012
Happening again this weekend in the DC/North Virginia area: All weekend recording, culminating in a free performance on Sunday night (March 25) in a 19th-century house in Old Town, Alexandria, VA. Live construction/dwelling via audio delay networks, multiple vintage amps. With screenings of some of my video delay pieces, and excerpts from Nicholas Syracuse's Highway. Free. Call 917-675-1973 between 7 and 7:30pm Sunday for entrance (building is on Duke Street in Old Town).
Mar 8, 2012
Images and some audio from the December sessions/performance in DC now up here.
Dec 18, 2011
Attention DC / North Virginia dwellers: Currently, Nicholas Syracuse and I have stacks of vintage amps set up in an awesome, empty (and possibly haunted) house in Old Town, Alexandria, and TONIGHT we host a guerrilla performance/recording for anyone interested. Screenings of my video delay pieces and excerpts from Nick's Highway, with live audio delay accompaniment. 7:30pm / Free / BYOB. Call 917-675-1973 for entrance.
Dec 5, 2011
Screening of Nicholas Syracuse's Highway teaser this Wednesday. Steal a peek into this stunning photographic chronicle of hidden America. A wonderful project which I'm proud to say includes my music. Additional documentaries by Ballard C. Boyd, Catherine Stratton, and Adam Taylor.
Bar 13 @35 E.13th St, NYC. $10 at door.
Oct 18, 2011
A CMJ screening in Bushwick this Friday features a short film I scored, "The Lonely Pair".
Unfinished Studios / 75 Stewart Ave #427, Brooklyn / $5
7:00pm: doors
8:45pm: Screening, Part 1
11:00pm: Screening, Part 2 (feat. "The Lonely Pair")
Aug 1, 2011
AUGUST 3RD - Fontana's, Lower East Side (Manhattan). Playing with Ella Joyce Buckley. $5.
AUGUST 15TH - The Delancey (168 Delancey St, NYC). Playing with Ella Joyce Buckley. With Vera Beren's Gothic Chamber Blues Ensemble. NC.
July 9, 2011
JULY 10TH AT BRUAR FALLS 245 GRAND ST, BROOKLYN (BEDFORD L TRAIN). DOORS AT 8PM. PLAYING A SHORT SOLO SET, THEN ACCOMPANYING ELLA JOYCE BUCKLEY.
June 6, 2011
June 17 at THE CHURCH (142 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn) 9pm. Supporting Pronto (featuring Mikael Jorgensen of Wilco). I'll be playing a short solo set, then accompanying the fab Ella Joyce Buckley!
May 14, 2011
May 19 - Korzo, 667 5th Ave, Brooklyn. Me (guitar, live audio delay), Daniel Bindschedler (cello) and Kyle Farrell (vibraphone). 9pm.
May 7, 2011
Another spontaneous loop capture.
April 28, 2011
Spontaneous capture of a guitar via delay system loop. The loop was built gradually but you hear it here at full maturity. I'd classify this among the more harmonically mutable forms of audio delay life.
April 19, 2011
May 10 - Alex performs at LMAKProjects, Manhattan. Audio and video delay. Also performing: Bryon Westbrook and Philip White.
May 5 - Alex (guitar, live audio delay) performs at Roots Cafe, Brooklyn, with Daniel Bindschedler (cello) and Kyle Farrell (vibraphone) for a show of paintings by Jake Nelson.
April 2, 2011
Alex Carpenter presents kinetic forms coaxed from his live video delay system - an invention which employs chains of cameras and projectors to assist in the creation of living light-cell organisms! - while contributing live audio activity in a symbiotic interchange.
Sunday April 3, at Microscope Gallery, 4 Charles Place, Brooklyn. 7PM / $6.
March 7, 2011
Just added samples of my seventh video delay piece to the MELA September 14-17 collection page.
March 1, 2011
Watch part of my recent performance at Cafe Orwell, Brooklyn, caught on camera by Maxine Stadnik: HERE.
January 11, 2011
Alex Carpenter will be performing with the (complete) live video and audio delay systems, with additional live audio delay by James Ross, Tuesday Feb 15th, 8pm at OptoSonic Tea, Diapason Gallery, 882 Third Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets, 10th floor, Brooklyn.
Also performing: Chris Jordan (live visuals) with Bradford Reed (live sound).
Invited respondent/moderator: Andrea Monti.
OptoSonic Tea is a regular series of meetings dedicated to the convergence of live visuals with live sound which focuses on the visual component. These presentation-and-discussion meetings aim to explore different forms of live visuals (live video, live film, live slide projection and their variations and combinations) and the different ways they can come into interaction with live audio. Each evening features two different live visual artists or groups of artists who each perform a set with the live sound artists of their choice. The presentations are followed by an informal discussion about the artists' practices over a cup of green tea. A third artist, from previous generations of visualists or related fields, is invited specifically to participate in this discussion so as to create a dialogue between current and past practices and provide different perspectives on the present and the future.
Organized by Katherine Liberovskaya and Ursula Scherrer.
January 7, 2011
The line up from last November's show at Pianos is back this Saturday Feb 12th, 7:30 til midnight at Cafe Orwell, Brooklyn.
That's RICHARD LAINHART, JAMES ROSS, GEORGE STADNIK and ALEX CARPENTER, this time alongside Birdorgan (MA) and The Aggressive Attention-Seekers. Donations welcome.
December 23, 2010
Watch a couple of video excerpts from my recent performance at Pianos: HERE.
December 3, 2010
Alex Carpenter (guitar, live audio delay) and Dan Bindschedler (cello) perform at An Exhibition of Paintings at Under Minerva Gallery, 656 Fifth Ave at 19th Street, Brooklyn. December 16th, 6-9pm. Free.
December 1, 2010
Watch a short excerpt from Dan Bindschedler and my performance at BETA Spaces last month: HERE.
November 13, 2010
Alex Carpenter (guitar, live audio delay) and Dan Bindschedler (cello) perform at Better Than Jam, tomorrow (November 14) 4:30-7pm, as part of the Arts in Bushwick BETA Spaces program.
October 19, 2010
A night of engaging new audio visual work with: RICHARD LAINHART (Guitar, Electronics, Films), ALEX CARPENTER (Guitar, Live Audio & Video Delay), JAMES ROSS (Guitar, Live Looping), GEORGE STADNIK (Digital Lumia, Photon Guitar).
Pianos 158 Ludlow St NYC / November 7th 7pm / FREE
October 12, 2010
I recently completed the soundtrack to THIS short film, Widower by Nick Hartanto and Sam Roden. If you recognize echos of Chord from the Second Delphic Hymn, you are not mistaken - the project was conceived around the feeling cinematographer Nick Hartanto got when listening to this piece, which was used as a loose basis for the guitar and live audio delay score.
October 5, 2010
Excerpts from my latest video delay session(s), MELA Foundation, NYC, September 14-17, 2010, now available HERE.
September 24, 2010
> Alex with Live Audio Delay System at Open House Brooklyn. Saturday, October 9th. Music from 5pm. 728 5th Ave (at 23rd St), Brooklyn.
July 27, 2010
> Alex Carpenter's Live Video Delay 2 screens alongside works by La Monte Young / Marian Zazeela, Katherine Liberovskaya / Phill Niblock, Henry Flynt, Jung Hee Choi and others at the 9th Korea Experimental Arts Festival. Seoul Art Space_Seogyo, 369-8 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, Korea. July 24 through August 1, 1-7pm (daily).
July 27, 2010
> Alex Carpenter (live audio delay system) with James Ross (guitar) and Michael Waller (guitar). Goodbye Blue Monday (1087 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY). August 20, 9pm. Free.
July 20, 2010
Some cool shots courtesy of Nicholas Syracuse from last night's set at Goodbye Blue Monday: HERE.
June 25, 2010
Disappointingly, the performance scheduled for tomorrow (June 26) at Youth Group Gallery has been cancelled. Unbeknownst to us, the venue was being occupied illegally, and was issued with a Vacate Order by the NYC Department of Buildings this morning. We were all really excited to put on this show, and will be looking to reschedule at another venue very soon. Stay tuned..
June 10, 2010
> Alex Carpenter (guitar, live audio delay) at Goodbye Blue Monday (1087 Broadway, Brooklyn). July 19, 11:30pm. No cover.
> Alex Carpenter with James Ross and Michael Waller, at Goodbye Blue Monday (1087 Broadway, Brooklyn). August 20, 9pm.
> Alex Carpenter (Guitar, Laser, Live Video & Audio Delay Systems), James Ross (Guitar, Live Audio Delay System) and Richard Lainhart (Guitar, Electronics, Film) at Youth Group Gallery (19 Hope St Basement, Brooklyn). June 26, 8:30pm. $5 suggested donation.
April 13, 2010
Photos and video from the Live Video Delay System public debut at The Tank, March 31st: HERE.
March 1, 2010
ALEX PRESENTS THE LIVE VIDEO DELAY SYSTEM WITH JAMES ROSS AT THE TANK, NYC, MARCH 31ST, 7:30PM. ENTRY $7.
[PRESS RELEASE:] Performance or scientific experiment? Australian-born artist Alex Carpenter's new invention, the Live Video Delay System, employs chains of cameras, projectors and lens filters to assist in the creation of living light-cell organisms!
The system allows Alex to build layers of live laser "drawings," coaxing remarkably organic visual forms and patterns onto the screen, while musician James Ross contributes audio activity in a symbiotic interchange.
[MORE ABOUT THE LIVE VIDEO DELAY SYSTEM]
February 8, 2010
NEW ESSAY: On Listening and Expression, Part 2
January 7, 2010
NEW ESSAY: Notes on the Evolution of the Live Video Delay System [click image to read]:
October 27, 2009
The Live Video Delay System lives!
After lots of planning and preparation, the Live Video Delay System was finally installed (privately) on September 21-22 at MELA Foundation, NYC.
Here are some of the results.
Oct 29, 2011
Check out my most recent film score. "The Lonely Pair", directed by Nick Hartanto and Sam Roden.
August 27, 2010
Archived video of last week's performance with James Ross and Michael Waller. Produced for ImprovFriday by Richard Lainhart and Jim Goodin.
July 2, 2009
Two excerpts from my recent video clip for the second section of Excavation Patterns. This section uses baritone guitar, delays and multiple amps. Layered video shot in Prospect Park and Park Slope in Brooklyn, June 2009.
March 15, 2009
Video animation made from multi-layered still images. Officially a demo until I can record the audio on Disklavier.
July 10, 2009
Two shows coming up:
July 19
Share @ Issue Project Room
232 3rd Street, 3rd Floor, Brooklyn, NY
8pm, free admission
Guest set with Michael Waller, Kyle Bobby Dunn & James Ross
MORE INFO ABOUT SHARE
July 20
Goodbye Blue Monday
1087 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY
9pm, free admission
With David Beardsley, James Ross & Joseph Benzola
LIVE WEB STREAM
July 1, 2009
The second half of 2009 promises to be really exciting. Other than a few shows in the pipeline, I've been building a new video system which essentially realizes a visual analogue to an improvisational approach I often use in solo electro-acoustic performance scenarios (e.g. Deep Golden Flourish, Excavation Patterns). These scenarios involve one or several long audio loops (5-23 seconds), which begin as near-blank "canvases" and are built on in real time via a delayed feedback/response cycle.
This process is different to perhaps more standard layered looping processes in that it does not begin with a structural foundation in place, or in mind. Rather, the structure evolves from - and is determined by - the layering process itself.
I like to think of this performance activity as a kind of "tending." It is not the willing-into-existence of an already known thing, but a careful and reverent listening and responding, which ensures the thing grows from, and stands on, its own foundations.
What results is a growing "organism" that is neither purely a product of the performer, nor completely reducible to the processing mechanism. The performer contributes new material, but he/she is always guided by what is played back, and what is played back is always the sum of his/her previous recorded "guidances." In another sense, you could say the organism's path of development is shaped by its own previous experiences and memories, and the impression they have upon those looking on and reacting.
Taking this analogy further, perhaps there is a kind of dangerous seduction at play between the organism and the reactor. The organism needs to seduce the reactor in order to grow and flourish, but peril is always present in that the reactor may at any time wittingly or unwittingly obliterate the organism, either by not responding sensitively or by exerting his/her power to reduce it to his/her own will.
Watch this space for details of screenings and demonstrations in New York.
November 21, 2008
Alex Carpenter performs with Kyle Dunn this Tuesday Nov 25 at Pianos, 158 Ludlow St, NYC. Supporting Boduf Songs and To Kill a Petty Bourgeoisie. 8pm.
September 5, 2007
Chord From The Second Delphic Hymn CD now available (via this website only). Many thanks to those who preordered a copy of the LP that never was. Your understanding and patience throughout this whole debacle has been greatly appreciated. CDs have now been posted to all preorder customers who requested a copy.
August 8, 2007
If you reserved a copy of the MOTM lathe-cut LP Chord From The Second Delphic Hymn, you will have received an email about the latest news. In short, regretfully, the records are completely flawed and cannot be released. My sincere apologies. Read the full story HERE.
July 27, 2007
CHORD FROM THE SECOND DELPHIC HYMN LATHE-CUT LP NOW SOLD OUT. NO MORE ORDERS PLEASE. ORDERS SHIPPED AUGUST 8TH.
June 16, 2007
CHORD FROM THE SECOND DELPHIC HYMN SINGLE-SIDED LP FINALLY SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE ON AUGUST 8TH AND AVAILABLE TO PREORDER NOW!
THIS IS AN EXTREMELY LIMITED RELEASE ON LATHE-CUT POLYCARBONATE 12" LP DISC (PLAYABLE ON ANY REGULAR TURNTABLE), MANUFACTURED AT KING RECORDS, NZ. ONLY A HANDFUL ARE BEING MADE SO PREORDER NOW TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT!
PREORDER PRICE IS $AUD35 PER DISC (INCLUDES POSTAGE WITHIN AUSTRALIA). PRICE WILL INCREASE TO $AUD45 AFTER RELEASE DATE IF ANY UNRESERVED ITEMS ARE LEFT.
IF PAYPAL'S NOT YOUR THING, PLEASE EMAIL VANISHED RECORDS TO RESERVE COPIES AND ARRANGE PAYMENT VIA ALTERNATIVE MEANS. ALL PREORDERS SHIPPED ON RELEASE DATE, 8 AUGUST 2007.
