Performers
Please click on the titles to visit the performers’ website if available.
Judgement Day
photo by Riki Feldmann.
“You’d be hard pressed to find three musicians of any ilk—classical, rock, or jazz—capable of tighter rhythmic workouts. And the virtuoso credentials of both string players are, well, rock solid. The instrumentals are heavily filtered through signal processors and in some instances those effects helped to dictate the direction of the song, fueling the musicians’ artistic vision. Peacocks/Pink Monsters is a master class in the seemingly boundless possibilities of signal-processed, electronic string music and a testament to the band’s creativity. And it rocks! “—Greg Cahill, Reveiw excerpt from All Things Strings: On Record, Stringsmagazine.com
Million Star Hotel
Million Star Hotel, described as “an Epic Psychedilia band in the tradition of Moby Grape, prides itself on its debt to the golden age. Their lyricist has been described as “Cole Porter on acid” while their complex freeform arrangements mark them as happily lost in the excesses of 1975. Big round flowing shapes float past your ears as you are lulled into a ruthless attack on sentimentalism, specular culture, and moral reductionism, cloaked in a language both intimate and enigmatic enough to be obviously the work of a true poet.”
Captains of Industry
“We try not to draw attention to ourselves but rather to provide euphonic illumination for the people and things we see and sense: think of us as a quality of light. We use vintage analog synthesizers, modded effects boxes, and loops created from sample banks that we have recorded in our own studio and on the field. You will hear mitre saws, creaky wooden bridges, chickens, shipping containers being unloaded at the docks, and fragments of casual conversation woven into the textures we create. You may even hear yourselves being recorded, modified, interwoven into the spectral field, and folded back into the atmosphere of your party or event.”
Members of Tatsumaki Taiko
Photograph copyright (C) 2009 Richard Man. All rights reserved. http://www.rfman.com
Tatsumaki Taiko takes their name from the Japanese word for “whirlwind,” and literally translated means “spinning dragon.” Tatsumaki Taiko evolved from the group “Taiko Spirit.” The original group was formed in the spring of 1995. In 1998, the group was re-formed as Tatsumaki Taiko by Phil Pickering, co-founder of “Taiko Spirit.”
Sterling Johnson, The Bubblesmith
The only performer who specializes in blowing bubbles using only his hands, Sterling Johnson was trained as an engineer and a lawyer. His bubble blowing to entertain friends over 30 years ago has developed into a full stage show. Sterling is the only person to ever put a bubble inside a bubble inside a bubble on stage without any straws or tubes, and the first person to walk completely through a bubble film. He explains it this way, “When a hand is soapy, you can slide it right into a bubble because the bubbles respond as if your hand is part of them. I had a fantasy of getting entirely soapy and walking into or out of a vey large bubble. We tried it at the second and third Exploratorium Bubble Festivals in the 1980s. I stripped down to my bathing suit and bathing cap, was drenched with detergent, and Richard Faverty waved huge bubbles over me as I attempted to walk out through the film. Although the bubble often popped just as my last foot was coming out, I got credit for having succeeded by the end.”
Vorcan
www.50dollarlunch.com