DJ Sniff / Evan Parker / Joel Ryan / Adam Linson

Event information

Solo and collaborative sets from experimental turntablist DJ Sniff with Evan Parker (saxophones), Joel Ryan (Electronics) and Adam Linson (Bass, Electronics).

DJ SNIFF / turntables

dj sniff (Takuro Mizuta Lippit) believes in the instrumental autonomy of the turntable and the musicianship of the DJ. He is a turntable musician working in the field of improvised and experimental music. His music focuses on the live reconstruction and narratization of the phonographically amplified - the music, the sound, the technology and the past. To achieve this, he uses a unique setup consisting of hand-made hardware interfaces and a custom Max/MSP software along with one turntable and DJ mixer.

He is also a concert/event curator for electronic music and a researcher of music technology.

While studying Art History and Philosophy in Tokyo, he was active as a DJ in the underground electronic music scene and formed a collective called smashTV productions which organized genre-mixing events such as anti-Gravity and bistro-Smash!. In 2002, he moved to New York to pursue graduate studies in computer music and physical computing at NYU's ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program).

Since 2005 he has been involved with STEIM's (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music, Amsterdam) R&D lab. From 2007 on, he is STEIM's Artistic Director, guiding the institution's creative output and representing it's activities through performing and lecturing around the world.

In 2010, he released his first solo album "the play-back" through lebanese label Annihaya and in 2011 released 'ep' on Evan Parker's psi label - a CD of his "attempt to play Evan Parker".

EVAN PARKER / saxophones

"ln The Human Province, Elias Canetti writes "lt is not enough to think, one also has to breathe. Dangerous are the thinkers who have not breathed enough." In Evan Parker's music, thought and breath are continuous, each the instrument and measure of the other." Stuart Broomer, Coda 1995

Evan Parker has been a consistently innovative presence in British free music since the 1960s. Parker played with John Stevens in the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, experimenting with new kinds of group improvisation and held a long-standing partnership with guitarist Derek Bailey. The two formed the Music Improvisation Company and later Incus Records. He also has tight associations with European free improvisations - playing on Peter Brötzmann's legendary 'Machine Gun' session (1968), with Alexander Von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens (A trio that continues to this day), Globe Unity Orchestra, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, and Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers Orchestra (LJCO).

Though he has worked extensively in both large and small ensembles, Parker is perhaps best known for his solo soprano saxophone music, a singular body of work that in recent years has centred around his continuing exploration of techniques such as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. These are technical devices, yet Parker's use of them is, he says, less analytical than intuitive; he has likened performing his solo work to entering a kind of trance-state. The resulting music is certainly hypnotic, an uninterrupted flow of snaky, densely-textured sound that Parker has described as "the illusion of polyphony". Many listeners have indeed found it hard to credit that one man can create such intricate, complex music in real time.

Read a full biography of the Evan Parker website

JOEL RYAN / electronics

Spawned in the first generation of computer music hackers in San Francisco’s silicon valley, Joel Ryan is a composer who has long championed the idea of performance-based electronic music. Drawing on his scientific background, he pioneered the application of digital signal processing to acoustic instruments. At STEIM in Amsterdam since 1984, he has collaborated extensively with artists and musicians including Evan Parker, William Forsyth, George Lewis, Steina Vasulka and Jerry Hunt. Formerly a Research Associate in physics at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories of the University of California, he has taught philosophy, physics, and mathematics. He is a researcher at STEIM in Amsterdam, tours with the Frankfurt Ballet and is Docent in Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He has performed at the Theater Chatelet in Paris, the Concertgebau Amsterdam, the Pit Inn in Tokyo, Brooklyn Academy of Music and The Kitchen in New York. Recent work includes a series of duets with Evan Parker,Frances Marie Uitti and Joelle Leandre, EIDOS/TELOS, with William Forsyth and Roberto Zucco with the Royal Shakespear Company. Other works include Or Air, The Number Readers, Hat Moon Joy, and The Effect of Noise on the Sleep of Children.

ADAM LINSON / bass, electronics

Adam Linson (born 1975 in Los Angeles) is active internationally as a double bassist, improvisor, composer, and scholar, who performs acoustically and with live electronics, solo and in a wide variety of ensembles. He also designs, develops, and performs with real-time interactive computer music systems. He is currently conducting doctoral research in Artificial Intelligence and Improvised Music at The Open University (UK), in the Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology. His research interests extend to other areas of musical human-computer interaction, especially phenomenology and cybernetics.

'Adam Linson has arrived at a propitious moment; the 20th Century has dropped behind the horizon, but the 21st has yet to be given permanent shape. He has the expanded skill set and the big ears necessary to make music that stands up to the severest scrutiny now and in the coming decades. His work will undoubtedly be closely monitored by discerning listeners around the world for many years to come.' - Bill Shoemaker