Friday June 2 8pm $10 suggested donation

THOMAS HELTON is a composer and bassist who writes and performs music in both solo and ensemble settings. As a composer Mr. Helton was awarded a Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Fellowship Grant in 2007 for the commission and premiere of a new work for fifteen-piece ensemble, the Torture Chamber Ensemble. He was awarded an artist residency for the commission and premiere of Pride from DiverseWorks ArtSpace in Houston in October 2004, a work for ten-piece ensemble and video projection created in collaboration with video artist Maria del Carmen Montoya. Other new music commissions include 5 works for the Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble. Desesperados (2005), a suite of tangos, is featured on Houston Public Radio’s CD The Best of the Front Row. Black Rain (2005), a work for saxophone, guitar, string bass, percussion and dancers, was chosen to be performed as part of FotoFest’s 2006 Biennial dedicated to the themes of The Earth and Artists Responding to Violence. As a bassist, Thomas Helton performs with his own ensemble, The Core Trio, as well as with many celebrated jazz and free improv artists including Tim Hagans, Milt Jackson, Daniel Carter, Monty Alexander, Frank Gratowski and Ernie Watts, William Parker, Weasel Walter and Steve Swell. He recently performed the music of Tim Hagans as a guest artist with Sweden’s Norrbotten Big Band. He was also featured at the 2009 ISB Bass Convention curated by Mark Dresser. Thomas has released three CD’s: Doublebass; Experimentations in Minimalism; and Saga. All three have received positive reviews in the press in both in the U.S. and Europe. In the spring of 2010 he spent 3 month a the TAKT Artist residency in Berlin, Germany.

KEVIN PATTON is a composer, scholar, and experimental sound performer whose work explores the intersection of music, technology, and the body.The design of new musical interfaces and computer music systems for the analysis, composition, and performance of electronic, multimedia, and experimental music is at the center of his practice. Furthermore, the integration of interactive music and machine improvisation into traditional performance contexts is a key to broadening the audience for contemporary and experimental music. Kevin often performs his own work in both instrumental improvisation and interactive chamber music and has performed in Europe, Japan, and throughout North America. His chamber music has also been performed by such ensembles as Dinosaur Annex. Kevin is a recent winner of the Rhizome 2009 commission competition with visual artist Maria del Carmen Montoya for their installation, I Sky You. His performance project, GrayCode, combines electronic instrument design, machine improvisation with experimental jazz practice in collaboration with percussionist Frederick Kennedy and clarinetist and composer Butch Rovan.Kevin's music and ideas have been presented at the Electronic Music Studies (EMS) International conference in Paris, France and Beijing, China, and the Visiones Sonoras festival in Morelia, Mexico, among many.  http://kevinpatton.lajunkielovegun.com/

MELMANN is the solo project of Nicolas Melmann. Buenos Aires based, graduate in Electro Acoustic Composition (Quilmes University), Melmann combines different musical dimensions, as sound artist - using electronics with acoustic instruments, always innovating in his compositions, making test formats, exploring different sounds, resources and instruments.
Walking between experimentation and melody his music is nocturnal and introspective.
Melmann comes to represent their country at the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) with a double concert in the exhibition of Argentine artists "Journeys from the South" was also chosen to represent Argentina in the Redbull Music Academy New York 2013 residency - where he also performed a concert at the Metropolitan Art Museum (MET), as the opening act for Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto.
In his live performance, he is one man orchestra, playing electronics (beat box, kaoss pad, loop station and computers) with acoustic instruments (ukulele, melódica, hang drum, harp, tiny percussion etc.) live process, field recordings and text all at the same time.
Since 2006 he has been developing a media project combining sounds with images and textworking with VJS, generating a mix between these elements, looking for a conceptual and discursive unity between them.

Meg Ronan is the author of the obligatory garnish argument (SpringGun Press 2014). Her poems have appeared in APARTMENT Poetry, Big Lucks,glitterMOB & other lovely journals. She is a cancer moon. Meg organizes the In Your Ear reading series with Michael J. Walsh & works at Bridge Street Books in Washington, DC. She wants lots&lots but she does not want your clues or your bonus points.
http://www.dreginald.com/index.php/issues/issue-one/meg-ronan