Thursday July 17 * 7pm * $10-20 * TICKETS
Matt Robidoux is a San Francisco based composer, improviser, and educator interested in the convergence of movement and sound as it relates to free improvisation and accessibility. Their primary instrument is the “corn synth” — (Kinetically Operated Randomness Network) a modular system that interprets physical input from two “ears of corn” sculptures cast in aluminum.
Why corn? I like to focus on the modularity/ubiquity of corn and this kind of illogical sculptural sound causality as a starting point for free improvisation. The instrument was invented during my residency at ACRE in Wisconsin, where I cast two corn cob moldings in aluminum at a metal pouring workshop in a cornfield. Movement and touch determine the parameters of pitch, velocity, and duration. This makes for an accessible instrument, at once charming and absurd, while also a merging of my practice creating space for unrestricted musical improvisation.
The modular environment, configured around two touch controlled aluminum cast ears of corn, is informed by my ongoing work with Pauline Oliveros' final project AUMI (Adaptive Use Musical Instrument) in direct collaboration with the disability community and multidisciplinary arts organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area. The powerful echo and artistic legacy of Mills College CCM (1967-2022) resonates in my design of the corn synth, modeling it after the Buchla 158, the original synthesizer used at the San Francisco Tape Music Center beginning in 1963.
Matt is part of a composers collective with Sally Decker, Brendan Glasson, Briana Marela, Michelle Moeller, and Mitch Stahlmann, and has worked with Creativity Explored, Del Sol Quartet, Gerald Cleaver, Jean Carla Rodea, Sudhu Tewari, Fred Frith, Eclipse Quartet, William Winant, Jaap Blonk, Laura Steenberge, Sunburned Hand of the Man, gabby fluke-mogul, Anla Courtis, and J Mascis.
Matt Norman (San Francisco)
ben ‘leshy’ krasner is an interdisciplinary sound artist and educator. propelled by a desire to stretch the senses, their practice often involves objects, ceramics, and various electroacoustic systems. they research and utilize de/compositional processes as means of exploring intra-active and perceptual phenomena. this work typically manifests as performance, installation, and intermedia collaboration.
they live in the Santa Cruz mountains, teaching and working in various capacities in the arts. they run an experimental arts and education collective (SCUM), are often found collaborating in a number of projects, and curate numerous events with local and international artists, such as: Michael Masaru Flora, Anna Friz, Kevin Corcoran, Matt Robidoux, Michelle Moeller, Mitch Stahlmann, Brendan Glasson, Zekarias Musele Thompson, Sophie Lev, Bryan Day, Nathan Cleavenger, Zachary J. Watkins, Neil ‘Cloaca’ Young, Dani Derks, Tatsuya Nakatani, and many more.
krasner has received degrees in piano performance from California State University Northridge (BA, 2016), Yale University (MM, 2018), and Curtis Institute of Music (AD, Post Grad 2020).