Search Results for: DUOS++

Program notes continued: more info about the performers.
Scroll down for bios, links and discography.

PERFORMER BIOS:

Dafna Naphtali is a singer/electronic-musician/sound-artist/composer who writes custom computer programs for live sound-processing of voice and other instruments, multi-channel audio, musical robots, and audio-augmented reality soundwalks (“Walkie Talkie Dreams”). Discography includes many CDs/albums with the duos on DUOS++OCTET 4/24/23 at Roulette, “Landmine” Kathleen Supové on Disklavier, on “Ear to Ivory”, (Starkland), and “What is it Like to be a Bat?” with Kitty Brazelton (Tzadik). “Audio Chandelier: Polyélaios” sound sculpture, a collaboration with metalsmith/designer Ayala Naphtali, exhibited on Governor’s Island (May-August 2021). http://dafna.info/ dafnalula.bandcamp.com
more Audio Chandelier multichannel sound projects: https://dafna.info/multi-channel-sound/
Walkie Talkie Dreams audio-augmented reality soundwalks: http://walkietalkiedreams.org/

Jen Baker – trombone / multiphonics (“Clip Mouth Unit” duo with DN)
Jen Baker, trombonist/composer collaborates with artists all over the world in site-specific mixed media performance, concert halls, solo and chamber commissions. As an improviser she is featured on the soundtrack to Werner Herzog’s Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World. She has performed internationally in festivals and has toured with Arijit Singh, Karole Armitage, and Mansour, and new music ensembles S.E.M., TILT brass, and the mobile ensemble Asphalt Orchestra (founding member). Her book, Hooked on Multiphonics aides composers and trombonists in understanding and executing the deep complexities of multiphonics. https://jenbakersounds.com/ https://jenbaker.bandcamp.com/

Gordon Beeferman – organ/piano/toy piano (CD “Pulsing Dot” with DN) is a composer, pianist, and improviser based in New York City. An eclectic and omnivorous musician who straddles numerous genres, he has created and performed innovative opera, chamber and orchestra music, avant-jazz, and numerous collaborations with choreographers, writers, and video artists. His varied projects include an Organ Trio; Other Life Forms, a quartet; and Music for an Imaginary Band, a septet—“a commanding avant-jazz ensemble” (Time Out New York). “Four Parts Five,” an extended work for his new quintet, was released on Innova Recordings in 2015 – “Packed with humour, mischief, and an urge to dance” (The Wire). Beeferman has composed two operas with librettist Charlotte Jackson: “The Enchanted Organ: A Porn Opera” and “The Rat Land,” praised as “complex and daringly modern” by The New York Times. https://www.gordonbeeferman.com/ https://gordonbeeferman.bandcamp.com/

Chuck Bettis – electronics / throat (“Chatter Blip” duo with DN) was raised in the fertile HarDCore soil, nourished within Baltimore’s enigmatic avant garde gatherings, and blossoming in NY’s Downtown Musical tribe. His unique blend of electronics and throat has led him into various collaborations with great musicians from around the globe. He has performed or recorded with John Zorn, Fred Frith, Jamie Saft, and Afrirampo , Ikue Mori, Nautical Almanac, Audrey Chen, Yellow Swans, Toshio Kajiwara, Mossenek with Mick Barr & Colin Marston, plus a long history of punk bands he was in (most notably the experimental punk band Meta-matics as well as the enigmatic All Scars). https://chuckbettis.com/ Chatter Blip duo has two releases most recent is Microcosmopolitan (2020).

Ras Moshe Burnett – saxophones, flute (“Fusebox” duo with DN debut CD 2021)
Saxophonist Ras Moshe Burnett was born and bred in Brooklyn. He gained his early musical sensibilities from his family upbringing and later played in community jazz orchestras, spending his formative years in venues such as the East (in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn), where so much creative music was happening in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of the broader upwelling of African American cultural expression in the area. By the late 1980s, he was playing professionally in free jazz and reggae contexts. He has since emerged as an important saxophone voice on the scene through his formation of the Music Now Ensemble, his quartet in his own name, his duo with bassist Shayna Dulberger, in Bill Cole’s Untempered Ensemble (since 2009).

Hans Tammen – electronics, guitar, Hans Tammen (“endangered guitar”) works in innovative ways with mechanical preparations and for guitar (at times including brushes, small stones, a small electric fan, a cigarette lighters, an Ebow and chopsticks) and Max/MSP sound processing, with further control via the use of pitch-tracking and and a rotating cast of gestural controllers (at one time an infrared-controller to capture some of his head motion during performance). Tammen’s approach has evolved as well and since the mid-2000’s also incorporates Max/MSP in his Endangered Guitar projects. Dafna and Hans collaborate on many things since they met in 1998, and started performing together in their duo “Mechanique(s)”, but only a few (musical) releases, most recent is “Fenestrae” on Nachtstück) https://tammen.org/.
https://hanstammen.bandcamp.com/

Edith Lettner – saxophones, duduk is a musician and painter, has interests that lie primarily in jazz, improvised music, African music and music from diverse regions in the Middle East. She plays alto and soprano saxophone and duduk, an Armenian woodwind instrument. She performs and records internationally with numerous unique artists and bands.Her frequent collaboration with musicians from other cultures and artists from other art genres has made her an incredibly versatile artistic personality.
Her CD “We Q” with Dafna Naphtali in 2020 also features her painting “Communication.”
http://edith-lettner.net/

Andrew Drury – is a drummer, improviser, composer, bandleader, presenter and educator/ Originally from Seattle, Andrew mentored with Ed Blackwell for nearly a decade and has since worked and played with great musicians, dancers, and creative folks, well-known and obscure, in 30 countries and on many recordings. In addition to ongoing work with Dafna, Jason Kao Hwang, Earl Howard, JD Parran, Lesley Mok, and others, he is currently finishing a recording by The Forest percussion quintet, and a feature-length art film featuring his videography and music by his tentet. Andrew started the Soup & Sound series in his house in 2009 and directs Continuum Culture & Arts, a non-profit organization that runs cultural programs putting international artists in contact with vulnerable and historically marginalized communities in New York, Seattle, New Hampshire, Los Angeles, and San Diego. https://www.andrewdrurymusic.com/


DUOS++OCTET Discography:

DISCOGRAPHY: 

Fusebox (Gold Bolus Recordings 2021)longtime duo Naphtali (live processing of reeds, voice) & saxophonist Ras Moshe Burnett

We Q (Clang Label, 2020) live-processing/electronics voice/saxophone/duduk duo Dafna Naphtali with Edith Lettner

Microcosmopolitan (Contour Editions, 2020) duo voice/electronics artist Dafna Naphtali / Chuck Bettis
https://chatterblip.bandcamp.com/

Fenestrae (Nachtstück, 2019) Mechanique(s) duo- Hans Tammen gtr/electronics & Dafna Naphtali electronics/voice

Pulsing Dot (Clang, 2017) live-processing voice/piano duo with pianist Gordon Beeferman

Index of Refraction (Acheulian Handaxe, 2016, naucleshg 2015), duo w/ percussionist Luis Tabuenca (Barcelona) https://handaxe.org/album/index-of-refraction

Silver Shift (Bandcamp, 2016) solo electroacoustic/vocal works

Chatter Blip (Acheulian Handaxe, 2009) duo with voice/electronics artist Chuck Bettis
https://chatterblip.bandcamp.com/

Mechanique(s) live at Logos (Acheulian Handaxe, 2002) w/ Hans Tammen (endangered guitar, US/Germany), Martin Speicher (saxophone, Germany);

What is it Like to be a Bat? (Tzadik/Oracles 2003) – “digital punk trio” w/Kitty Brazelton & Danny Tunick (4 Stars,  All Music Guide) https://kittybrazelton.bandcamp.com/album/what-is-it-like-to-be-a-bat

Audio Chandelier: Multi-Channel Sound Work

Walkie Talkie Dream Angles

Walkie Talkie Dream Garden

Robotica: Music for Robots / Voice / Electronics

“Machines and Memory”(album project in progress)

“T’nin” — duos 2010-2018 (album project in progress)

Collaboration: Video/Film

.. Other projects

List of Works / Compositions

Clip Mouth Unit (Jen Baker (trombone/voice) and Dafna Naphtali  (voice/live-sound-processing/electronics) has created a unique set of open form compositions for their multi-faceted performance concept — merging electro-acoustics, multi-phonics, and extended techniques, integrated directly with scalar and rhythmic concepts, in a unique set of open form compositions for their multi-faceted performance concept merging electro-acoustics, multi-phonics, extended techniques, integrated directly with scalar and rhythmic concepts.

at NYC Electroacoustic Improv Summit 2016 (Youtube)

The duo performs/creates together since 2011, including presentations at ISIM (Int’l Society of Improvising Musicians Conference), Bucknell College, NYC Electroacoustic Improvisation Summit, and Penn State University. See this review by Eric Lyon of our set at EIS  from the journal “Array” for the International Computer Music Association or ICMA.

“Clip Mouth Unit, a duo project of Dafna Naphtali and Jen Baker performed with a high-energy mix of Baker’s trombone interjections and Naphtali’s intense yet urbane vocal stylings, combined with varied and unpredictable computer- generated textures and live processing of the acoustic sound, all presented with a comic’s madcap sense of timing. Despite a wide range of surprising musical swerves, the performance never lost focus.”

BIOs of Jen / Dafna:
Jen Baker, trombonist/composer, has collaborated with artists all over the world in site-specific mixed media performance, concert halls, solo and chamber commissions. As an improviser she is featured on the soundtrack to Werner Herzog’s Oscar-nominated Encounters at the End of the World. She has performed internationally in festivals and has toured with Arijit Singh, Karole Armitage, and Mansour, and new music ensembles S.E.M., TILT brass, and the mobile ensemble Asphalt Orchestra (founding member). Her well received new book, Hooked on Multiphonics, is treatise on extended techniques for trombone for composers and trombonists to aid in understanding and executing the deep complexities of multiphonics.

Dafna Naphtali is a sound-artist, vocalist, electronic musician and guitarist. A performer and composer of experimental, contemporary classical and improvised music since the mid-90’s, she creates custom Max programs for live-sound-processing of voice and other instruments, as well as music for robots,  multi-channel sound projects (“Audio Chandelier”) and her “Walkie Talkie Dreams” audio-augmented-reality soundwalks in NY and Germany. Dafna has received support from NYSCA, NYFA, Brooklyn Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, American Composers Forum, Franklin Furnace for her projects. Her chapter “What if your instrument is invisible?” is in Musical Instruments for the 21st Century/Springer 2016.

Clip Mouth Unit scores are in the form of a “Deck Score” — set of cards/PostIts each with a different behavior or electroacoustic process outlining relationship between instruments and processing.  Here is the score for our June 2015 gig at TransPecos ======================>

Other Past Concerts/Activities:
— Live on WKCR radio NY, with Nicola Hein (guitar) and Ramin Amir Arjomand (piano) (April 2018)
— Penn State University School of Music (Feb 2018)
— Bucknell College (Sept 2017),
— New York University Society for Women in Technology (SWiTCH) concerts (’17, ’15) see videos
— TransPecos – June 2015
— Panoply– duo performance 2013
— Firehouse Space– trio with Ras Moshe (saxophone)
— ISIM 2014 (Int’l Society of Improvising Musicians) presentation/performance
— presentation on Clip Mouth Unit on WTF is Experimental Music Series, Panoply Lab
— recording @ Harvestworks (unreleased)
— duos plus one:   with Ras Moshe, with Andrew Drury, with Sarah Bernstein.

Rest of the SWiTCH concert:

click for Full Curriculum Vitae

COURSES: 

click on course names for syllabus, or here for full descriptions/syllabi of current /past courses

New York University: Advanced Max/MPS/Jitter (designed course, running every Spring since ’05); Electronic Music Performance (aesthetics, performance, techniques with  ensembles or laptop orchestra, since ’10, in-person, online during lockdowns March ’20-May ’21); Electronic Music Performance: Soundwalking and Field Recording (course designed for blended in-person/online during pandemic, Fall  ’20, Spring 2021): Private Composition (since 2007); Intro to Max & MIDI II (1995-2007, 2016-17); Computer Music Synthesis (first year entry level Max/MSP course focusing on music synthesis techniques Fall 2018);  Digital Audio Processing (2009/2016); Advanced Computer Music Composition (2019);  guest lecturer for Summer Institute (Teens); Girls Electronic Music (summer program middle-school girls) 2014, ’15, ’18, ’19); Music Tech and Freshman Experience 2007-2010);

New School: Live Electronics for Interactive Music (self-designed course for Electronic Music performance ensembles with intro to Max programming, in-person, but online Spring 2021); Soundwalking and Field Recording (self-designed course in-person Spring semester 2022, 2023)  Electronic Music (self-designed survey with intro to Max programming); Intro to Music Technology (renamed Sound and Technology) (fundamentals of acoustics, music/audio synthesis, microphone techniques, recording, music sequencing programs, filters/effects, listening techniques, emphasis on sound studies and technical readings and experiments and student projects, taught 2014-2016, and Fall 2021, updated to include learning about work/research in telematic/online music for live performance.);

Other past courses:    Studio Advisor (Transart MFA program);  Aesthetics of Live Processing (designed for UniArts Summer Sound Art Academy, Helsinki);   Dynamic and Interactive Media Performance — Intro Max/MSP/Jitter, (Brooklyn College Performance & Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) M.F.A. program
Intro to Music Technology (Bloomfield College);
Music Theory and Ear Training I (Bloomfield College);
Intro to Max/MSP (School of Visual Arts);
Intro to Max/MSP (Bard College);
Intro to Sound Design (Pratt Institute).

PUBLICATIONS (Dafna Naphtali):

Blog Posts:  New Music Box. Editor Frank Oteri, October 2017.  www.newmusicbox.org
“Live Sound Processing and Improvisation” 10/5/17
“Delays as Music” 10/12/17
“Delays/Filtering/Feedback: the trifecta”  10/19/17
“Resonating Filters: How to Listen and Be Heard” 10/26/17

Book Chapter. “What if Your Instrument is Invisible?”   
Boverman, Till, et al, editors. “Musical Instruments in the 21st Century – Identities, Configurations, Practices”
2016, Springer Verlag, Singapore  download chapter as PDF.

Book Chapter (2019): Naphtali, D., & Rodkin, R. (2019). Audio Augmented Reality for Interactive Soundwalks, Sound Art and Music Delivery. In M. Filimowicz (Ed.), Foundations in Sound Design: Interactive Media (Vol. 2, Foundations in Sound Design). 2019, Routledge, New York, NY.

Journal article. “A View on Improvisation from the Kitchen Sink.”  (Dafna Naphtali / Hans Tammen)
Leonardo Music Journal 20 (2010): 97. Web  1997
download article as PDF

IASIG White Paper. Web Audio Working Group 2001 White Paper on Interactive Audio, chaired by Steve Horowitz (of Nickolodeon Online), co-authored subchapter on “Beatnik” interactive audio plugin as part of an overview of current technologies for IASIG, and with top industry specialists in interactive audio of the time.
PDF — Interactive Audio on the Web (Web Audio Working Group IASIG, 2002)

Blog Editor/Posts. “Electronic Music Performance” a blog edited by Dafna Naphtali, 2012-present, created for students, to serve as a “living and evolving list of essential listening in experimental electronic music + related fields– grouped topically with the intention of underscoring connections between music made over several generations and overlapping practices.”   https://electronicmusicperformance.wordpress.com

Online Article. “What If Your Instrument Is Invisible?”  Almanac on Contemporary Instruments. 3DMIN,  2015.

Interview with Cycling ’74. with Cycling ’74, creator of Max software 2011 (by Marsha Vdovin, Rod MacLeod  “C74: An Interview with Dafna Naphtali.

Masters Project, New York University. (for M.M.)
“Time-Based Effects Processing Algorithms and their Musical Applications” 1996
Download excerpts as PDF.

PERFORMANCE / PROJECT DOCUMENTATION (Dafna Naphtali):

Live Sound Processing and Improvisation — performances with duos, trios and larger ensembles of improvising musicians with live sound processing and vocals by Dafna Naphtali.  Collaborations, performances and recordings since 1996 with artists such as Hans Tammen (Mechaniques), Jen Baker, Ras Moshe, Gordon Beeferman, Chuck Bettis, Edith Lettner, Collision (with Daniel Carter), Kathleen Supové and others.  see www.dafna.info

Audio Chandelier multi-channel sound projects — www.audiochandelier.com
8-32 audio channels presented as performances and installations internationally since 2010, including Symposium iX in Montreal at Société Des Arts Technologique. Following a 2019 Harvestworks Project Residency new work was created in collaboration  with metalsmith Ayala Naphtali in a Audio Chandelier: Polyélaios, to be installed and  presented on Governors Island, May-July 2021 by Harvestworks.

Walkie Talkie Dreams — interactive location-based soundwalk compositions in New York and Germany, with sites in Washington Square Park in New York City, the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn and Hamburg Germany.  Created in collaboration with programmer Richard Rodkin (creator of U-GRUVE AR audio augmented reality platform using a Unity Game engine). Participant listeners walk through the designated areas using a free iOS/Android app and headphones to experience specially designed layering of processed field recordings and additional sounds, creating a dynamic electroacoustic composition in conjunction with overheard sounds, driven by GPS location of the listener.

Documentation of soundwalks in Hamburg and Williamsburg Brooklyn:

Clip Mouth Unit — duo project with trombonist Jen Baker (trombone, multiphonics) and Naphtali (voice, live processing of voice and trombone).  The duo has created a unique open score encompassing their shared techniques for processing and sound modification in improvisation.  www.clipmouthunit.com

DISCOGRAPHY:

Pulsing Dot (CLANG, 2017) live sound processing / voice in duo with pianist Gordon Beeferman

Fenestrae (2019) duo with Hans Tammen electronics/voice/guitar (Nachtstück Records)

Silver Shift (2016) solo electroacoustic works (Bandcamp)

Index of Refraction (Acheulian Handaxe 2016), duo with percussionist Luis Tabuenca (Barcelona)

Chatter Blip (Acheulian Handaxe, Nov. 2009) duo with voice/electronics artist Chuck Bettis)

Mechanique(s) Trio (Acheulian Handaxe) w/ Hans Tammen (endangered guitar), Martin Speicher (saxophone)

What is it Like to be a Bat? (Tzadik 2003) with Kitty Brazelton, Danny Tunick (4 Stars, All Music Guide)
https://www.allmusic.com/album/what-is-it-like-to-be-a-bat-mw0000596991

Dance of 1000 Heads (Tellus 1996) – featured vocalist on CD by composer José Halac
Alternative Schubertiade (CRI 1999) – vocalist on Brazelton’s arrangement of Trout Quintet “Fishy Wishy”)
Machines and Memory (in-progress, to be completed mid-2018) compositions since 2010 for robotic instruments, solo voice, vocal sextet, unusual instrumentations of chamber group, live electronics and processing.

DISCOGRAPHY Dafna Naphtali: 

Singularities #3—DN, solo electronics. (Singularities 2017)

 Silver Shift — solo electroacoustic/vocal works.  (Bandcamp, 2016)

 Index of Refraction – duo – DN, voice/electronics-sound-processing; Luis Tabuenca, percussion.  (Naucleshg/Spain 2016, Acheulian Handaxe, 2017)

 Chatter Blip — duo – DN, voice/electronics-sound-processing; Chuck Bettis, electronics/throat. (Acheulian Handaxe, 2009)

 What is it Like to be a Bat? – Trio: DN (voice, electric guitar, live-processing/electronics/feedback, composition); Kitty Brazelton, (voice,electric bass, sampler, electronics-Cmix, composition); Danny Tunick, drums/percussion/sampler/electric-bass/voice); Paul Geluso (mixing, filtering/electronics, voice); (Tzadik/Oracles 2003 — 4 Stars,  All Music Guide)

 Mechanique(s) Trio – DN, voice/electronics-sound-processing; Hans Tammen, endangered guitar; Martin Speicher, alto saxophone and bass clarinet.  (Acheulian Handaxe, 2001)

 State of the Union 2.001– compilation produced by Elliot Sharp; DN, solo electronics (plus 171 other artists/tracks).   (Electronic Music Foundation, 2001)

SEPTEMBER 2017:

Pulsing Dots – duo — DN, voice/live-processing, Gordon Beeferman, piano.
(Clang label 2017)

 (IN PROGRESS): 

Machines and Memory (mid-2017) compositions since 2010 for robotic instruments, solo voice, vocal sextet, unusual instrumentations of chamber group, live electronics and processing.

Duos / T’nin (projected 2017) various duos from 2004-present.

As singer/side-person:

Dance of a Thousand Heads –   José Halac’s Scream: Pedro Giraudo, electric and double-bass; Masahiko Kono, trombone; Jose Halac, voice, percussion, sampler and electronics composition/electronics, DN, voice.
(Tellus 1998)

The Alternative Schubertiade – DN, vocalist–Kitty Brazelton’s arrangement of Trout Quintet “Fishy Wishy”, with 9 other composers represented. (CRI Emergency Music, 1999)

As audio engineer or other credit:

 Pop Start The Tape, Stop — Henry Threadgill’s Zooid ‎– DN, Engineer [Life Sound Spatialization].
(Hardedge, 2004)

Blue Zoo — Borah Bergman / Peter Brötzman – DN / Paul Geluso, Engineer/Production/Mixing.
(Konnex Records / Germany, 1997)