Dafna Naphtali, electronics, live processing, voice
Alex Waterman, cello;
Darius Jones, alto sax;
dot.Product: sonic proliferation / duels / cooperation
Documentation from this trio’s 2009 performance at Issue Project Room here.
This trio (dot.Product) with Alex Waterman (cello), and Darius Jones (alto saxophone) — and me, Dafna Naphtali (adaptive electronics / sound processing / vocalisms / audio machinations..) has performed only a few times. The enclosed recording was our second time taking the juggernaut out. I really love playing and doing my personal take on live sound processing on the sound of these two amazingly perceptive musicians – it’s an unnervingly powerful expedition. My sound processing is a distinct voice in the improvisation, and I treat the processing as an ersatz instrument that I “play”.
Bios:
Dafna Naphtali is a sound-artist/ improviser/composer from an eclectic musical background. As singer/guitarist/electronic-musician she performs and composes using her Max/MSP programming for sound processing of voice and other instruments.
Dafna has collaborated / performed with many experimental musicians and video artists over the past 15 years, such as Ras Moshe, Alex Waterman , Lukas Ligeti, David First, Joshua Fried, Darius Jones, Kathleen Supové and Hans Tammen as well as video artists Benton-C Bainbridge and Angie Eng and choreographer Daria Fain. She’s co-lead the digital chamber punk ensemble, What is it Like to be a Bat? with Kitty Brazelton ( HYPERLINK “http://www.whatbat.org” www.whatbat.org) , and is a founder of Magic Names vocal ensemble. She’s received commissions and awards from NY Foundation for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, Experimental TV Center, Brecht Forum, and residencies at STEIM (Holland), Music OMI and iEAR at Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute. She’s twice received commissions from American Composers Forum (1999 for pianist Kathleen Supové, and in 2010 for Magic Names vocal ensemble), and she is 2011 recipient of Franklin Furnace Fund award to develop her piece for Eric Singer’s LEMUR music robots. She’s performed and traveled widely and under usual circumstances for her music (to festivals and venues around the world), including India in February 2010 to work with Hindustani singer, Vidya Shah (and funding from American Music Center). Dafna teaches and gives workshops at universities in the US and Europe, and has a Masters in Music Technology from New York University, where she is part-time faculty teaching interactive programming and Electronic Music Performance . She teaches programs and consults about computer music since’95 at Harvestworks (New York) and as a freelancer, and has done sound design and/or programming work for the projects of many artists at the forefront of digital and interactive music.
Alex Waterman is a founding member of the Plus Minus Ensemble, based in Brussels and London, specializing in avant-garde and experimental music. In New York he performs with the Either/Or Ensemble. Alex has worked with musicians such as Robert Ashley, Richard Barrett, Helmut Lachenmann, Keith Rowe, Marina Rosenfeld, Anthony Coleman, Elliot Sharp, Ned Rothenberg, Gerry Hemingway, David Watson, Chris Mann, Alison Knowles, Thomas Meadowcroft, and Michael Finnissy. He has performed as guest musician with numerous ensembles, including Trio Event (Berlin), Champs d’Action-Antwerp, Q-O2-Brussels, and Magpie Music and Dance Company. Waterman has made music for numerous European ballet and modern dance companies including Freiburg Ballett/Pretty Ugly, Scapino Ballet, Nederland Dans Theater III, and others. As a curator he has organized events at Les Bains:Connective in Brussels, OT301 in Amsterdam, Miguel Abreu Gallery and The Kitchen. His duo projects with the dancer Michael Schumacher have toured in Switzerland, Italy, Holland, the Opera of Monaco and most recently in all 5 boroughs of New York in a Joyce Theater production in association with the City Parks Foundation in July of 2008.
In 2007 Alex curated two exhibitions in New York, one on experimental music and poetics: Agapê (June 2-July 28th, 2007) at Miguel Abreu Gallery; and the other on graphic notation, Between Thought and Sound: Graphic Notation in Contemporary Music (September 7-October 20, 2007) at The Kitchen in Chelsea. Alex is presently working on his PhD in musicology at NYU as well as writing a book about the composer Robert Ashley with the designer and writer Will Holder. Alex participated in Dexter Sinister’s residency at the Armory for the 2008 Whitney Biennial writing a new work based upon Herman Melville’s Bartleby the Scrivener. Alex Waterman and Beatrice Gibson’s film, A Necessary Music, narrated by Robert Ashley and with original music by Waterman, premiered at the Whitney Museum ISP show and won the Tiger Prize for Best Short Film at the Rotterdam Film Festival in 2008. Alex lectured and performed as part of the exhibition The Possibility of Action at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona in 2008, and was in residence at the ICA in May 2009 with his ensemble, in addition to performing solo works. He installed a permanent 12 speaker sound installation out in Napa Valley in July of 2009 at the residence of Norah and Norman Stone, and is presently working on a new film project in Vieques, and starting up his record label (D.S. al coda). He also plays the music of Arthur Russell with Arthur’s Landing whenever he can. His writings have been published by Dot Dot Dot, Paregon, FoArm, and Artforum.
Darius Jones, is an alto saxophonist, composer, and producer.
He joined the New York music community in 2005, after living and studying in Richmond, Va. Darius comes from a diverse musical background that has lead to his unique, alternative, and soulful approach to music. Jones has composed and performed in a wide variety of areas such as electro-acoustic music, chamber ensembles, contemporary jazz groups, avant-garde jazz groups, modern dance performances, and multi-media events. Darius enjoys playing with a steady group of artists and improvisers. The current bands Jones works with are the Cooper-Moore Trio, Mike Pride’s From Bacteria to Boys, Nioka Workman’s House Arrest Band, William Hooker’s Bliss Quartet, Trevor Dunn’s Proof Readers, The Hub, Lewis Barnes’ Hampton Roads, and Period.
Darius has collaborated with Andrew D’angelo, Esther Lamneck, William Parker, Flip Barnes, Jim Black, Charlie Looker, Dafna Naphtali, Sam Hilmer, Weasal Walters, Peter Evans, Nate Wooley, S.E.M Ensemble, Lisle Ellis, Rob Brown, Warren Smith, Alex Waterman, etc.
In New York, Darius has produced records for Korean jazz vocalist Sunny Kim and country-folk artist Mary Bragg. Jones has performed in Italy, France, U.S. and Canada.
Jones has a band with Travis LaPlante, Ben Greenberg, and Jason Nazary called Little Women, which recently went on a national tour to promote the release of their first record Teeth on Sockets and Gilgongo Records. Jones is the recent winner of the Van Lier Fellowship awarded by Roulette.
More information:
Dafna Naphtali – HYPERLINK “https://dafna.info” www.dafna.info
Alex Waterman – HYPERLINK “http://www.alexwaterman.com” www.alexwaterman.com
Darius Jones – www.myspace.com/blackdajones
