MINNEAPOLIS — Exploring the interstitial spaces between live sound and visual art, the in-gallery music series Sound Horizon returns with four of the country’s most respected sonic adventurers. Intended for both close listening and moments of happenstance for gallery-goers, this free, aurally eclectic series features multiple short sets throughout the evening by each artist.
In this sixth sparkling season, join Vicky Chow and Tristan Perich, who create “a brilliant, glittering web of piano and 1-bit electronics” (Wondering Sound); and C. Spencer Yeh, about whom the Village Voice says, “The avant-garde stews in which Yeh has dipped a hand, a violin bow, or a mixing board—unruly, loopy, or shrink-wrapped—are legion.” Sound Horizon is a part of Target Free ThursdayNights at the Walker.
Vicky Chow and Tristan Perich are copresented with the SPCO’s Liquid Music Series.
Vicky Chow and Tristan Perich: Surface Image and Observations
Thursday, March 24
Observations at 6 pm and Surface Image at 7 pm
Walker Art Center
“A masterpiece of (Post)Romantic proportions: an epic struggle between man and machine, pushing the piano beyond the limits of playability. There are moments of breakneck virtuosity and profound lyricism, beauty and menace. It is both an alien landscape and one that’s eerily familiar.” – Feast of Music
Perich’s Surface Image brings together his inspired electronic aesthetic and pianist Vicky Chow’s fiercely virtuosic playing. Chow, “one of the new stars of new music” (Los Angeles Times) intertwines her nuanced and dynamic playing with a sublime flurry of dazzling 1-bit sounds, artfully crafted by Perich who focuses electronic and compositional micro-processes into music whose “power comes from the sublime, sheer power of its whole” (WQXR). Perich’s Observations (performed and composed by Perich for two sets of crotales and 6-channel 1-bit music) will be presented as an interesting shorter counterpart to the immersive 60-minuteSurface Image. Copresented with SPCO’s Liquid Music series.
Media Resources
Tristan Perich: Surface Image – New Amsterdam
RecordsTrailer: Vicky Chow – Tristan Perich: Surface Image
Vicky Chow, Tristan Perich: Surface Image – Rolling Stone
C. Spencer Yeh
Thursday, April 28
6, 7, and 8 pm
Walker Art Center
“The avant-garde stews in which Yeh has dipped a hand, a violin bow, or a mixing board—unruly, loopy, or shrink-wrapped—are legion.”
– The Village Voice
Recognized for his interdisciplinary activities and collaborations as an artist, composer and improviser, as well as his music project Burning Star Core, C. Spencer Yeh’s avant-garde compositions, performances, and video works are intriguing studies in form and technique. For this Walker engagement, Yeh will work with voice, violin, and electronics, taking advantage of the acoustic and spatial qualities of the galleries. These improvisations/instant compositions will alternate between static and vertical as well as forward-moving and linear approaches and will draw from sonic strategies and performance modes he’s developed over the years.
Media Resources
BOMB Magazine — C. Spencer Yeh by Michael Barron
C. Spencer Yeh AKA Burning Star Core at CAMH – YouTube
C. Spencer Yeh Artforum
