Vigilance Improvisations by Eric Laska :: January 28, 2012; 8:00 pm :: Vox Populii Aux Performance Space, 319 N. 11th Street, Philadelphia PA.

This event will feature two pieces in the Vigilance Improvisations framework: “Mutability” performed by Bryan Eubanks and Eric Laska; and “Recursion” performed by Bonnie Jones and Reed Evan Rosenberg and presented by the Philadelphia Sound Forum.

Vigilance Improvisations is a series of structured frameworks for improvising electronic musicians. The archetypical design consists of two musicians, one working with computer and the other with non-computer electronics, improvising together while following unique visual scores. Each score corresponds to material changes related to the opposing musician’s instrumental sound source. The musicians are instructed to watch a designated meter vigilantly over the course of an improvisation all the while remaining conscious of the possible visual correlations that may or may not be provoked by a chance correspondence between a reading of the meter and the score. The scores are hosted in a folder online and the visual content therein is entirely sourced from the Internet. No recommendations are made concerning sound.

Eric Laska is a musician and assorted media artist from New York, currently living and working in Philadelphia. Examples from recent work and works-in-progress focus on the proliferation of sounds from localized material processes (Chicago Equinix, ProRemote), arranging improvised music for extended periods of time (Extended Improvisation for Gallery Hours forthcoming), and the composing of electronic music based on material considerations such as power consumption (Vigilance Improvisations).

Recent projects for the Internet include the sound application Impulse Blasts and the streaming installation Quartet With Pyramid Scheme, the latter conceived in collaboration with the respective members of said quartet- Jordan Topiel Paul, Richard Kamerman, and Reed Evan Rosenberg, and commissioned by turbulence.org In addition he is part of the internet surf club Double Happiness, who are represented in the New Museum of New York’s Younger Than Jesus: Artist Directory, and an editor/co-founder of the websites Lateral Addition and funvac. Ruez is an infrequent recording/production alias.

Bryan Eubanks (b. 1977, WA.) is a musician focused on collaborative improvisation, solo musical projects, and sound installations. He is primarily active within the tradition of live electronic music and has performed his work across the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea since becoming musically active in Portland, Oregon in the late 1990’s. Originally a saxophonist, his interests have expanded to include computer music, generative composition, sound localization, and the development of instruments that incorporate open-circuits, samplers, radio transmission, feedback, and other electronics. In 2001 he co- founded Rasbliutto to distribute and present music. He is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

Bonnie Jones is a Korean-American writer, improvising musician, and performer working primarily with electronic music and text. Born in 1977 in South Korea she was raised on a dairy farm in New Jersey, and currently resides in Baltimore, MD. Bonnie creates improvised and composed text-sound performances that explore the fluidity and function of electronic noise (field recordings, circuit bending) and text (poetry, found, spoken). She is interested in how people perceive, “read” and interact with these sounds and texts given our current technological moment. Bonnie has presented her work in the US, Europe, and Asia and collaborates frequently with writers and musicians including Ric Royer, Carla Harryman, Andy Hayleck, Joe Foster, Andrea Neumann, Liz Tonne and Chris Cogburn. She received her MFA from the Milton Avery School of the Arts at Bard College.

Reed Evan Rosenberg - American male from New Jersey. Works in areas of radical computer music, improvised music and installation art. Recent projects include chaotic map synthesis studies, artificial intelligence driven composition systems, generative compositions for laser and LED lights, and networked improvisation driven computer music systems. Co-creator of funvac.net , an experiment in web based experimental music curation.