2005: Mire

Elise Baldwin: laptop
William Fowler Collins: electric guitar
Joel Pickard: pedal steel guitar
Seth Warren: drums/percussion

Raised on a farm in Idaho, Elise Baldwin now resides in San Francisco, where she recently completed her MFA in Electronic Music at Mills College. When not indulging her interest in pyrokenesis or reading compulsively in the bath, E can be found cooking up aurally hazardous byproducts in her studio or building software instruments for video manipulation. She has whiled away much of the past decade as a sound designer and recording engineer, composing for theater, film, computer games, live performance, and audio installations. Active in the Bay Area experimental music scene, she focuses on solo and collaborative intermedia performance, appearing recently at the ARTSfest 2004, E.S.P. Media Lounge, CalArts CEAIT Festival 2003, the Lab and the National Queer Arts Festival. She is a recipient of the 2004 Frogs Peak Award for Experimental Music.

Originally from rural New England, William Fowler Collins (b.1974) is an artist and musician who has been based in San Francisco, CA since 1992. His music explores and synthesizes both musical and extramusical elements. Improvisation, field recordings, electric guitar, laptop computer, processed recordings, microcassette tape recorders, and home-made electronic devices all play roles in the creating, performing, and recording of his music. He recently graduated from Mills College where he studied with Fred Frith, Maggi Payne, Alvin Curran, and Chris Brown. Collins currently plays electric guitar (and occasionally laptop/electronics) in both solo and group contexts.

Joel Pickard has an MA in Composition from Mills College in Oakland, CA where he studied with Fred Frith, Alvin Curran, and Pauline Oliveros. He has a BA in Music from Bethel College in St. Paul, MN where he studied classical guitar. One of his most recent interests has been developing a non-traditional language on the pedal steel guitar, an instrument long relegated to providing the weeping backdrop to generations of country music ballads. In addition to freelance work, Joel is active as a performer in both solo and group settings.

Seth Warren grew up in New Hampshire, studied English Literature and Religion at Lawrence University in Wisconsin and began an MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media at Mills College in 2003. He creates electro-acoustic music, sound sculptures and installations, sound design for theater and film, and performs as a drummer and percussionist in the bay area and abroad.

Artist (photo by Photographer)