2011: Brenda Hutchinson & Bob Marsh

Long Tube (with Gestural Interface) | Sonic Suit #1

Brenda Hutchinson is a musician and sound artist whose work is based on the cultivation and encouragement of openness in her own life and in those she works with. Through her work with large-scale experiments in socially based improvisations and interventions, Hutchinson encourages participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music. Brenda also improvises on a 9 1/2 foot tube with a gestural interface she designed. She has been an artist in residence at San Quentin Prison, Headlands Center for the Arts, Harvestworks, Exploratorium, Ucross and Djerassi. She is the recipient of the Gracie Allen Award from American Women in Radio and Television and has received support from the NEA, Lila Wallace, McKnight Foundation, and NYSCA and Meet the Composer among others. Recordings of her work are available through TELLUS, Deep Listening, O.O. DISCS, Frog Peak Music and Leonardo Music Magazine.

The Long Tube is bionic. The Long Tube acoustically modulates the vocal cords. This interaction creates physical interference with the vocal cords, and the results produced by this interaction are unpredictable. The gestural interface is designed to work with this uncertainty and reflects and augments the intrinsically unstable of nature of pitch production through a long tube. It is flexible and virtually transparent. The switches, buttons and pot utilize intuitive finger and wrist movements and translate the impulses to react into reflexive gestures used to produce sonic responses. Instability is also one of the fundamental principles used to create a basic environment for improvisation using MAX/MSP. When integrated with programs written by the author in MAX/MSP, the interface records, plays back and modifies sounds produced into the tube in real time during performance. The interface also triggers pre-recorded sounds and mixes them with the live sounds to create improvised sonic environments and music.

Bob Marsh is a well seasoned improviser whose work has involved shaping sounds words images ideas and instruments. Originally from Detroit, Marsh arrived in the Bay Area in 2000 after ten years in Chicago where he played with most of the avant improvisers in that rich and varied scene. Since his arrival on the west coast, multi-instrumentalist and composer Marsh has been busy with several projects. He currently leads or directs String Theory, a string ensemble focusing on textures and microtonics; the Che Guevarra Memorial Marching (and Stationary) Accordion Band, structured and free improv for six to fifteen accordions; Robot Martians, electronics and processed voice; the Out of the Blue Chamber Ensemble, a mixture of reeds and strings; Opera Viva, voiced physical theater; the Quintessentials, a quintet specializing in interpreting graphic compositions based on alterations to the Michelin Road Guide to France; and the Illuminated Orchestra, structured improves for large ensemble. Additionally Marsh is a member of Romus/Diaz-Infante's Abstractions, Jim Ryan's Left Coast Improv Group, Moe! Staiano's Moe!chestra and Tom Bickley's Cornelius Cardew Choir. Bob Marsh tours frequently with his long term partner saxophonist Jack Wright. Bob has recently been presenting a solo work involving violin, voice and tap shoes. Marsh's educational background includes a BFA in sculpture and an MA in humanistic clinical psychology. He has studied classical piano, classical guitar and vibraphone and has taught himself various other instruments. He currently is active with cello, accordion, violin, voice, vibraphone and electronics, and inventions such as the sonic suit to be performed with Brenda Hutchinson.

Artist (photo by Photographer)