2015: Mika Pontecorvo’s Bridge of Crows

Mika Pontecorvo: guitars, flutes, rocks, sonic processing architecture
Elijah Pontecorvo: electric bass
Kersti Abrams: alto sax, flute, rhaita, maqrunah
Greg Baker: clarinet, hydrophone, laptop-based processing
Mark Pino: percussion
Mariko Miyakawa: cello, voice
Bob Marsh: voice, chair-ello

This year’s Outsound Summit will see the debut performance of a segment of Bedouin Poets of Mars: The Last Poet by Mika Pontecorvo’s Bridge of Crows with guest artist Bob Marsh. They will show the kinetic video segment of the opening cut of this story and perform a live improvised score for this segment. The Bedouin Poets of Mars: The Last Poet is an original Intermedia work by Mika Pontecorvo. It is a speculative tale of a once thriving civilization inhabiting the planet Mars which has annihilated itself leaving only one last Bedouin poet and a small plant alive. The poet’s last act is to try to find a survivable environment for the plant. On this journey the poet witnesses the utter destruction and desolation left in the wake of civilizations excesses. This performance piece is a work in progress that when fully realized will incorporate elements of butoh, dance, and spoken word in addition to music and kinetic video sculpture.

Mika Pontecorvo is a composer, improviser, visual artist/designer, and former research scientist living in San Francisco California. Mika began his sonic experiments as a teenager in the high desert of Nevada with home build instruments, sitar, and prepared and standard guitars. Late, while pursuing a Computer Science degree at the University ok Utah, Mika began studying composition and electronic music under Professor Vladimir Ussachevsky. Under the mentorship of Ussachevsky and Ercolino Ferretti, Mika began research into a Complex adaptive Systems theoretic approach to algorithmic composition, He also worked with Ferretti on a conceptual framework for using computers as performative music elements. His use of Complex Adaptive Systems and emergence in generative design systems in Creative systems has pointed the way toward his on-going work in designing and programming of computer-based Signal Processing networks utilizing Max/MSP. Mika's visual kinetic art works also draw on his generative and adaptive systems work. His approach often utilizing techniques such as photo collage and film montage with chaotic selection systems create complex, unexpected visual symbolic works with an evocative emergent narrative quality to them. Bridge of Crows is an electroacoustic chamber ensemble drawn from the the ranks of the collective improv group Cartoon Justice. It provides Mika and longtime members with a platform for further exploring Complex Adapt System Based Music. Blending free and modal improv with structured song and experimental noise processes, as well as, extra musical elements. The resulting music is focused at the intersection of Indigenous Root music and Post-industrial Electroacoustic Improvisation.

Artist (photo by Photographer)