#crosstownarts

Pow Wow: Joe Rainey Goes Solo

Joe Rainey is a Pow Wow singer. He is not used to singing solo, because pow wow is inherently communal, but this debut is every bit as powerful. The album is Niineta, released on Justin Vernon and the Dessner brothers’ 37d03d label, showcases his command of the style – faithful to tradition – accompanied by cinematic, bass-heavy production from Andrew Broder. ⁠

Join Sonosphere as we dive into the sounds of contemporary pow wow fused with vast experimental and electronic oceans of sound. Joe Rainey lent his voice and experience to this episode and I think him for sharing his story through his learning of, preservation of and lifting up of pow wow and indigenous music. Friday, May 26, 2023, Joe will perform at Crosstown Arts in the Green Room.

@sonospod

“The record is an unusual proposition: A rare fusion of pow wow—an Indigenous culture of music and dance—and experimental electronic production that pairs Rainey’s singing with Broder’s synths and wildly abstract beats. Holding it all together are sampled live recordings of pow wow singing and drumming stretching back decades, many of them made by Rainey himself.” – Pitchfork⁠

Check out his archive on Soundcloud and YouTube.

Model Zero

Today we feature a live performance by Model Zero from the WYXR studio in Memphis, TN. Sonosphere interviewed the band after their latest single release, “Little Crystal.” The band performed this song and the b-side “Leather Trap” on our show along with a few other songs from their self-title LP from 2019. We also talked with the guys about the difference between the last album and this new single. Join us!

Calling Crosstown: A Conversation with Maria Chavez & Christina Carter
Christina Carter Singing in the stairwell and Maria Chavez collaborating with curious audience members

Moog Show – Sonosphere

Today on the show I feature songs with the Moog synthesizer. I had the opportunity to visit the Moogseum in Asheville, NC. It is funded by the Bob Moog Foundation and I feature tunes from Lisa Bella Donna's commissioned album for the Moogseum's 15 anniversary. Bob Moog saw himself as a tool maker, creating tools for artists and muscians to bring their audio visions to life.
  1. Moog Show
  2. MMI X Unapologetic Partnership
  3. Optic Sink: Live DJ Set at WYXR Studio
  4. Major Talent: C Major's Sonic Tonic
  5. Pow Wow: Joe Rainey Sings Solo

A Mix from Memphis Concrete Founder Robert Traxler

Welcome to Sonosphere radio, today we welcome Robert Traxler, founder of the Memphis Concrete experimental music festival happening this month in Memphis – June 29th and 30th. In its third year, the Memphis Concrete music festival is featuring headliners Matmos, Moor Mother, Rapoon, Mykel Boyd, Tavishi and featuring a live score of the original Tron – all right here in Memphis at Crosstown Arts.

Get your tickets today!

60317265_2324957160898157_8743214651875000320_oRobert is also an electronic music composer working with analog synths and he performs about town.

We’re happy to feature Robert’s mix on today’s Sonosphere Radio.

Track List:

Louis and Bebe Barron – “Main Title” [Forbidden Planet]
Pierre Schaeffer – “Étude Pathétique (Study in Pathos)””
Halim El-Dabh – “Alcibaldis’ Monologue to Socrates”
Matmos – “Thermoplastic Riot Shield”
Zoviet France – “First Vigil”
Bülent Arel – “Postlude from ‘Music for a Sacred Service'”
Éliane Radigue – “Backward 76”
Linda Heck – “Right”
Ihcilon – “Frau im Mond Fragment Three”
Belly Full of Stars – “My God, It’s Full of Ice”
Daphne Oram – “Osram & Rank – Pulse Persephone Experiment”
Jacques Lejeune – “Apparition of the Disguised Queen”
Tavishi – “Lobhe Paap, Paape Mrityu”
Noiserpuss – “Minimum Maximum”
Vladimir Ussachevsky – “Sketch 2” [Two Sketches for a Computer Piece]
Else Marie Pade – “Prolog i Himlen” [Faust Suite]
Max Eilbacher – “For Club III”
Alice Shields – “Study for Voice and Tape”

Mixtape Session with Natalie Hoffman of Nots & Optic Sink

Welcome to Sonosphere radio. Occasionally, Sonosphere will post playlists curated by artists, record label owners, music enthusiasts, DJs, and sometimes by us. This week we’ll hear a collaborative mixtape session with from Natalie Hoffman of the band NOTS fame. She has a project now with Memphis DJ and electronic artist Ben Bauermeister called Optic Sink.

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Optic Sink at DKDC

Natalie was one of Crosstown Arts artists in residence last year. Chris and I got to collaborate with her at her studio on a mixtape – each shared songs we’ve been into lately and songs we’ve loved for a while. This mix is dubbed from the tape created during this playlisting session. The tape begins with composer Colleen, we’ll also hear Marie Davidson, CAN, Marbled Eye, and many more.

Check out Optic Sink at the Memphis Concrete Festival June 29 and 30th – tickets on sale now. Don’t miss Memphis Concrete this month and enjoy this mix!

Track List:

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Chris Williams and Natalie Hoffman in Natalie’s studio at Amurica in Memphis, TN during her artist in residency with Crosstown Arts.

 

Nadah El Shazly

Welcome to Sonosphere! The first artist we present in our 2019 Sound Observation series is Nadah El Shazly, Egyptian composer, musician and producer. She will be performing at Crosstown Arts’ Green Room on May 31st as a part of her first tour in the U.S. We are so excited to have her in Memphis. Artist talk at 7 pm, performance at 8 pm.

Sonosphere spoke briefly with Nadah prior to her show. She talks about collaborating in the Cairo music scene, her debut album and her experiences on her first U.S. tour.

Thanks for listening.

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Sound Observations: Nicole Mitchell Performs in Memphis

Sonosphere’s last Sound Observation series for 2018 ended on a high note. We welcomed Nicole Mitchell to perform flute with electronics.

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It was a beautiful show preceded by a panel talk on Afrofuturism that we’ve posted as the first part of this Sound Observations.

The discussion informed this improv performance keeping the works of afrofuturist writers and musicians at top of mind.

Thanks for listening!

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Nicole Mitchell talks with James ‘IMMAKEMADBEATS’ Dukes.

Sound Observations with Maria Chavez & Christina Carter

In this month’s episode we highlight Sonosphere’s Sound Observations series. Sound Observations is a quarterly performance and lecture series featuring experimental artists from around the nation.

We were honored to host turntablist and DJ Maria Chavez, and vocalist and musician  Christina Carter of The Charalambides on May 11, 2018.

Maria and Christina’s site specific works took place in the atrium of the Crosstown Concourse building, an old Sears Roebuck building retrofitted for art galleries, residential and commercial spaces. The result is echoing vocals and scratchy, vinyl sounds that swirl up a red staircase to the entrance of the stage.

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Enjoy this Sound Observations performance in this month’s episode below.

 

To hear about Maria’s performance in Marfa, TX a few years ago, tune into an earlier episode on the Marfa Myths festival! 

 

The Block at the Judd Foundation with Maria Chavez
Chavez’s double hydraulic needle and broken records
Maria Chavez explaining her work

Press Play: Analog Tara

This month the Press Play mixtape features Tara Rodgers, aka Analog Tara. Tara is a multi-instrumentalist composer and historian of electronic music and sound who produces techno tracks using analog sound sources.

This is a mix of Analog Tara tracks from the album At the Switch Hotel from 2003, written, performed, and produced by Analog Tara on synths, drum machines & more.

Tara Rodgers is a former Sonosphere podcast guest, and we are big fans of her book, Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound. The book features 24 interviews with 24 women from the electronic music genre.

Rodgers originally hails from upstate New York and is now based in the Washington, DC area. She earned an MFA in Electronic Music & Recording Media at Mills College and a PhD in Communication Studies at McGill University.

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She’ll be presenting a free, open to the public artist talk at noon on the Crosstown Concourse Theater Stair on March 31. Later that night at 8 pm (doors at 7:30 pm), she’ll perform original compositions in Crosstown Arts’ East Atrium, including tracks from her new Fundamentals EP, out this spring on the DC label 1432R.

The performance is a ticketed event with a cash bar. Tickets are $12 and available on
Eventbrite: https://tinyurl.com/y82m3v7e

This is the first performance in Sonosphere’s Sound Observations series. This four-part series will highlight new explorations in sound through lectures and performances by musicians, composers, and scholars from across the country. Join us as we explore the sounds all around us.

Enjoy the mix:

An Evening with Wu Fei

 

In this special, bonus episode of Sonosphere we present An Evening with Wu Fei in collaboration with Crosstown Arts. This is Fei’s live performance at the Crosstown Arts gallery on Cleveland Street in Memphis, TN on June 30, 2017. Fei CA PosterThe intimate space lent itself to an interactive performance between the audience and Wu Fei as she showcases what the guzheng can do through its thousand-year history.

Wu Fei is a composer and guzheng player. She is a native of Beijing and a current Nashville resident. She is a master of the guzheng, the ancient 21-string Chinese zither. At this performance Fei told stories of her upbringing in Beijing, her relentless practice with the guzheng and how she found improv at Mills College as well as through her time in New York’s improv scene. She mixes her Western and Chinese traditional sensibilities with a contemporary, experimental dialect that only Fei can convey in her “down-to-earth,” personable way. We thank her and Crosstown Arts for an amazing show!