drive from pedro to la
to listen to music. end up
sitting on concrete floors
or standing for hours.
three nights in a row.
spend the next day in bed.
watching the light on the leaves.
recovering. thinking.
e-mail some friends: how about
an experimental music series
in san pedro? at sacred grounds
where there’s coffee and couches.
exorg: sounds exciting.
mrs_ozzy: i’m stoked.
n8tv: sounding cool
name the series sound.
do performances monthly
on sundays when the traffic
is light. ask bill leavitt and
solid eye to play the first show.
january 17, 1999. 7pm.
come down to pedro and listen.

 

*note: email and physical addresses on postcard no longer valid

Additional archival material of this concert has been added with the support of the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs

Sunday, January 17, 1999
Sacred Grounds 468 West 6th Street San Pedro, CA 90731

Details

Series organizer Cindy Bernard, an artist, last produced “angels gate. 8.16.98 dusk.” which featured art installations and improvisational trios formed by pulling names from a hat. About “sound.” she comments, “This music is about listening. I was tired of driving up and down the Harbor Freeway to sit on concrete floors in clubs with poor sound. I decided to bring the music to Sacred Grounds in Pedro which I hope will provide a setting more conducive to sustained listening. And at least I can sit on a couch.”

This is the very first concert in the sound. concert series, drawing personnel from the Angel’s Gate Dusk concert that took place on August 16, 1998.

 


An aural/visual cornucopia of layered sound, Solid Eye‘s music is spatial and enigmatic. Rick Potts employs an assortment of instruments, objects and toys including musical saw, electric toothbrush, old turntables, analog synthesizer and electric guitar, Joseph Hammer blurs the boundries between digital and analog; his live “phonomontage” uses CD source abstracted by hand with vintage magnetic audio gear andSteve Thomsen uses organ and sampler towards the making of music reflecting the trio’s interest in “caves, strange, natural phenomenon and old, Sci-fi movies….wondrous things.” Their latest CD, “When the Snowman Starts to Talk” is on Senseworks.


Provisional Riviera is an acoustic-electronic group of two: William Leavitt on cello and Lisa Thackaberry on electronics. They mix analog and digital sound with acoustic modulations: a noise safari with investigation of timbres, some pure tones included at times with percussive detail. Lots of static.