Charles Curtis, Alvin Lucier and melting glaciers

Posted on by Cindy
Melting Glacier

“…cellist Charles Curtis will play the Los Angeles premiere of Alvin Lucier’s “Glacier,” in the “sound.” series presented by SASSAS (Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound). But don’t expect to be lulled into climate indifference.”

“The 83-year-old American avant-garde composer has a special sonic and theatrical knack for finding a physical equivalent in sound to the world around us. In this recent score, he makes audible a graph of 30 glaciers melting, charting on the…

An Aural Map Of Australia

Posted on by Steve Elkins

Aural Maps is an ongoing repository for the countless stories and conversations I’ve had with inspiring people around the globe who are excavating a deeper understanding of ourselves and the world around us through sound.

When I first began making a documentary about Nels Cline in 2002, I had no way of knowing I was beginning a project that would involve spending seven years in more than ten countries pursuing a chainsaw orchestra, a singing dog, a man who screams into…

The Potts Report: June 2014

Posted on by Joe Potts
Joe Potts

Occasionally I am approached by someone who is interested in attending soundShoppe but is worried because they don’t have much experience playing experimental music with others. My answer is always, “that’s what soundShoppe is for!”

I like to try to bring equipment that I am not familiar with so that I can figure out how to integrate it into sound performances. In the past at soundShoppe musicians have played an incredible array of instruments including shooting…

5.5 Questions for Charles Curtis

Posted on by Danny Gromfin

What led you to the kind of music you play?

I grew up as a straight-ahead classical cellist, with the twist that my older brother, as a composer, was very into what we thought of as the avant-garde, ca. 1975 – that meant Cage, Berio, Stockhausen, Crumb – mostly music I am not so interested in any more. We got the records out of the local library – Gesang der Juenglinge, Indeterminacy – and marveled at the weirdness.…