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Press Office Event

SFMOMA Highlights Avant-garde Musical Talent In Spirit Of Yoko Ono For Members' Opening

Released: June 19, 2002 ·

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is pleased to present a host of avant-garde musical talent for the Members’ Preview and Opening of YES YOKO ONO, on Friday, June 21, 2002. The evening is open to SFMOMA members and their guests only. Please note: schedule subject to change.

Schedule
The Schwab Room

7:30–8:30 p.m. – Alex Murray-Leslie
from Chicks on Speed
Initially conceived as an art installation project, Chicks on Speed have swelled beyond their art school roots via an astounding assemblage of sound and statement. Articulating their idiosyncratic language by merging performance, graphic design and feminist/consumerist politics with the seemingly disparate sounds of early 1980s New Wave, electronica, DIY punk, disco, pop and Digital Hardcore, the fruits of their efforts are roundly achieved.

8:30–9:30 p.m. – Blectum from Blechdom
Kevin Blectum and Blevin Blechdom deftly combine raw programming and a mishmash of sounds, such as hissing field recordings, vocal collages, frenetic techno, electro breakbeats and acid squelches. The result is unusual musical compositions laden with a perverse, whimsical sensibility rarely matched by anyone working in electronic music today. Blectum from Blechdom does their best to disfigure any number of boundaries, including the thick skin that separates the soulless sheen of techno with the lo-fi guts of indie rock four-track recordings, the sexual predestination of boys and girls and the accepted notions of what constitutes good versus bad music.

9:30–10:30 p.m. – Twerk
One of the leading members of what’s been labeled the “California laptop techno scene,” San Francisco–based Shawn Hatfield (Twerk) has emerged as a true visionary in producing state-of-the-art techno compositioning. He is a long-standing member of a growing community of musicians and artists using custom software-based approaches in further exploring their work. In the studio he experiments with “generative music,” developing decision-making software that mirrors the way he programs music. For his live performances, Twerk works with software that draws directly from the environment to create a different show every time. By such immediate interaction with his “creations,” he has developed an environment totally specific to his compositional approach and process. This direct approach not only challenges his creativity, but also the limits of the machines we use every day. The result envelops the listener in a microcosmos of sound and structure.

The Haas Atrium
9:30–10:30 p.m. – Broker/Dealer

Broker/Dealer has always been a sound assembly team. Starting on the radio airwaves in 1996, the duo specialized in improvisational soundscapes where integrating fuzzed tape loops, bizarre phone conversations and drifting ambient noise was commonplace. The essence of this method and the unique atmosphere it produces is still present in their music, but these days there are also hooks, breaks and a steady kick drum. With melodies reminiscent of Giorgio Moroder’s futuristic disco sound and deep, groovy bass lines even The Modernist would envy, Broker/Dealer has created a perfect blend of techno and pop.

10:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m. – Dada Munchamonkey’s Secret Circuit
Dada Munchamonkey is a project title for Eddie Ruscha. Eddie (son of artist Ed Ruscha) first got into the business in 1992 playing bass, writing songs and touring with a band called Medicine. Eddie now concentrates on a core of sound that includes free-form exploratory elements of tones not associated with rock or current electronic music trends. Bits of funk, like Sly and the Family Stone, seamlessly commingle with the robotic precision of Kraftwerk, the laziness of reggae and the experimentation of dub. He is currently working on the soundtrack for the movie Southlander, a film by Steve Hanft (music video director for Beck, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Stone Roses, Primal Scream and Hootie and the Blowfish). Hanft just finished a video for the first single from the Dada Munchamonkey record The Operator.

Wattis Theater

7:30 p.m.–11:30 p.m. – Steve Roach

Ambient-electronic sound sculptor and musical pioneer Steve Roach earned his position in the international pantheon of new music artists over the last two decades through his ceaseless creative output, constant innovation, intense live concerts worldwide, open-minded collaborations with numerous artists and the psychological depth of his music. His recorded work spans over 50 releases, which include the benchmark Dreamtime Return and the award-winning releases On This Planet and Earth Island. Roach’s work has constantly evolved through an organic process that consistently inspires listeners and artists of many media.

As one of the few electronic-based artists performing live consistently for over 20 years, Roach has presented his art in a vast range of venues, from concert halls, planetariums, cathedrals and art galleries in the United States, Canada and Europe, to performance spaces within lava caves at the Canary Islands and volcanic craters in Mexico. These exotic settings have helped him further shape the deep sense of atmosphere and location through a sonic vision characterized as “shapeshifting shamanic electronic expeditions…like hearing a collective dream unfolding in the present moment.” Roach’s dream that thrives in a sphere of intensity beyond categories, national boundaries, cultural barriers and quite often, time itself.

To help celebrate the exhibition YES YOKO ONO, Roach will be joined by light projection artist Lynn Augstein to create a sensory experience in SFMOMA’s Phyllis Wattis Theater. SFMOMA members will be bathed in sound and light in a chamber environment, offering moments of repose and reflection during the course of evening.


Jill Lynch 415.357.4172 jilynch@sfmoma.org
Clara Hatcher Baruth 415.357.4177 chatcher@sfmoma.org
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