LSG Creative Music Series: October 2017

The full schedule appears to be in place for this month’s weekly LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) Creative Music Series being offered by Outsound Presents. This is the series that focuses primarily on free improvisation drawing upon a wide variety of resources. As usual, these events will begin on (or close to) 8 p.m. on Thursday evenings. LSG is located at the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street and admission is usually on a sliding scale between $6 and $15. Specifics for the concerts this month are as follows:

October 5: This will be the latest installation of a program of free improvisation based on the Puppy Surprise toy. This was a stuffed dog toy that could be bought for a child, which happened to have a velcro-sealed “womb” containing a toy puppy. The “surprise” was that, while you could see what the dog in the box looked like, you had no idea what the puppy would be. Matt Davignon decided to remove the puppy and replace it with the names of participants in an evening of free improvisations by duo and trio groups. For each session, two or three names would be “drawn from the womb;” and they would then be required to come up with an improvised set. This time, apparently, the process has “graduated” to focus on the formation of quartets.

October 12: This will be an evening of three distinctively different sets. It will open with the Fathers duo of Derek Gedalecia and Nathan Bowers. Both play classical guitar, but their improvisation work involves heavy use of noise. They will be followed by the Forest Management project of John Daniel, who currently lives and works in Chicago. His work is heavily based on drones (auditory, not aviary). Finally, Portland-based Felisha Ledesma will take the final set presenting her work with samplers and other electronic gear.

October 19: John Bischoff, who took the opening set in last night’s NextNow concert, will open with a set of electronic improvisations. He will be followed by another all-electronic set by the Ctrl-Z trio, whose members are Ryan Page, Daniel Steffey, and Nick Wang. The only acoustic set of the evening will be the final one, presented by RTD3. As the name suggests, this is also a trio with letters corresponding to the members’ first names. Ron Heglin alternates between voice and brass, Tom Nunn will play his invented instruments, and Doug Carroll will play cello.

October 26: The final concert of the month will also consist of three sets. Robbie Martin will begin with an all-electronic set, performing as Fluorescent Grey. He will be followed by a duo in which Kanoko Nishi-Smith engages her highly imaginative approach to koto playing in the company of Agnes Szelag, who works with both cello and voice, along with electronic enhancement. The final set will be taken by the KREation Ensemble, a twelve-piece band led by saxophonist and composer Kevin Robinson.