Monday, May 23, 2022

The Bleeding Edge: 5/23/2022

This has been an on-again-off-again month of bleeding edge activities. Last week’s column accounted for a busy week of six options, five of which had been previously previewed. This week, on the other hand, has only one performance of note, which will be the latest offering at Adobe Books. The program will consist of three sets, all of which will involve electronic gear. Two of the sets will be duo performances, with a solo set between them.

The solo set will be taken by Danishta Rivero, who is primarily interested in the use electronics to post-process her vocal work. When she is not doing solo work, she accounts for half of her Voicehandler duo performances with percussionist Jacob Felix Heule. She is also half of Las Sucias, a feminist tropical noise duo with Alexandra Buschman-Román. Her solo work explores the artifacts resulting from heavy processing of the voice and their relationship to its acoustic resonating presence.

The first duo set will present Jason Kahn and Kevin Corcoran, both of whom work with analog electronics. Corcoran also plays percussion and incorporates field recordings. As a percussionist he is focused on techniques emphasizing textural sound, friction, sympathetic vibration, sustained tones, and the use of found objects with a preference for freely arranging sounds in duration rather than marking time by rhythm. Kahn’s work with electronics involves chaotic (in the mathematical sense of non-linear transfer functions) feedback systems and placing his body in the circuit flow.

The other duo will be an all-electronics performance by Gabby Wen and Jorge Bachmann. Wen is an electroacoustic music composer and improviser, working with synthesizers, electronics, guqin (seven-string plucked Chinese instrument), field recordings, and miscellaneous instruments and objects to create captivating auditory experiences and narratives. Bachman takes a minimalist approach to his work with analog modular synthesizers, but he has also created musique concrète soundscapes.

This performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, May 29. Adobe Books is located at 3130 24th Street in the Mission between South Van Ness Avenue and Folsom Street. This is one of those venues where no one will be turned away for lack of funds. However, donations are encouraged and will all go directly to the performing artists.

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