Outsound Presents: July, 2023

This month will conclude with this year’s installment of the Outsound New Music Summit. Prior to the COVID pandemic, I used to cover at least portions of this event every year when it was hosted by the Community Music Center. This year, however, the venue will shift to the other side of San Francisco Bay, taking place in Berkeley at the Finnish Hall. Having kept my schedule manageable by limiting myself to events taking place within the San Francisco city limits, I shall confine attention to this year’s Summit events to the above two hyperlinks.

Prior to those Summit events, however, there will be two LSG (Luggage Store Gallery) Creative Music Series events taking place on Wednesday evenings; and the venue remains located at 1007 Market Street, just off the corner of Sixth Street and across from the corner of Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street. The first of these will be a generous serving of four sets, while the second will follow the more limited two-set format. Admission will be on the usual sliding scale between $10 and $20. However, no one will be turned away for lack of funds. Concert specifics will be presented in chronological order as follows:

July 5, 7:30 p.m.: Due to the number of sets, this concert will begin half an hour earlier than usual. Ross Hoyt will lead an avant-jazz quartet, performing both on keyboards and with electronics. Ed Lloyd will play bass, and the other two quartet members will also contribute electronics. Leila Abdul-Rauf will also play trumpet, and Ryan Honaker will play violin. For the second set, Cecyl Ruehlen will perform his “Sferics,” which he describes as “a realm of devotional noise music.” He will perform on saxophones of different sizes, electronics, and an array of objects and recording processes. Michael P. Dawson will follow with “The Song of Wandering Aengus,” his own electronic sound texture composition. San Kazakgascar will then conclude the program with his own improvised drone performance.

July 19, 8 p.m.: Scheduling will return to the usual time with for the two-set program. The first set will be taken by a wind trio called Echo’s Bones. Each of the performers will play a variety of instruments. Sheldon Brown will alternate between clarinet and bass clarinet. Joseph Noble will play three instruments, flute, alto flute, and bass flute. The most diverse member of the trio will be Amber Lamprecht. She also plays different sizes of flute, along with both oboe and cor anglais. The second set will be a performance of “Transient,” a solo and collaborative project by David Molina. His objective is to explore electro-acoustic, ambient, noise, industrial, free improvisation, and experimental music. Because the project is collaborative, he has worked with a variety of partners; and, on this occasion, he will perform with Alexandra Buschman-Román.