Podcast #19 – What Does It Mean to be a Mood Organ

Podcast #19 – What Does It Mean to be a Mood Organ

Aphonia Recordings: series #10
Friday, Oct 3rd @ Gallery 1412
(1412 18th Ave – Seattle, WA)
8:00 PM

-Matt Shoemaker
-Mood Organ (collaboration w/ Zack Shaw)
-The Precambrian

MATT SHOEMAKER

Sourced from both natural and electronic means, Matt Shoemaker manipulates sound so as to convey compositions that uniquely imagine a space encrypted to the point of vanishing definition. Shoemaker is a self-taught artist, employing microphones, digital & analog recorders, computers, acoustic instruments, & assorted signal processors. His work has been published in countries as diverse as Portugal, Germany, England, USA & Malaysia. Matt has also received commissions for radio works across the globe and presented his work at various universities, dance halls, rock clubs, & art galleries.

MOOD ORGAN

Mood Organ is Timm Mason. Mood organ is a construct which seeks to continually reform itself with each subsequent release and live appearance. A Mood Organ piece may utilize evolving drones, phase patterns, treated field recordings, chords constructed from feedback, sounds amplified through solid materials, metal percussion, muffled voices, vintage rhythm boxes, & shortwave radio. In the past, Timm has worked with composers & musicians, including Eldridge Gravy & The Court Supreme, Simon Henneman, Zack Shaw & Ethan Cudaback (as Kuru Cult), Matt Shoemaker, Skip Milford & Chris Pollina (as Quietus), Ed Petry, Bill Horist, Dave Abramson, Gregg Keplinger, & Glenn Branca.

THE PRECAMBRIAN

Aphonia Recordings founders, Ben L. Robertson & Andrew Senna team-up as The Precambrian. In concept, The Precambrian is a constantly evolving interactive synthesis environment/instrument, engineered by Robertson using the graphical programming language, Max/MSP. In its current incarnation, The Precambrian utilizes a “slide zither” & various pitch recognition algorithms to coax out microtonal intervals derived from a graphical system of 11-limit, just intonation matrices. Additionally, Senna (armed with a handful of piezoelectric transducers, microphones, field recordings & synths) executes a series of absurd narratives & synthetic onomatopoeia, indicative of both his sound design work for film & theater.