what’s new

Music performed on traditional and invented instruments with electronics

A rare trio performance of Greg O’Drobinak - invented instruments, electronics; Christopher Preissing - flute, percussion, electronics; Eric Leonardson - springboard, electronics

10 PM Saturday, January 30

Listen an excerpt of Greg O’Drobinak’s music

Here’s a Chicago Reader review of 84 Charlie Mopic, the 8 PM movie screening preceding our performance: www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/MovieTimes?oid=1067859

http://my.saic.edu/news/35068/In-Memory-of-Alumnus-Flores-Flo-McGarrell-.htm

Sad news arrived today, but the good news is that our other friend and colleague from SAIC, Sue Frame is okay we are told.

Flo’s amazing work in Haiti was written about in the Art21 series last year.

Here’s a link to a local news report.

NEWS UPDATE [received 1/19/2010] Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone who’s heard or read the news recently knows of the catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday, January 12. The death toll and devastation is massive. Here’s a Haitian relief effort that you may be interested in joining, organized by Tuscon-based artist Glenn Weyant.

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I have four live appearances on radio and on stage this month, I hope you may be able to attend or listen in…

Saturday, January 16, 5:00AM US CST (GMT -6)

Guest on ITDE (”It’s Too Damn Early”)

I will be a guest on ITDE hosted by DaveX on WDBX 91.1FM.

ITDE features experimental, avant-garde, electroacoustic, improvisational, and other musics. ITDE airs on Saturday mornings from 4 - 6:30 a.m. [US CST / GMT -6]. That’s 11 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. in Berlin, and 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. in Hong Kong.

Sunday, January 17, 10:00PM–2:00 AM US CST (GMT -6)

Chicago Phonography on Something Else

Hosted by Philip von Zweck on WLUW 88.7FM Listen to the live stream.

Something Else is Chicago’s longest running radio show devoted to seldom-heard and experimental, avant-garde musics, sound art, works of long duration (no excerpts!), and other less classifiable things that just don’t have an outlet. Chicago Phonography is a collective of artists interested in promoting creative activity in listening by broadcasting unprocessed field recordings as an ensemble in a context of live improvisation.

Tuesday, January 19, 9:00PM - Elastic Electro/Acoustic Series

Auris: Julia Miller - guitar, electronics; Christopher Preissing - flute, voice, electronics; Eric Leonardson - springboard, electronics
Jason Soliday/Ben Billington - electronics/percussion
Which Birds - Justin Barnes (formerly Werewolf Unit) - electronics

Auris is a Chicago-based collective that performs original music on traditional, electronic, and self-built instruments. Founded in 2007, the collective employs free improvisation and non-traditional scores to explore electroacoustic sound as an organic art of time and space.

Saturday, January 30, 10:00PM - Hotti Biscotti

Greg O’Drobinak - invented instruments, electronics; Christopher Preissing - flute, voice, electronics; Eric Leonardson - springboard, electronics

Hotti Biscotti

Recently, I started using AudioBoo and found it to be a fun social media “play thing” for posting field recordings. One interesting feature with potential for serious use is AudBoo’s ability to create a podcast in the iTunes Music Store. There you can download to the files or “boos” as well as subscribe to the podcast. You can tag your boos, search boos. This is the link for my AudioBoo. As in Twitter you can follow the profiles. You can also subscribe to everyone’s AudioBoos on the iTunes AudioBoos full podcast.

When this “what’s new” blog gets upgraded to a more current version of WordPress I will be able to try the AudioBoo plug-in, enabling visitors to subscribe to my AudioBoo atom and RSS feeds for my AudioBoo profile.

An alternative to AudioBoo is radio aporee created by Udo Noll in Berlin . Both interface with Google Maps. I think of it as a field recording sharing project with many uses:

• newsfeed: http://aporee.org/maps/work/feeds/atom.php
• forum: http://aporee.org/maps/info/forum/
• stream: http://radio.aporee.org

A reminder here that you are always welcome to eavesdrop on my local soundscape, in real-time, on the global Locus Sonus Audio Streaming Project Map, or listen the stream from my location at “chicago - westside”. Many of the “boos” that I post are recorded from my Loustream, via the streambox.

Regarding social media or web 2.0 stuff in general, I’ve been maintaining multiple sites on FB, Myspace, etc. for my personal projects, in addition to this “what’s new” blog. The Myspace profile feels like a chore to use now, while Twitter, Youtube, Facebook keep me engaged.

Best wishes for 2010,
Eric

Nic Collins just informed me that my 2007 article, about my Springboard and piezo contact mics, has topped the list of Leonardo Music Journals “Most Downloaded Articles”.

My article is a free download, please enjoy.

Chicago Phonography @ The Op Shop

Originally uploaded by eleonardson
This evening’s show was quite wonderful. We played for an hour and a half, and our attentive audience all stayed for an impromptu discussion afterward. We all didn’t expect this to happen and thoroughly enjoyed it. We felt so welcome…many thanks to Laura Shaeffer and Chris Hammes for making this happen.

More info about The Op Shop is on their website: theopshop.org

Here is an excerpt from the recording of the performance.

Past performance recordings can be heard on our website: www.chicagophongraphy.org

Monday, December 21, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

The Opportunity Shop, 1613 E. 55th St., Chicago 60615 (map)

Created in the Spring of 2008, Chicago Phonography is a loose collective of artists producing and broadcasting unprocessed field recordings as an ensemble in a context of live improvisation. Motivated by the maxim “nature performs and we provide the secretarial services” (R. Murray Schafer, The Tuning of the World) alongside John Cage’s theories of chance operation and fellow field recorders The Seattle Phonographers Union, Chicago Phonography seeks not to enhance reality but rather to edify an aural anthropology. Through their performances the experience of listening is abridged by the congestion of the modern metropolis, the alarming lack of human control over modern technology, and the pressing need to restore organic balance to everyday living. The Phonographers limit their interaction with raw sonic material to the very simplest manipulations of play, stop, pan, and gain.

The Opportunity Shop is a transitory, experimental space for new art in Chicago.

Visit the Chicago Phonography website.

My submission for the Second Annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition was accepted last week. The competition will take place at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology on Friday, February 26, 2010 and Saturday February 27, 2010. As mentioned in the earlier post about my recent video, Wired also featured this article about last year’s competition.

I will make more details available here as they become available, or visit the Georgia Tech website.

Please join Nick Sondy, Grant Strombeck, and me for a late night set of improvisations performed on experimental musical instruments and electronics.

10 PM Saturday, December 12 at:

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