GON at OLD STONE HOUSE

Laura Ortman - violin, vocals, piano
Michael Garofalo - Korg Ms20, Animoog, samples, hand percussion, Mbira
Patrick Noecker - cellphone, electric bass

recorded by Dan Joseph, 2/12/15 at The Old Stone House, Brooklyn for the Musical Ecologies Series.

GON (Michael Garofalo, Laura Ortman + Pat Noecker) 2/12/15 live at the Old Stone House, Brooklyn

RAFT is the sound and music exploration of Pat Noecker. He has been exploring composition through IOS apps and the potentiality of crowd-sourced collage since 2012.  He employs the cell phone, text messaging, loopers and electronics, for instance, to create his particular brand of “audience-generated” sonic architecture. As an extension of these technologically inspired performances, Noecker released an app in October of 2014 called TRANSMISSIONS to accompany his hour-long improvisatory ensemble piece also called TRANSMISSIONS. The TRANSMISSIONS app allows audience members to join this collaborative experiment through the speaker phone function. RAFT’s self-titled genre of Cellphonism stands to re contextualize the cell phone’s purpose as a communication device into one that can generate art and energy. 
Cellphonism has been a significant departure from RAFT’s past work of the last 15 years with Liars, These Are Powers, n0 things and Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, but the energy from each of these groups still carries over into his performances.  
Recently, however, Noecker has undergone yet another transformation back into music.  In January of 2015 he began work on a 20 minute trio piece for bass called MUSIC, in which he re examined his relationship with music, sound art, bass guitar and the trio formation.  The isolation demanded by this process has allowed him the necessary time to address his own relationship with these forms.  MUSIC took one year to complete and in the process he devised an approach to composition called Musical Realism.  He defines it as “an approach to new sounds through a digital-free lens that examines traditional instruments and their respective musical systems.”
Noecker’s projects have received critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Wire, Spin, and numerous other publications. MoMA, the Whitney, PS1, the Kennedy Center, the Getty Museum, London ICA, and the San Francisco Fillmore, among many other cultural and underground venues have all hosted Noecker’s above projects.  
-Gabriella Garcia




GON at OLD STONE HOUSE

RAFTISPATNOECKER