Kasson Crooker (aka Symbion Project) has been composing various styles of eclectic electronic music for the past 25 years. Based in Seattle, Kasson's current musical focus is on immersive audio experiences, from live quadraphonic surround sound performances to interactive VR-Music apps featuring interactive spatial audio.  Spanning the past 3 decades, over a dozen albums and EPs have been released from Symbion Project, ELYXR, Khems, Freezepop, and many other side projects, as well as composing bespoke music for indie films, video games, and VR experiences. https://symbionproject.bandcamp.com/

"Gishiki" is a live quadraphonic performance of music from the Symbion Project albums "Gishiki" and "Backscatter", primarily featuring the Japanese koto heavily processed through modular synth DSP, layered over lush vintage synthesizer beds and field recordings. Live performances of "Gishiki" took place in 2018-19 on the West Coast featuring performances at Good Shepherd Center Chapel (Seattle), Bloom (Portland), and Synthplex (Los Angeles). The music ranges from lush, immersive ambient to dark and pulsating, with the koto as its sonic centerpiece.

Wayward in Limbo #100 – Symbion Project

Dave Abramson is a drummer and percussionist. He grew up playing in the hardcore and metal scene on the east coast and studied visual arts in upstate New York, where he began to play improvised and experimental music. Since moving to Seattle in 2002 he has recorded, performed and/or toured with folks such as Eyvind Kang, Secret Chiefs 3, Wayne Horvitz, Climax Golden Twins, Lori Goldston, Paul Hoskin, Wally Shoup, Greg Kelley, Boredoms, etc.  Abramson is a member of the bands Master Musicians of Bukkake, Diminished Men, Spider Trio, Telescoping, and has composed music for The Maureen Whiting Dance company since 2004. He has toured throughout the U.S., Europe and Canada and can be heard on albums released by Tzadik, Sub Pop, Drag City, Abduction, Conspiracy, Web of Mimicry, and Important records.

For the last few months I have been back in New Jersey at my childhood home, a return to the concrete basement where I first started playing drums along to cassettes and eventually with bands. On my first drum set, a 1989 Tama Rockstar, a Bar Mitzvah present from my parents, and a 1967 Ludwig kit gifted from a friend, I present six improvisations. The opening and closing pieces are deconstructions of a theme entitled "Doubles", and the third is based on the Afro-Haitian folkloric rhythm Yanvalou. It has been a time of self-reflection personally and musically to be back in the space and on the instruments related to my younger self. Thanks to everyone for tuning in.

(00:00) Improvisation 1
(05:36) Improvisation 2
(10:44) Improvisation 3
(15:17) Improvisation 4
(20:58) Improvisation 5
(27:25) Improvisation 6

Wayward in Limbo #101 – Dave Abramson

Jessica Lurie is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in saxophones, flute and voice, and enjoys a varied career as a performer, composer, producer, and teaching artist. Highlights include working with artists such as Taylor Mac, John Zorn, Devotchka, Helen Gillet, Fred Frith, Bill Frisell, Henry Butler, Indigo Girls, Mark Ribot, Frank London, Allison Miller, and Nels Cline. Jessica performs with her own ensemble, and co-leads the Tiptons Saxophone Quartet & Drums, Living Daylights trio, Sofie Salonika, Freethiopiques, and Slingshot, and has been working on several new solo and collaborative recordings  to be released in 2021. https://jessicalurie.com/

Violist and composer Heather Bentley has trailblazed a career as one of the West Coast’s most visible improvisatory musicians, specializing in creating evocative atmospheres and textures. Classically trained, she has shifted to an unabashedly experimental artistic output: As a performer, she can be seen performing on instruments like her electric seven string and five string violins or her electronic pedal board in numerous chamber ensembles that utilize improvisation, electronics, and often both. As a composer, her work for chamber ensembles and orchestras has been performed by organizations across both California and Washington. Relentless in her pursuit of creativity, she continues this work as co-founder of Kin of the Moon, a 501(c)3 organization which fosters collaboration between artists in service of creating unique art. http://www.heatherbentleymusic.com/

Heather Bentley and Jessica Lurie have been creative collaborators for years in their free improvisation project Slingshot. Tonight’s music is all about Spring! – new growth and ideas emerging from fertile dirt and darkness into light and air, to tree and blossom. Their spontaneous compositions both hold intentional musical space for the many changes and traumas brought by the pandemic, while blooming with new sonic energy and color.

Wayward in Limbo #102 – Slingshot

Chloe Harris (aka Raica) has been an integral and influential figure in the Pacific Northwest music community for over two decades. Her contributions as a musical artist, producer, DJ, mentor, record label owner (Further), and record shop owner have helped lay the groundwork and build the foundation upon which rests the current success of Seattle’s underground electronic music scene. https://raica.bandcamp.com/

(00:00) Untitled 1
(06:54) Untitled 2
(10:58) Untitled 3
(17:42) Untitled 4
(23:24) Untitled 5
(29:34) Untitled 6
(37:20) Untitled 7
https://furtherrecords.org/

Wayward in Limbo #103 – Raica

Drummer/percussionist Don Berman has been a part of the Seattle creative music scene for over thirty years, coming from the Midwest after receiving his musical training at Oberlin College and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where he studied with Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame percussionists Michael Rosen and Thomas Siwe. A key Seattle experience was studying free jazz and improvisation with composer/pianist, Alistair "Al" Hood in the late 1990's.  

Since 2017, Don has maintained a strong musical partnership with composer/multi-instrumentalist Dick Valentine (saxophones, flutes, electronics), meeting weekly to discuss, compose, and play original music. This performance presents Don and Dick's duo, D2, performing four original pieces:

(00:00) 1. And the Elephant (Berman)
(07:45) 2. Simplest Possible (Valentine)
(17:01) 3. One For Milford (Valentine/Berman)
(24:05) 4. Take 19 (Berman)

THIS CONCERT IS DEDICATED TO MILFORD GRAVES

Wayward in Limbo #117 – Don Berman

Ewa Trębacz (pronounced Eva Trembatch) is a Polish-American composer, an interdisciplinary artist and a violinist-in-disguise. Exploring the unique interaction between the musician and their acoustic environment, she often uses space as a catalyst for improvisation, working through Ambisonic recording sessions in acoustically inspiring spaces. http://ewatrebacz.com, https://soundcloud.com/user-905656918

A freelance flutist, artist, improviser, and composer, Leanna Keith delights in creating sound experiences that make audiences laugh, cry, and say: “I didn’t know the flute could do that!” Her performance artworks have focused on cultural connection and the breaking of audience/performer boundaries. www.leannakeithflute.com, https://www.patreon.com/leannakeith

Josiah Boothby is a versatile hornist devoted to new music, with a particular focus on improvisation and creative collaboration with composers and other artists. When he’s not playing his horn or teaching, Josiah can be found hiking and climbing around the Pacific Northwest, blues dancing, or staying in to engage in kitchen alchemy. https://josiahboothby.org

"The Tower of Broken Mirrors"

Josiah Boothby, French horn; Leanna Keith, flutes; Ewa Trębacz, violin & electronics

The soundscape emerged from our collective hallucinations at the CT3 cooling tower at Satsop Nuclear Plant. We improvised in the space and the tower sang along, adding its lovely echoes.

Some of the electronic sounds were played back live in the tower with a small 360 loudspeaker - as we improvised to pre-composed phrases. Later Ewa mixed in more electronics for more flavor, and blended it all together. All of the sounds were recorded, processed and mixed in Ambisonics (by Ewa), the version presented here is a binaural mix.

Wayward in Limbo #119 – Ewa Trębacz (w/ Leanna Keith + Josiah Boothby)

Noel Kennon is an artist living in Seattle, WA. This work is currently questioning the role and purpose of sounding in society as well as continued research into the actualities of this perception called sound. Inquiries about visiting this year's installation work -> '(tattered drifting)': noelkennon@gmail.com. https://noelkennon.bandcamp.com/

This recording is referred to as :

' prayer { Monad and the Fantasimon waiting in the garden beside Ophaniel (who is asleep) for their groceries to be delivered by Sisyphus (who is running late). or ' at one point - (they needed to rent refrigeration trucks)' }'

This music is composed of the following materials { chimes (made from scrap metal), viola, filtered white noise, and several open windows }. In observation of the sound of that which is not struck. This activity is dedicated to the willow tree I befriended that has now been replaced with a construction site for high-rise condos.

Wayward in Limbo #120 – Noel Kennon

Robin Holcomb plays the piano, sings, writes and records music. Following Sundanese Gamelan study, sharecropping tobacco and several crucial years in the Lower East Side music community she has lived and created music in Seattle since 1989. She is currently composing a piece for The Philadelphia Orchestra. www.robinholcomb.com

These thirteen solo piano pieces were written, developed, invented, and recorded in my home studio during the coronavirus pandemic. I was worried that they would all sound the same. As it turns out, they have nothing and everything to do with each other. Deep thanks for the opportunity to be a part of this series, and to everyone for listening.

(00:00)  6.20.21
(03:08)  8.9.20
(09:33)  Wayward 1
(13:20)  7.18.19.21
(15:18)  6.11.20
(19:39)  Free
(24:06) Ash Trees Also
(29:07)  Hymn
(32:06)  Improvisation 1
(34:52)  Improvisation 2
(36:37)  Improvisation 3
(38:10)  Improvisation 4
(40:51)  Improvisation 5

(photo: Peter Gannushkin)

Wayward in Limbo #121 – Robin Holcomb

Eric Muhs builds instruments, records, and produces from his Invisible Music studio in Ballard. A physics and astronomy teacher and founder of community radio station KBFG 107.3, he's been active in music since 1980, pushing boundaries across structured and improvised music. He's played for a decade with a traditional Hawaiian band, Na Hilahila Boys, and released 3 albums during quarantine, including "Frontera Dogs," a collaboration with poet and professor Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs. https://soundcloud.com/ericmuhs
https://ericmuhs.bandcamp.com/

I received the invitation to create a piece for the Wayward in Limbo series in the middle of a gigantic cross-continent road trip to see my mother and brother on the East Coast, the first time in nearly two years. The geography of my upcoming drive back west to Seattle suggested an organizing structure: the piece would open with toes in the Atlantic Ocean, and end at the Pacific, with a poem at each end by my partner Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs (she came east, but flew home while I drove). In between, sounds from the road: waterfalls, the slapping rhythm of highways, snoring, a midwest thunderstorm, the lucky find of a coffee shop in Kansas, the wind through tall grass prairie. For many years, I've traveled with a ukelele, to Europe, to Central America, to Africa, and I record new on-site improvised pieces wherever I go. When I got back to my studio I recorded some additional music – lately I've been working on ukelele electronic dreamscapes in 8-channel stereo – and built out a four dimensional sonic narrative that crosses the continent.

Wayward in Limbo #122 – Eric Muhs

Sovan is a collaboration between Tomo Nakayama and Jeramy Koepping. https://sovan.bandcamp.com/

This recording is a combination of ambient electronic loops, live improvised acoustic piano and electric guitar, cassette tape manipulation, and field recordings collected in our neighborhood of West Seattle. Though we live only a mile or so apart, we created this piece separately in our homes, as neither of us were vaccinated at the time. The aim was, in a way, to soundtrack the daily walks we would take around our neighborhoods, in the woods at Schmitz Preserve Park, on the beaches in Alki, the industrial hum of Harbor Island, the peaceful solitude of the Seattle Chinese Garden.

Wayward in Limbo #123 – Sovan

Seattle-based composer John Teske writes contemporary concert music for soloists, chamber groups, chamber orchestra, and "any ensemble". John's music has been performed across the Americas, as well as in France and Russia, and has been supported by the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, the Jack Straw Foundation, and the City of Seattle. https://johnteskemusic.com/ (photo: Amelia Apfel)

"intonations" is a suite of graphic scores based on dark intonations and dreams. Written for "any ensemble" and generated algorithmically, the scores and ensemble are unique for each performance. In this recording: Greg Campbell, percussion; Luke Fitzpatrick, violin; Haley Freedlund, trombone; Noel Kennon, viola; John Teske, double bass; Neil Welch, saxophone. Mastered by Bill Levey.

(00:00)  swell
(08:37)  ad;sr
(15:02)  prelude
(20:10)  trashfire

(23:28)  intonations
- threadshift
- by the fucking neck
- bone flute
- mauler
- libera me
- brain slap
- klaxon wail
- papercut butterflies
- blood on the hearth
- death rattle

Wayward in Limbo #124 – John Teske

Jackie An (she/they) was born and raised on the unceded land of the Pueblos (Albuquerque, New Mexico). Now residing on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish (Seattle, Washington), Jackie accompanies their audience through the themes of life, death, horror and delight through the lyrical voice of the violin. Textures created through a collection of guitar pedals are used to evoke subconscious imagery and create an interlocking auditory narrative.  @circadies

In Encouragement of Impermanence (Chapel, 2021) 

This piece can be used as a guided meditation on grief. As my life unfolds before me, my personhood as a neurodivergent, Korean American demifemme expands. This expansion has asked of me to engage in an ongoing process of grief in order to grow into wholeness and belonging. I have had to revisit past memories with a more generous gaze in order to become ready to let go of old beliefs and survival strategies that serve to objectify myself and others. I wanted to braid the most important life-saving strands of my life for the first time in an improvised session: Meditation, addiction recovery and music. It is my hope that this piece can be of service to you in a time of transition, change or loss.

(photo: Steven Miller @smiller555)

Wayward in Limbo #125 – Jackie An

Jesse Canterbury (clarinet) has played and composed new music for years, focusing mainly on improvised music, avant-jazz, and new chamber music. www.jessecanterbury.net

Like every musician I know, I have sorely missed being able to make and hear music with real live people in the same room during the past 18 months or so.  At the same time, there are many things about music-making that are solitary in nature -- practicing, composing, studying, and to some extent, listening -- so that staying at home doesn’t mean you stop making music.  

This half-hour’s worth of layered clarinet sounds is my effort at exploring some new (for me) "solo" territory.  There are muffled screaming solos, Feldman-esque colorings, and even some poetry.  Working at this material went a long way towards sustaining my sanity while muddling through the anxieties of the latter half of 2020 and the first couple months of 2021.

"From Home"

(0:00) 1. How Do We Spell Shadow?
(2:48) 2. Interlude
(3:55) 3. Encounter
    i. Bons mots
    ii. Turgid Fustian
    iii. Admirable Bolete
    iv. Forest Paterfamilias
(10:30) 4. Shimmer
(13:20) 5. Fog
(18:18) 6. Still
(27:22) 7. Fight and Flight

Recorded October 2020 to May 2021, by Jesse Canterbury in Shoreline, Washington.

All material © 2021 Jesse Canterbury (ASCAP), except text for Encounter, from “Woodland Trail-Troll Berserker Devil-Bear,” by David Guterson, from the book Turn Around Time, published by Mountaineers Books, Seattle. © 2019 by David Guterson. Used by kind permission of the author.

Wayward in Limbo #126 – Jesse Canterbury

Marcin Pączkowski (pronounced `marr-cheen pawnch-`koav-skee) is a composer, conductor, digital artist and performer, working with both traditional and electronic media. As a composer, he is focused on developing new ways of creating and performing computer music. He is a Postdoctoral Scholar at DXARTS and works with numerous ensembles as a conductor and a performer. http://marcinpaczkowski.com/

"MMM 1"

In an attempt to escape the reality of this past year, I can’t help but be amazed by the fact that we as humans can now listen to sounds recorded on another planet. MMM 1 (working title: “Marcin’s Martian Music”), uses solely sound samples sent back from Mars by NASA’s Perseverance rover. These sounds were edited and transformed into larger structures with a custom live-controlled computer music system, which then became the basis for the final electroacoustic work. This piece was created with support from DXARTS.

Wayward in Limbo #127 – Marcin Pączkowski

Greg Campbell plays drums, percussion, French horn, and other instruments. He works in the broader jazz and classical traditions, performing with groups ranging from the Seattle Modern Orchestra to Wayne Horvitz’s Electric Circus, and with artists such as steel pan virtuoso Ray Holman, Eyvind Kang, Ali Birra, Vinny Golia, Lori Goldston, Christian Asplund, Nels Cline, and James Falzone. His studies with Asante palmwine guitarist Koo Nimo led him to Ghana in 2017; he has worked with Koo Nimo’s son Yaw Amponsah in the traditional Asante drumming group Anokye Agofomma for more than twenty years. Greg teaches at the Cornish College of the Arts and at Cascadia College.

"The Simultonality Endeavor"

In each of these improvised pieces, I play two different instruments at the same time. Since many of these pairs contain instruments with different playing techniques and pitch ordering methods, I was interested to see how my attention as an improviser would be focused and/or divided. I owe a debt of gratitude for inspiring my approach here to multi-instrumentalists Jerome Cooper (especially his 1979 album "The Unpredictability Of Predictability") and Roscoe Mitchell. 

Each instrument pairing is dedicated to spirits who left us lately but way too soon:

G bugle and drum set (to Patrick Campbell); French horn and resonant metals (to Paul Taub); kpanlogo drum and drum set (to Bill Withers); vibraphone and cornet (to Bill Smith); French horn and toy electric saxophone (to Mohammed Shaibu); orchestra chimes and vibraphone (to George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and many thousands gone).

(00:00) Chimes & Vibraphone 1
(03:18) Bugle & Drum Set 1
(05:22) French Horn & Toy Electric Sax
(09:32) Chimes & Vibraphone 2
(14:11) Kpanlogo Drum & Drum Set
(17:56) Bugle & Drum Set 2
(19:07) Chimes & Vibraphone 3
(25:57) Cornet & Vibraphone
(30:19) French Horn & Resonant Metals

Wayward in Limbo #128 – Greg Campbell

Kyte Mika is a pianist/composer born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, and based in Seattle for the last 6 years. By combining techniques and influences from post classical, ambient and progressive electronica genres, Kyte weaves together intimate and engaging stories through sound. You are welcome to help support Kyte by donations through Venmo: @flyakyte
https://kytemika.bandcamp.com

These are some solo piano selections from Kyte's upcoming project called "Mend". Most of these were written during the pandemic, a couple others pieced together slowly from the last 10 years. The final versions will include some chamber/instrumental accompaniments and electronic treatments.

Wayward in Limbo #129 – Kyte Mika

I'm Ben McAllister, a composer and guitarist based in Seattle. I've played with a string of boundary-pushing groups including Medicine Hat, Degenerate Art Ensemble, Wizard Prison, C'mon C'mon and Tuktu. I co-host the Articulations Podcast w/Joshua Kohl.  I'm the founder of the Guitar Cult, my current focus, a 7-piece electric guitar group interpreting my pieces (http://theguitarcult.com). I'm an obsessive journaler and recordist, and have contributed to somewhere north of 30 releases to date, including my Karl-Ove-Knausgård-inspired My Sounds sound journal series, released through Bandcamp (https://listenfastermusic.bandcamp.com/).

I am so happy and humbled to be part of the Wayward In Limbo series, right as we're getting back out of our caves. Thank you all for sharing and to Steve, of course, for making it happen. Like a lot of us, Covid focus time has healed me in surprising ways, helped me focus my signal where I want it to go, and reminded me of the kind of life I want to live. These pieces are all explorations with guitar sound from this last immersive year - some guitar trios, some explorations w/Paul Vo's Wond (a variation on the E-bow), and a piece of software I've been working on for years which I've named the Circular 4-track. I love playing my guitar. RIP EVH.

1. Call (0:00)
2. Index Study - Pulses (2:05)
3. Bach BMV 358 (2:34)
4. Index Study - Respiration (5:05)
5. Carmina Chromatico (Orlando DiLasso, from Prophetiae Sibyllarum) (7:06)
6. Index Study - What happens when the beat drops (9:38)
7. Land Bridge Approach (11:08)
8. Piano Smells Ok (18:27) 
9. The Rock (22:05)
10. Ascending Injected (26:27)
11. Mandala Drafts (35:29)

More detail is available here: https://listenfaster.com/#/journal/listen/wayward-in-limbo-series-july-2021-liner-notes

Wayward in Limbo #130 – Ben McAllister

After seven years as a rock bassist and singer, Lu Evers switched to reeds, and began studying jazz with Al Hood's Workshop in Seattle, 1974. Then they joined a spinoff group, Holus Bolus, and dove deeper into composition. Over the next two decades they led several small groups, including a celebrated quintet featuring Jim Knodle and Jack Endino, continuing focus on free jazz compositions and ideas from rock, blues and Eastern European folk sources. While in New York in the early 2000s, Lu performed with Willie Davis, Victor Prieto, the Blue Vipers of Brooklyn, and an original trio with Nick Russo and Debbie Kennedy. Since that time there has been an even stronger focus on original material. Lu (clarinet) is joined here by Amy Denio (accordion) and Matty Noble (fiddle).

"Red Leaf" was inspired by a trip to Vancouver, B.C., to attend a concert by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. It was not only that great group, but the vibrant Vancouver Jazz Society that helped to spawn these ideas. This pared down version is designed especially for this trio. Mood is the central component, with melodic drifts swirling, thick dissonant clusters from the accordion, and a blend of middle eastern and jazz lines.

"Crawdad Pool" is a hard folksy funk drawing from Perry Robinson's early work. In this case, we develop ideas from the melody alone, with no parts written. The title refers to an activity of my youth, catching crawdads with my bare hand.

The third piece, "Eve 6," was created nearly out of thin air after re-watching an episode of The X Files. The performance of Harriet Harris was transfixing, and this title was her character's name. Long, patient lines from the clarinet and the fiddle, with minor second harmonies, are supported with extreme minimalism from the accordion. The patience and minimalism continues into an open-ended group improvisation. The tension and release, exhibited so piercingly by Ms. Harris' performance, is being illustrated and honored here.

Wayward in Limbo #131 – Lu Evers Trio

Torch is a new music quartet dedicated to pushing the boundaries of new music, improvisation, and genre. "Torch" is a reference to Tomas Mann's aesthetic mantra proclaiming, “Art is the sacred torch that must shed its merciful light into all life's terrible depths." The Torch collective is a project of Common Tone Arts, a non-profit organization inspiring positive change for our diverse world through arts education and creative music. https://www.instituteforcreativity.org/commontonearts

Program (all premieres):

"Lightbearer" (2021), by Nansi Caroll

"Hearing Troublesome Creek" (2021), by Bonnie Whiting

"Three Dances" (2020), by Ed Castro
     1 - Vitrics
     2 - Vocalise 
     3 - Deconstructed Merengue

Performed by the Torch Quartet: Brian Kai Chin, trumpet; Eric Likkel, clarinet; Bonnie Whiting, vibes & percussion; Steve Schermer, bass.

Wayward in Limbo #132 – Torch

Jonathan Way plays field recordings with the Seattle Phonographers Union and graphic scores with Eye Music, translates Japanese and films eastern cottontails. https://vimeo.com/rabbitland

Forest Floors is made of textural improvisations with wild plants recorded in July 2021 at three locations from Seattle into the North Cascades. All recordings were made with a portable Edirol recorder using built-in mics and are presented in three mixes with no processing, effects or eq adjustments.

(00:00) Above Duwamish Head in the Clarmar woods – 108 ft elev.
horsetail & thimbleberry
blackberry & coltsfoot
knotweed & twinberry honeysuckle

(16:00) Above Ruby Arm west of Panther Cr – 2,000 ft elev.
pipsissewa & starflower
bracken fern & serviceberry
devil’s club & cascade oregon grape

(20:10) South slopes of Crooked Bum above the Bridge Cr drainage – 5,300–5,600 ft elev.
red elderberry & alpine goldenrod
sitka alder & lady fern
subalpine fir & mountain teaberry
devil’s club & trailing black currant
{ hermit thrush & distant bear – in memory of Amy M (1970–2020) & Kyle T (1970–2021) }

Wayward in Limbo #133 – Jonathan Way

Carol J. Levin has established a unique niche as Seattle's improvising harpist, playing with small and large ensembles including CHA, Levitation, Christian Pincock's Scrambler, Beth Fleenor's Blindfold Ensemble, Spontanea, Women's Rockin Blues, and Steve Treseler's Game Symphony Workshop. Carol's music is full of surprises with styles varying from beautiful melodic lines to challenging and experimental tangents with electronic effects and loops, often incorporating percussion and instruments from other cultures. She has recorded with CHA ("Remembering Backward") and Spontanea ("Flow," "Chromasonic," "Quintaphonic") on Right Brain Records. https://caroljlevinmusic.com

Susie Kozawa, a sound artist, composer and performer, works mostly with sound collages and site-specific installations, in which the gathering of sounds is a primary activity. She explores different acoustic spaces using musical instruments she makes out of found objects, kelp, modified toys and human voice. She is a member of the Seattle Phonographers Union and creates sound design for dance, film and theater productions. Susie was featured in Wayward in Limbo #42. 

Carol and Susie reconnected recently playing in an outdoor Flowerpot Music ensemble on Make Music Day 2021. They both find joy in exploring sounds from strings, sticks, toys and random resonant objects, and are thrilled to emerge from pandemic isolation to record an improvised duo in the Chapel.

Wayward in Limbo #134 – Carol Levin & Susie Kozawa

Megan Mitchell composes unsettling, ethereal music under the alias, Cruel Diagonals. A jazz and classically trained vocalist, Mitchell performs and creates in numerous capacities. Mitchell has released albums with Drawing Room Records and Longform Editions, which have been met with critical acclaim. crueldiagonals.com

This piece is comprised of various works in progress and unreleased compositions utilizing a blend of voice, field recordings, Eurorack, granular synthesis, and digital processes. While earlier Cruel Diagonals releases hinted at decay and discomfort, this performance faces those themes head-on, with an unfaltering acceptance of the duality of pain and transcendence. It represents a shift into the domain of more intentional psychoacoustics, exploring noisier and harsher territories in the process.

(Photo: Marylène Mey)

Wayward in LImbo #9 – Cruel Diagonals

Paul Kikuchi is a musician and sound artist. He is a seeker of things undefinable - drawn to the shadows and the margins. He is music faculty at South Seattle College. http://paulkikuchi.com

notes scratched on paper; chasing temple bells before dawn; biking narrow streets; fine dust that gathers in 100 year old grooves; things loved by those who are no longer; the pulsing glow of coals. 

Paul Kikuchi - composition, field recording, drums, guitar, piano, electronics
Miura Remi - hichiriki and sho
Nakamura Hitomi - hichiriki
Christopher Yohmei Bladsel - shakuhachi
Tajima Kazue - wagon and sho

Composed, recorded and mixed by Paul Kikuchi
Additional recording by Noriaki Watanabe
Mastered by Alex Vittum

Wayward in Limbo #11 – Paul Kikuchi

I am a cellist and composer who works in a wide variety of styles and situations, often with bands, singers, choreographers, film makers, writers, etc., and sometimes solo. I live and work in Seattle, and play pretty regularly in other parts of the U.S. and other countries. I’ve released albums on several labels, including Second Editions, Mississippi Records, Sub Rosa, Substrata, Marginal Frequency, Ed Banger, Talking Helps, and will release more soon on Eiderdown Sounds and SofaBurn. I am co-founder of a brand new union, the Freelance Artists Coalition of Seattle (FACS).  http://lorigoldston.com/
https://lorigoldston.bandcamp.com/
Venmo: @Lori-Goldston-1
PayPal: lori@lorigoldston.com

“Yellowstone Score” was recorded by Mell Dettmer at Studio Soli for Jon Jost to use as a soundtrack for a film he’s working on. I played amplified cello, and recorded it live in one long take while watching the film. I didn’t ask many questions and thought the film was edited, but turns out it wasn’t so the score is probably longer than the film will be. Anyway, it works out fine— it was a fun challenge to play in that way with solid focus and intention for such a long stretch. The film is very beautiful and minimal.

Wayward in Limbo #14 – Lori Goldston

Wally Shoup is a long-time (40 yrs +) practitioner of free improvisation/jazz/noise on alto saxophone. He has appeared on numerous recordings with musicians of all stripes. Additionally, he has written about free improvisation and organized extensively. He was the 2019 inductee into the Earshot Jazz Hall of Fame. 

During the COVID-19 lockdown, I've been playing/practicing in the I-90 bike tunnel, investigating its unique, reverberant sound. For this recording, Dustin Williams set up three mics: close, mid and far (about 100 ft away) and combined them. The resultant mix is very true to the sound inside the tunnel itself.

Wayward in Limbo #18 – Wally Shoup

Gust Burns is a musician, composer, and theorist.  In addition to making various kinds of musical, performance, and art works, he writes and thinks around analyses of capitalism and anti-blackness.  He is working on his dissertation at the University of Washington's English department, titled "Dispensation of the faculties: Human capacity and radical incoherence across black arts and audio-visual production."

title: "a subsequent iteration of deferral, like m said" 

Solo piano and silent dubplate record, recorded simultaneously through turntable with cartridge and stylus.

What is the ontological, and so the political standing of the faculty of listening? This recording should be understood less as an engagement with questions around performance, recording, and objecthood. Rather, it is a presentation of listening's reliance upon, and integration within the contemporary capacital apparatus that comprises the diversity of capitalism's temporal and haptic machines.

Wayward in Limbo #20 – Gust Burns

Haruko Crow Nishimura is a vocalist, dancer and artistically directs Degenerate Art Ensemble, a multi art performance group based in Seattle. She is always searching to discover how art can create deeper connections, transformations and awakenings. She has been a recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship and Creative Capital award.
https://www.degenerateartensemble.com/
https://www.instagram.com/radharuko/

"Witness Tree" is a multi-layered vocal improvisation.

Wayward in Limbo #27 – Haruko Crow Nishimura

Marguerite Brown (b. 1990) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist who explores new mediums, forms, and performance practices. Recent projects include a new piece for mixed chamber ensemble premiered by the Ghost Ensemble at the REDCAT Theater in Los Angeles, CA in March 2020, and new music for refretted guitars to be premiered at the 21st Century Guitar Conference in Lisboa, Portugal in 2021. She received a BM in music composition from Cornish College of the Arts (2013) and a MA in music composition from the University of California, Santa Cruz (2019). You can hear more of her music at https://margueritebrown.com/

"Cycle Pieces 2020" was composed for Wayward in Limbo during the month of July in 2020. The composition is a suite in six movements for amplified mixed chamber ensemble. I used a combination of procedural and improvisatory methods to compose "Cycle Pieces 2020," which has a limited pallet of bright, upper register sounds. I utilized a variety of cyclic forms to unify the movements. Thanks to Paul Matthew Moore for providing the gear used to make this recording and assisting with post-production of the audio.

1. (00:00)
2. (04:12)
3. (10:00)
4. (13:02)
5. (17:47)
6. (24:30)

Wayward in Limbo #39 – Marguerite Brown

Jason E Anderson is an artist whose work includes performance, recorded works, video, installation, music for dance, producing and publishing. Anderson has been a longtime participant of Seattle's experimental music communities, which has led to the formation of many solo and collaborative music projects and his label Gift Tapes/DRAFT. Currently he lives in rural Eastern WA and performs/records music under his own name, and in performance art/film hybrid LIMITS with dancer Corrie Befort. www.jasoneanderson.net

The sounds of this piece, "Dermaptera," were created on a Korg Wavestation A/D, using SuperCollider and a LinnStrument to generate patterns and musical gestures. I edited passages from recordings I made in a barn and mixed them live on July 28th at 10pm. The mix was performed through studio monitors and recorded acoustically to capture the sounds in the barn as you might hear them, with an added bit of direct signal for definition. The barn is surrounded by wheat fields, so the music sits on top of a pleasant bed of insect sounds. I was hoping for coyotes, but they were a half hour late.

Thanks to Corrie Befort for giving me the time to work on this, to Harvey Gordon who brought me snacks, and to the many earwigs that no doubt influenced this recording.

Wayward in Limbo #40 – Jason E Anderson

MANtrio is an improvising trio based in Bellingham, WA. Find their music on soundcloud.com/mantriojazz

Percussionist Melanie Sehman creates experimental and contemporary music that explores improvisation, gesture, the relationships between music, text and the physical experiences of sound. She performs in a wide variety of styles and enjoys collaborative work with composers, performers and artists in other disciplines, exploring alternative modes of music making. 

Bassist Sarah Yates performs regularly in Seattle, Vancouver and Bellingham, where her curiosity leads her to take part in projects with styles ranging from jazz Manouche to 18th century chamber music and traditional Roma music to straight-ahead jazz. In her teaching, research and performing, Sarah seeks to explore and promote the connections between musical practice and lifestyle, with particular interest in intentionality, listening, and the value of play.

Pianist and vocalist Sage Romey's inspirations are centered in jazz and radiate out through funk, West African mbalax, salsa, highlife, and hip hop. She is drawn to the musical creativity inherent in composition and collaboration with artists who take many different pathways to musical creation.  Outside the performance setting, Sage is a scholar of ethnomusicology, studying the ways in which musicians and audiences interact to create meaning from music and musical creation. 

The first and last pieces of this set were recorded by MANtrio on March 1, 2020, just before the COVID-19 lockdown. The first piece, in three movements, is based on Susan Griffin’s “Three Poems for Woman.” The middle four pieces are a series of improvised duos for bass and drums, recorded socially-distanced at home. Without reference to any text, each of these improvisations explores different sound worlds, techniques, textures, gestures and ways of conversing. After months apart, we have a lot to say to each other. The final trio piece, “Iris,” was composed by Sage Romey and its text feels particularly appropriate for the current situation.

(00:00) Three Poems for Woman, pt. 1
(03:18) Three Poems for Woman, pt. 2
(05:22) Three Poems for Woman, pt. 3
(09:48) Bass & Drums Improvisation 1
(13:08) Bass & Drums Improvisation 2
(21:57) Bass & Drums Improvisation 3
(27:33) Bass & Drums Improvisation 4
(35:40) Iris

Wayward in Limbo #41 – MANtrio

Seattle-based composer and clarinetist Angelique Poteat has had her music hailed by the New York Times as “engaging, restless.”  In addition to being principal clarinetist with the Yakima Symphony, she also performs regularly with the Seattle Modern Orchestra and the Saratoga Orchestra, among others. She is currently the Director of the Seattle Symphony’s Merriman Family Young Composers Workshop. www.angeliquepoteat.com 

In this recording, Angelique is joined by Ryan Hare on bassoon and Josiah Boothby on horn, together performing as the trio Artemisia Winds to present a program of original compositions by members of the trio. The pieces cover a broad range of influences, from popular music in some of Angelique’s works, to neo-Romanticism in Ryan’s "Harkening," and guided improvisation in Josiah’s "Sound, Flight, Touch." This concert is recorded in the acoustically gratifying Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd.

(0:00) - Melisma by Angelique Poteat
(6:18) - Sound, Flight, Touch by Josiah Boothby
(14:22) - Under the Sun by Angelique Poteat
(22:23) - Tales for Three by Ryan Hare
(31:22) - Harkening by Ryan Hare
(36:54) - You are Home by Angelique Poteat

Wayward in Limbo #57 – Angelique Poteat & Artemisia Winds

Faith Coloccia is an artist and musician who works under the names Mamiffer and Mára. Her recordings have been released on SIGE records, Karlrecords, Room 40, Hydra Head and Touch. She is the co-founder of the experimental music label SIGE Records. https://fireinfog.blogspot.com/

"Voice III Continuum"

Halfway through the shutdown and the pandemic I started going through all of my cassette field recordings from when my son was first born. The current state of our collective consciousness was layered on top of the sounds recorded before I knew that the events and hungry ghosts of 2020 were even a possibility. I couldn’t unhear the “Before” and “After” of this year.  Recordings of the past are now laced with a heavy urgent present.

The work I have been doing with the recordings corresponds to my son learning language, first abstractly and now more concretely, as he learns individual letters removed from their subjects. How does communication develop if sounds are missing, or if time or limitations take a consonant away? What if you cannot be heard, or if someone has forgotten how to listen? Communications through click and vibration. There is a window of time where language can take root in a child, along with ideas that the language carries. How does this information become a story, passed down through families? In making this song, I was reaching for a sound antidote, and a lineage prayer.

Source material: cassette field recording of Needle Creek on Vashon Island while walking with my then 2 year old son, 2018.

Voice and Organ recorded and mixed at home August-October 2020 by Faith Coloccia. Mastered by Kevin Ratterman.

Wayward in Limbo #60 – Faith Coloccia

A sound artist, Fulbright scholar, and Guggenheim fellow, Robert Millis has authored or co-authored books (Indian Talking Machine and Victrola Favorites) produced compilations and documentaries for the Sublime Frequencies record label, (including Paris to Calcutta: Men and Music on the Desert Road and This World is Unreal Like A Snake in a Rope), composed for radio (“The Gramophone Effect” for Documenta14) and film (the cult horror film Session 9), and released numerous recordings as a solo artist, as Climax Golden Twins, as Telescoping or as Idol Ko Si. Recently he was part of A Slightly Curving Place at Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt. http://robertmillis.net/

This work is about wind up gramophones, Victrolas and Edison cylinder players. I use them as chambers for feedback resonances alongside deconstructed fragments of 78rpm records, and reconfigured surface noise. Related to my Related Ephemera LP, recently released on the Helen Scarsdale Agency, it’s about fragility, overtones, texture, and memory; an insomniac falling asleep.

A few found sounds, a Japanese sho, and a guitar make appearances, but otherwise all the sounds were derived from old phonographs and recordings. Some sections were performed live, and some assembled in my studio. Ko Ishikawa played the sho.

Wayward in Limbo #64 – Robert Millis

Stephanie Wood is an experimental sound artist, sound practitioner and healing justice-centered activist. Using a plethora of gongs, DIY sound sculptures, processed found objects and field recordings, she incorporates surrounding soundscape, silence, and group experiences in performances. Stephanie loves playing/composing with eclectic ensembles and teaching group improv with gongs, electronics and found objects. She also hosts Seattle Avant-Garde Music Society and co-hosts the NO CONCERT series at Taoist Studies Institute with Shoko Zama. 
Instagram: @stephaniewoodbelovedsound
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1295810200576004. 

“While largely spacious in nature, this session recorded at the Chapel is neither radically experimental nor “journey-centered.” Rather, it’s a collection of “ramblings” interacting with the space and its sounds. Some sections are more hollow while others are disproportionately loud and intense. The closing drone is immersed in appreciation for the Chapel, the innumerable souls contributing to the space’s “magic,” and the unexpected avenues of support in these difficult days. Angela Wilson was vital for logistics and playing “back up” on gongs. 

Instruments: Val Bertoia linear copper and brass sonambient sculpture, Kosmov double-side hand pan, Yamaha THR amp and contact microphones. Gongs by Nolan, Paiste & Grotta Sonora.

Wayward in Limbo #72 – Stephanie Wood

Composer/pianist Amy D. Rubin enjoys mixing notated music and improvisation with words to create new ways of telling stories. A number of her works are published and recorded by the Music Research Institute in the “Anthology of Keyboard Music from Africa and the Diaspora.” Amy’s music has been recorded on CRI, Mode, Koch International and Con Brio Recordings. She has been commissioned by Seattle Chamber Players, World Music Institute, and Quintet of the Americas, among others, and has collaborated with many Seattle musicians including clarinetist Laura De Luca and pianist Dawn Clement. She is always looking for new collaborators. Many of her performances, lectures, and collaborations can be seen on YouTube. http://amydrubin.com/index.shtml
https://www.youtube.com/user/Amykodjorubin/videos

Here she is joined by her friends Esther and Dass, whose voices you’ll hear in combination with Amy’s improvisations using acoustic piano and synthesized sounds. Included as well is her improvisation for piano and synthesized sounds, “Winter Solstice,” and a new piano piece in progress, “Jamaican Sunset.” Amy was a Fulbright professor in Ghana, and you’ll most likely hear some West African influences in her melodies, sounds and rhythms. When she asked her collaborators to choose their poems there were no stated themes in mind. What does emerge is a tapestry which reflects our landscapes, our hopes to create beauty, and our fears about love, loss and devastating upheaval. 

Esther Neeser immigrated to the Northwest from Switzerland but stays in touch with the Europe she loves through poetry and politics. She is reading “The Sigh” in German by Christian Morgenstern and “How to Paint the Portrait of a Bird” in French, by Jacques Prevert.

Gordon Dass Adams works and walks outdoors when possible, reads poetry, and stabs at watercolors while listening to the rain. He is reading two poems by the Pacific Northwest writer Gary Snyder, “1980: Letting Go,” and “Beneath My Hand And Eye The Dis­tant Hills, Your Body.”

(0:00) – Introductory Remarks
(1:52) –  How to Paint the Portrait of A Bird (French)
(4:52) – Jamaican Sunset
(9:53) – How to Paint the Portrait of A Bird (English))
(12:34) – Beneath My Hand And Eye The Distant Hills, Your Body
(16:40) – The Sigh (English)
(18:36) – Better Times Ahead
(20:58º – 1980: Letting Go
(23:24) – The Sigh (German)
(25:20) – Winter Solstice Improvisation

Wayward in Limbo #84 – Amy Rubin

Kaori Suzuki is a Tokyo-born composer and artist who uses high-droning modified acoustic instruments, intensely high register electronics, tape, and other handmade elements necessary to spin her auditory transmissions. She holds a diverse background in electronic music having designed and produced vintage-inspired electronic instruments (Magic Echo Music) from 2009-2015. Previously based in Seattle, she is currently on faculty at the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College. When she’s not performing her solo or collaborative works, she is playing drums in the Oakland-based minimalist psych-punk group Night Collectors, and bowed guitar/cello in the Ecstatic Music Band. Her works are published on independent labels in Germany and the U.S. and soon on Beacon Sound. http://www.secondeditions.org/catalog/004

"rose flames dance on a spiral staircase" is a live, loud iteration of a composition using an amplified adapted melodica, oscillators, and real-time processing. Central to the music are the breaths of a re-tuned melodica which was modified to be played with foot pumps, allowing for the sustained excitation of its reeds. Its close-miked amplification interacts with the drifting frequencies of analog oscillators and time delays, the results producing transient harmonic variations and slight auditory distortions in a voluminous echo of an empty concert hall.  Various iterations have been performed in small clubs, galleries, and at least once in a concrete munitions storage magazine, and has since been called a performance which “rewards endurance with transcendence”.  An offering for the new year.

Wayward in Limbo #85 – Kaori Suzuki

RM Francis is an artist living in Seattle who works with computer-generated sound. His most recent releases are A Taxonomy of Guffaws, on ETAT, and Nth White Dot, on Conditional. https://www.rmfrancis.net/

Jack Callahan is a composer and sound engineer based in New York. Since 2013 he has been primarily working under the moniker die Reihe, taken from the journal edited by Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz Stockhausen. He runs Bánh Mì Verlag, an imprint dedicated to contemporary experimental music and culture. His music has been called "unbelievably bad," "tiring," "unsurprising" and "boring," in one case all by the same person. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Callahan_(musician)

Jeff Witscher is a musician who currently manages his own custodial and maintenance company Vincent’s Expert Cleaners in Portland, Or. He has recorded under many different names, Rene Hell perhaps being the most known. He focuses primarily on sound composition as well as video works for his live performances. Recent solo recordings include Approximately 1,000 Beers (2018), Fy Monkey Sisaj Kura (2017), Cob Music (2016), Bifurcating a Resounding No! (2014) and Vanilla Call Option (2013). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Witscher

In Every Single Person Has Some Muscle RM Francis reinterprets Jack Callahan and Jeff Witscher’s 2019 composition What Happens on Earth Stays on Earth as an abstract drama of entropy set in the uncanny valley of artificial speech. The six human voices of What Happens on Earth Stays on Earth have been replaced by machinic proxies synthesized from the speech of the original performers. Vestiges of the organic appear briefly to comment on their own retreat from the realm of the audible before withdrawing to the edges of speech, out of which their inchoate vocalizations obtrude intermittently on the unfolding narrative. Whereas the original work was indebted to Robert Ashley’s spoken operas, Every Single Person Has Some Muscle redeploys the iterative strategy of Alvin Lucier’s I Am Sitting in a Room in the domain of machine listening, in which the transcription errors of commercial dictation software replace acoustic reverberation as the means by which the human voice is eroded, yielding a compositional logic based on phonetic drift and semantic refraction. Featuring the voices of Josh Haringa, Daren Ho, Madalyn Merkey, Colleen O'Connor, Nihal Ramchandani, and Asha Sheshadri. Mastered by Jack Callahan.

Wayward in Limbo #88 – Francis/Callahan/Witscher

Amelia Coulter is an alto trombonist and experimental sound artist. She enjoys discovering new, messy, and uncomfortable embodiments for the trombone using alternative techniques, modifications, and integration with analog electronics. She has a bachelor of music from Cornish College of the Arts. https://liia.bandcamp.com/

She would like to acknowledge that these sounds were produced on the unceded traditional land of the first people of Seattle, the Duwamish People past and present, and to honor with gratitude the land itself and the Duwamish Tribe.

This recording is a live solo improvisation for alto trombone amplified via mixing board with two channels of feedback. Inspired by the dueling feedback loops of anxiety and depression, the goal is to embrace the closed loop system by plugging outputs back into inputs to become something more powerful.

Wayward in Limbo #92 – Amelia Coulter

Garrett Fisher has created more than a dozen opera-theatre productions in the US and Europe that have "combined elements of opera, dance, Indian raga, Japanese Noh theater and more into fusions that have both a ritualistic intensity and an improvisatory freedom…a groundbreaking hybrid...a strong, unified and strikingly individual utterance of unambiguous beauty” (The New York Times). http://www.garrettfisher.com/

GraceANN Cummings is a pianist known for her concerts and CDs that take listeners INSIDE the MUSIC which she has been presenting throughout the United States since 1994. Her repertoire in these concerts spans the centuries since Bach to premiere performances by living composers, designed to give audiences a deeper listening experience with the relationship of silence that moves amidst the sounds. http://insidethemusic.com

"Raga Études for Piano – Book 1: Winter"

Composed by Garrett Fisher
Performed by GraceANN Cummings, piano

Up until now I’ve mainly created large scale opera-theatre productions, and these piano works are the first real pieces I’ve written for a solo instrument. In my operas I weave in “ragas” – improvisatory frameworks inspired by Indian classical music – that intentionally disguise my own inspiration in order to encourage performers to discover their own. This freedom is foreign to most western musicians, and requires great trust and extensive practice. It also yields performances that are fresh and alive as we never know what the performer is going to come up with. With these piano ragas, I stepped out of the world of theatre and entirely into the world of sound. 

As I was beginning to flesh them out, I came across a video of GraceANN playing Prokoviev’s "Toccata in D minor." I thought she was a fearless performer, and I knew immediately she was the one meant to bring these to life. Thankfully, she was as into it as I was. Unlike my work with opera-theatre, where the pieces are developed through an intensive rehearsal process, GraceANN and I have had no rehearsals, only trust which was established within minutes of our first meeting. She’s been as silent as my blueprints, and as with you, this performance is the first time I’ve heard the full series live. It’s an exciting new direction. On to Book 2!

[0:00] 1: Winter Solstice - Night
[2:25] 2: Winter Solstice - Dusk
[5:40] 3: Mid Spring - Dawn
[7:15] 4: Mid Winter - Morning
[8:33] 5: Mid Fall - Dawn
[12:58] 6: Late Fall - Afternoon
[15:31] 7: Late Summer - Morning
[18:10] 8: Fall Equinox - Noon
[21:06] 9: Late Spring - Noon
[23:40] 10: Mid Summer - Dusk
[26:12] 11: Late Winter - Afternoon
[29:53] 12: Spring Equinox - Night
[32:04] 13: Summer Solstice - Noon
[33:37] 14: Late Winter - Dawn
[34:38] 15: Mid Winter - Dawn
[37:27] 16: Mid Summer - Dawn
[40:39] 17: Summer Solstice - Dawn
[42:24] 18: Late Fall - Noon

Wayward in Limbo #95 – Garrett Fisher & GraceANN Cummings

Each month, Nonsequitur and a community of like-minded organizations and artists present ten concerts of adventurous and experimental music in the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center in Seattle: contemporary/post-classical composition, free improvisation and the outer limits of jazz, electronic/electroacoustic music, new instruments, phonography, sound art, and other innovative musics.

With the Chapel closed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wayward Series moves from the concert hall to the living room. In place of our usual ten monthly concerts, Nonsequitur is commissioning ten Seattle artists each month to create a series of streaming audio sessions of previously unreleased material.

Wayward Music Series

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