[Nettime-nl] [ STEIM ] STEIM Concert: MAWJA / RUE 24 - curated by Mazen Kerbaj

[STEIM <knock@steim.nl>]

STEIM presents:

MAWJA
Michael Bullock (USA) / Mazen Kerbaj (LB) / Vic Rawlings (USA)

RUE 24
Jean Pallandre (Fr) / Christine Sehnaoui (LB) / Sharif Sehnaoui (LB)


Date: Friday, August 10
Venue: STEIM, Utrechtsedwarsstraat 134, Amsterdam
Time: 20.30 hrs.
Entrance: 5 euros
Reservations and more information: knock@steim.nl or 020-6228690
Curated by Mazen Kerbaj


MAWJA
Michael Bullock (USA) | contrabass & feedback
Mazen Kerbaj (LB) | trumpet
Vic Rawlings (USA)  | cello & surface electronics

Liner notes from the MAWJA CD âStudio Oneâ (Al Maslakh  
Recordings â 2007)

This album struck me like a big wave, a wave that makes you lose your  
consciousness and equilibrium for several minutes, leaving you  
wondering what just happened to you during this elusive lapse of  
time. Probably this is exactly the purpose of this trio, where as  
their music draws rust from your very skin, suburban rust, from those  
big suburbs where the individual melts, and all individuality is  
melted by the heavy burden that eats all. The sound ate the self, ate  
the collective, ate time, and invaded space.
I wasnât expecting such a radical treatment of sound. The music here  
goes out of time, depriving it of its value despite the usual ties  
that link time and music as an art form. What we hear is rather a  
strong binding with space, using it as a compositional tool. This  
music does not move, but it wanders like blocks of colours or shapes  
in the empty.
The reunion of Bullock, Rawlings and Kerbaj for this recording leaves  
no possibilities for any future; it is a meeting of the here and now,  
like the musical result that is released with this recording. The  
Present time is simultaneously constructed and deconstructed, making  
the ânow qualityâ predominant on the atmosphere of this record.  
The unified sound of the trio fills the air like a short-wave radio  
signal, carrying its usual load of small marginal details; a sound  
that resembles music or walks by it without remorse, not stopping at  
any station along the way.
Three musicians, both friends and enemies, yet above all partners of  
this same game, where there are no rules for improvising; one erases  
the other, without regret, for the sake of unity in sound.
Raed Yassin - Beirut, March 2007


Liner notes from the MAWJA CD âLive Oneâ (Chloà Recordings â  
2007)

Mary Staubitz emailed me asking, "do you and Vic want to play with  
this guy from Lebanon?" Mary was booking a series of noise shows at  
the Midway Cafà in Jamaica Plain, MA, and had been contacted,  
apparently out of the blue, by "this trumpet player from Beirut."   
She wanted to help him out but wasn't sure what to do, since none of  
us in Boston really knew anything about him.  Vic and I have had a  
duo established since 2000, so I knew at least I wouldn't be totally  
out to sea with this new guy.  I agreed and so did Vic: we would meet  
Mazen for the first time at the gig.
We did just that.  I walked into the Midway the night of the gig and  
saw a tall Middle Eastern man standing in the middle.  The Midway is  
a very rowdy, noisy joint even when the music is not playing, so  
conversation was limited to pleasantries, and 30 minutes later the  
three of us were on "stage" (actually the middle of the floor in  
front of the tiny stage, the only place we could fit two large string  
instruments, two amps, and Mazen's table crowded with trumpet  
preparations).  Then something happened - music came tumbling out.   
Immediately, and for the entire set, we were in that state of mind  
that most groups work for months or years to achieve; the music  
played itself. Harsh, mild, tense, limber, awkward in the best ways,  
and above all, effortless. After it was over we knew we had to play  
again, soon, and often.
We set about booking a tour for the next time Mazen could come to the  
US. This disc, along with âStudio Oneâ on Al Maslakh, is the  
products of that intensely creative week.
Michael Bullock - Troy, June 2007


RUE 24
Jean Pallandre (Fr) | phonography
Christine Sehnaoui (LB)  | alto sax
Sharif Sehnaoui (LB)  | guitar

Jean Pallandre spent two weeks in Lebanon in July 2004 touring and  
capturing phonographies from the various soundscapes of the country  
(phonography is the sound equivalent of photography, as the capturing  
of sound elements through microphones put in relation with a specific  
sound environment). For Christine and Sharif Sehnaoui, who have been  
with Pallandre throughout these two weeks, improvising with these  
soundscapes is a very singular experience since they have both  
witnessed their genesis and enjoy a strong emotional bond to them.

The trio's music thus finds its originality in this raw material  
collected in another time and place, brought back to our ears at  
every concert in a collective free improvised gesture. No  
ethnological, touristic or documental intention here: rather a  
poetical interlude, a fleeting trip, an association of distance and  
proximity, mixture of presence and absence, ambiguity of relation to  
time and space. Divergent sensible and intimate experiences, shared  
in a space of common creation and common listening, at the crossroads  
between instrumental sound materials and field recordings.


ï
This concert series is partly funded by Gemeente Amsterdam.

More information on concerts: http://www.steim.org/steim/activity.php

To unsubscribe from this list please go to http://list.xs4all.nl/ 
mailman/listinfo/steim


STEIM					
(studio for electro instrumental music)
(studio voor elektro instrumentale muziek)

Achtergracht 19
1017 WL Amsterdam
Nederland

tel 00 31 (0) 20 6228690
fax 00 31 (0) 20 6264262
WEB SITE : http:// 
www.steim.nl_______________________________________________
STEIM mailing list
STEIM@list.xs4all.nl
https://list.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/steim



_______________________________________________
STEIM mailing list
STEIM@list.xs4all.nl
https://list.xs4all.nl/mailman/listinfo/steim

______________________________________________________
* Verspreid via nettime-nl. Commercieel gebruik niet
* toegestaan zonder toestemming. <nettime-nl> is een
* open en ongemodereerde mailinglist over net-kritiek.
* Meer info, archief & anderstalige edities:
* http://www.nettime.org/.
* Contact: Menno Grootveld (rabotnik@xs4all.nl).