Contemporary Arts Center

Tim Kaiser:
Tim Kaiser blurs the lines between art, science and music. In addition to making and selling his own musical instruments, Kaiser tours widely across the US. His music is often textural and melodious, drawing equally from Shona mbira and found sound.

from the artist's website:

Tim Kaiser has been producing expe...rimental art at various venues for the past 25 years. His video, installation and performance art projects have been presented in Germany, Brazil, Sweden, Hong Kong, Cuba, Canada, Philladelphia, New York and Chicago.Tim has toured his live musical performances throughout the US including Cleveland, Boston, Chicago, New York, Providence, Philly, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul and Fargo!

"Tim Kaiser would steal the show..."- Homegrown, Duluth News Tribune.

"Tim Kaiser's fabulously weird world of music...eclectic genius..."- Bend it Like Bach, Make Magazine

""His work can be viewed as an experiment to see whether adventerous art with its own voice can be conceived and delivered outside of the major art centers. The answer appears to be YES"- Reviews, New Art Examiner

"..Tim Kaiser, who blew everyone away performing at the Blue Crab...."-Makers, Duluth News Tribune

"Kaiser has made more than 150 instruments...coaxes foreign sounds from far-fetched equipment made by hand..."- Made on Earth, Make Magazine

http://www.timkaiser.org

David William:
Having been in Cincinnati punk bands for some 15 years, David William seems perhaps an unlikely candidate to be one of the cities most adventurous experimental musicians. Like Kaiser, William employs circuit-bent electronics and real-time effects processing to produce a sound which sometimes blends seamlessly into the diurnal aural experience. Other times, William is uncompromising and eviscerating.

http://www.myspace.com/davidwilliamsound

Ben Brown:
As a visual component, DAAP student and local DIY art provocateur, Ben Brown will explore the visual aesthetics of "broken" technology and media-bombardment. At times despairing and even apocalyptic, Brown's work confronts the viewer with the detritus of pop culture. Brown is also a member of the Bunk News collective:

http://www.myspace.com/bunknews

FREE.
4pm in the Contemporary Arts Center's Kaplan Hall.

What is 44?

44 is a performing arts series at the CAC which occurs on the first Saturday of every month. The program is designed to actualize the CAC's goal of integrating the local arts community within a national and international context. Further, the program seeks to establish downtown Cincinnati and the Center specifically, as a place where creative dialogue occurs and a far-reaching, disparate creative community can come together. To this end, 44 hosts a diverse range of poets, musicians, artists, dancers, and actors and invites them to collaborate and exchange ideas. 44 is free to the public. Wares from 44 performers are available in the CAC store.

Interested artists can send an e-mail to 44at44@contemporaryartscenter.org including name, contact information, background and a link to examples of their work. CAC's 44 programming team will review submissions, and will contact selected artists to schedule performances.Read More

Friday, October 30
9pm-1am (galleries & CAC Store open until 9pm)
Featuring: Projectmill
Members: Free. Nonmembers: CAC admission

It's Contemporary Friday with a bite!
It's that time of year again, when everyone dons their spookiest disguise and descends upon the town for a night like no other.
We're throwing a party that's... sure to satisfy your frightful fancy. Mark your calendars and start planning your most creative costume. We'll see you there!Read More

Get the inside perspective! Join fellow contemporary art and music enthusiasts at the CAC for a curatorial-guided tour of the current show, C. Spencer Yeh: Standard Definition (October 3, 2009–January 24, 2010).

Members: FREE
Nonmebers: CAC admission

About the show:
In Yeh’s first solo museum exhibition, he transforms th...e gallery into a multi-sensory experience with a multi-channel sound and video installation. The show includes a reel of recent video projects, such as Buck and Judy—a music video created for the renowned rock group Deerhoof—which explores animation conventions and stream-of-consciousness narrative. It also features a recording, developed in collaboration with artist Amy Granat, which is presented in a unique listening chamber in the space.

About the artist:
Yeh was born in 1975 in Taipei, Taiwan, but lives and works in Cincinnati. He is best known for evocative vocal performances in his project, Burning Star Core. The artist studied Radio, Television and Film at Northwestern University in Chicago. He has worked with a variety of musicians including G.X. Jupitter-Larsen, Hair Police, Wolf Eyes, and Lo-Vid. His work has been shown nationally and internationally in venues such as Issue Project Room in New York, the Ullens Center in Beijing, and the Frieze Art Fair in London.

More information:
http://contemporaryartscenter.org/content.jsp?articleId=470
http://www.ubu.com/sound/yeh.html

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Have you heard? We're soliciting your CAC story! If you receive our emails, then you know about this bold call to action. Basically we are handing over our "official" descriptions of the CAC (three in total), and asking you to rewrite. Send us your critique, your praise, what you'd change or what you wouldn't.

What d...o you have to say about your Contemporary Arts Center? You can join in the discussion by posting your comments on Facebook or you can email your feedback to experience@contemporaryartscenter.org. This is your chance to tell us, and the world, what you think.

To read more, go to http://www.contemporaryartscenter.org/yourcacstory
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Piano stings, beaten up pots, singing bowls, electronic manipulation... KBD's instrumentation demonstrates their knack for making everyday objects come alive with music, or perhaps, anti-music.

From the artists mouth:
Break it all down. Unlearn it and then begin again. This is The KBD Sonic Cooperative’s approach to musi...c. Much like life is more liberating without a clock, KBD abandons the expectations of rhythm and structure to pursue the big sound, the intergalactic hum that our modern circumstance prevents us from hearing: the natural successive rhythm of seasons, ocean currents, aviary migration patterns, and galactic cycle.

The French economist Jacques Attali wrote in Noise: The Political Economy of Music (1977), that "music is more than an object of study; it is a way of perceiving the world…It is thus necessary to imagine radically new theoretical forms, in order to speak to new realities." Given that "change" seems the only true constant among variables within the framework of global modernity, Attali's observation seems more timely than ever. The KBD Sonic Cooperative take to their craft with such principles in mind.

KBD is an improvisational cooperative from Toledo, Ohio. Founded in 2006, Its principal agents are Gabe Beam (guitar and electronics) and Michael Kimaid (drums and signals), along with occasional collaborators Colin Helb (strings and electronics) and Ryan Dohm (trumpet and cello). With the full length release [four plus one] on the Eh? music label, KBD has received positive critical reviews in North America and Europe, and garnered significant airplay on college radio and internet playlists. Predominantly an improvisational group, KBD performed a graphic score entitled "41.3854N 82.3207W" at the Artomatic 419 festival in 2007, and collaborated with filmmaker Angel Vasquez for the short film "Paragee" in 2008. In addition to the full-length label release, KBD has taken to the 3" format to release limited edition recordings for purchase at their live shows, including "No Instruments," a live, object-only recording from 2007. A full length digital download, entitled "Two Face" is also available for free on archive.org.

As well as recording, KBD keeps an active travel schedule, with an expanding touring itinerary and increasing range. In 2008, they performed at the Sonic Circuits Experimental Music Festival in Washington, D.C., and have shared bills with Paul Flaherty, Z'ev, Frederic Blondy and Audrey Chen, LoVid, Jon Mueller, The Eastern Seaboard, Tentet/Octet, John Weise, Sword Heaven, Simone Weißenfels and Adam Smith, Giants of Gender, Melissa St. Pierre, The End Times Quartet, Madame V and Jason Zeh. Their dynamic live show has garnered KBD the reputation of formidable musicians, whose performance is unpredictable and dynamic. Midway through 2009, they have embarked on two tours with a small west coast run of shows scheduled for late May/early June.



People have said:
"One of the hardest working bands in the new Ohio music scene" -Joel Peterson,
Bohemian National Home, Detroit MI.

"These boys have a fine sense of how to use sound and, more importantly, the practical effects of quiet." - Aid And Abet.

"These people are serious musicians…It's studious, extreme minimalism." -Rend It.

"Impressive improvisation, without unnecessary fireworks." -Startling Moniker.

"KBD's music sits squarely on the outer edge of the experimental music spectrum." - Against The Robots.

"What the Cooperative does really well is "not exceeding": these guys do have a sense of self-discipline, which suggests them when a terrain has by now adequately explored, so they dispose of that interest and shift their curiosity upon something else, usually equally attention-grabbing." -Touching Extremes.

"This is improvisation that favors subtlety, minimalism (for the most part), and the extensive use of space along with creeping dynamic shifts." -The One And True Dead Angel.

http://www.myspace.com/kbdtoledo
http://www.thenoisyattic.com/

Runar Magnusson:

Runar Magnusson sonic work ranges from delicate atmospherics to cacophonous and terrifying sample-laden sound collages. Born in Iceland, Magnusson has lived in Denmark since 1996.

Review of Runar's album "Feeling and Emotions:
‘Feeling & Emotions (island ogrum skorid) flutters and vibrates like the nervous system of a butterfly in ultra-violet light or the Northern Lights on a cold February night in Lapland…It’s a dreamy feeling of olden remembrances, like an inward vision from times gone, when Gunnar from Hlidarende roamed the Icelandic crusted lava...Some completely wonderful overtone segments invade the listening space, like some kind of out-drawn wind chimes without the actual attacks of the sound, and electrostatic percussive sounds pan madly, while a waterfall is passed on your journey. This dreamy music is completely spellbinding...It’s devastatingly beautiful in all its intriguing postures of uncanny sound ingenuity. Completely original, almost scary in the way it comes across...We’ve got to hear more of Runar Magnusson!’
(Sonoloco, SE)

http://www.myspace.com/runarmagnussonRead More

Leif Fairfield:
Fairfield's music draws from disparate sources which synthesize into a haunting, beautiful and at times theatrical cohesive whole.

From the artists own mouth "Between gigs with his punk band (The Phantom Limbs), his pop band (Safety First), his country gospel band (The Bible Dusters), his mariachi band (M...ariachi Oro), his swagga rock band (Tremolo) and his emo band (Til 7 Years Pass Over Him); Leif Fairfield has recorded homemade pop and ambient songs that are tiny presents for those with a good set of ears and a small piece of free time. "
http://www.myspace.com/theleiffairfield

Baby Alpaca:
Shimmering auto-harp cascades accompanied by Chris Kittrell's melancholy crooning blends to form a unique and enriching aural experience.

http://www.myspace.com/babyalpacashow

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