03/18 @ 8:00pm - loadbang

New Music quartet loadbang (Alejandro Acierto, bass clarinet; Jeffrey Gavett, baritone; Andy Kozar, trumpet; Will Lang, trombone) make their Issue Project Room debut with a program dedicated to the unique and satisfying aroma of brand-new commissions (which is, by the way, pthalate-free.)

loadbang has been working with composers for nearly two years to build a repertoire for their unique instrumentation. This performance marks an important milestone in this collaborative work, being their first program of all premieres since 2008. Composer/performers, software programmers and teachers hailing from Brazil, Germany and the US have contributed pieces for this performance, which highlights the pluralistic attitude and broad sonic palette that are unique to loadbang.

Nick Didkovsky – Firm, soapy hothead

Reiko Fueting – Land of Silence

Jeffrey Gavett – Proverbial

Alexandre Lunsqui – Guttural

Scott Worthington – Infinitive

Guitarist, composer, band leader, and software programmer Nick Didkovsky’sFirm, soapy hothead is a collection of very short movements, computer-composed using the composer’s own programming language. The texts are drawn from wise sayings and inspirational aphorisms by Didkovsky and Charles O’Meara.

Reiko Fueting’s “Land of Silence” is a deconstruction of a German poem by Kathleen Furthmann, translated into English. The sonic characteristics of the poem rise up to overshadow literal semantic meaning, while still expressing the powerful affect of the original.

loadbang’s own Jeffrey Gavett has set several Proverbs of Hell from William Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” for his work “Proverbial.” Blake’s Hell is less traditional evil than an emotional force for change and creation. The translation of the texts is mirrored by gradual translations of the music through computer-tracked microtonal trajectories.

In his “Guttural”, Alexandre Lunsqui has spanned the instrumental/vocal divide of loadbang, setting purely sonic syllables for the baritone, and including many non-instrumental oral sounds for the instrumentalists. The surprising homogeneity of the ensemble is revealed in the pulsing rhythms of Guttural I, and the dark expanses of Guttural II.

Scott Worthington’s “Infinitive” takes for its text short excerpts from Hamlet’s soliloquies. The sparse and quiet sounds, slowly and almost imperceptibly shifting, reflect the solitude and rumination of Shakespeare’s eponymous hero.