LaSaM Music

Bio:

LaSaM (Victoria, BC, Canada) is a presenter of adventurous music events and an eclectic ensemble of composer-performers that creates and performs acoustic, electro-acoustic and electronic new music from an approach grounded in creative improvisation. LaSaM designs performance events that bring attention to the many ways we listen and that sometimes foster an enhanced engagement between performers and audience. As well as presenting the collaborations of its members and associates, LaSaM regularly programs unique versions of works by composers whose innovation and spirit have profoundly influenced the practice of creative music making in recent times. These composers have included Alvin Lucier, John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, James Tenney, Earle Brown, Alvin Curran, Gavin Bryars, Martin Bartlett and others. Audiences have called LaSaM concerts “exquisite”, absolutely beautiful”, “brilliant” “mesmerizing” and “powerful”. ______________________________________________________________________ LaSaM PROJECTS ______________________________________________________________________ AND BEETHOVEN HEARD NOTHING (Project January - May, 2010, performance May 4, 2010) - LaSaM is developing an exciting new work exploring Beethoven's inherent belief systems, his deafness and the sonorities of his later work. This project is directed by musicologist Dylan Robinson and composer Tina Pearson with technical direction by George Tzanetakis and live video projections by Tim Gosley. Collaborating musicians: Chris Reiche (piano), Cathy Lewis (voice, percussion), Alex Olson (bass), Tina Pearson (flute, voice, glass) and George Tzanetakis (clarinet, saxophone). Funded in part by the British Columbia Arts Council. ______________________________________________________________________ ART'S BIRTHDAY 2010 (January 16 and 17, 2010) - LaSaM's contributions to the international birthday party in celebration of Art included a multi-generational music house party and a manifestation of Yoko Ono's 1953 "Secret Piece" at Durance Lake during the pre dawn and dawn hours of January 17, Art's official birthday. With James Player (guitar), Brian Stubbs (drums, electronics), Grace Salez (video), Hunter Boucher (ocarina), Tina Pearson (flute, accordion, voice, recorder) and George Tzanetakis (saxophone, clarinet, flute). _____________________________________________________________________ COMPILATION ANTI-DOTE (December 22, 2010) - LaSaM and guests presented altered, transformed, warped and other variations of seasonal music and projections in this celebration of the return of the light. Projections by Grace Salez, films by Grace Salez, Pamela Millar, Dianne Searle. Music by Diane Taylor, James Player, Brian Stubbs, Paul Charbonneau and LaSaM Quintet: Cathy Lewis (voice), Chris Reiche (keyboards), George Tzanetakis (sax and clarinet), Kristy Farkas (percussion) and Tina Pearson (accordion, voice, flute). _____________________________________________________________________ NOSFERATU'S SHADOW (November 6, 2009) - LaSaM Quartet (Chris Reiche, George Tzanetakis, Kristy Farkas and Tina Pearson) presented live music / soundscape to the original 1922 silent version of the film "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Terror" by FW Murnau at Victoria's Solstice Cafe, with open mic nightmares. Instruments included DX7, bells, glass, saxophone, clarinet, melodica, cello, accordion, voice, percussion and bowls. ____________________________________________________________________ MULTIGENERATIONAL - MULTI GENRE IMPROVISATION EVENINGS (January 2009 - ongoing, various locations) LaSaM is dedicated to the fostering of creative music-making though ongoing improvisation practice, and hosts improv jams regularly. These have included the Vancouver Island Improvised Music Specials at Orange Hall in Victoria May 23 and October 16, 2009. The LaSaM Trio/Quartet (Tina Pearson, Chris Reiche, Kristy Farkas and George Tzanetakis) regularly perform in these events, along with guests from the electronic, Noise, dub, and other communities. ______________________________________________________________________ REMOVING THE DEMON (February 2009, Victoria Symphony New Currents Festival) was a celebration of sonic spirit in works by 3 of the century's most influential composers performed by an eclectic 10-piece ensemble. Program: Pauline Oliveros' Sonic Meditation "Removing the Demon or Getting Your Rocks Off"; Martin Bartlett's "Five Directions" and Gavin Bryars' "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet". Performers: George Tzanetakis (saxophone), Rodney Sharman (flute, voice), Chris Reiche (keyboards, percussion), Tina Pearson (accordion, flute, voice), Max Murray (tuba), Mario Milat (guitar), Mason Koenig and Corey Rae (percussion), Alfons Fear (trumpet), and Kristy Farkas (harmonium, percussion) ______________________________________________________________________ ART’S BIRTHDAY (January, 2009, Open Space) featured LaSaM performers Kristy Farkas, Chris Reiche and Tina Pearson with guests Alfons Fear (trumpet), Colin Dower (percussion) and Michael Bennyworth. Following a sonic Happy Birthday parade through the Bay Centre, LaSaM performed an extended rendition of Happy Birthday to Art in a networked collaboration with Andreas Mueller (Electronics) in Regensburg, Germany, and Norman Lowrey (Singing Masks) in Madison, New Jersey for the local audience as well as the large crowd gathered at Pomodoro Bolzano in Germany via the virtual reality platform Second Life. To close the event, LaSaM provided an avant garde accompaniment to a game of musical chairs for the Open Space audience, mc’d by performance artist John Boehme. ______________________________________________________________________ SONIC WHISPER (November 2008) 'sounds from the periphery in gently audible turbulence', was a collection of electroacoustic pieces collaboratively created by Chris Reiche, Tina Pearson and Kristy Farkas. The trio used the practice of "Sonic whispering" (listening for the sounds, and the spaces between gestures, that come about by using instruments and gadgets in ways they were not intended) to create the event. Instrumentation for Sonic Whisper included prepared piano, DX7, toy pianos, accordion, flute, voice, bells, glass, bowls, and other sound-making gadgets. A Sonic Whisper CD is available - contact lasammusic@gmail.com for details. ______________________________________________________________________ UNPLUGGED - A ROSE IS A ROSE (June 2008) presented short and sweet works from American/European composers Alvin Curran, James Tenney, Earle Brown, and works by LaSaM with text by Gertrude Stein. Performers were Margaret Ashburner (harp), Nicholas Fairbank (voice and trumpet), Cathy Lewis (voice and bells), Tina Pearson (voice, flute and accordion) and Chris Reiche (voice, prepared piano and toy pianos). _______________________________________________________________________ RESONANT CHAMBERS (January 2008, Victoria Symphony New Currents Festival) took inspiration from Alvin Lucier's work "Chambers". A delicate yet powerful soundspace was created with interrelationships between real and virtual sonic architecture, memory, time, amplification and an instrumentation of prepared piano, voices, flute, electronically processed clarinet, bowls, gongs and bells. Resonant Chambers was a collaboration with Andy Schloss, Chris Reiche, Tina Pearson, Kirk McNally and Cathy Lewis, with computer programs by David Jaffe (USA), and quotations from the work of John Cage. _______________________________________________________________________

Member Since:

January 13, 2008

Members:

LaSaM MUSICIANS AND COLLABORATORS 2007-2010 _____________________________________________________________________ TINA PEARSON - founding member; flute, accordion, voice, glass, bells (all projects); CHRIS REICHE - founding member; keyboards, bells, percussion (all projects); GEORGE TZANETAKIS - saxophones, clarinet (all projects except Resonant Chambers, A Rose is a Rose); CATHY LEWIS - founding member; voice, bells, (Resonant Chambers, A Rose is a Rose, Compilation Anti-Dote, And Beethoven Heard Nothing); _____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ASHBURNER - Harp (A Rose is A Rose); HUNTER BOUCHER - host (all projects) PAUL CHARBONNEAU - electronics (Compilation Anti-Dote); TZENKA DIANOVA - piano (And Beethoven Heard Nothing); NICK FAIRBANK - Voice, Trumpet (A Rose is A Rose); KRISTY FARKAS - Melodica, Harmonium, Bells, Piano (Sonic Whisper, Removing the Demon, Nosferatu, Compilation Anti-Dote); ALFONS FEAR - Trumpet (Removing the Demon); TIMOTHY GOSLEY - live video projections (And Beethoven Heard Nothing); MASON KOENIG - Percussion (Removing the Demon); KIRK MCNALLY - clarinet, electronics (Resonant Chambers); MARIO MILAT - guitar, sound engineer (Sonic Whisper, Removing the Demon); MAX MURRAY - tuba (Removing the Demon); ALEX OLSON - string bass (And Beethoven Heard Nothing); JAMES PLAYER - guitar (Compilation Anti-Dote, Art's Birthday); COREY RAE - percussion (Removing the Demon); DYLAN ROBINSON - co-director, dramaturge (And Beethoven Heard Nothing); GRACE SALEZ - Video Projectionist (Compilation Anti-Dote, Secret Piece); ANDY SCHLOSS - electronics, computer programming (Resonant Chambers); RODNEY SHARMAN - flute, voice (Removing the Demon); BRIAN STUBBS - electronics, drum (Compilation Anti-Dote, Art's Birthday);

Record Label:

unsigned