Called “astonishing and entrancing” by Billboard, “brilliant” by the New York Times, So Percussion is one of the most innovative percussion quartets working today. Coming together at Yale’s graduate program, So Percussion is devoted to the conceptual dreamscapes of Reich, Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, and others. Called “a must-hear” by Billboard, their self-titled debut featured Lang’s “the so-called laws of nature.” So also performed Steve Reich’s Drumming to much acclaim during a sold out concert at Miller Theater in 2007. The group has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and The Knitting Factory in New York, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, and Montreal’s Le National, to name a few.
More information here.
gutbucket formed in the spring of 1999 in NYC. we:
began touring the east coast over the next few years – friends from DC, Boston, etc. joined the parade.
dressed up as muppets, played glow-in-the-dark and blindfolded, threw toast at the audience, tossed giant beach balls…
released debut CD InsomniacsDream on Knitting Factory Records in 2001.
went to Germany in winter 2001, ate 17 varieties of prepared pork, began touring Europe several times a year, made up lots of fake German words.
released Dry Humping The American Dream on Enja in 2003 and Cantaloupe in 2004.
drove 12,000 miles coast-to-coast in spring of 2005 – friends new and old everywhere helped nurture us along the way – thank you!
the malarkey continued with third CD (and LP too, you analog-heads) Sludge Test that hit in 2006 …. we’ve been on the road since then following that release – running full-tilt across the US and Europe…
said a sad but friendly farewell to founding drummer Paul Chuffo…welcomed fantastic new drummer Adam D Gold into the fold…ran around the US some more…played loudly with an orchestra at Carnegie Hall…released a DVD of European concerts on the MS Stubnitz (check that boat out!).
wrote tons of new music, road-tested and (ahem) refined it…went into the studio to record our fourth CD (and yes, LP too) A Modest Proposal that hit in January 2009. we’re still going…will do CD release shows in the US and Europe in early 2009 – see you then!
NEWSPEAK is an eight-piece amplified ensemble working under the direction of composer David T. Little and clarinetist Eileen Mack. Named after the though-limiting language in George Orwell’s 1984, Newspeak explores the grey area where art and politics mix. Through their programming, performances, and commissions, they seek to reconsider, redefine, and ultimately reclaim the notion of socially engaged music and its place in contemporary society. Embedding elements of a rock band into a classical new music ensemble, Newspeak confronts the boundaries between the classical and the rock traditions.
Newspeak is utterly committed to the music of living composers; to commissioning, work-shopping, developing and performing new works, and to encouraging composers to find their own voice in engaging with musical and social issues. Since 2004, they have commissioned and premiered more than thirty works, each engaging differently with the problem of the political in music, and primarily from American composers. They have proudly shared bills with such diverse groups as The Fiery Furnaces, Anti-Social Music, Pit Er Pat, Electric Kompany, STATS, Time of Orchids, The Motion Sick, Massey, NOW Ensemble, So Percussion, ACME, and Corey Dargel. They are currently preparing to record their first studio album for New Amsterdam Records.