Saturday July 6, 7pm
Drums and Drones
Brian Chase with video by Erik Zajaceskowski and Ursula Scherrer
admission $6 – artists in person
Drums and Drones takes its name from what it is
Aural snapshots of the tones of drums and percussion
Suspended, the sonic image is deconstructed
Its constituent frequencies isolated and exposed
The individual makes the whole, and vice versa
Vibrations of sound and vibrations of light
Graphic drones in live projection
Visual language decoded into the supra-verbal
The elemental and objective isolated and exposed
Sight and Sound for a “Drone State of Mind”
Microscope Gallery is pleased to present Drums and Drones, which began as the solo project of drummer/composer Brian Chase and has since grown to include video by Erik Zajaceskowski and Ursula Scherrer. Chase’s initial inspiration was La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela’s Dream House installation in TriBeCa, NYC.
Embedded within the natural tone of a drum is a complex array of frequencies. Chase uses the principles of Just Intonation, a tuning system commonly referred to as ‘nature’s tuning system’ based on the naturally occurring overtone series. His music is very much focused on the properties of sound as physical vibrations and is structured accordingly.
In February of this year, the debut Drums and Drones album was released on Pogus Productions. The album is both a cd and dvd with the dvd featuring videos by Ursula Scherrer and Erik Zajaceskowski. Over the years, Ursula and Erik’s live video projection accompanied live performances of Drums and Drones and became an important component to the experience. Recent performances/viewings of Drums and Drones have been at Phil Niblock’s Experimental Intermedia courtesy of Katherine Liberovskaya, David Linton’s distENDed cinema, and La Sala in Williamsburg courtesy of Jeanann Dara.
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Brian Chase is a drummer and composer living in Brooklyn, NY. Having grown up on Long Island he later earned a Bachelors of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory outside of Cleveland, OH. Brian is probably best known as the drummer for Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Active on the NYC experimental/improvised music scene, regular collaborators have included Alan Licht, Robbie Lee, David First, Jeremiah Cymerman, Jessica Pavone, plus many more. Website: www.chasebrian.com
Erik Zajaceskowski runs the Secret Project Robot gallery and performance space in Bushwick, along with Rachel Nelson. His live visuals have fueled countless events and performances, particularly for shows by Oneida, Black Dice, and many more, while simultaneously developing a distinct aesthetic of the DIY/found object mixed with a playful (and often hypnotic) abstraction. Website: www.secretprojectrobot.org
Ursula Scherrer is an internationally recognized video and installation artist. Based in New York City, her solo video pieces have taken her across the world, having presented widely throughout Europe and recently in South Korea. As a performance video artist, collaborations have included those with notable musicians such as Shelley Hirsch, David Watson, Kato Hideki, and Flo Kaufmann. Her style captures a sense of the fleeting, appreciation without attachment. In the spontaneity of creation, shapes take their form and just as quickly morph into something else. Website: www.ursulascherrer.com
Still from Bass Drum Drone, by Ursula Scherrer (image copyright and courtesy of the artist)
Still from Drone State of Mind, by Erik Zajaceskowski (image copyright and courtesy of the artist)
