DIGITAL HARMONY
Eric Lennartson, Matt Leveeque, Squash +Biscuit
April 14, 2024 8pm
Automata welcomes artists Eric Lennartson, Matt LeVeque, and Squash & Biscuit for their program Digital Harmony on Sunday, April 14 at 8 PM.
From Eric Lennartson:
"DIGITAL HARMONY is a reference to experimental animator John Whitney’s book of the same name. In Whitney’s words, 'The purpose of this book, then, is to define, as much as I understand them, the principles of harmony as they apply to graphic manipulation of dynamic motion-pattern[s] by computer. Whether my efforts constitute a final valid grammar is irrelevant. The purpose is to document my own approach and to propose the seminal idea of making an approach.'
For this show, I wanted to find people who made use of the unique expressive power of electronic music in a similar fashion to Whitney’s approach to animation. Experimentation and the simple joy in discovering new sounds is something we hold in common, yet each of our approaches is different, making use of our own internal logics and grammar that gives each of us our special sonic signatures. The evening is a collage of the different ways in which computers uniquely allow us to manipulate and experience sound. Sampling, extended duration, intimacy, lush soundscapes, memory, and perception are some themes that are explored."
TICKETS
General Admission: $18
Students, Seniors, Artists: $15
About the Artists:
Eric Lennartson is a performer-composer who plays percussion, synthesizers, and various software and hardware synths of his own design. His work explores many things: the limits of computing, psychoacoustic phenomena, human perception, and the intersections of the analog and the digital. His audio-visual work makes use of analog oscilloscopes, an old piece of electronic testing equipment. While performing, he sends the sounds directly to the scope and a set of speakers simultaneously. In doing so, sound and image create a feedback loop of meaning. Although sounds create the images, the images have a direct influence on the creation of the sounds. The resulting effect is non objective imagery that interacts with dense noise, pulsating tones, and unstable beats. His debut audio-visual album of oscilloscope music, “./lissa”, was released in November, 2022. He has a master’s in Performance and Composition from the California Institute of the Arts and a bachelor’s in Percussion Performance from the University of North Texas. His works have been presented at the Vector Hack Festival in Rijeka Croatia, Music For Your Inbox, The Fuse Factory among others, and can also be seen as part of an installation at Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart, in Las Vegas.
Matt LeVeque (b.1996) is a percussionist, composer, and improviser based in Los Angeles. Matt’s work centers around questions of intimacy, relationality, nostalgia, and absence, in pursuit of an aesthetic of queer futurity. In addition to instrumental music, his work frequently includes electronic music, sound and video installations, films, intermedia performance, and written text. As part of a continued effort to develop new works with young composers and artists, he maintains ongoing collaborations with Daniel Newman-Lessler, Jack Herscowitz, Kevin Good, Mason Moy, Eric Lennartson, Jeonghyeon Joo, M A Harms, and Justin Dela Cruz. He has performed and presented work at the Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, BENXT Festival, Tapetail Sound Series, Dotolim Concert Series, and others. Matt is currently pursuing a Performer-Composer DMA at the California Institute of the Arts.
Shuwen Zhao and Brian Griffith (Squash & Biscuit) create musical atmospheres for moving images. Their experience with traditional musical structures informs their approach and experimentation with sounds. Zhao, a pianist, has an ear for detail creating lush soundscapes and intricate melodic lines. Griffith, a bassist, builds deep currents of sound and delicate tonal whispers. Together, they compliment each other’s styles able to build a piece that is expertly crafted and surprising.