SASSAS Presents
Blast! [9]
Garden Party & Fundraiser in Malibu, CA
Sunday, June 10, 2012
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SASSAS 2012 Summer Schedule of Experimental Sound Art Events
In Los Angeles
June 10 – Aug. 26, 2012

LOS ANGELES, CA – May 29, 2012 – The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS), is pleased to announce its 12th year of concerts and events in Los Angeles. This year’s summer calendar features Blast! [9], the annual SASSAS garden party and fundraiser, which returns for a second year to Malibu, CA on Sunday, June 10, 2012, with food, beverages, a silent auction featuring works by several artists included in Made in L.A. 2012 and live music from 4:00 to 8:00pm. In addition to Blast!, the upcoming SASSAS 2012 schedule also features the sound. concert series, soundShoppe and the third year of its exclusive Listening Party dinners. Tickets for Blast! [9] are $50 and can be purchased at http://www.sassas.org/blast. For more information on upcoming SASSAS events, please call 323-960-5723 or visit http://www.sassas.org.

Blast! [9], returns to the Frank Israel-designed Malibu home of Cecilia Dan featuring music from gender-fluid electro pop Sister Mantos and trombone choir LA Trombone Collective plus DJs Dominick Fernow (experimental/noise), Black Panty Annie (experimental/minimalism) and Year of the Rat (20th Century Pop). The event also includes a silent auction with visual art works by Patricia Fernandez, Liz Larner, Karthik Pandian, Jill Spector, and a SASSTER BLASTER iPod Shuffle programmed by Dawn Kasper. Tickets include food and drink enjoyed in a picnic setting with a Pacific Ocean view.

Sister Mantos (photo credit: Oliver Tuercke)

Tickets for Blast! [9] are $50 and $40 for SASSAS members. A limited number of $30 student tickets are also on sale. The $300 SASSSTER BLASTER ticket includes a one year membership to SASSAS and an iPod Shuffle with a playlist by Los Angeles-based artist Dawn Kasper, who relocated the entire contents of her studio to New York’s Whitney Museum for her recent contribution to the 2012 Whitney Biennial.

Funding from Blast! [9] supports multiple goals: to take Welcome Inn Time Machine, SASSAS’ contribution to the Pacific Standard Time Public Art and Performance festival that featured a tour of Los Angeles experimental music presented in motel rooms, to the internet so that it can be experienced online by audiences worldwide; to commission new works for a second concert at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook this Fall; and to support ongoing SASSAS programming such as sound., soundShoppe and Ad Hoc.

More on each Blast! [9] participant:
– Sister Mantos – a low fi disco not disco punk pop experimental funk performance art band from Los Angeles via Central America.
– LA Trombone Collective – featuring up to 35 trombonists, effectively a trombone orchestra and recently listed as #5 in the LA Weekly’s “Five Artsy Things to Do This Week.”
– Dominick Fernow –  owner of Hospital Productions and Bed Of Nails Record labels which focus on esoteric, electronic and extreme music and performs in different guises such as Prurient, Cold Cave, and Vatican Shadow.
– Black Panty Annie – spins 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, new wave, post-punk, 60’s French pop, old time jazz, disco, electronic, and indie rock.
– Year of the Rat – resident DJ at Barcade’s Sweet Escape, she blends her experience as a drummer in bands such as Sister Mantos, The Sharp Ease, and The Chubbies and blends them with her distinguished ear for pop music.
– Dawn Kasper – her work, as well as the entire contents of her studio, was most recently seen at the 2012 Whitney Biennial.
– Krystal Krunch – a.k.a. Asher Hartman and Haruko Tanaka, is a duo of artist intuitives who see and respond to energy in the body, the psyche, architectural spaces, and artworks.  Their intuitive readings are traveling to the Hayward Gallery in London this summer.
– Patricia Fernandez – her practice embraces the ambiguity and specificity of remembering and recuperating an unknown history through object making and painting. Featured in Made in L.A. 2012 at the Hammer Museum.
– Liz Larner – her work, which ranges from diminutive objects to large-scale installations, reconfigures the traditional roles that form and color have played in the practice of formalist sculpture. Her work was most recently seen in solo exhibitions at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, NY and Regan Project, Los Angeles.
– Karthik Pandian – his practice seeks to unsettle the contradictions at the heart of the monument. The universal and contingent, sacred and profane, proximate and distant confront one another in his work. Featured in Made in L.A. 2012 at the Hammer Museum.
– Jill Spector – Art in America describes Spector’s work as “tall, pale and bulbous sculptural assemblages (which) coyly court anthropomorphism.” Featured in Made in L.A. 2012 at the Hammer Museum.

[photo courtesy LA Trombone Collective]

SASSAS Summer 2012 Calendar –
Building on the success of its Pacific Standard Time contribution, Welcome Inn Time Machine, in January 2012, SASSAS continues to push new music boundaries for greater Los Angeles audiences with the sound. concert series and provide free space for sound artists and musicians to experiment and share knowledge with soundShoppe jam sessions.

Sun. June 24, 2012, 1:00 – 4:00pm
soundShoppe – 
A free monthly unstructured sound workshop/jam for experimental musicians and sound artists presented by SASSAS and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock (2225 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041; 323-226-1617; http://www.centerartseaglerock.org). http://www.sassas.org/soundshoppe

Sat. June 30, 2012, 5:00pm
sound. at the Kings Road Park Pavilion: myrmyr –
sound. returns for a third season at Kings Road Park for the premiere Los Angeles performance of Oakland-based duo myrmyr, Agnes Szelag & Marielle Jakobsons, known for entrancing ambiences and intricate layered melodies. With a foundation of violin and cello, the duo creates an intimate post-classical atmosphere inspired by folk elements of their common Eastern European ancestry. Kings Road Park Pavilion is located at 1000 North Kings Road, West Hollywood, CA 90069. http://www.sassas.org

Sun. July 22, 2012, 1:00 – 4:00pm
soundShoppe – 
A free monthly unstructured sound workshop/jam for experimental musicians and sound artists presented by SASSAS and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock (2225 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041; 323-226-1617; http://www.centerartseaglerock.org).  http://www.sassas.org/soundshoppe

Sun. July 22, 2012, 4:00-8:00pm
Listening Party with Catherine Opie, Stephen Prina and Michael Ned Holte – 
SASSAS Listening Parties are casual dinners in intimate settings with sound and music shared by well known and emerging artists. Proceeds benefit the sound. concert series and other SASSAS programming. The July 22nd party is hosted by MOCA Co-Chair David Johnson and his wife Suzanne at their Lloyd Wright-designed home in Brentwood, CA. The $125 ticket includes dinner and drinks and seating is very limited for these special events.  http://www.sassas.org/listeningparty (Address provided with ticket purchase)

Sat. August 25, 2012, 2:00 – 8:00pm (tentative time)
sound. at the Schindler House: Tape Music – 
Dust off your reel-to-reel decks so that SASSAS can realign your heads! The unique architecture of the Schindler House creates multiple listening spaces to revisit this historic concert form featuring selections from Gary Todd’s Cortical Foundation label that were composed for tape, on tape, and originally presented on tape in a traditional concert setting. Cortical Foundation releases included Terry Riley, Derek Bailey, Los Angeles Free Music Society, John Cage, Hermann Nitsch, Cornelius Cardew Scratch Orchestra, Charlemagne Palestine, The Poetics (Mike Kelley, Tony Oursler, Jim Shaw) and Marnie Weber. Presented in conjunction with the MAK Center for Art and Architecture. Schindler House is located at 835 North Kings Road, West Hollywood, CA 90069; 323-651-1510; http://www.makcenter.org/MAK_Schindler_House.php.  Street parking is available or at the public parking garage on the northeast corner of Kings Road and Santa Monica Boulevard.

Sun. August 26, 2012, 1:00 – 4:00pm
soundShoppe – 
This special edition of the SASSAS free monthly unstructured sound workshop/jam for experimental musicians and sound artists will focus on “tape music” and feature a demonstration of looping, cutting and working with reel-to-reel tape.  Presented by SASSAS and Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock (2225 Colorado Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90041; 323-226-1617; http://www.centerartseaglerock.org). http://www.sassas.org/soundshoppe

sound. 2012 is curated by Cindy Bernard, Scott Benzel, Gregory Lencyzcki, Joseph Potts and Dawson Weber.

The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that serves as a catalyst for the creation, presentation and recognition of experimental art and sound practices in the Greater Los Angeles area. Inspired by the resonance that occurs when experimental music is combined with unconventional performance environments, SASSAS seeks to foster new collaborations and improvisation to spark further exploration in the field. Programs include the sound. concert series; soundShoppe, a monthly workshop for experimental musicians; Ad Hoc, a new project supporting touring musicians seeking to perform in Los Angeles, online concert archives at www.sassas.org and www.youtube.com/sassasdotorg; and soundNet recordings, CD compilations drawn from sound. concerts. The organization is supported in part through grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Good Works Foundation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts and the West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.

For more information, images, or to request an interview, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201 or lynn@greengalactic.com.

SASSAS’ Blast 2011 in Malibu [photo courtesy SASSAS]