SASSAS Presents
sound. at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook: MURAL
Featuring Internationally Recognized Experimental Duo
Jim Denley & Kim Myhr
In Collaboration with 8 LA Area Musicians
In Culver City, CA
Sunday May 5, 2013

Free Concert Features New Site Specific Composition
Inspired by the Overlook

LOS ANGELES, CA – April 11, 2013 – The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS) presents sound. at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook: MURAL, featuring internationally recognized experimental duo Jim Denley (Australia) and Kim Myhr (Norway) on Sunday, May 5, 2013.  MURAL’s site specific work will be inspired by the Overlook – the site itself will dictate the trajectory of the musical structures created in the space.  Accompanying MURAL in realizing this new SASSAS commission will be eight Los Angeles area musicians including Matt Barbier, Ted Byrnes, Archie Carey, Claire Chenette, and Daniel Corral.  The free concert begins at 5:00pm, ending right before sunset.  Street parking is available along Jefferson Blvd., but come prepared for a steep climb up the Overlook stairs.  Parking at the top of the hill is $6.00.  Carpooling is strongly encouraged.  Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook is located at 6300 Hetzler Road, Culver City, CA 90232.  For more information on the venue, please visit http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=22790.  For more information on SASSAS and this event, please visit http://sassas.org/ or call 323-960-5723.

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
(Photo courtesy of California Department of Parks & Recreation)

MURAL’s Overlook commission is built on a tradition initiated in 2010 when SASSAS invited three composers to create new works commemorating the 25th Anniversary of the City of West Hollywood.  The concert further builds on a successful October 2011 event in which SASSAS commissioned William Roper, Alex Cline and Lady Noise to create indeterminate compositions based on field recordings made of the sound environment of the Overlook.

sound. at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook: MURAL is made possible in part by a Culver City Art in Public Places Program Performing Arts Grant with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment, funding from the Good Works Foundation and in kind support from the City of West Hollywood.  SASSAS is partnering with The City of West Hollywood as a member of their new Resident Company Program in providing MURAL with rehearsal space at the Kings Road Park Pavilion.  West Hollywood initiated this new program to facilitate the process for nonprofit organizations to produce work in the City of West Hollywood and enhance opportunities for residents to attend quality arts and cultural programming in their local community.  MURAL will hold an open rehearsal on Thursday, May 2, 2013 from 12:00pm to 2:00pm at Kings Road Park Pavilion, 1000 N. Kings Road, West Hollywood, CA 90069.

The Baldwin Park Scenic Overlook –
The Baldwin Park Scenic Overlook is unique in the greater Los Angeles area and California State Park system.  A historically complex site, the Overlook offers 360-degree views of the Los Angeles Basin as it resides at the juncture of industry and parkland/preserve.  Adjacent to the location of the 1963 Baldwin Hills Dam break and just north of an active oil field, the park was the site of a decade-long development battle, which was successful in fending off a 230-home development, but failed to stop the flat topping of the hill.  Parts of the park have been regraded and, “in certain ways, the land still looks as though it’s recovering from the earlier violence.” (Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times).

MURAL –
Jim Denley (Australia) and Kim Myhr (Norway) first performed together as a duo in 2007, then soon after, in 2008, recorded their first CD together, Systems Realignment (either/OAR).  In 2010, they asked Ingar Zach (Norway) to join them in the trio MURAL.  For the performance at Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, MURAL will perform as a duo, without Zach, but enhanced by a selection of great local Los Angeles musicians.  Known for lush, contemplative music, MURAL incorporates a wide range of percussive, harmonic, and timbre elements for a transparent, improvising orchestra with a large sound spectrum.  Through numerous performances in locations around the world, the group has found various ways to interact with the spaces they play in.  SASSAS first worked with Denley and Myhr in October 2010, as a part of the AD HOC program for touring musicians.  Impressed by that performance, SASSAS invited them back for the Overlook commission.

The group released its critically-acclaimed Nectars Of Emergence CD on SOFA in 2010.  Andy Hamilton, writing in the modern music magazine The Wire, described the work as “a haunting world of breathtaking tumbril beauty.… an extraordinary creation.”  With Denley on flute and saxophone, Myhr on acoustic guitar, and Zach on percussion, the group created a site-specific improvisational work inspired by the Rothko Chapel, the legendary Houston sanctuary, also in 2010.  In 2011, the group returned to the U.S. for a tour of MURAL Live at the Rothko Chapel, released on Rothko Chapel Publications to critical acclaim.  The Wire listed the work as one of the top releases of 2011.  MURAL has toured extensively as a duo or trio throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, and Lebanon.  The group’s work together has helped create an Australian/Norwegian exchange in the area of experimental/improvised music.  Funding has been provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norsk Jazzforum.

Jim Denley, MURAL –

Jim Denley is Australia’s foremost improviser of new music, with a career spanning over three decades.  An emphasis on spontaneity, site-specific work, and collaboration has been central to his work.  He was born in 1957 in the town of Bulli, New South Wales and began playing violin at age 5.  Denley studied at the NSW Conservatorium and, after leaving school, played jazz and commercial music to earn a living.  By the late 1970s, he was composing music and, a decade later, he began working in an improvisational mode and to integrate his voice into his instrumental work.  In the 1980s, he studied the shakuhachi flute music of Japan.  Then, in 1990, he was a member of Derek Bailey’s Company for a week of concerts in London.  Collaborations, his radio feature for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, won the Prix Italia in 1989.  His CD, Through Fire, Crevice and the Hidden Valley, received an Honorary Mention in the Digital Musics category of the Prix Ars Electronica in 2008.  Denley also co-founded the electro-acoustic text/music group Machine for Making Sense.

In 2006 and 2007, he received a fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts and is currently working towards a paradigm shift in the notion and perception of the saxophone; to establish its relevance to ancient and current traditions in Australian music, and to extend its range with the addition of innovative electronics and miking.  Denley has played throughout Australia, Europe, Japan, and the U.S. with artists such as Maggie Nichols, Carolyn Connors, Kari Rønnekleiv, Sidsel Endresen, Thembi Soddell, Natasha Anderson, Monika Brooks, Clare Cooper, Ami Yoshida, Amanda Stewart, Ikue Mori, Satchiko M, Rosalind Hall, Laura Altman, and Annette Krebs.  With MURAL, in 2010, he played the Rothko Chapel in Houston.  A CD of that concert was released in 2011.  With BLIP (Mike Majkowski), he released Dead Space on Boccian Records in 2012.  His passion is West Head Project – performances outdoors in Australia.  (Photo courtesy of SASSAS.)

Kim Myhr, MURAL –
Guitarist and composer Kim Myhr is an active voice of the creative music scene in Norway.  He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 2003 to 2005.  Since then, he has embarked on an international career, performing new contemporary and improvised music throughout Europe, Australia, Asia, and North as well as South America.  In 2008, he received the JazZtipend (a cash prize of approximately $30,000) at the Molde International Jazz Festival, one of the oldest jazz festivals in Europe.

As a composer, Myhr wrote Stems and Cages for the Trondheim Jazz Orchestra in 2009, an ensemble featuring 13 improvisational musicians including Sidsel Endresen, Christian Wallumrød, and Jim Denley, among others.  Stems and Cages was released on CD in 2010 to wide critical acclaim.  Myhr wrote new music for the 2012 Ultima Festival orchestra, featuring the voice of Jenny Hval.  Myhr is also involved in different collaborative projects including Silencers, with Benoit Delbecq, whose release Balance des Blancs made Le Monde‘s list for Best of 2011 Jazz CDs. With MURAL, he initiated a project with the Rothko Chapel in Houston, which included a CD release in 2011 and several concerts in the legendry space. The trio will be back again in 2013 for a special 4-hour performance at the chapel.  Myhr’s first solo CD will be released in 2013.  His solo music explores the acoustic possibilities of the 12-string guitar and can remind the listener of early music of Ligeti and of Morton Feldman.  It also contains an energy and simplicity similar to American folk music.  (Photo courtesy of SASSAS.)



Los Angeles Artists’ Bios:

Matt Barbier, Trombone –
Matt Barbier is an LA-based trombonist and composer focused primarily in the field of experimental intonation and noise music.  Working collaboratively with composers such as Wolfgang von Schweinitz, Ulrich Krieger, and Marc Sabat, he engages with the emerging field of just intonation for brass instruments.  His work with von Schweinitz has been highlighted by widely performing JUZ, an expansive work for solo trombone and playback.  Barbier is also a founding member of Gnarwhallaby, a Los Angeles-based mixed quartet.  He also performs as a member of the critically-acclaimed new music collective wildUp!.  He received his education at the Cleveland Institute of Music (BM) and California Institute of the Arts (MFA).  Barbier guest lectures at CalArts and Simon Fraser University.

Ted Byrnes, Percussion –

Ted Byrnes is a drummer/percussionist living in Los Angeles.  An alumni of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, he comes from a jazz background and has since made his home in the worlds of free improvisation, electro-acoustic music, and noise.  Byrnes’ playing is often viewed as more textural or even melodic than rhythmic, and generally employs a ‘prepared’ drum kit.  He has performed in a variety of ensembles and ad hoc settings, with musicians and/or groups including Jaap Blonk, Charlemagne Palestine, John Wiese, Smegma, Airway, Han-earl Park, Gregory Lenczycki, and Tim Perkis, among others.

Archie Carey, Bassoon –
Archie Carey is a multi-instrumental performer/composer living in Los Angeles.  He is interested in writing music that is not only meditative for the listener, but also for the performer, in order to create a communal sense of timelessness inside a performance space.  In solo work and in collaborations with dancers and filmmakers, he has been experimenting with field recording, analog electronics, and aspects of performance art.  Carey has had the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, Alice Tully Hall, The HAMMER Museum, Saban Theatre, Zipper Hall, Highways Performance Space, Pieter PASD, The Wulf, Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), and various other art spaces across the country.  He has also toured China with the Manhattan Symphonie and Western Europe with the AMA Wind Ensemble.  Carey is currently a member of wildUp!, a modern music collective/chamber orchestra, and The Joshua Trio, a double reed and piano trio focusing on new works as well as classics.

Claire Chenette, Oboe –

Claire Chenette is a versatile solo, chamber, and orchestral musician particularly devoted to the performance of contemporary music on the oboe.  A native of the Midwest, Chenette is quickly gaining recognition in Southern California, performing in sold-out concerts with various projects, festivals, and ensembles such as the REDCAT Xenakis Festival, the American Youth Symphony, and the Center Stage Opera.  This past season has seen her performing as principal oboist with the American Youth Symphony at Walt Disney Concert Hall; recording with her band Three Thirds at Capitol Records; as well as performing with the San Diego Symphony, the Long Beach Symphony, Opera Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, wildUp!, and Orchestra Nova.  She also premiered commissions with her chamber ensemble, The Joshua Trio, and traveled around the world: working under Pierre Boulez for a third summer in residence at the Lucerne Music Festival; performing at Salle Pleyel in Paris, with the Spoleto USA Festival Orchestra; and as principal oboist with the Debut Orchestra on tour in China.  She received a BM in Oboe Performance and a BA in Religious Studies from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music and an MFA in Oboe Performance from CalArts.  She is a faculty member at Cerritos College.

Daniel Corral, Accordion –

Daniel Corral is a composer and multi-instrumentalist born and raised in Eagle River, Alaska.  His music is a rich collusion of styles, blurring the boundaries between the familiar and foreign, mirroring the diasporic evolution of cultural identity in the 21st century.  His unique voice finds outlet in puppet operas, accordion orchestras, handmade music boxes, electronic collages, site-specific installations, chamber music, and interdisciplinary collaborations.  Corral’s music has been commissioned and presented by venues such as REDCAT, The Hammer Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA), USC’s Thornton School of Music, CSUN’s Mike Curb College of Arts, Media and Communication, The Pianospheres Series, and the Santa Monica GLOW Festival.  He writes, arranges, and performs with numerous music groups, including Timur & The Dime Museum, Killsonic, Free Reed Conspiracy, and Tears of the Moosechaser.  Corral received his MFA from CalArts, where he studied with James Tenney, Anne LeBaron, and Morton Subotnick.

sound. 2013 is produced by Cindy Bernard in collaboration with the SASSAS Board of Directors and the SASSAS Programming Committee (Gregory Lenczycki, Joe Potts, Dawson Weber, and Kassandra Kocoshis).

SASSAS –
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.youtube.com/sassasdotorg; and soundNet recordings, CD compilations drawn from sound. concerts.

SASSAS 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, and the Mike Kelley Foundation for the Arts.

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