Hello lovelies!
My man Morphisto is on tour again with these freaks (see below) If you are almost anywhere on the west coast then you should go see them perform!
SORIAH
Performance Artists Without Borders Tour, June 2006
Members:
Soriah: vocals, organ
Lana Guerra: homemade analog synthesizers
Noah Mickens: metal percussion, vocals
Ryan Olson: synthesizers
This June, ritualist and throat singer Soriah joins forces with Lana Guerra of Power Circus, Noah Mickens of Nequaquam Vacuum, and Ryan Olson of Synchronicity Frequency; to bring their unique blend of esoteric musical performance to their fellow Westsiders.
The performance will comprise a compositional and conceptual framework within which the four performers will improvise in sound, visuals and movement. Ancient traditions of voice and rhythm intertwine with those revisionist musical forms often labeled as "noise" to awaken the primal instincts of even the most jaded modernist. Collaborations amongst these four musicians have been previously presented in swamps, forests, hidden subterranean tunnels, Masonic cemeteries, the midst of massive political protests, classy theatres, circus big-tops, filthy nightclubs, renegade festivals, Black Rock City, a 200-year-old church, and in the ruins of old New Orleans. They have performed together while buried in the earth, on fire, hanging from hooks, and covered from head-to-toe in clay. With all this magic behind them, Soriah are on their way to your hometown; rattling up and down the I-5 corridor in a customized van filled with costumes, synthesizers, and metal.
Itinerary:
6/14 Webcast - KFJC 89.7 with Dominic Trix, 3:00 pm,
http://www.kfjc.org
6/15 San Francisco, The Sutro Baths, FREE
West end of Geary Street by the Cliff House
With Scott Jenerik and more TBA
http://www.sutrobaths.com/
6/20 San Diego, VozAlta Project
1544 Broadway (at 16th)
With Tetuzi Akiyama
$5-10 sliding scale
http://www.vozalta.org/
6/21 (daytime) - Hollywood Forever Cemetery
6000 Santa Monica Blvd, at the Urn of Rozz Williams
http://www.hollywoodforever.com
6/21 (nighttime) - Los Angeles, Nova Express
426 N Fairfax Ave
http://www.novaexpresscafe.com/
6/23 Los Angeles, The Steve Allen Theater
At the Center for Inquiry
4773 Hollywood Blvd
This is the big LA show.
http://steveallentheater.com/
6/24 Oakland, Orbis Nex
851 81st Ave, Unit 217 (dial 200 at the gates)
http://www.vialmagazine.com/breadcrumbs.html
6/25 Sacramento, Audio Waffles
1001 Del Paso Blvd, Space ..3, in the Del Paso Heights area
AT NOON
With Mason Jones, Power Circus, Nequaquam Vacuum, Tralphaz, Pump Kinn & Don, and Hypnotic Injection
http://www.norcalnoisefest.com/audiowaffle/
6/27 - Portland, Dante's
1 SW Third Ave
With Marcos Fernandes & Emily Hay
http://www.danteslive.com
6/28 Eugene, The Samurai Duck
980 Oak St
With Riververb, Zsa Zsa Gabor
http://www.myspace.com/samuraiduckclub
6/29 Seattle, Center On Contemporary Art
410 Dexter Ave N
http://www.cocaseattle.org/
INDIVIDUAL BIOS BELOW
Soriah
http://www.soriah.net
Through the use of a vocal technique most commonly known as throat singing, SORIAH wordlessly articulates the contours of vast virgin planets and deep wooded regions with each site-specific performance. Sonic artisan SORIAH has emerged from a six-foot cocoon and sang from high in the branches of an old Oak tree, blending haunting chants with stunning visual performance that unavoidably astounds. Whether alone with an alter-organ beneath his fingers or flanked by a carefully chosen musical troupe, SORIAH is always an experience in divining CHAOS. SORIAH's desire to throat sing derived from a need to express the spectrum of emotions that live beyond the limitations and pre-associated ideas of established language. The name SORIAH is a phonetical epiphany which he later understood to be an ancient Sufi term for our Milky Way galaxy. He uses a poly-pantheonic singing base to reach five octaves with his voice, which he then concentrates and distorts using effect processors, sequencers, and synths to channel his energy back to the listener. The amplified result is hypgnotic, exposing SORIAH's command of delicate musical gesture and force. He says, "A SORIAH performance is a realization of divine tendencies in one's everyday existence- an extraction from the background noise of the mundane that brings the listener to a mythological and yet tangible level. Each performance is an offering to those "tendencies" for a more metaphysical understanding of the world through music and theatre." SORIAH is that and more. With several years of classical vocal training, Enrique Ugalde emerged as SORIAH in 2000 and has since performed across the nation. Synchronicity whisks him to and fro, from the Exotic Erotic Ball in San Francisco to a recent impromptu perfromance with The Polyphonic Spree in Portland's Alladin Theater. SORIAH has gained a following through twilight performances ranging from a Butoh-esque cocoon transformational rite performed at Lollapalooza 2003 to regular sit ins with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and alongside GWAR,Blixa Bargeld, Jarboe and Psychic TV. SORIAH's existence is living proof that the conceivable pathways to the soul are still, even in the 21st century, comprised of a vast uncharted territory
Lana Guerra
http://profile.myspace.com/powercircus
First gaining underground notoriety for her work in the media of hair, make-up, paint, ink, and fabric; Lana Guerra won the admiration of noise-heads the world over as one half of the duo Cthulhu is Sex. Playing solo as Power Circus, Ms. Guerra wileds an array of homemade analog synthesizers and circuit-bent electronics with subtle expressiveness and nimble ferocity. The result is a riotous pile-up of vocals, samples and homemade/modified synthesizers; broke noise meets psychedelic meets cartoon soundtracks, with off-puttingly musical results.
Noah Mickens
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="noah mickens"&btnG=Google Search
Noah Mickens is a musician who makes sounds with found objects and his voice, both alone and in collaboration with others. Of these collaborative efforts, the most significant by far has been the free post-asiatic ensemble Nequaquam Vacuum. During his time with Nequaquam Vacuum, he has also served as a member in full standing of The Steve MacKay Ensemble, cathartic neo-classical quartet Autism with Guy Tyler, Nolon Ashley, and Andrew Hansen; the afro-noise-dance band Clouds of Blood with Sam Mickens, Jherek Bischoff, Pol Rosenthal, Paul Kikuchi, and Gregory Reynolds; and The Carnival of the Damned Band with Dylan McPuke, Zombie Dan Abbot, Samantha X, Rumplestillborne, Verbaine Horehound, H.E.A. the Lobster Girl, etc. He has also collaborated live and in recordings with a wealth of musicians including Soriah, Moe! Staiano's Moe!kestra!, The Hobo Gobbelins, The Master Musicians of Hop-Frog, The Nightgaunt Ensemble, Bill Horist, Nathan Hubbard, Sikhara, Ripit, Tom Swafford, Paul Rucker, Ishan Vernallis, The Monktail Creative Music Concern, Noancer, Joan Laage, Linda Austin, Yellow Swans, The Dead Science, and many many others. His solo four-track project, Dig the Butcher, has released a single track on a compilation CD, and otherwise lies in wait in a box full of tapes and notebooks. He was also somewhat well-known during his wild adolescence as the lead singer of L.A. blues-punk band Poor Old Timer, and before that cut his musical chops as a child vocal prodigy in musicals and choruses and with a rudimentary noise band called Tarterus.
Noah Mickens is a performance artist and butoh dancer. His explorations into movement-based performance began with his introduction to Seattle butoh troupe P.A.N., which led very rapidly to collaborations between that troupe and Nequaquam Vacuum. Over time, his relationship with these dancers led to increasing involvement in the dance element of these performances, till at last he began to practice butoh independently of his role as musical accompanist. He was made an official member of P.A.N. in 2004; and has since founded his own butoh-inspired troupe in Portland, Insomnia Butoh.
His most-developed performance project has been the nightmare opera Societas Insomnia. First conceived by Mickens, David Heifetz, and Dale Morris; Societas Insomnia brings together performers from the transgressive and ghettoized genres of pain threshold performance, S&M, and fire dancing with practitioners of the circus arts, butoh, and improvisational music. The result evokes a living nightmare, a continuing mythopoeic story arc which has been presented thus far in four chapters over the course of December 2004 - November 2005. In this troupe, Mickens plays the part of Dig, a demonic ringmaster-like figure who leads the Nightmare Company through butoh-esque movement and glossolallia vocals, as well as dabbling in hook suspension and the occasional firesword duel.
Mickens has also performed, choreographed and danced with Soriah, The Death Posture, The Villainaires Academy, Implied Violence, Roadkill Puppet Theater, Bryan LeFay, Mya Fitzdare and The Cabaret Boris and Natasha Dancers under choreographer Linda Austin.
Noah Mickens is a circus ringmaster, a queer father of two, artistic director of the performance nightclub Someday, a board member for 2Gyrlz Performative Arts, the coordinator of the United States branch of the international Radon Collective, and the all-around arch maven of the Portland arts underground.
His work has been the subject of newspaper articles in The Portland Tribune, The Portland Mercury, The Oregonian, Willamette Week, The Organ, Portland Monthly, and The Seattle Stranger; local television programs Oregon ArtBeat and AM Northwest; and the national arts and design magazine PLAZM.
He will continue.
Synchronicity Frequency
http://www.myspace.com/synchronicityfrequency
Synchronicity Frequency is the concept of musician and composer Ryan Olson. Ryan has been learning and playing music since the age of 12. He started with classical training on nylon string guitar and eventually felt the need to have full compositional tools at his fingertips. As technology progressed so did his vision. He began full composition on hardware in the late 90's and soon made the transition into computer based sequencing. Not willing to completely relenquish artistic endeavor to a computer screen, Ryan interweaves hardware with pro software to advance the listener into an expansive universe of sounds, styles and textures.
In 2004, Ryan joined arms with the dark performance troupe Societas Insomnia, working closely with curators to organize and draw upon the wealth of talent available to the live improvisational musicians of The Nightgaunt Ensemble. As a further demonstration of Ryan's wide interest in different styles, he joined with the wiley cirkus troupe, Thee 999 Eyes ov Endless Dream and Cirkus Sideshow ov thee Damned for a west coast tour in summer of 2005. This proved to be quite an adventure full of great musical experience further expanding Ryan's ear to various forms of styles and performance. The end of 2005 provided Ryan with the opportunity to enter as a performer into The Enteractive Language Festival, hosted by 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts in Portland, Or. Later, in the start of 2006, Ryan joined the likes of Blixa Bargeld and Jarboe at his return to the How to Destroy the Universe Festival.
Currently Ryan is preparing several performance pieces to be delivered on pressed CD and DVD. Synchronicity Frequency will always be an evolving sound performance project, promising to deliver excellent electronic music, live and recorded. Also, works are under way to advance Societas Insomnia to a level which can be delivered to those who could not locally experience the growth of the timeless dark story of pain and dreams. Be sure to catch Ryan in 2006 in the Movement Through Ambience sound series and Synchronicity Frequency.
My man Morphisto is on tour again with these freaks (see below) If you are almost anywhere on the west coast then you should go see them perform!
SORIAH
Performance Artists Without Borders Tour, June 2006
Members:
Soriah: vocals, organ
Lana Guerra: homemade analog synthesizers
Noah Mickens: metal percussion, vocals
Ryan Olson: synthesizers
This June, ritualist and throat singer Soriah joins forces with Lana Guerra of Power Circus, Noah Mickens of Nequaquam Vacuum, and Ryan Olson of Synchronicity Frequency; to bring their unique blend of esoteric musical performance to their fellow Westsiders.
The performance will comprise a compositional and conceptual framework within which the four performers will improvise in sound, visuals and movement. Ancient traditions of voice and rhythm intertwine with those revisionist musical forms often labeled as "noise" to awaken the primal instincts of even the most jaded modernist. Collaborations amongst these four musicians have been previously presented in swamps, forests, hidden subterranean tunnels, Masonic cemeteries, the midst of massive political protests, classy theatres, circus big-tops, filthy nightclubs, renegade festivals, Black Rock City, a 200-year-old church, and in the ruins of old New Orleans. They have performed together while buried in the earth, on fire, hanging from hooks, and covered from head-to-toe in clay. With all this magic behind them, Soriah are on their way to your hometown; rattling up and down the I-5 corridor in a customized van filled with costumes, synthesizers, and metal.
Itinerary:
6/14 Webcast - KFJC 89.7 with Dominic Trix, 3:00 pm,
http://www.kfjc.org
6/15 San Francisco, The Sutro Baths, FREE
West end of Geary Street by the Cliff House
With Scott Jenerik and more TBA
http://www.sutrobaths.com/
6/20 San Diego, VozAlta Project
1544 Broadway (at 16th)
With Tetuzi Akiyama
$5-10 sliding scale
http://www.vozalta.org/
6/21 (daytime) - Hollywood Forever Cemetery
6000 Santa Monica Blvd, at the Urn of Rozz Williams
http://www.hollywoodforever.com
6/21 (nighttime) - Los Angeles, Nova Express
426 N Fairfax Ave
http://www.novaexpresscafe.com/
6/23 Los Angeles, The Steve Allen Theater
At the Center for Inquiry
4773 Hollywood Blvd
This is the big LA show.
http://steveallentheater.com/
6/24 Oakland, Orbis Nex
851 81st Ave, Unit 217 (dial 200 at the gates)
http://www.vialmagazine.com/breadcrumbs.html
6/25 Sacramento, Audio Waffles
1001 Del Paso Blvd, Space ..3, in the Del Paso Heights area
AT NOON
With Mason Jones, Power Circus, Nequaquam Vacuum, Tralphaz, Pump Kinn & Don, and Hypnotic Injection
http://www.norcalnoisefest.com/audiowaffle/
6/27 - Portland, Dante's
1 SW Third Ave
With Marcos Fernandes & Emily Hay
http://www.danteslive.com
6/28 Eugene, The Samurai Duck
980 Oak St
With Riververb, Zsa Zsa Gabor
http://www.myspace.com/samuraiduckclub
6/29 Seattle, Center On Contemporary Art
410 Dexter Ave N
http://www.cocaseattle.org/
INDIVIDUAL BIOS BELOW
Soriah
http://www.soriah.net
Through the use of a vocal technique most commonly known as throat singing, SORIAH wordlessly articulates the contours of vast virgin planets and deep wooded regions with each site-specific performance. Sonic artisan SORIAH has emerged from a six-foot cocoon and sang from high in the branches of an old Oak tree, blending haunting chants with stunning visual performance that unavoidably astounds. Whether alone with an alter-organ beneath his fingers or flanked by a carefully chosen musical troupe, SORIAH is always an experience in divining CHAOS. SORIAH's desire to throat sing derived from a need to express the spectrum of emotions that live beyond the limitations and pre-associated ideas of established language. The name SORIAH is a phonetical epiphany which he later understood to be an ancient Sufi term for our Milky Way galaxy. He uses a poly-pantheonic singing base to reach five octaves with his voice, which he then concentrates and distorts using effect processors, sequencers, and synths to channel his energy back to the listener. The amplified result is hypgnotic, exposing SORIAH's command of delicate musical gesture and force. He says, "A SORIAH performance is a realization of divine tendencies in one's everyday existence- an extraction from the background noise of the mundane that brings the listener to a mythological and yet tangible level. Each performance is an offering to those "tendencies" for a more metaphysical understanding of the world through music and theatre." SORIAH is that and more. With several years of classical vocal training, Enrique Ugalde emerged as SORIAH in 2000 and has since performed across the nation. Synchronicity whisks him to and fro, from the Exotic Erotic Ball in San Francisco to a recent impromptu perfromance with The Polyphonic Spree in Portland's Alladin Theater. SORIAH has gained a following through twilight performances ranging from a Butoh-esque cocoon transformational rite performed at Lollapalooza 2003 to regular sit ins with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and alongside GWAR,Blixa Bargeld, Jarboe and Psychic TV. SORIAH's existence is living proof that the conceivable pathways to the soul are still, even in the 21st century, comprised of a vast uncharted territory
Lana Guerra
http://profile.myspace.com/powercircus
First gaining underground notoriety for her work in the media of hair, make-up, paint, ink, and fabric; Lana Guerra won the admiration of noise-heads the world over as one half of the duo Cthulhu is Sex. Playing solo as Power Circus, Ms. Guerra wileds an array of homemade analog synthesizers and circuit-bent electronics with subtle expressiveness and nimble ferocity. The result is a riotous pile-up of vocals, samples and homemade/modified synthesizers; broke noise meets psychedelic meets cartoon soundtracks, with off-puttingly musical results.
Noah Mickens
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q="noah mickens"&btnG=Google Search
Noah Mickens is a musician who makes sounds with found objects and his voice, both alone and in collaboration with others. Of these collaborative efforts, the most significant by far has been the free post-asiatic ensemble Nequaquam Vacuum. During his time with Nequaquam Vacuum, he has also served as a member in full standing of The Steve MacKay Ensemble, cathartic neo-classical quartet Autism with Guy Tyler, Nolon Ashley, and Andrew Hansen; the afro-noise-dance band Clouds of Blood with Sam Mickens, Jherek Bischoff, Pol Rosenthal, Paul Kikuchi, and Gregory Reynolds; and The Carnival of the Damned Band with Dylan McPuke, Zombie Dan Abbot, Samantha X, Rumplestillborne, Verbaine Horehound, H.E.A. the Lobster Girl, etc. He has also collaborated live and in recordings with a wealth of musicians including Soriah, Moe! Staiano's Moe!kestra!, The Hobo Gobbelins, The Master Musicians of Hop-Frog, The Nightgaunt Ensemble, Bill Horist, Nathan Hubbard, Sikhara, Ripit, Tom Swafford, Paul Rucker, Ishan Vernallis, The Monktail Creative Music Concern, Noancer, Joan Laage, Linda Austin, Yellow Swans, The Dead Science, and many many others. His solo four-track project, Dig the Butcher, has released a single track on a compilation CD, and otherwise lies in wait in a box full of tapes and notebooks. He was also somewhat well-known during his wild adolescence as the lead singer of L.A. blues-punk band Poor Old Timer, and before that cut his musical chops as a child vocal prodigy in musicals and choruses and with a rudimentary noise band called Tarterus.
Noah Mickens is a performance artist and butoh dancer. His explorations into movement-based performance began with his introduction to Seattle butoh troupe P.A.N., which led very rapidly to collaborations between that troupe and Nequaquam Vacuum. Over time, his relationship with these dancers led to increasing involvement in the dance element of these performances, till at last he began to practice butoh independently of his role as musical accompanist. He was made an official member of P.A.N. in 2004; and has since founded his own butoh-inspired troupe in Portland, Insomnia Butoh.
His most-developed performance project has been the nightmare opera Societas Insomnia. First conceived by Mickens, David Heifetz, and Dale Morris; Societas Insomnia brings together performers from the transgressive and ghettoized genres of pain threshold performance, S&M, and fire dancing with practitioners of the circus arts, butoh, and improvisational music. The result evokes a living nightmare, a continuing mythopoeic story arc which has been presented thus far in four chapters over the course of December 2004 - November 2005. In this troupe, Mickens plays the part of Dig, a demonic ringmaster-like figure who leads the Nightmare Company through butoh-esque movement and glossolallia vocals, as well as dabbling in hook suspension and the occasional firesword duel.
Mickens has also performed, choreographed and danced with Soriah, The Death Posture, The Villainaires Academy, Implied Violence, Roadkill Puppet Theater, Bryan LeFay, Mya Fitzdare and The Cabaret Boris and Natasha Dancers under choreographer Linda Austin.
Noah Mickens is a circus ringmaster, a queer father of two, artistic director of the performance nightclub Someday, a board member for 2Gyrlz Performative Arts, the coordinator of the United States branch of the international Radon Collective, and the all-around arch maven of the Portland arts underground.
His work has been the subject of newspaper articles in The Portland Tribune, The Portland Mercury, The Oregonian, Willamette Week, The Organ, Portland Monthly, and The Seattle Stranger; local television programs Oregon ArtBeat and AM Northwest; and the national arts and design magazine PLAZM.
He will continue.
Synchronicity Frequency
http://www.myspace.com/synchronicityfrequency
Synchronicity Frequency is the concept of musician and composer Ryan Olson. Ryan has been learning and playing music since the age of 12. He started with classical training on nylon string guitar and eventually felt the need to have full compositional tools at his fingertips. As technology progressed so did his vision. He began full composition on hardware in the late 90's and soon made the transition into computer based sequencing. Not willing to completely relenquish artistic endeavor to a computer screen, Ryan interweaves hardware with pro software to advance the listener into an expansive universe of sounds, styles and textures.
In 2004, Ryan joined arms with the dark performance troupe Societas Insomnia, working closely with curators to organize and draw upon the wealth of talent available to the live improvisational musicians of The Nightgaunt Ensemble. As a further demonstration of Ryan's wide interest in different styles, he joined with the wiley cirkus troupe, Thee 999 Eyes ov Endless Dream and Cirkus Sideshow ov thee Damned for a west coast tour in summer of 2005. This proved to be quite an adventure full of great musical experience further expanding Ryan's ear to various forms of styles and performance. The end of 2005 provided Ryan with the opportunity to enter as a performer into The Enteractive Language Festival, hosted by 2 Gyrlz Performative Arts in Portland, Or. Later, in the start of 2006, Ryan joined the likes of Blixa Bargeld and Jarboe at his return to the How to Destroy the Universe Festival.
Currently Ryan is preparing several performance pieces to be delivered on pressed CD and DVD. Synchronicity Frequency will always be an evolving sound performance project, promising to deliver excellent electronic music, live and recorded. Also, works are under way to advance Societas Insomnia to a level which can be delivered to those who could not locally experience the growth of the timeless dark story of pain and dreams. Be sure to catch Ryan in 2006 in the Movement Through Ambience sound series and Synchronicity Frequency.
And HEY! That WAS me. I live around the corner from that store. Was I looking at Maxim? haha. You should have come over and said something!
Ironically, I am hoping to visit Portland and revisit Seattle in a couple of years time, been wanting to revisit the West Coast since I was there in 2002.