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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > April > 09
Thursday, April 9, 2009
The New Music Co-op gets a bit batty
One the most literally inventive music groups in Austin, the New Music Co-op, is once again crafting new and original instruments and sound-making devices for their concert this Saturday.
“Sound in Time” is a tribute to the music of minimalist American composer Alvin Lucier.
Among the pieces performed Saturday is Lucier’s “Vespers,” which the composer dedicated to “all living creatures who inhabit dark places and who, over the years, have developed acuity in the art of echolocation.” The title is taken “vespertilionidae” or “vesper bat” the largest species of North American bats — just like the kind who live under Austin’s Congress Avenue bridge.
According to the Lucier, the piece seeks to “make a picture in sound about the space you’re in.”
To perform the piece, New Music Co-op members Bill Meadows and Travis Weller have crafted replicas of the electronic “Sondol” echo-location devices which were used in Lucier’s original piece. The Sondol was originally conceived as an assistance device for the blind and visually impaired that would allow a person to perceive or read their surroundings based on the echoes that bounced back.
Six Sondols are used as musical instruments in “Vespers.” Prepare for a echo-immersion experience.
Sondols built by Meadows and Weller.
Sound in Time: The Music of Alvin Lucier
8 p.m. Saturday
Ceremony Hall, 4100 Red River St.
$12 students/advance and $15 at the door
www.newmusiccoop.org
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Tango - The original alt, indie classical music?
Perhaps tango is the original alt-classical music. Perhaps, in fact, tango ensembles were the original bar bands.
Here in Austin, the tango bug bit about a decade ago, right along with a general resurgence in the sultry, complicated dance that was rolling across the country. But unlike most other places where tango percolated, Austin had its own tango house band right from the get-go.
This Saturday, Glover Gill and the women of Tosca String Quartet are returning to their monthly gig at Esquina Tango and you can read more about here.
Have a listen here.
Glover Gill and the Tosca String Quartet
When: 10:30 p.m. Saturday (Beginning tango dance lesson at 9 p.m.)
Where: Esquina Tango, 209 Pedernales St.
Cost: $10 (includes dance class)
Information: 524-2772, www.esquinatangoaustin.com
