Fire Museum Presents Fundraiser
Saturday, December 1, 2018 | 8-11pm
Featuring Erik Ruin’s Ominous Cloud Ensemble with Additional Performances By Colin Fisher, Swetha Narasimhan & Shiva Bharadwaj and Philadelphia Women’s Slavic Ensemble
$8-10 sliding scale | Tickets & Additional Info
About the Line Up
Erik Ruin’s Ominous Cloud Ensemble
Erik Ruin’s Ominous Cloud Ensemble is an ever-evolving, collectively-improvising large ensemble for projections and music, led by visual artist Erik Ruin, recently lauded by the New York Times for his “spell-binding cut-paper animations.” Erik manipulates intricate paper-cuts and painted films on overhead projectors to create abstract landscapes and fragmentary scenes that are nonetheless charged with meaning, merging with music that ranges from dark atmospherics to ecstatic peaks of dissonance. Members of the ensemble include a rotating cast of Philly’s finest musicians, who have collaborated with everyone from Anthony Braxton to the Sun Ra Arkestra to Bardo Pond. For this performance Ominous Cloud will be Dave Hotep, Tara Middleton, Myles Donovan, Reid Hoffman, Quinn Collins, Julius Masri, Dan Blacksberg & Jesse Sparhawk with special guest Colin Fisher (Toronto).
Colin Fisher
Multi-instrumentalist, composer, Colin Fisher is an active voice in the Improvised and Creative Music Community in North America. Has been most active with duo project Not the wind, Not the flag which includes percussionist Brandon Valdivia. They have a substantial recording output and have an upcoming vinyl release on Pleasance records as well as a live concert recording with William Parker, coming out on New Atlantis records. Colin recorded with nyc/philly band Many Arms who then released their record “Suspended Definition” on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. A subsequent US/Canada tour followed the release of their collaboration. Colin has appeared and collaborated with Anthony Braxton, Deily Mori Tounkara, Jah Youssouf, Rhys Chattam, William Parker, Dominic Duval, Sabir Mateen, Many Arms, Neil Haverty, Joe McPhee, Maury Coles, David Daniels, Chris Kelsey, Paul Hession and many others.
Swetha Narasimhan & Shiva Bharadwaj
Swetha Narasimhan started learning violin at the age of 6 from Dr. Narayan Raman in Indianapolis. Later, she was taught by several violinists, including Shri. Purna Chander Rao, Trichy Shri. Sathyamurthy, and Smt. Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi. She is currently learning from Smt. Gowri Ramakrishnan. Swetha has participated in several music festivals and won first prizes in competitions in CMANA Great Composer’s Day and the Cleveland Thyagaraja Aradhana. She has accompanied many major Carnatic artists in and around New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Swetha Narasimhan will be accompanied by Shiva Bharadwaj on mridangam.
Philadelphia Women’s Slavic Ensemble
PSWE is a conglomeration of ladybeasts in Philadelphia who emit compellingly dissonant Slavic-style vocalizations from our mouthparts. We enjoy sparagmos but we can sometimes be placated with offerings of [preferably red] wine.
About Fire Museum Presents
“Since arriving in Philadelphia, Fire Museum Presents has provided an essential resource for open-eared local audiences. Guided by founder Steven Tobin’s impeccable taste and adventurous spirit, the series has brought cutting-edge artists spanning diverse genres to the city, from legendary avant-gardists to up-and-coming envelope-pushers. Fire Museum’s offerings have ranged from free jazz to electronic noise, American Primitive folk to world music fusions, experimental rock to progressive psychedelia, often bleeding over from one hybrid genre to the next. With bills that regularly offer unexpected pairings and often result in spontaneous collaborations, the mere fact that a concert is being presented by Fire Museum is usually sufficient to guarantee that it merits notice.” – Shaun Brady
