Gather & Release is the result of years worth of composer Sarah Hennies’ exploration of the vibraphone in synthesis with her recent experiences of identity, obsession, anxiety, tension, grief, and loss.
Over the course of an hour, Hennies entangles highly focused percussion playing with field recordings, sine waves, signifiers from her personal & family history (including a 20+ year old recording of her grandfather reciting poetry), and bilateral stimulation, a tool for anxiety release and a major component of EMDR therapy (a branch of psychotherapy that focuses on relieving the patient of disturbing memories as a treatment for psychopathology).
Gather & Release is challenging, personal, immediate, yet reserved.
Sarah Hennies (b. 1979, Louisville, KY) is a percussionist and composer currently residing in Ithaca, NY. Her work is primarily concerned with an immersive, psychoacoustic presentation of sound brought about by an often grueling, endurance-based performance practice that Nathan Thomas of Fluid Radio described as “a highly sophisticated and refined performance technique…that starts and ends with listening and encourages a different way of listening from its audience.” She received her M.A. in percussion from the University of California-San Diego in 2003 where she studied with renowned percussionist Steven Schick, and is currently a member of Meridian, a percussion trio with Tim Feeney and Greg Stuart. Prior to relocating to Ithaca, Hennies was based in Austin, TX, for ten years where she performed with the Austin New Music Co-op, The Weird Weeds and a variety of other projects.
Archer Spade is the experimental chamber ensemble of trombonist Dan Blacksberg and guitarist Nick Millevoi. The duo distills influences spanning new music, experimental music, jazz, rock, and Jewish music to create a sound world that dramatically expands the vocabulary and repertoire of guitar and trombone into a realm of lyrical abstraction that the Philadelphia City Paper has described as “Cosmic Neo-Noir.” Since their formation in 2010, the they have commissioned a repertoire of new works from contemporary composers, including Gene Coleman, Roscoe Mitchell, Mick Barr, David Soldier, and Johnny Deblase. They have worked closely with artist including John Zorn, Toshimaru Nakamura, Frank London, and Anthony Braxton. In July 2015, they started the Archer Spade Spectrum Ensemble, assembling a group of 25 musicians in order to create a direct transmission of musical ideas between Philadelphia-based musicians from many different backgrounds. Since its formation, this project has been a vehicle for new compositions by Millevoi and Blacksberg, and two self-produced Archer Spade festivals in Philadelphia. archerspademusic.com
Jesse Kudler is a musician, composer, and sound artist working in improvisation, collaboration, and site-specificity. He performs and makes work with electronics, guitar, synthesizers, radios, tapes, and speech. Kudler lives in Philadelphia, PA (USA). Current and past projects include: a commissioned sound piece for the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program; live music with film; sound installation; duo with Graham Stephenson; duo with Chandan Narayan; duo with Ian Fraser; HZL, an environmental electronics duo with Tim Albro; and various other groupings. He performed as part of the 2012-13 Cage: Beyond Silence festival, 2011 Sonic Circuits Festival, 2010 No Idea Festival, 2008 Dartmouth Festival of New Musics, and the 2007 Phoneme Festival. He has performed across the US and Canada and presented workshops at universities and community spaces. He holds a BA in Music from Wesleyan University.
