Father Zosima Presents…
Lee Hutzulak
Annette Krebs & Jeffrey Allport
Thursday, October 25, 8pm
Access Artist Run Centre
206 Carrall Street
By Donation
Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
Thanks to Vancouver New Music for assistance in presenting Annette Krebs
Flyer Artwork by Lee Hutzulak
Guitarist Annette Krebs is a key member of a young group of Berlin musicians who emerged in the late 20th century with a new, radical, and influential musical aesthetic. This group of artists, sometimes called the Reductionist school, mix composition and improvisation to form a music for which silence is as potent as sound. Dynamics are important, and part of the aesthetic involves extremely quiet gestures that draw the listener in, focusing the ear on subtle detail. Juxtaposition is a key component, as the expected and the unexpected are deftly employed elements of composition. Krebs, a master of musical texture, may seem more like a sculptor than a guitar player. A classically trained performer, Krebs has radically reinvented the guitar to suit her music.
She lays the guitar—an amplified one—flat on a table and precisely carves out sonic shapes and colors from a variety of objects applied to the instrument. The result is fascinating. A window between action and sound is made clear. Process and composition are revealed. Through amplification, microscopic sound is enlarged, as with a magnifying glass, to become the material for music-making.
Vancouver-based percussionist Jeffrey Allport approaches the physical
nature of his chosen instrument through a variety of preparations and
implements to liberate a unique palette of sounds. Respecting each
carefully extracted tone, thump and scrape in addition to the silence
from which they are borne, his exploratory improvisations inhabit
minute sound worlds, eschewing the grand gesture. In addition to solo
work, Allport has enjoyed a lengthy collaboration with Tim Olive,
releasing three CD’s since 1998. They have also toured in Canada, the
US, Western Europe and Japan. Summer 2007 saw the LP release of his duo with Tetuzi Akiyama, recorded during a small tour of the Northwest in the summer of 2006. Frequently participating in once-only groupings has led him to performing and recording with a wide variety of improvisers, including saxophonist John Butcher, trumpeters Axel Dörner and Greg Kelley, prepared guitar maverick Keith Rowe, harpist Rhodri Davies, and many others.
Performing from 1991–2001 as leader of DIXIE'S DEATH POOL, Lee Hutzulak produced miniature studio epics, characterized by a startling variety of atmospheres, evocative vocals, melodies, and quirky pop hooks. Moving from Victoria to Vancouver in 2000 was the beginning of the end for DDP, and after the release of Soon in 2001 the live ensemble pretty much ceased to exist. Work in the studio continued though: numerous sessions with DDP regulars and a few special guests were crushed, sifted, stirred together and over the course of a couple years crystallized in what The Wire called “A THING OF DELICATE ATMOSPHERIC BEAUTY” — Princess Builder.
Lee's music has always struck a balance between song and sound, combining electro-acoustic ambience, musique concrète, and improvisation. This process generates an ever expanding library of sounds, focusing on texture, tone and space — essential materials of future recordings and mixer based performance. On the flip, a desire to keep it immediate, and perhaps as a reaction to increasingly complex set ups, Hutzulak continues to explore, both as a soloist, and in small improvising ensembles, the acoustic guitar, a few choice effect boxes and all manner of extended technique.
Recent concert highlights include performances at Open Space, the Fifty Fifty in Victoria; the Western Front, Video In, Blim, the Butcher Shop Floor and the OR Gallery in Vancouver.
