DISCORDANCE VI

Discordance and Unseen Force is happy to host both EVICSHEN (Victoria Shen) and REDNECK for an unforgettable harsh noise event at the church! Both artists are tops in their game. Local support will include Elastic Energy Ensemble which will include a video collaboration/installation by Jonah Lange. Sparkling beverages and ear plugs to be provided by the house. 

EVICSHEN

Victoria Shen is a sound artist, experimental music performer, and instrument-maker based in San Francisco. Shen’s sound practice is concerned with the spatiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her music features analog modular synthesizers, vinyl/resin records, and self-built electronics. Eschewing conventions in harmony and rhythm in favor of extreme textures and gestural tones, Shen uses what she calls “chaotic sound” to oppose signal and information, eluding traditionally embedded meaning.

REDNECK

In 1996, a strange figure emerged from the backwoods of Kelso, Washington and trudged to Portland, Oregon. This infamous being — who came to be known as REDNECK — soon began appearing at houses, basements, and warehouses all over the area assaulting audiences with the harsh noise of his harsh reality. The sounds rattling around inside REDNECK‘s twisted head come to life at punishing volume, as field recordings of chopping wood and breaking glass are amplified and distorted beyond comprehension. And REDNECK‘s nightmare soundtrack manifests in frighteningly physical performances.

EEE

Elastic Energy Ensemble features duo Derrick Spots:(electronics) and Eren Guney (Tape) delivering analog rips and tears leveling structures into dizzying waste particles and sonic detritus. A noise like nonother. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. 

Extradition’s Spring Concert 2022 presents five works by an international, multigenerational group of women composers: Leaven Community Center – SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2022 AT 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM PDT

> Lauren Redhead, Lines That Have Been Drawn on Photographs of Sculpture (2011), performed by Lee Elderton (soprano saxophone), Catherine Lee (oboe d’amore), Collin Oldham (cello), and Caspar Sonnet (lap steel)

> Melissa Vargas Franco, Ningún Nombre es Verdadero (2014), performed by Matt Carlson (piano)

> Ioanna Valsamara, 66 Ways to Look Above (The Sky Isn’t Silent) (2021), performed by Matt Carlson (electronics), Lee Elderton (soprano saxophone), and Collin Oldham (cello)

> Emmanuelle Waeckerle, A Direction Out There: Readwalking (with) Thoreau (2021), performed by Stephanie Lavon Trotter (voice) and Juniana Lanning (electronics)

> Annea Lockwood, Spirit Catchers (1974), performed by Douglas Detrick, Tim DuRoche, Juniana Lanning, and Stephanie Lavon Trotter (voices)

Barring significant changes in the COVID environment, we request that all guests remain masked for the duration of the event.

We’re excited to feature San Francisco sound artist/percussionist Kevin Corcoran. This show will also feature local improvisational artists, Jean-Paul Jenkins and Mark E Kaylor performing as a duo. Opening event will be Joshua Tenenbaum’s interestingly textural project d°rifle.  

Kevin Corcoran works with percussion, field recordings and electronics with an open interest in sound as medium as it moves through contexts of music, art, communication and place.

As a percussionist he is focused on techniques which extend the sonic possibilities of the instrument by emphasizing textural sound, friction, sympathetic vibration, sustained tones and the use of found objects with an interest in freely arranging events in duration rather than marking time by rhythm. Whether working in sparse sound with a single drum and cymbal or frenetic contexts on the drum kit, improvisation is crucial to his practice as a generative method and non-hierarchical exchange of ideas.

Through field recordings he observes and interacts with sites and objects with specific interests in abandoned architecture, urban excess, and intersections of infrastructure and open space. Electronic sound features in his work through the use of cassette tapes, computer software, feedback systems and various means of amplification.

Based in San Francisco, California, he collaborates across disciplines and borders having performed in the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan with musicians, dancers, filmmakers, writers and visual artists. In addition to making live and recorded sound and music, he has exhibited sound installations and experimental video works.

Curated by Rose Moore and Caspar Sonnet. Conducted by Rose Moore:

Myles M., floor tom, Kadi Rae Smith  – voice, Angela S. –  sax/sampler, Seth Wright – bass synth, Adrian Snyder – drums, Caspar Sonnet/Garrett Brown – prepared guitars, John Walsh – acoustic guitar, Vern Avola – synth, Sam Klickner – prepared concert bass drum, Rose Moore conducting. 

Ben Kates plays alto saxophone and has done since the 4th grade. He’s played with folks like Han Bennink, Ana Mendoza, Mary Oliver, Maxx Katz, William Hooker, Thollem McDonas, John Gruntfest, Linda Austin, Gino Robair, Tere Mathern, Tatsuya Nakatani, John C. Savage, Wally Shoup, Jonathan Sielaff, Arrington de Dionyso, Urs Leimgruber, U Sco, Reed Wallsmith, Smegma and John Wiese. His ongoing collaborations include Thicket (a trio with John Niekrasz and Brian Mumford), Halfbird (a trio with Grant Pierce and Brandon Conway), Academy Award Nominated Actress Minne Driver (a trio with Holland Andrews and John Niekrasz) as well as It’s OK, Girl with Danielle Ross. He’s performed at the CMG’s Improvisation Summit of Portland, The No-West Fest, FanFare at Performance Works Northwest, A Portland Circus for John Cage’s Silence at PNCA, The Quiet Music Fest, as a member of Niekrasz’s Orchestra Becomes Radicalized and toured around the country in various bands. He was the artistic director of the Creative Music Guild for several years and is now a middle school principal. He occasionally plays the baritone saxophone these days. pitchandsiren.com

Danielle Ross is a choreographer, performer, and dance scholar. She has choreographed numerous evening length works in Portland ( at venues including Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, the Headwaters Theater, BodyVox, and Appendix Projects Space) and generated many shorter works in non-traditional venues throughout the city. Her work has received funding from Regional Arts and Culture Council project grants, Oregon Arts Commission’s Career Grant, and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art’s Precipice Fund. Ross enjoys bringing together various arts communities in Portland. In 2014, she ran (with collaborator and poet Stacey Tran) Pure Surface, a series dedicated to collaborative performances made by performers, video artists, and poets. She also served on the board of and curated performance for the Creative Music Guild from 2012-2018. Ross has an ongoing collaboration called It’s OK, Girl with saxophonist Ben Kates.  As a performer, she has worked with Linda Austin (Portland), Ayako Kato (Japan/Chicago), lu yim (Portland/NewYork), Bouchra Ouizguen (Morocco), and Zoe|Juniper (Seattle). Ross’ most recent project, Granular Peripheries, has been performed in Detroit, Evanston, and Chicago and is a truly site specific work documenting the social histories of each venue it is performed in. Ross is also a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at Northwestern University. For more: daniellerossperformance.com.  

Noah Simpson

Energetic, dynamic, and attentive describe Noah Simpson’s modern approach to contemporary trumpet playing. Simpson is celebrated as a performer, composer, and forward thinking improviser, who has performed with artists like George Benson, Bernard Purdie, and Ron Artis II.

1. GUZO is Madelyn Villano. She is a biracial noise musician who works with strings, samples, and electronics living in Portland, OR. Her live performance focus is mostly supporting her own somatic relief with sound — which lately translates into filling up space with loud, intense sonics.
2. Shane Mcdonell uses techniques inspired by musique concrete to produce sounds made from hardware, software, and natural phenomena. 
3. Physical Strength (Ivan Tribuzuio/guitar & Caspar Sonnet/percussion) is a duo exploring the use of gestural playing and impl, emental gravity in affection to sound within an improvised framework. 

St. Philip Neri 2408 SE 16th Ave, Portland, OR 97214
Doors at 7PM, Show at 7:30, $10