Also performing will be The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of… Philip Guiton (guitar), Marian Murray (violin), Claudia Schwab (violin) and Kevin Terry (guitar).

This should be very special. Hope to see y’all there!

The event will feature vocalist Juniper Hill and shape note singers, plus the The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Philip Guiton (guitar), Marian Murray (violin), Claudia Schwab (violin) and Kevin Terry (guitar).

To be informed of future events, please join the Stet Lab – announce, or subscribe to the web feed (news only or all blog posts). [More info…]

Also performing will be The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of… Enda Buckley (guitar), Tony O’Connor (bass guitar), Owen Sutton (drums) and Athoulis Tsiopani (keyboards).

Featuring improvising musicians from a diverse field of practices and traditions, this one promises to be one of a kind. We hope to see y’all there, and thank you for your continued support.

Stet Lab featuring composer-improviser John Godfrey

Monday, 12 April 2010

9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)

Upstairs @ The Roundy [map…]
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland

€10 (€5)

Stet Lab returns on Monday, 12 April 2010 to the Roundy, Castle Street, Cork and features John Godfrey a veteran of Experimental and New Music in Ireland.

A virtuoso performer on both piano/keyboards and on electric guitar, John Godfrey’s performances encompass composed, improvised and part-composed/part-improvised work.

Regularly seen in Cork and throughout Ireland performing with various ensembles, as a performer Godfrey has also toured extensively through, America, Europe and Australia with Ireland’s premier New Music group, The Crash Ensemble. He is director of The Quiet Music Ensemble, curator of the Quiet Music Festival (Cork), and cofounder and former director of Icebreaker (UK), one of the most successful New Music ensembles.

In addition to these ensembles, Godfrey’s compositions have been performed by ensembles such as the world renowned Bang on a Can All Stars (USA) and Bradyworks (Canada).

Opening the event will be The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) Of… Enda Buckley (guitar), Tony O’Connor (bass guitar), Owen Sutton (drums) and Athoulis Tsiopani (keyboards). Fusing and fragmenting idioms and traditions, the quartet will leap from country to hardcore in a single bound.

The event will begin at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm) and entry is €10 (€5).

The following month’s Stet Lab will take place on Monday, 10 May 2010, featuring the vocalist, improviser and ethnomusicologist Juniper Hill, plus violinists Marian Murray and Claudia Schwab, and guitarists Kevin Terry and Philip Guiton.

the performers

John Godfrey is a composer and performer and lectures in the Music School of the University College Cork. He has a long history of involvement with new music, as composer, performer, teacher and entrepreneur.

Godfrey’s compositions and arrangements have been performed worldwide and many appear on CD. He has written for many prestigious ensembles, including The Bang On A Can All-Stars (USA), Bradyworks (Canada), The Crash Ensemble (Ireland) and Icebreaker (UK). He has written music for The CruX Dance Company, based in Cork. He recently completed a commission for The Crash Ensemble.

Previously highly influenced by the Hague School, Godfrey’s compositional work is currently focussed on experimental and improvisation-based music, often with live and interactive electronics. It is particularly influenced by experimental music based on acoustical phenomena, such as that by La Monte Young and Alvin Lucier.

In 2006, he was awarded an Equipment Bursary by the Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon for purchase of equipment for research into live improvising/interactive computer systems. Another Arts Council award in 2007 allowed Godfrey to establish a new professional performing ensemble and to run a major festival of Experimental Music in Cork (summer, 2008). The Festival included the first Deep Listening Retreat with Pauline Oliveros in Ireland, and featured new works, and appearances by, Alvin Lucier, Mark Appelbaum, David Toop and others.

Godfrey performs pre-composed, improvised and semi-improvised work, both on piano/keyboards and on electric guitar.

In 1989 he cofounded, and was subsequently the Musical Director of, the new music group Icebreaker, which became one of the most successful ensembles in its field. The group appeared extensively in Europe and America, and made several CDs for Decca Argo (UK), New Tone (Italy), Donemus (Holland) and Canteloupe (USA). He left Icebreaker in 1997, and in the same year was invited to join Ireland’s premiere new music group, the Crash Ensemble. The latter has also toured extensively, with major appearances in Europe, the US, and Australia, and has made a number of recordings and radio broadcasts

Godfrey has set up many new initiatives in the field of new music in Cork, including two festivals of contemporary music in 1997 and 1998, and has been an outspoken promoter of new music in the city. He works with many local artists and performs with Cork’s improvisation collective The Quiet Club.

The event will feature composer-improviser John Godfrey (guitar) plus the The Real-Time Company (for the Ad-Hoc Association) of… Enda Buckley (guitar), Tony O’Connor (bass guitar), Owen Sutton (drums) and Athoulis Tsiopani (keyboard).

To be informed of future events, please join the Stet Lab – announce, or subscribe to the web feed (news only or all blog posts). [More info…]

It will be an evening of exciting and unexpected musical interactions. We hope to see you there, participating as audience, performer or helper, and thank you for your support.

Stet Lab featuring Paul Stapleton and Nick Williams

Monday, 8 March 2010

9:00 pm (doors: 8:45 pm)

Upstairs @ The Roundy [map…]
Castle Street
Cork, Ireland

€10 (€5)

Stet Lab, Cork’s monthly improvised music event, returns on Monday, 8th March 2010. Taking place upstairs at The Roundy, Castle Street, Cork, Stet Lab presents Belfast-based sound-sculptor, guitarist and electronic musician Paul Stapleton and Newcastle-based electronic musician and guitarist Nick Williams.

Originally from California, Stapleton is currently based at the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queen’s University Belfast. He is an active improviser, instrument builder, ensemble director and installation artist who has shown work in a variety of locations across Ireland, Great Britain and North America. Improvisation is a key element in his work, especially in its intersection with environmental and social forces.

Joining Stapleton on the night will be sonic improviser and guitarist Nick Williams. Currently based in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Williams’ work takes the form of cross-disciplinary performances enrolling new instruments and new electro-acoustic resources.

Collaboratively, Stapleton and Williams are, with dancer Mona McCarthy (from Cork, based in Newcastle), the interdisciplinary performance group theybreakinpieces. Through this group they have performed with artists such as Ben Evans, Jon Aveyard and Dan Reynolds.

The event will begin at 9:00 pm (doors open at 8:45 pm) and entry is €10 (€5).

Next month’s Stet Lab will take place on Monday, 12th April 2010, featuring the composer, improviser and guitarist John Godfrey.

the performers

Paul Stapleton is an artist-researcher originally from Southern California, currently based at the Sonic Arts Research Centre (SARC) at Queen’s University Belfast. Prior to joining SARC in 2007, Paul worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Central Lancashire where he taught, researched and curated events on sonic art, mediatised performance, live art and practice as research. Paul is an active improviser, instrument designer, ensemble director and installation artist who has shown work in a variety of locations across Ireland, Great Britain and North America. Paul is also a co-director of the interdisciplinary performance group theybreakinpieces.

Nick Williams is an artist, performer, and researcher based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. He is currently in the final year of his PhD in post-vernacular music at Newcastle University. Nick’s practice is realised through many forms of improvisation and cross-disciplinary performance including sonic improvisation using instruments authored in Max/MSP, and site-specific collaboration with the performance group theybreakinpieces of which Nick has been a co-director since 2004. For his latest performance Nick has collaborated with Mona McCarthy (dancer) to create a site specific work based in an interactive procedural-audio environment.

To be informed of future events, please join the Stet Lab – announce, or subscribe to the web feed (news only or all blog posts). [More info…]

Han-earl Park was making good interesting sounds on guitar and pedals and stuff; Kevin Terry played the cello, what a lovely sound, and later Jesse Ronneau found some fun wacky stuff to do with it; Anthony O’Connor did some cool bendy things to his bass guitar; and vocalist Veronica Tadman made some sweet vocal shreeps that I thought people only did in the privacy of their own home.

And then the friendly, encouraging folk there drew me into the session. You can listen to that if you want.

I played with Korhan Erel and Kevin Terry. Korhan seemed to be playing something like a mobile phone and a Wii handset with the computer. I don’t know what he was doing, but he did it well! Kevin was playing something I could recognise as an instrument, namely a guitar. A lovely encouraging steady stream of things I could recognise as notes. I played some stuff that I couldn’t recognise as a tune, but the audience seemed to recognise it as valid, cos they clapped, and even laughed once or twice at the funny bits!

It was my first time (can’t ya tell?!).

It was fun at the time, but was it music? I’m going along again this Monday to listen, enjoy and learn. And I’ll leave the melodica at home.

In the words of my 16 yr old Liam, when he had a listen to the Stet Lab recording: “It’s like a club where you and your cronies can get together and make weird noises.”

Also performing will be Stet Lab (ir)regulars including Marian Murray (violin), Paul Dowling (bass guitar) and Owen Sutton (drums).

It’ll be an exciting event; one of new on-stage negotiations and alliances. We hope to see y’all there, and thank you for your continued support.