The Cosmic Crossings Concert Series
An electronic, space, ambient, experimental music concert series, with stunning sound, large visual projections, and unique lighting… it’s a unique aural and visual experience!
The Cosmic Crossings concerts are a series of electronic music events held at the Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing (aka UUCWC.) (Google Maps.) Tickets for each show are $10, and all proceeds benefit the UUCWC, which kindly provides the venue for the series. Each concert showcases live performances by electronic musicians and bands from all over the world, playing ambient, experimental, and space music, accompanied by unique lighting and multimedia visual effects.
If your’e a musician interested in performing at a future Cosmic Crossings, please click the following link to download our detailed Expectations & Agreement, which is filled with information and answers to many common questions. Better yet – as many potential performers do – just come to a Cosmic Crossings show and check it out the venue, take in the musical and visual vibe, and talk to us!
News:
October 8, 2024: The full Spring and Fall 2025 concert dates have been finalized!
We haven’t quite nailed down exactly WHO is performing yet – that info is coming soon – but you can at least mark your calendars:
SPRING 2025: March 15, April 19, May 17.
FALL 2025: September 20, October 18, November 15
(all Saturday nights, as usual)
NEW 2024-25 Season swag is still available!
Visit the Cosmic Crossings Store and grab something to show your support!
This new design – inspired by Stranger Things’ “the upside-down” – is available on 4 different t-shirt colors, along with a slightly-different on-black-only t-shirt! Collect all 5! There’s a new coffee mug design available too!
Coming Up NEXT:
Saturday, September 21, 2024 – Synthes (Bill Nobes), Laura Feathers
Let us know you’re coming! Follow the Facebook Event here!
CNHTE3 (Russian, noun, pronounced “synthes”): A method in which phenomena, in their unity and mutual connection of parts, are reduced into a single whole. It is also the name of an electronic music project by Bill Nobes. Bill has been obsessed with electrons, signals and waveforms since childhood. His foundational inspirations are the experimentalists Len Theremin, Alexander Scriabin, Arseny Avraamov, Evgeny Murzin, Raymond Scott and Delia Derbyshire. He also confesses to a mile-wide Dadaist streak deep in his soul. Currently Bill is the owner and artistic director of the House of Robot, a recording studio and creative space in Wrightstown, NJ. Recent projects have included Analog Trenton, Take 3 (WTSR Radio) and the Telly Award winning concert series Live from the House of Robot. In the 1990s, Bill was a production professional in NYC, where he served as Production Stage Manager for the Ridiculous Theatrical Company and Technical Director for Mother/Jackie-60.
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Laura Feathers is a synthesist who creates sound collages with a Moog Little Phatty, looper, and various delay effects.
(A more-detailed bio of Laura is coming soon!)
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Saturday, October 26, 2024 – Dreamware, George Wallace
Let us know you’re coming! Follow the Facebook Event here!
Dreamware is the ambient music project of Todd Skinner in Alexandria, VA. He is interested in creating atmospheric soundscapes that are both intimate and melancholic, often incorporating organic elements such as his own field recordings and tape loops. He draws inspiration from a diverse range of artists including Steve Roach, William Basinski, Hotel Neon, and many others. Todd has performed at Cosmic Crossings with 80 lb. Test (Doug Llewellyn) in 2020.
https://dreamware.bandcamp.com
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An accomplished composer, performer, producer, and recording artist, George Wallace is a master creator of visionary music and ambient soundworlds which speak of enlightenment and positivity to a planet which can really use it.
George Wallace grew up in Philadelphia in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He has been writing music of one kind or another ever since the age of seven. At age eight he began classical piano training, music theory and harmony – a pursuit which he abandoned after four years. By then, the British Invasion, the Motown phenomenon, and the emergence of Brian Wilson (the genius behind the Beach Boys’ legacy) had captured his fancy and provided much early inspiration for his budding gift.
Spanning multiple genres, his creative output ranges from adult-contemporary message-based songs (with tinges of jazz and folk) to music composed for film, to soaring, progressive rock, and on into the world of magical, ambient soundscapes. The ambient pieces are generally synthesizer and guitar-driven instrumentals, often taking on expansive and cinematic proportions. Painted with broad brushstrokes of atmospheric, dream-soaked electronics, they are typically overlaid – in varying proportions – with a wide range of organic and melodic instruments, percussions, samples, and experimental or found sounds as well.
In places the music is calming – even hypnotic; at other times we are spellbound by powerful ensembles of tribal drums and voices, simultaneously borrowing from the celestial future and the primal past. Indeed, his is a world of wild, enriched sound, sometimes tender, always intense, of-and-for the spirit: quite literally soul music, offered as a bona-fide auditory happening, a wide-screen experience of exotic places and times well beyond this one.
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Saturday, November 23, 2024 – WPS (Walmort Portrait Studio), Proteus 3
Let us know you’re coming! Follow the Facebook Event here!
Charles Shriner and Tom Bruce met at NEEMFest in Huguenot in 2016. They’ve been playing together ever since. In 2022, Charles and Tom received a runner-up prize in an international competition for music produced via collaboration over the internet. A video of that performance is here: https://youtu.be/mV6NdQOH2XE. Another video of one of their livestreams is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5VCvKJaGX8
(A photo of WPS is coming soon!)
https://wpsmusic.bandcamp.com/album/wps
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Proteus-3 is an NJ/PA based improvisational electronic music trio consisting of multi-instrumentalists Juan Garces (also of The Melting Transistor, The Equinox Project, Black Thujone, Liquid Science Division), George Bley (also of Liquid Science Division), and Mike Hunter (also of Ombient, Black Thujone & host of the WPRB radio program Music With Space). The combined synthesizers, new and vintage/digital and analor, guitar and weird sound machines.
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PAST CONCERTS:
Saturday, May 25th, 2024 – Ritchie DeCarlo, Michael Victor/VKTRNK
Ritchie DeCarlo is a well-known drummer in the Philadelphia area. He is currently playing with Michael Bernier, Percy Jones, Scott McGill, Kick It Out & various local acts, also teaching drums. Released the first solo album in 2013 titled WEEK. The album features many guest musicians: David Fiuczynski, Michael Manring, Pat Mastelotto, Michael Bernier, Percy Jones, Markus Reuter & MORE! The past decade his recording engineer hat has been on and working at TTR studios on many projects. In 2009 the modular synthesizer appeared in his studio & this changed his direction immediately. Today Ritchie is incorporating all of his 40 years experience into his solo live performances. Electronic percussion, loops & all types of synthesizers come together in his excursions for your ears. www.youtube.com/@MrRitchieDrums
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Michael Victor/VKTRNK, a Philadelphia native now residing in South Jersey, has been painting with sound since the late 1970s. In 1980 he purchased his first synthesizers, an Electro-Harmonix EH-400 MINI Synthesizer, and an Electro-Harmonix Super Space Drum, along with a Casio VL-Tone VL-1 and a Gemini Sound on Sound tape echo. He would record to cassette tape, leaving these cassettes in random places throughout the city. One of these recordings aired on the University of Pennsylvania’s Experimental Radio Project on WXPN. His music is influenced by early German Kosmische Musik artists like Kraftwerk, Harmonia, Cluster, Dieter Mobieus, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, Neu, Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and others.
His performance at Cosmic Crossings will be free improvisational accompaniment and remixing of previously recorded projects.
https://soundcloud.com/victronics
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Saturday, April 13h, 2024 – Dimension Step, Neil Cippon
Dimension Step: Brothers Christopher and Arthur Dorety have been collaborating for thirty years or more. Their initial free form jams were a lot of ambient synth music. They moved more into the rock and prog genre, but have always maintained an element of space and noise. Dimension Step is their persona in ambient mode. Chris initially played on the family Hammond and then piano and eventually synths, bass and guitar. He has always been vocal and a song writer penning hundreds of lyrics for songs. Arthur followed a similar path, but stayed with keyboards.
Both of them do their own recording and mixing and have collaborated with others as well for other CD projects, from semi acoustic progressive folk with ethnic percussion (Tina Maschi) to classic rock and blues originals (The Tor). Dimension Step looks to explore sound textures, atmospheres and moods with occasional rhythmic interludes, and also act as soundtrack music to homemade videos of stories and surreal ideas. The brothers hope the audience enjoys the journey they take them on. https://www.doretybrothers.com/
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Neil Cippon is a Philadelphia based musician, playing in bands since the late 80’s. Played and recorded with King Carcass, Hoist and Mark’s Blues Band.
Neil’s current project explores the ambient textures that are possible with six string electric bass modified by pedals, filters and loopers combined with synthesizer sequencing.
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Saturday, March 9th, 2024 – STΔER and Steve Horelick with Clive Smith
STΔER is the solo project of Philadelphia based electronic musician Ian R Staer.
Drawing inspiration equally from the likes of Phillip Glass, Alessandro Cortini, Hans Zimmer, and Tangerine Dream, STΔER juxtaposes spare acoustic piano melodies with analogue synthesizer textures — conjuring beautiful, stark aural landscapes from a concise tonal vocabulary. Shimmering sequences intertwine with swirling clouds of chorused strings, themselves bound within the gravity of deep, powerful drones.
Conceived as a studio project, STΔER evolved into a live-performance vehicle after being invited to perform on-air for WXPN-FM’s “Stars End Radio”, WPRB’s “Music With Space”, and the acclaimed Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia. Subsequent album releases and live performances have seen STΔER grow from a local phenomenon to an artist with a genuinely global reach, with album sales as far-flung as Europe, Australia, Russia, and the Middle East.
STΔER’s 2022 album “Equilibrium” marked a confident ascent to an even higher orbital plane, aided by the mixing talents of Grammy winner and recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails, Tweaker). Conceived as a “double A side” release reminiscent of genre classics, “Equilibrium” encompasses twin sixteen-minute compositions: identical in length and composed using shared instrumentation, yet wholly individual in the textures they manifest and the images they evoke.
“…a rich, fully formed musical environment we will want to visit over and again.” – Chuck Van Zyl, Stars End Radio
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Steve Horelick and Clive Smith
Steve’s and Clive’s collective performances have mesmerized audiences from the prestigious Carnegie Hall in New York to diverse venues across Toronto and beyond. Their reunion promises a deep dive into immersive auditory experiences, where each sound is meticulously crafted to transport the listener through space and sound.
Utilizing his array of Buchla electronic music instruments, Steve orchestrates live surround/quad 3D listening experiences that are as enveloping as they are mesmerizing. Steve’s musical genius extends to television, where he has composed original songs and scores for over 350 episodes of various award-winning productions. Among his notable contributions is the Buchla generated, iconic “Butterfly in the Sky” theme song for PBS’s acclaimed series, “Reading Rainbow.”
Clive embarked on his sonic exploration journey in his early teens, coaxing ethereal sounds from his electric guitar and effects pedals. His quest for sonic innovation led him through the use of Buchla modular synthesizers, Fairlight CMIs, and the Acxel Resynthesizer. Today, Clive’s performance setup integrates electric guitar, pedals, keyboard, controllers, and laptop, allowing him to draw upon his extensive experience with both analog and digital instruments to create a unique and enveloping sound environment.
Together, Steve and Clive’s partnership on stage at Cosmic Crossings represents a harmonious blend of their individual journeys and shared passion for exploring the vast possibilities of electronic music. Their performance is not just a reunion but a celebration of their contributions to the world of sound, inviting audiences to experience the depth and dimension of their musical explorations.
stevehmusic.com, clivesmith.com
November 4th, 2023 – WOZ & onewayness
Paul Woznicki, better known as WOZ, lives in Wilmington, DE, and has been performing in the Mid-Atlantic area since the 1970s. He is a keyboard player who combines complex rhythms and electronic percussion into original synthesizer instrumental compositions of intensely lyrical melodies.
The sound has influences of music from around the world in an eclectic blend that has been released on albums, CDs, tapes, movies (The Fiend, Troth), and television soundtracks (WHYY). Paul has also been involved in a number of different dance projects, including modern-tap-ballet-butoh-flamenco and belly dance.
In 2017, the Delaware Art Museum featured an interview of him for their Dream Streets exhibit.
In 2022, Woz was featured on a live recording at the Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project (EMEAPP), available on YouTube. Recent appearances have featured him playing Korg Karma keyboards, electronic accordion, and flute, with accompaniment by George Christie on guitar and bouzouki.
https://www.reverbnation.com/pwoznicki
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onewayness is Adam Holquist, a composer, musician, sound designer, and multimedia creator from Erie, Pennsylvania. He uses guitars, pianos, analog and digital synthesis, spoken word and field recordings, and a variety of hardware and software tools to create atmospheric and textural music which draws influence from a variety of sources. These may include: ambient, drone, minimalism, post-rock, and vintage and contemporary electronic “listening music.”
Adam performs and tours regularly, appearing at festivals, galleries, cafés, dive bars, art spaces, basements, and the occasional laundromat throughout the US and in Canada. Since 2011, he has given hundreds of live performances, and has released over 40 albums and EP’s between various creative entities. His work has been featured on a number of both terrestrial and streaming radio stations, has charted on Zone Music Reporter’s weekly Top 100 ambient music airplay charts, and has been positively reviewed by a variety of publications both in the US and abroad.
In addition to recording and performing as onewayness, Adam is a member of the duo embral, with longtime collaborator Charles Shriner [dRachEmUsiK], and also regularly performs in both composed and improvised group settings with a variety of local and global collaborators. Adam has created original music and sound design for theatre, independent films, and art installations; serves as curator of the ElectroFLUX Experimental Music Series, which presents creative music from local, regional, and international artists at various Erie venues.
October 14th, 2023 – Dimension Step, Neil Cippon
CANCELLED due to illness – Rescheduled to April 13, 2024 (see Coming Up Next, above for details)
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September 2nd, 2023 – Electronic Memory and Juan Garces
Electronic Memory is a duo consisting of Ken Palmer (PYXL8R, Brainstatik) and Mike Hunter (Ombient, Proteus-3, Mayakara, Black Thujone, Brainstatik and host/ producer of the WPRB radio program, Music WIth Space.) They utilize various electronic and electro-acoustic instruments to take the listener on an aural journey through endless soundscapes.
Close your eyes and surf the waveforms…
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Juan Garces is an experimental and improvisational musician and electronics and synthesizer enthusiast. He uses vintage and contemporary synthesizers, sequencers, live looping, and a laptop computer to take his listeners on a unique, imaginative journey. He has been playing experimental music since the late 1970s.
Member of The Melting Transistor, The Equinox Project and Black Thujone and others
Saturday, June 3, 2023 – Harrison – Ascending and Jaymie Rose Hennegan
Harrison – Ascending is a collaboration from Philadelphia based father/Son duo of Harrison McKay (Tangent Project, Guitar Pilots) on Guitar, Looping & Electronics and Kyle McKay (Ascending Sounds) on Himalayan Singing Bowls, Flute & Percussion. Together they weave darkness and light into a haunting and familiar ambient landscape.
Photo: Projections courtesy of Juan Garces
Vic Hennegan has been writing, recording, producing and performing electronic music for several years. Vic Hennegan has recently transitioned into the beautiful Jaymie Rose. As a live performer he has performed at such shows as The Gathering Concert Series in Philadelphia, Cyberstock of Los Angeles, Ecstatic Dance, 5 Rhythms Dance, Soul Motion, Northern California Dance Collective and many other venues around the world. With computers, samplers, vocals and synthesizers, Hennegan’s instinctive hand creates techno-trance and ambient music in a wildly fun, uplifting spiritual experience that will take your soul on a journey to the center of ecstasy.
May 6, 2023 – Electric Nexus and Jair-Rohm Parker Wells
Jair-Rohm Parker Wells is a highly respected bassist known for his unique style and creative use of looping devices to produce a wide range of sounds and textures. Born in Tacoma, Washington, Wells grew up in Germany and was exposed to various musical styles and influences, leading him to develop a passion for the bass at a young age. Throughout his career, Wells has collaborated with many notable musicians and released several solo albums that showcase his distinctive approach to bass playing. His music blends jazz, classical, and experimental styles, incorporating live looping into his performances to create complex sonic textures in real time. He has toured extensively worldwide and is also an accomplished educator who has taught masterclasses and workshops. With his unparalleled skill and creativity, Wells remains an important and influential figure in the music industry, continuing to push the boundaries of what is possible with the bass.
Photo: Sherry Rubel @srstudios_biz
Electric Nexus is David Berends, Tom Bruce and Karl Fury – three guys without a plan.
April 1, 2023 – PYXL8R and Christopher McNulty
PYXL8R is the ongoing musical project of Ken Palmer, who is an artist and graphic designer, and the creator of the trippy live visuals for Cosmic Crossings and other live events. Atmospheric, otherworldly, and always dense with unusual sonic textures, PYXL8R’s long-form synthesizer compositions are always performed completely live with no backing tracks.
To achieve all of this on stage, Ken is joined by his talented spawn, Kyle and Sage, performing as a trio for the first time since 2016. His wife Ruth provides the live visuals, so the whole clan has come to embrace the nickname “the Partridge Family of Electronic Music,” so c’mon, get happy!
Christopher McNulty is a multi-instrumentalist, designer and composer from Princeton, New Jersey. His arrangements, largely ambient, produce thematic soundscapes using field recordings, modular synthesizers, stringed instruments and found sound via improvisational and automatic techniques. He works mostly alone in a basement next to the washer and dryer and sometimes one cat.
March 11, 2023 – BioMechanical ShapeShifters and Tackless
BioMechanical ShapeShifters (or BioMeSS for short) is the project of Floyd Bledsoe from Ewing, New Jersey. He has been using this name for his electronic experimentations since the early 1990s. Starting in 2010, BioMeSS began releasing works on the internet and now has over 100 albums available on the Bandcamp website with many of the releases containing several hours of material each. Mainly experimental in nature, the sound of BioMechanical ShapeShifters covers a broad spectrum stylistically. Genres from such diverse categories as harsh noise to ambient drones and many other territories are explored. There is an aim to showcase various electronic devices and fully explore their capabilities and features. Floyd is also a member of The Melting Transistor group and has recorded several dozen albums with them as well as many live appearances. BioMeSS has performed previously at the Cosmic CrossingsConcert Series, as well as several festival appearances and various radio programs. Currently,the focus is a DAWless setup incorporating semi-modular synthesizers and other unique devices in an improvisational setting.
Tackless is the music of John Piatkowski, a composer and keyboardist from New Jersey, USA. Often electronic and at turns, orchestral, there is no route untaken to arrive at the destination of exalted emotion within a given soundscape. John Piatkowski draws from years of genre-crossing playing with groups such as The Roadside Graves, Fun Machine, and Ari Why and the Invisible College.
These interactions have generated multiple albums, recordings and tours which further inform the sonic areas that Tackless seeks to access. Currently, Tackless is performing live on upcoming dates through 2023 in the northeastern US as work on the new, debut album is underway.
October 8, 2022 – Electric Diamond and George Wallace
ELECTRIC DIAMOND is one of the longest-lived electronic performance ensembles – 40 years plus and going strong. It is a reimagining of the classical music chamber ensemble. The group first performed in 1979 playing concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, the Guggenheim Museum and other venues of the New York 1970s new music scene. In the mid 1980’s electronic wind player founder Stuart Diamond joined forces with the eclectic, electric keyboard innovator Don Slepian, whose credits and talents are legendary – from artist-engineer-in-residence at Bell Laboratories to the original ambient sound painter for “Music from the Hearts of Space”.
Together they began presenting programs that integrated classical music with free-flowing improvisations – from Bach to Mussorgsky, from medieval dances to Native American soundscapes. They have performed throughout America and Asia, performing for the erudite audiences at Steinway Hall to the mass crowds at the Macy’s 4th of July Celebration in downtown Manhattan.
ELECTRIC DIAMOND’s concerts are truly “live”, without the use of any computer sequencing or multi tracking techniques. The results are performances of immediacy, power and authentic feeling – seamless and flowing meditations, integrating classical, jazz, pop, folk, medieval music into the original sound that is Electric Diamond. Think electronic-classical-raga.
An accomplished composer, performer, producer, and recording artist, George Wallace is a master creator of visionary music and ambient soundworlds which speak of enlightenment and positivity to a planet which can really use it.
George Wallace grew up in Philadelphia in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He has been writing music of one kind or another ever since the age of seven. At age eight he began classical piano training, music theory and harmony – a pursuit which he abandoned after four years. By then, the British Invasion, the Motown phenomenon, and the emergence of Brian Wilson (the genius behind the Beach Boys’ legacy) had captured his fancy and provided much early inspiration for his budding gift.
Spanning multiple genres, his creative output ranges from adult-contemporary message-based songs (with tinges of jazz and folk) to music composed for film, to soaring, progressive rock, and on into the world of magical, ambient soundscapes. The ambient pieces are generally synthesizer and guitar-driven instrumentals, often taking on expansive and cinematic proportions. Painted with broad brushstrokes of atmospheric, dream-soaked electronics, they are typically overlaid – in varying proportions – with a wide range of organic and melodic instruments, percussions, samples, and experimental or found sounds as well.
In places the music is calming – even hypnotic; at other times we are spellbound by powerful ensembles of tribal drums and voices, simultaneously borrowing from the celestial future and the primal past. Indeed, his is a world of wild, enriched sound, sometimes tender, always intense, of-and-for the spirit: quite literally soul music, offered as a bona-fide auditory happening, a wide-screen experience of exotic places and times well beyond this one.
And when it’s time to lighten things up, George writes and records comedic, street-level satirical rantings to keep his sanity, often in the style of the late, great satirist Stan Freberg.
Currently, George focuses primarily on his ‘ambient side’ – for which he has carved out a je ne sais quoi all his own. In so doing, he’s discovered appreciative, admiring audiences from around the world who have been paying attention for a very long time.
March 7, 2020 – 80 lb. Test and Dreamware
Based in Raleigh, NC, 80 lb. Test is the solo synth project of Doug Llewellyn. Though Doug has played guitar and keyboards in bands off and on since the late 70’s, this is the first time he has gone it alone. Early influences include Tangerine Dream, Todd Rundgren, Brian Eno, David Bowie, and Isao Tomita. 80 lb.Test uses a variety of hardware synths and controllers, coupled with software virtual synths, to create anything from lush, ambient washes to frenetic pulsing sequences, to meandering sonic doodles. He has been known to whip out a lap steel to add a bit of texture. For the most part, the 80 lb. Test repertoire is based on loosely structured songs. However, Doug will often wander into uncharted territory, veering angerously close to the musical ditch.
Dreamware is the solo ambient project of Todd Skinner from Arlington, VA. Having been obsessed with ambient and experimental electronic music since childhood, Todd seeks to create calming music characterized by rich drones and organic textures.
September 21, 2019 – G2 (Gianni Intili) and Friends, St8k3
(aka Gianni Intili) – Italian-born Gianni Intili has been involved with the fine arts throughout his life. Starting as a painter, color theorist, sculptor and poet, he would infuse his art into architecture, planning and interior design. Guided by many of his seasoned musician friends, that he jammed and learned improvisation. GI played with Sparse, an Avant-garde Abstract Quartet who played the MusiXplore Summer Solstice Concert in Paterson NJ, along with ATONAL, Symmetry and ArtCrime, and at eeeem18 at the Williams Center for Performing Arts in Rutherford, NJ. GI has participated in other projects like the ‘NONAME’ Trio, the duets of Bellagio and Tremezzo, and currently with Mario-enrique Paoli. GI has also performed with solo performances at NEEM, North East Electro Music Festivals in 2017 and 2018, ab pluribus unum 2018, and he’s curretly sponsoring the eeemfest in Rutherford, NJ for the 2nd year . As GI1 the Music exploration relates to Architecture in its structure and spatial construction, Painting with sounds colors and Poetry with its message of consonance and dissonance.
5tok3 – Just another modular guy trying to eek out a tune from a random voltage. Based in Brooklyn NY 5ToK3 (pronounced Stoke) is a music producer composer of electronic music, electronica, synth stuff whatever you want to call it. His music ranges from full club techno to arthouse ambience (depending on the venue). all his music has a strong identity in live performance
October 5th, 2019 – Harrison McKay and George Wallace
Harrison McKay – Structured improvisations for Guitar, Looping and Electronics. Harrison is a member of Tangent-Project, a Berlin School Sequencer based space music Duo based outside of Philadelphia.
George Wallace has redefined the meaning of career musician. His decades-long career has included the release of no fewer
than thirteen full-length albums, in addition to holding a staff-writer position with Screen Gems and a label affiliation with CBS/Epic Records. He has also produced several planetarium show soundtracks and a critically acclaimed three-album set of exercise music for children, and enjoyed a long history of live performance and airplay on numerous spacemusic radio programs.
Although rumored by some to be from another planet (there is no actual proof of this), George was born-and-raised in Philadelphia in the ‘50’s and 60’s – just in time for the British invasion and the emergence of the Motown phenomenon – both of which, along with the ingenious production and vocal arrangements of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, provided much early inspiration for his emerging talents as songwriter and producer.
In 1984, George formed and christened his own new studio and production company, AirBorn Music, which has been up-and-running ever since. With the emerging power of the Internet he was soon to discover new marketing possibilities, enabling him to promote and distribute his own catalog and eventually to set up the AirBorn website. Out of these developments emerged his three early landmark works Sacred Earth (1985), Communion (1988), and Frontiers (1993).
George has more recently produced Soul Ascending (2013) and Light Music (2015), both featuring his trademark styles of ambient, tribal, contemplative and spacemusic. He continues to be a featured artist on many radio and internet radio programs – both local and nationally syndicated.
George currently lives with his wife-and-best-friend in Lancaster, PA, with lots of farm country nearby. In his in-home studio he has built a portfolio of compositions produced for film and television and has recently released a new live double-CD album, ‘Live From Planet Earth’.
When he does manage to break away from his musical universe, Jordy enjoys travel, camping, cycling, photography, inventing new recipes, and astronomy. Astronomy is of particular interest because he is, as ever, on a quest to find out which planet he might actually be from…perhaps the rumors are true after all.
November 9, 2019 – Joe Wall and Craig Chin
Joe Belknap Wall grew up in Scaggsville, fell in love with headphones, magnetic tape, radio drama, and the glorious inexplicable sounds that came phasing in across the ionosphere from other lands to his old shortwave radio, and started telling stories, arranging sounds into pleasing patterns, and performing live whenever he could. In recent years, he’s concentrated on abstract electro-acoustic music with his solo project, Kantoendrato, collaborations with fantastic musicians, and longform performance storytelling with improvised electronic soundtracks.
June 15, 2019 – DFLT (Bruce & Spitznagel) and redgreenblue
redgreenblue is the electro-ambient project of Shane King. Drawing from a long legacy of electronic music pioneers and using a mix of hardware and software redgreenblue is music that appreciates the past and keeps moving forward. The songs are often long form, constantly evolving and plenty of small details to discover on each listening. Live, redgreenblue is a performance based affair were the technology is there to assist the performer, not be the star of the show. Using a variety of controllers redgreenblue’s shows are visually and aurally compelling. redgreenblue’s next album ‘RESISTOR’ will be his most ambitious and expected sometime in 2019. Live, redgreenblue is a performance based affair were the technology is there to assist the performer, not be the star of the show. Using a variety of controllers redgreenblue’s shows are visually and aurally compelling. redgreenblue’s next album ‘RESISTOR’ will be his most ambitious and expected sometime in 2019.
DFLT – Sez Tom, “I’m a musician, sound designer, and occasional engineer. I saw my first electronic music concert in 1969. It was the first-ever public performance using a Minimoog. These days I make music using iPads as my primary platform, with a wide variety of instruments/apps. I often play a Teenage Engineering OP-1, as well. I like hardware synths in the studio, though I hate to lug around any except the tiny Mutable Instruments Shruthi.”
Meanwhile: James Spitznagel has been working in the visual arts and music fields for the last 50 years. His recent digital music explorations are part of a cohesive artistic statement that stretches the imagined uses of iPads and gaming devices to fit his abstract vision of thoughts, dreams, and reality. Tom Bruce and James Spitznagel both live in Ithaca, New York.
www.facebook.com/DFLT-1060437477395682/
www.facebook.com/tombrucemusic/
www.facebook.com/jamesspitznagel
April 6, 2019 – Onewayness and PYXL8R
onewayness is Adam Holquist, a composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist from Erie, Pennsylvania. He uses guitars, pianos, analog and digital synthesis, spoken word and field recordings, and a variety of hardware and software tools to create atmospheric and textural music which draws influence from a variety of sources. These may include: ambient, drone, minimalism, post-rock, and vintage and contemporary electronic ‘listening music’.
PYXL8R is the ongoing solo project of Brainstatik keyboardist and Cosmic Crossings co-founder Ken Palmer. Atmospheric, otherworldly, and always dense with unusual sonic textures, PYXL8R’s long-form synthesizer compositions are always performed completely live with no backing tracks. To achieve all of this on stage, Ken is joined on synths and iPad by his talented son Kyle , who has contributed to the live PYXL8R shows for many years. Ken’s wife Ruth is in charge of presenting the accompanying multimedia visuals. Unfortunately, Sage – who usually participates in PYXL8R performances – will not be available for this show.
May 11, 2019 – Tony Gerber & Giles Reaves, and Ombient with guitarist Michael Courter
March 2, 2019 – Steve Horelick and Modular Moose
Steve Horelick – Experimental musician, composer and musical adventurer Steve H, AKA Steve Horelick and Steve Heroic), is known for his 3D surround immersive performances, soundtracks, songs and scores for TV, film and games. His TV credits include more than 350 episodes, encompassing such award-winning productions as PBS’s Reading Rainbow (featuring the world’s 1st all electronic synthesized theme song), Shining Time Station, The Puzzle Place, The Magic Adventures of Mumfie and many more. He has scored films ranging from 80’s cult-horror classic “Madman” to HBO’s legendary baseball documentary series “When It Was a Game,” which earned him his first EMMY nomination. He has also won many other awards for his TV and advertising soundtracks including the New York Film Festival Gold award.
Steve H’s true passion is electronic music. He was a founding member of the acclaimed noise band, The Electronic Art Ensemble that the New York Times characterized their Carnegie Recital Hall concert as “virtuoso performances”. He currently performs ephemeral and engaging electronic 3D Surround Immersion soundscapes in the US and Europe on his Buchla 200e & Easel, extensive Eurorack system.
Modular Moose is a solo experimental music project that is focused on exploring the nearly untouched sonic frontier that iselectroacoustic music. Centered around an ever-morphing modular synthesizer, Modular Moose combines instruments and noise makers of varying timbre using inventive compositional techniques to craft interesting new sounds.
November 3, 2018 – Modular Synthesis Night: Chaka Benson, Roycee Martin, Huron (John Lancia), and The Quantum Erasure Experiment (Dan Hamilton)
October 13, 2018 – ThinAirX, Tim Motzer and Bernhard Wöstheinrich
ThinAirX is Steve Bowman playing electrified clarinet—a regular orchestral clarinet processed through effects pedals. It’s electronic music driven by the expressiveness of a wind instrument. Sometimes it sounds like a chorus of clarinets. Other times it’s full-on electronic weirdness. Or cool ambient soundscapes. All generated in real time. No sequencers, drum machines or backing tracks. Composed, yet jammed out. Spacemusic with a jam-band sensibility.
Steve is a veteran electronic musician. His unique sound is shaped by a a degree in Music Composition from Harvard and a lifetime of listening to Ives, Subotnick, Miles Davis, Stockhausen, Reich, Grateful Dead, Beethoven, Ligeti, Zappa, and Captain Beefheart. Before switching to the clarinet Steve played keyboards and synths—you may have heard him perform solo as Thin Air or with Art Cohen as the duo Delicate Monster. Find samples of ThinAirX on SoundCloud.
Tim Motzer – Guitarist/improviser/composer Tim Motzer lives in a technicolor world of music. He ismotzer.jpg known for his distinct textural guitar voice utilizing looping, bowing, electronics, and prepared techniques. After 20 years of world touring, stunning collaborations, and over 70 albums of credits, this Philadelphia-based guitarist continues to traverse manifold territories in music. In 2016-17, Tim toured the world playing concerts and jazz festivals with Bandit65, an improvising trio he co-leads with guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and drummer Gintas Janusonis. He has collaborated with numerous musical luminaries: David Sylvian, Burnt Friedman, Jaki Liebezeit, poet Ursula Rucker, King Britt, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Markus Reuter, and Pat Mastelotto among others. In the world of modern dance, Motzer composes and performs live solo scores around the world. Most recently he has performed to sold out houses in Tokyo, Japan; Seoul, S. Korea; Oujda, Morocco; and Toronto, Canada. He composes for film and video, and is a composer/accompanist for University of the Arts Dance in Philadelphia. He releases his genre-defying solo work and collaborations on 1k Recordings. As a leader, his projects include Orion Tango, Goldbug, Instant Takemitsu, & Tim Motzer SOLO.
Bernhard Wöstheinrich is a composer, painter, graphic designer, performer, small town bohemian, failed control freak, and, finally, even a record label owner in Germany. His projects and albums have been released on a variety of labels and span different fields of electronic and ambient music. Bernhard started in about 1987 to intensely experiment with his own sounds and tunes after he found out that drawing and painting simply weren’t enough to adequately express himself. He went about to find something that might had a more “performing” approach. Inspired by the likes of Einstürzende Neubauten and other informal and experimental music, he finally began to work in a very personal way to compose and record some early tapes. The rest, as they say, is history.
September 29, 2018 – The Equinox Project and Kip Rosser
Kip Rosser’s Theremin Smorgasbord An Amalgam of Ambient Ambidexterity and Amino-Amusement Vinegar science, zen, musical MRI machines and 1960s radio are just the appetizer in Kip Rosser’s upcoming program. Since 1996, his solo performances, staged productions, award-winning compositions and industry recognition have earned him a reputation as one of the most accomplished thereminists playing in the world today. Rosser typically moves beyond a standard recital format, making for a unique event that combines music (ranging from classical to jazz to popular) with humor, stories, performance art, animation and video, continually pushing the boundaries of what the theremin can play and do. His many accomplishments span a wide a variety of disciplines. Milestones include presentations on stage, in museums, libraries and arts centers, award-winning original compositions, and the critically acclaimed “Unholy Secrets of the Theremin,” presented at the NY International Fringe Festival. After creating full courseware for using the theremin in a therapeutic environment, Rosser was chosen to represent Moog Music, Inc. at the annual convention for the American Music Therapy Association. As a member of MUNY (Music under New York) he regularly plays music in the Manhattan subways. As a teaching artist for Musicopia, he brings his music programs to students of all ages in the Phladelphia school system; also through Musicopia, he started the NJ branch of the Gift of Music, collecting and delivering donated musical
instruments, free of charge, to students in need. His original music was used for Sabina Ptasnik’s short film, Gravity. In 2014 he provided the theremin tracks by composer Dane Walker for the new Toddy Burton film, Scientists in the Woods. In 2016, he composed the theremin soundtrack for Jason Allen’s feature film, An Idle Mind is the Devil’s Playground. Rosser’s latest CD of original ambient compositions for theremin, Lessons from Vinegar Mother, was released in 2016. He is currently working on another album of original compositions.
The Equinox Project is Karl Fury, Juan Garces and David Berends. Karl Fury is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from central New Jersey. His musical background ranges from rock and blues to jazz-rock, world music, ambient, electronic and free improvisation. He has performed at numerous venues, including the Trenton Avant Garde Festival, Artworks and The Mill Hill Theatre (all in Trenton, NJ); Columbia University and Princeton University; and live radio broadcasts from WPRB (Princeton, NJ), WTSR (Trenton, NJ), WDVR (Delaware Twp, NJ) and WLFR (Galloway, NJ). Karl performed and recorded for several years in the world music duo Near East with Mahan Rishi Singh Khalsa. He continues to collaborate and record with Dr. Brad Garton, head of the Columbia University Computer Music Center in New York City, and with The Melting Transistor, an improvisational electronic music trio that includes Juan Garces and Floyd Bledsoe. The Melting Transistor have performed at several Electro-Music festivals in New York state and Asheville, NC, at the Event Horizon concert series in Philadelphia, at Cosmic Crossings in Washington Crossing, NJ, and on WPRB’s Music With Space and WLFR’s Digital Dreams. A founding member of The Equinox Project with Juan Garces and David Berends, Karl also continues to record and perform solo instrumental music.
Juan Garces is an experimental and improvisational musician and electronics and synthesizer enthusiast. He uses vintage and contemporary synthesizers, sequencers, live looping, and a laptop computer to take his listeners on a unique, imaginative journey. He has been playing experimental music since the late 1970s. Juan is a founder and constant in the improvisational music projects The Melting Transistor with Floyd Bledsoe and Karl Fury, The Equinox Project with David Berends and Karl Fury, and Black Thujone with Mike Hunter. He has played solo and group performances at various venues, including Electro Music in New York State and Asheville, NC; Rowan University; Event Horizons in Philadelphia; the Cosmic Crossings Concert Series in Washington Crossing, NJ; and on live radio broadcasts on Music With Space (WPRB, 103.3 FM, Princeton, NJ) and Digital Dreams (WLFR, 91.7FM, Galloway, NJ). Juan has also collaborated with Dr. Brad Garton, head of the Columbia University Computer Music Center, in New York City, on numerous projects, and continues to collaborate with other experimental musicians as often as he can. In his deep past, Juan performed live with Ted Klett and Tom McMillan (PaxElectronic Collective/Area 25), Tommy Buzz Matthews, Ian Kelly and Eli Ward (Sonic Alchemy), and Michael Mironov (Dancing Water Percussion Ensemble).
Pianist, composer and synthesist David Berends received his formal musical training at the Peabody Conservatory, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the Westminster Choir College. His informal training came though countless rock, jazz, and solo piano gigs with a wide variety of artists including prog rockers Tank (with Bill Berends [guitar] and Rich Berends [drums], 1975-1978), legendary jazz guitarist Stanley Jordan (1978), Rock’n’Roll legend Chuck Berry (1979-1980), New Wave band The Name (with John Bush [vocals, bass] and Allen Lind [drums], 1980-1983), and The Jack Furlong Quartet (2005-2007), a straight-ahead sax jazz ensemble. In 2008, Berends formed The Jersey Jazz Trio with bassist Lance Sulton, performing with various drummers including Rich Saborsky, Mike Ipri, David Stier and Chic Sperell. The trio performed dozens of straight-ahead acoustic gigs in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania before disbanding in 2012. Since then, Berends has focused his musical attention on two endeavors: composing, recording and performing original pieces for solo piano (witness his 2017 release of Murakami Winter [I Virtuosi Records]), and most recently, revisiting his experimental music roots by joining forces with noted electronica musicians Karl Fury and Juan Garces. Together they comprise The Equinox Project, a synergistic coming together of digital, analog, electro-acoustic and acoustic music.
June 16, 2018 – Neil Alexander and Robert Dorschel
Jazz pianist, synthesist and composer Neil Alexander began performing and composing in 1974. Neil is the type of musician who thrives on variety, and is involved with a wide variety of projects. For 15 years (1996 – 2011) he performed with his contemporary electric/acoustic jazz ensemble NAIL (their last CD “Tugging At The Infinite” was released in 2007). In 2013 Neil realized a long-standing dream and released a solo piano CD, “Darn That Dream: Solo Piano Vol. 1”, to critical acclaim. Neil has worked with various Tribute groups including “The Machine” (Pink Floyd Tribute, 1996 – 2006), “The Mahavishnu Project” (2008 – present) and most recently, “Mr. Gone”, focusing on the music of jazz giants “Weather Report” & Herbie Hancock’s “Headhunters”.
Neil’s music is his long-standing relationship with electronic instruments, primarily synthesizers, goes back to his first synth in 1978.He’s never looked back, making those sounds a part of his extensive musical vocabulary and frequently performing solo in an all-electronic context. In search of better ways to realize improvisational electronic music quickly, Neil began using Ableton LIVE software and In 2012 he started the Ableton Hudson Valley Users Group, teaching workshops in his home base ofNewburgh NY, as well as surrounding towns. His most recent CD is entitled “Soft Invaders” culled from a live on-air radio performance on Mike Hunter’s “Music With Space” program. Neil began attending the Electro-Music Festivals in Huguenot, NY in 2012 where he crossed paths with dozens of like-minded performers & composers, performing and collaborating with other participants. Visit Neil on the web at: nailmusic.com
Robert Dorschel is an eclectic multi-instrumentalist hailing from Syracuse, New York. He does a fair job at creating detailed melodic soundtrack and synth-based compositions. Yet, he is haunted by the fact that he failed his “Piano for Non-Music Majors” course in junior college; and as a result he plays “Chopsticks” for a few hours straight each night while chuckling quietly to himself. Robert also performs in music festivals from time to time. Outside of live performances, he also has dipped his toes in theatre audio production. In 2016, he composed original music and foley sound effects for the Auburn Players’ (Auburn, NY) performance of “The Giver.” He has also assisted in numerous other theater and live sound productions. obert also has been dabbling in video production on and off for several decades, and now has integrated video into his live musical sets for a immersive media experience. Or at least that’s how it is supposed to happen, in theory. Either way, the audience gets a complete look inside Robert’s head, and a possibly find something you can relate to.
For this night’s performance, there will be audience participation, to decide what the heck Robert will actually perform: Should he start with some space music, or jump into a video-centric piece? Should he incorporate video of assorted strangers doing stuff on camera, or just stick to making himself look silly? Should he use an overwhelming number of animated gifs, or use 1950s educational films to tell his story? Shall he play along live with his video short, “The Man Who Forgot How To Live” (which even has a complete plot), or play along with any random Twilight Zone episode? The real question here is: is there really a difference in these choices?
soundcloud.com/robertdorschel
youtube.com/robertdorschel
vimeo.com/robertdorschel
May 12, 2018 – Chuck van Zyl and Audio Mace
Best known as host of Stars End (WXPN’s renowned radio program of spacemusic dreamscapes) and as coordinator of The Gatherings (Philadelphia’s premiere concert series of innovative music), Chuck van Zyl has also been making his own unique style of electronic music since 1983. Over the course of his musical existence Chuck van Zyl has developed a signature exploratory style. By blending the primitive machine beauty of classics like “Ricochet” with the highly formed values of more recent groups such as Redshift and Arc, his solo studio works are the result of a persistent creativity. With a solid melodic invention, atmospheric modulations and heroic shifts in tonality, van Zyl masterfully realizes the fascinating patterns, riffs and pulses that dominate his live concerts. As the music forms, climbs and sustains, listeners are pulled into a highly distinctive mindscape. Tone patterns weave and collide as go-for-broke keyboard lead lines dance high above – while synthetic strings draw long lines across a cool digital plane. Chuck van Zyl is at home in this endlessly inventive genre, offering ample muscle for the adventurous, archaic modulations for the experimentalist and dreamy floating space for the cloudwalker.
Hailing from Maryland, Audio Mace is Chris Wikman and Al Baldwin. Complex, instrumental arrangements, varied musical styles, and evocative soundscapes characterize their offerings, each piece with its own unique mood and style.
Formed to provide a vehicle for exploring music with a more “industrial” and “experimental” style, Audio Mace combines electronic instrumentation with exotic instruments (including several unique and “home-made” ones), sound textures, rhythmic elements, and percussion as it seeks to explore new themes and sonic textures and to create unique and evocative musical journeys.
As you listen to their music, you will note the variety of moods, expressions, and styles. Each piece is unique and defies being placed in a stylistic box, having been individually crafted to express its inspiration, mood, or journey. You will hear a mixture of elements: here some ambient … there some industrial … here some space-rock … and there some electronic. If you need a “label”, consider “avant-garde music”… music which is ahead of its time, containing unique or original elements, or unexplored fusions of different genres. Audio Mace has performed live at locations in Washington DC, Baltimore MD, Asheville, NC, Philadelphia PA, Indianapolis IN, and Homer and Huguenot, NY. Their performances are often accompanied by live and pre-recorded visuals they create for each performance. They have also worked with visual artists to create some memorable experiences. They have done numerous impromptu performances including on-stage improvisation with members of OneWayness, Symmetry, Finite Element, Melting Transistor, and ESP Modulator from London.
April 14, 2018 – The Tangent Project and Andrew Sblendorio/Alexis Aguam
Both Jeff Coulter and Harrison McKay have been kicking around the Philadelphia Spacemusic scene for 25 years or so. Coulter, along with Chris Schwartz, played in the cosmic music duo Tangent, while elsewhere McKay composed ethereal music for dance in addition to his solo Ambient works.
More recently these two have been working together, experimenting with sounds and textures reminiscent of the classics Zeit and Phaedra – yet their approach incorporates their own unique sensibilities and outlook. Coulter’s sequencer runs, synth pads and melodies all move at different speeds while McKay’s processed guitar alternates between emitting atmospheric textures and liquid lead solos. Their realizations are in constant motion, either moving forward or churning in stillness, or at some indistinct level in between. Coulter and McKay explore areas of both dark and light. Their music a culmination of a lifetime worth of experience.
Andrew Sblendorio and Alexis Aguam are an audio-visual duo from Utica, NY. Taking influences from free jazz, poetic cinema, everyday ambiance, and transcendental philosophy, the duo has been focusing on manipulating live input, of both sound and light, to bring electronic performance into a living, breathing space. Their most recent album “Life, In General” offers a musical overview of life as we know it, combining the poetry of Aguam over Sblendorio’s guitar and synthesizer.
March 3, 2018 – BioMechanical Shapeshifters and Ritchie DeCarlo
BioMechanical ShapeShifters (or BioMeSS for short) is the project of Floyd Bledsoe from Trenton, New Jersey. The name has been used for electronic music experimentations since the early 1990s. The concept is that BioMeSS is not solo but a group consisting of various devices that create the soundwaves. The 2010s saw recordings start to appear on the internet and now there are over 35 albums available on the Bandcamp website with many containing several hours of music each. Floyd is also one-third of The Melting Transistor and has recorded many albums with them as well as several live appearances. Cosmic Crossings marks the first time BioMechanical ShapeShifters will perform for an active audience.
Ritchie DeCarlo is a well-known drummer in the Philadelphia area. He is currently playing with Michael Bernier, Percy Jones, Scott McGill, Kick It Out & various local acts, also teaching drums. Released the first solo album in 2013 titled WEEK. The album features many guest musicians: David Fiuczynski, Michael Manring, Pat Mastelotto, Michael Bernier, Percy Jones, Markus Reuter & MORE! The past decade his recording engineer hat has been on and working at TTR studios on many projects. In 2009 the modular synthesizer appeared in his studio & this changed his direction immediately. Today Ritchie is incorporating all of his 40 years experience into his solo live performances. Electronic percussion, loops & all types of synthesizers come together in his excursions for your ears.
November 11, 2017 – Laura Woodswalker, Datadrift, and Sage Palmer
Laura started her musical career as a bluegrass banjo player and later played bass with a Grateful Dead band. In 2004 she got her start in digital production by recording crickets and cicadas, then multi-tracking the samples into compositions. She didn’t know synthesizers or even what MIDI was. Now, over 10 years and 100 pieces of gear later, she still doesn’t really know anything! She just likes to compose melodic and spacey music, using synthesizers, field samples, counterpoint, spacey sounds, lots of filters and ping-pong delay…all to express her fascination with nature, science, other dimensions and things that go flash in the night.
Datadrift is the electronic music project of Guinevere Molly Campbell. Creating soundscapes since 1996, she uses an east-coast, hardware-focused approach, based on her love for the keyboard interface as well as the corralling of machines with unique interfaces and timbres to communicate with one another and find dialog or harmony. Her principal approach is texture-driven, creating synthesizer patches that resonate with a mood or idea, then working with that sonic palette to create a soundscape that combines improvisation with sequenced aspects. While predominantly instrumental and ambient, her work includes some forays into indie/experimental pop-driven song structures, including vocals. Her influences include Brian Eno, Jean Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Dead Can Dance, The Legendary Pink Dots, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Aphex Twin, and atmospheric songs and passages in 60s-80s pop, cold and new wave, and post-punk music.
Multi-instrumentalist Sage Palmer can’t easily list the many diverse influences that have shaped his musical direction, and his music is equally as difficult to pin down to one genre. As a member of his father’s band – the electronic music trio PYXL8R – he has learned a great deal about composition, live performance, and improvisation. While he primarily plays synthesizers and heavily-processed acoustic instruments, Sage continues to acquire new toys to expand his musical palette. He is currently studying to be an art teacher. He also serves as President of TCNJ Taiko, a Japanese drum ensemble, where he has been able to steer his lifetime love of rhythm and dance in a new direction. While he has been collaborating with other musicians and writing songs for most of his life, Sage’s performance at Cosmic Crossings will be his first as a solo artist.
October 21, 2017 – Obliquity Of The Ecliptic and Juan Garces
Obliquity Of The Ecliptic is a free improvisational, ambient space duo who create swelling and spacey cinematic drone music. Spacious analog pad synths, ethereal vocal loops, ebow guitar and minimal beats fill the space to create a meditative and magical experience where occasional chaotic walls of sounds will ensue. Every show is special as no two performances are ever the same. Live shows also consist of gorgeous and hypnotic outer space visual projections, smoke and mind-bending music.
Juan Garces is an experimental and improvisational musician and electronics and synthesizer enthusiast who utilizes vintage and contemporary electronics to create his music. He continually seeks ways to incorporate electronic sounds, textures, and beats to take the listener on an imaginative journey. He uses synthesizers, sequencers, live looping, and a laptop computer to create his unique electronic music experience. He has been playing electronic experimental music since the late 70’s. Juan is a founder and constant in the improvisational music project The Melting Transistor, and has played solo and group performances at various venues, including Northeast Electro Music in New York State, and in Asheville, NC, Rowan University, Event Horizons in Philadelphia, and on live radio broadcasts on Music With Space (WPRB 103.3 FM) and Digital Dreams (WLFR 91.7FM.) He has also had the pleasure of collaborating with Dr. Brad Garton, head of the Columbia University Computer Music Center, in New York City. In recent years, Juan helped organize the first Trenton Area Electronic Arts Festival as well as the New Jersey Electronic Arts Festival, both at the Grounds for Sculpture in Trenton, NJ, performing with PaxElectronic Collective/Area 25 at both events. In addition, Juan performed at John & Peters in New Hope, PA, both as a solo act and with experimental project Sonic Alchemy, as well as played world music at Borders Books project with Ted Klett (PaxElectronic Collective/Area 25). He continues to collaborate with other musicians on experimental music projects.
September 2, 2017 – Guitar Pilots and Mario-Enrique Paoli (with special guest Karl Fury) – Visuals by Jim Tuite
Guitar Pilots is the new spacemusic duo featuring guitarists Art Cohen and Scott Watkins. Their music features lengthy structured improvisational pieces which transport the listener to the depths of space, all the while focusing on each precious unfolding moment. Cohen‘s sequencer-like echoing guitar figures provide rhythmic propulsion, while Watkins’ breathing chords and sub-octave rumblings build a foundation for both musicians to rise in melodic flights. Singing glissando blends seamlessly with plucks, twangs and blasts of an interstellar beam. Following the trail blazed by Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, and the Berlin School, Guitar Pilots carve out their own unique sonic territory that is both organic as the ground underneath and as far-reaching as a distant pulsar* copied from Stars End.
Mario-Enrique Paoli worked in theater and studied guitar and music theory from an early age. At 7 years old he becomes a member of Children’s Theater of Puerto RicoCo., and also works with other theater companies. In his teens he starts working ‘behind the scenes’ in tech and production assistance.During his high school years Paoli apprenticed and assisted set and special effects designer Julio Biaggi, and music/sound studio owner, producer, designer, engineer, Felix H. Rivera, at Studio-H. Studied music theory and harmony with Dr. Neli Justicia, classic guitar with Juan Sorroche, and improvisation with Robert DeVore. Later in the late 70’s and 80’s electronic music with Robert Ceeyly at BEEP (Boston Electronic Experimental Project) and electro-acoustic arranging and composition with Albert Mayr (Music of Times and Tides).
In 1977 he moves to Boston to continue his musical studies in arranging and composition, film scoring and guitar at Berklee College of Music. In 1981 he was invited to join Mobius Theater Inc. under the direction of Marilyn Arsem (later named Mobius Performing Group, now Mobius Artist Group). He worked with the company until 1990. While at Mobius he produced, designed and directed 7 original experimental music-theater works and collaborated and co-produced dozens of works with the company and with national and international performance artists.
In the Boston years he also worked with Court Repertory Theater, MIT Drama Shop, Nucleo Eclectico Theater, Red Alert and Mea Culpa Group. Worked on traditional theater and opera (fully staged) with Westchester Opera, Henry Street Opera, Teatro de la Opera, Pheonix Players, and Bohio Puertoriqueno. He has assisted directors, David Wheeler (ART), Gray Catell Johnson (CRT), Franco Gratale (WOC), Marco Zarattini (Nucleo Ecclectico), David Zoffoli (CRT), Nancy De Graffran (Pheonix Players), Gene Frankel (GFT), among others.
At Boston Film Video Foundation Inc. (BFVF) he worked as associate producer, editor and workshop instructor from 1980-1990. In 1982 the collective Subterranean Video (S.vid) was founded, dedicated to experimental television, video/sound art and performance. S.vid has exhibited their work in television, galleries and festivals, nationally and internationally. S.vid often worked for and assisted Nam-June Paik in setting gallery installations and retrospectives in his shows in the New England area.
In the mid 80’s, he produced and directed the dance-film ‘Roofdance’, funded by a grant from Massachusetts Council for the Arts and National Endowment for the Arts. Roofdance won an Outstanding Award at the New England Film and Video Festival (1988) and in 1989 broadcast at The New England Television Festival (ABC network), among others. During those years he was also a New England Foundation for the Arts Fellowship finalist.
In his music/sound work he is mostly interested in sound design and live performance, solo guitar, experimental and extended techniques, electronic synthesis and ambient electronica. Some work are site-specific and involve design/staging/props and image projections.
Paoli moved to NYC in 1990 and worked at Film/Video Arts Inc. as associate producer, editor and workshop instructor from 1991 to 2007. From 2005 to 2007 he was FV/A’s last executive director. He has taught video production and post-production workshops at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, Downtown Community Television (DCTV), HITN TV, Videoteca del Sur and Columbia University.
In Spring 2002 he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Media Studies at The New School University (NYC), where he is still teaching.
He continues to work in creative film/video/audio design, as a post-supervisor, editor, sound designer, producer/engineer of music recordings and as a sound-image consultant. He regularly performs his music and sound work, and shows his and others experimental television work.
June 17, 2017 (8pm) – The Melting Transistor
The Melting Transistor are a trio of musical improvisers that incorporate numerous musical and electronic devices to produce continually evolving soundscapes that travel through many sonic realms. The group consists of Juan Garces and Floyd Bledsoe on synthesizers and keyboards and Karl Fury on stringed instruments and synthesizers. All three have incorporated diverse electronics and laptop computers to expand their audio horizons. The band’s music contains various elements including calming ambient textures, deep bass grooves, spacey synth sections, diverse guitar stylings, solid percussion loops and an overall unified harmony of differing elements to produce a unique listening experience. The band has performed live on WPRB Princeton’s Music With Space radio show, The Event Horizon series at the Rotunda in Philadelphia, at The Electro-Muse Festival in Huguenott, NY, WLFR Stockton University’s Digital Dreams radio show and at the Picnic for Universal Peace in Plainsboro, NJ. Juan Garces is an experimental and improvisational musician and electronics and synthesizer enthusiast who utlilizes vintage and contemporary electronics to create his music. He continually seeks ways to incorporate electronic sounds, textures, and beats to take the listener on an imaginative auditory journey. He uses synthesizers, sequencers, live looping, and a laptop computer to create his audio magic. He has played live solo and band shows on WPRB Princeton radio, Borders Books, John & Peter’s in New Hope, PA, as well as the Trenton Area Electronics Arts Festival and the New Jersey Electronic Arts Festival, both at The Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ. He was also involved in the planning and setup of the Trenton Area Electronic Arts Festival, and the planning and setup of The New Jersey Electronic Arts Festival for 3 consecutive years. He continues to pursue his solo playing, and experimenting with new technologies with like-minded audio scientists. Floyd Bledsoe is an electronic musician from Trenton, New Jersey. A completely self-taught artist, Floyd started his musical journey as a bass guitar player and played with several punk/alternative bands in the late 80s/early 90s. Having developed an interest in electronic music at a young age, he bought his first synthesizer in 1984 and from then on was addicted to creating unusual sounds. Starting around the year 2000, he served as the manager of the artist directory, record reviews section and moderator for the Progressive Ears music forum/website and has a vast knowledge of obscure progressive rock and avant-garde music. In 2012, he and Juan Garces began a collaboration that would eventually become The Melting Transistor. Karl Fury is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from Pennington, New Jersey. His musical background ranges from rock and blues to jazz-rock, world music, ambient, acoustic and free improvisation. He has performed at numerous venues including the Trenton Avant Garde Festival, Artworks and The Mill Hill Theatre in Trenton, NJ, Columbia University and Princeton University and live radio broadcasts from WPRB, WTSR and WDVR. He performed and recorded for several years in the world music duo Near East. In addition to performing and recording with the Melting Transistor Karl also pursues a solo performing and recording career. Recordings and videos from The Melting Transistor can be found on bandcamp, soundcloud and youtube or go to their official website.
May 27, 2017 – Ombient (with special guest Chuck van Zyl) and Karl Fury
Ombient is the moniker under which Mike Hunter performs his ambient/drone/experimental music.His ambient/drone/electronic music, being of a live and improvisational nature, is representative of the feeling of the moment in which it is performed and of the subtle feedback between the audience and the performer. Ombient users various vintage and contemporary analog synthesizers, a large Synthesizers.com Modular, and occasionally computers running Ableton Live with various synth plug-in’s. Most of the older music of Ombient features 6 string guitar and/or 12 string Warr Touch Guitar which is processed and layered using digital looping equipment. Mike is also the host of the radio show Music With Space on WPRB 103.3 FM out of Princeton, NJ
Mike will be joined by multi-instrumentalist, Chuck van Zyl, who is best known as host of Stars End (WXPN‘s renowned radio program of spacemusic dreamscapes) and as coordinator of The Gatherings (Philadelphia’s premiere concert series of innovative music), Chuck van Zyl has also been making his own unique style of electronic music since 1983. Over the course of his musical existence Chuck van Zyl has developed a signature exploratory style. By blending the primitive machine beauty of classics like “Ricochet” with the highly formed values of more recent groups such as Redshift and Arc, his solo studio works are the result of a persistent creativity.
Karl Fury is a multi-instrumentalist and composer from central New Jersey. His musical background ranges from rock and blues to jazz-rock, world music, ambient, electronic
and free improvisation. He has performed at numerous venues including the Trenton Avant Garde Festival, Artworks and The Mill Hill Theatre in Trenton, NJ, Columbia University and Princeton University and live radio broadcasts from WPRB, WTSR, WDVR and WLFR. He performed and recorded for several years in the world music duo Near East. He continues to collaborate and record with Dr. Brad Garton, head of the Columbia University Computer Music Center in New York City and The Melting Transistor, an improvisational electronic music trio that includes Juan Garces and Floyd Bledsoe. The Melting Transistor have performed at several Electro-Music festivals in New York state, the Event Horizon concert series in Philadelphia, and on WPRB’s Music With Space and WLFR’s Digital Dreams. Karl also continues to record and perform solo instrumental music.
April 15, 2017 – The Time Merchant and George Wallace
The Time Merchant – With over 50 albums, the ever-prolific Time Merchant is on a constant quest to explore sound. The first album appeared in 1994. Little else is known as The Time Merchant tends to keep out of the public eye, preferring instead to hide away in the recording studio (the wave chamber), working methodically to create the next sound world. Works have explored several genres, including: experimental, dark ambient, atmospheric. pure electronic, and various combinations.
George Wallace has redefined the meaning of career musician. His decades-long career has included the release of no fewer
than thirteen full-length albums, in addition to holding a staff-writer position with Screen Gems and a label affiliation with CBS/Epic Records. He has also produced several planetarium show soundtracks and a critically acclaimed three-album set of exercise music for children, and enjoyed a long history of live performance and airplay on numerous spacemusic radio programs.
Although rumored by some to be from another planet (there is no actual proof of this), George was born-and-raised in Philadelphia in the ‘50’s and 60’s – just in time for the British invasion and the emergence of the Motown phenomenon – both of which, along with the ingenious production and vocal arrangements of the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, provided much early inspiration for his emerging talents as songwriter and producer.
In 1984, George formed and christened his own new studio and production company, AirBorn Music, which has been up-and-running ever since. With the emerging power of the Internet he was soon to discover new marketing possibilities, enabling him to promote and distribute his own catalog and eventually to set up the AirBorn website. Out of these developments emerged his three early landmark works Sacred Earth (1985), Communion (1988), and Frontiers (1993).
George has more recently produced Soul Ascending (2013) and Light Music (2015), both featuring his trademark styles of ambient, tribal, contemplative and spacemusic. He continues to be a featured artist on many radio and internet radio programs – both local and nationally syndicated.
George currently lives with his wife-and-best-friend in Lancaster, PA, with lots of farm country nearby. In his in-home studio he has built a portfolio of compositions produced for film and television and has recently released a new live double-CD album, ‘Live From Planet Earth’.
When he does manage to break away from his musical universe, Jordy enjoys travel, camping, cycling, photography, inventing new recipes, and astronomy. Astronomy is of particular interest because he is, as ever, on a quest to find out which planet he might actually be from…perhaps the rumors are true after all.
March 25, 2017 – Kip Rosser and Twyndyllyngs
Twyndyllyngs are an electronic music chamber ensemble using high tech devices to make Spacemusic that is suitable for everything from planetarium presentations to deep
inner thought explorations. This duo consists of Howard Moscovitz and Bill Fox who have international reputations, having performed across North America and Europe, including at electro-music festivals, Ricochet Gatherings, and Different Skies. The band has played at the Allentown Art Museum and planetariums. Twyndyllyngs may be heard on the weekly internet broadcast, Chez Mosc, on electro-music Radio 1. http://radio.electro-music.com
Quote: “Twyndyllyngs is an electronic music duo made up of Bill Fox and Howard Moscovitz. Both are from the Allentown area of Pennsylvania and a big part of the Electro-Music online community. While each is a performer in a diversity of musical groups, their music together as Twyndyllyngs is quite distinctive. After years of playing together, Moscovitz and Fox have developed the ability to realize novel timbral based works in the live concert setting through a highly improvisational and intuitive process. Each performance is unique, with the arising pieces the result of a deep sonic exploration between the two.”
Chuck van Zyl – Host of Stars End – http://starsend.org/twyndyllyngs.html
Friday, November 18, 2016 – centrozoon and Nocturne Blue
The event will be held at Dorothea Dix Unitarian Universalist Community Church at 39 Park St, Bordentown, NJ 08505
centrozoon (sometimes incorrectly capitalized as Centrozoon) is a German electronic improvisational music group. The core members are Markus Reuter (Warr touch guitar, loops, programming) and Bernhard Wöstheinrich (synthesizers, electronic percussion, programming). The group’s music is flexible and has altered from album to album, but frequently-used elements include ambient music, improvisation, electronica, progressive rock and IDM (intelligent dance music).
The group has also collaborated with King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto, engineer Bill Munyon and a variety of remixers.
centrozoon works with free-improvisational, free-tonal, microtonal soundscapes. Within the rich and dense layers of their music there are subtle rhythmic and tonal shifts taking place, detuning and retuning with each other to produce a colourful spectrum of musical themes. Bernhard Wöstheinrich (electronics) and Markus Reuter (touch guitar) have been working together since 1995, exploring electro-acoustic music by melting their sonic palettes. Their first release Blast stands as a work exposing just one of the many musical facets of centrozoon: a warm, passionate music suffused with a pulsating inner light.
Nocturne Blue: Dutch Rall is a producer, director, cinematographer, editor and musician. He is a 3-time Emmy-winner whose work for PBS has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Dutch has traveled the world as the visual and musical director of a project for filmmaker David Lynch, has lectured for the National Press Photographers Association and was the winner of the World’s Smallest Film Festival, the very first competition for video on mobile devices. Dutch has created official music videos for the Duran Duran art project TV Mania, shot Olympic televison campaigns for Visa, and has produced experimental performance dance films such as ‘Fifth Wall’, with Guggenheim Fellow Omar Carrum. His work has been seen at numerous festivals including Cannes and SXSW and has been broadcast across the EU and US.
At the moment, he is conjuring bewildering sounds from his guitar in collaboration with a few of his childhood idols and childhood friends for a new audio/visual project focusing on movement and perception (what some might term a “band”) called NOCTURNE BLUE.
Sunday, November 13, 2016 – Chuck van Zyl and PYXL8R
Philadelphia area Space musician Chuck van Zyl, best known as host of STAR’S END (WXPN‘s renowned radio program of spacemusic dreamscapes) and as coordinator of The Gatherings (Philadelphia’s premiere concert series of innovative music), Chuck van Zyl has also been making his own unique style of electronic music since 1983.
Over the course of his musical existence Chuck van Zyl has developed a signature exploratory style. By blending the primitive machine beauty of classics like “Ricochet” (1975) by Tangerine Dream with the highly formed values of more recent groups such as Redshift and Arc, his solo studio works are the result of a persistent creativity.
With a solid melodic invention, atmospheric modulations and heroic shifts in tonality, van Zyl masterfully realizes the fascinating patterns, riffs and pulses that dominate his live concerts. As the music forms, climbs and sustains, listeners are pulled into a highly distinctive mindscape. Tone patterns weave and collide as go-for-broke keyboard lead lines dance high above – all the while blissed-out synthetic strings and Mellotron choirs draw long lines across a cool digital plane.
Chuck van Zyl is completely at home in this endlessly inventive genre, offering ample muscle for the adventurous, archaic modulations for the experimentalist and dreamy floating space for the cloudwalker.
PYXL8R is the ongoing solo project of Brainstatik keyboardist Ken Palmer. Atmospheric, otherworldly, and always dense with unusual sonic textures, PYXL8R’s long-form synthesizer compositions are always performed completely live, with no backing tracks. To help achieve all of this on stage, Ken has enlisted the help of his sons Kyle on synths and iPad and Sage on synths, theremin and violin. His wife Ruth controls the lighting and video projections that accompany each piece of music, so this truly has become a family venture. They even joke about billing themselves as an ambient electronic Partridge Family for the 21st century!
Along with some older favorites, PYXL8R will debut a few brand-new compositions during their Cosmic Crossings performance.
Saturday, October 22, 2016 – Kip Rosser and Electric Diamond
The event was held at Dorothea Dix Unitarian Universalist Community Church at 39 Park St, Bordentown, NJ 08505
Kip Rosser: For twenty years, Kip Rosser’s solo performances, staged productions, award-winning compositions and industry recognition have earned him a reputation as one of the most accomplished thereminists in the country. Rosser typically moves beyond a standard recital format, making for a unique event that combines music (ranging from classical to jazz to popular) with stories and performance art, continually pushing the boundaries of what the theremin can play and do. His programs for special events are tailored specifically to suit occasion and client musical preferences. In an academic setting, the programs are always age appropriate and the presentation specific to the class subject. Back in 1996, after a twenty-one year hiatus from serious musical study, Rosser crossed paths with the grandfather of all electronic instruments; he purchased a kit and built his first theremin. Previously, Kip graduated from Ithaca College with a BFA in Acting/Directing and was then the sole candidate accepted in the graduate Directing program at Northwestern University. After receiving the MFA, he moved to New York City where he directed plays, worked as a playwright, as well as working as a graphic artist and copywriter.
Electric Diamond: Humanity has always been fascinated by the diamond: shimmering, multi-faceted and mesmerizing. That same description is more than apt when attempting to convey the impact of a performance by Electric Diamond. “Dispersion” is the term used to characterize a diamond’s colored light. The rainbow that should jump from a diamond is known as its “fire.” Although the official measurement of the fire can only be done by machine, the human eye can actually see and measure it. As for the fire jumping from Electric Diamond, 20th Century Music Magazine wrote: “a step beyond… A window into the future of music.” And Variety called it, “a wonderful trip into the asteroids…a fully symphonic piece of intense dignity and feeling.” At the heart of Electric Diamond’s fire are two extraordinary musicians, Don Slepian and Stuart Diamond. Their story spans forty years of composing, collaboration and performing together. Stuart Diamond is producer, composer, musician, writer, director, video artist, and journalist. He is also a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow and Trustee for The California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. His instrument? The EWI – short for Electronic Wind Instrument. The EWI is essentially a synthesizer that’s played like a woodwind, requiring expert embouchure and breath control. In Diamond’s hands, the EWI can imitate any traditional woodwind as well as “go stratospheric,” creating both raw and deeply ethereal sonic textures and “voices.”
Keyboard virtuoso, Don Slepian, has created his own descriptive mantra: “high technology, human touch.” During his career at Bell laboratories, he spent two years working with their most advanced digital synthesizer. A true pioneer in electronic music, he was a Synthesizer Soloist with the Honolulu Symphony. In addition to being presented by WNYC’s “New Sounds” show in New York’s Lincoln Center, he was selected by the French Ministry of Culture for a residency at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
Together, Diamond and Slepian craft a seamless music experience that move “beyond sounds we explore. The actual sounds of our music are the outer coverings of deeper expressions, of the feelings, emotions…the sounds we explore are our vehicles to share what we discover with our audiences.”
Friday, September 16, 2016 – Modulator ESP, dRachEmUsiK, and Onewayness
Modulator ESP (aka Jez Creek) produces improvised experimental soundscapes using synthesizers, sampling, sequencing, looping and processing to create strange worlds of sound somewhere between ’70s space music, noise, and dark ambient drone. He produces a fortnightly show at electro-music.com called Adventures In Sound. Jez is also a member of Astrogator, Cerberus and Quadra.
dRachEmUsiK is the solo project of award-winning musician, sound designer and producer Charles Shriner. dRachEmUsiK combines a plethora of nuanced techniques in order to create groovy and meditative soundscapes; giving structure to improvisation. This style manifests itself into an organic and natural composition of a free-flowing design, resulting in improvisations and structured pieces ranging from ambient to glitch-groove. Charles Shriner has been a full-time musician for over 40 years. During that time he has worked as an arranger, session player and instrumentalist, touring with numerous international performers, and has played on over 50 independent and major label recordings. He has been a guiding force in many projects, including The Genes, Mr. Presto, dRachEmUsiK and Faux Pas Quartet. Over time, he has produced artists in diverse genres including jazz, techno-industrial, classical, country, hip hop, and everything in-between. As a composer and sound designer, he has created the music and sound design for AMA award-winning world-class museum installations, art installations and planetarium shows, in addition to work for video games, film, video, dance troupes, and theater. Additionally, Charles is owner of MCSD Studio and NetLabel, and has created a series of workshops on free-form improvisation which incorporate his training and facilitation skills in Jungian based experiential emotional work.
Onewayness is Adam Holquist, a composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist from Erie, Pennsylvania. He uses guitars, pianos, analog and digital synthesis, spoken word and field recordings, and a variety of hardware and software tools to create atmospheric and textural music which draws influence from a variety of sources. These may include: ambient, drone, minimalism, post-rock, and vintage and contemporary electronic “listening music.”
The Cosmic Crossing Concert Series is created, hosted and produced by Nick Mellis, Mike Hunter, and Ken Palmer. We thank our friends, family, fellow musicians, and our audience for their continued support of this all-volunteer production. We do it solely to share our love of this unusual and wonderful music genre with others!