"What influences me is what i'm interested in at the moment my eyes and ears drink the juice of the present. I love everything that moves on four legs, flies with two wings, has a voice to sing, and surrounds me with the pleasure of temperatures extreme and textures, warm and fuzzy, crackle, grit, and gravy. Mix it up with the history of the formal and ritual musics of all the earth peoples and expressions of sentient beings sparkle, phenomenal weather magnified, and inner whisperings of dreams, the subconscious memories, and the fertile imagination."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHIr_3mfEys
Sounds Like
LaDonna ........................
..."a million cranes flapping their wings through and amplifier. Her sound includes sounds that transcent the personal, combined with a kind of technique which is obviously practiced, though never arrogant or overstated. Sometimes the music sounds like a motorcycle driven through the string section of an orchestra, at other times she forays into the upper stratosphere of coloratura soprano extracted from her instrument. Her vocals ring out like a fifth string on the violin. ...The only difficulty I have is that listening to too many pieces at one time is like eating too much chocolate. (think dark chocolate...) I love chocolate, but too much makes me feel insane." - Hillary Fielding and Ross Rabin
Sounding melodic journeys, soloist and collaborator, heart and soul,
exploring the instruments of the string family, which include
Violin, Viola, Harp, Shamisen, Erhu, Cheng, Egyptian Fiddles, Piano Soundboards, tin can fiddles, and twig,
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painting scenarios and sound pictures with superconscious melodic forays and tantillic textures,
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exploring the edge of the moment of sound exploration,
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She performs at practically every major improvisation festival in North America
and musical travels have taken her from New Music America to Russia, Siberia, Europe, China and Japan. She and longstanding compadre, guitarist Davey Williams, have toured North America and Europe many times as TRANS duo. They founded their own recording company in 1976,TransMuseq.
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Current favorite collaborators include Russian Guitarist guitarist Misha Feigin, Texas pedal steel soundsculptress Susan Alcorn, saxophonists Serguei Letov & Dave Liebman, dancers Susan Hefner & (perc) Michael Evans, Toshi Makihara, long time partner Davey Williams, homefront sound artists SI and Sister Love, newfound collaborators Rafal Mazur and the Process musicians in Krakow.
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Select recordings include her EYE OF THE STORM, TRANSMUTATING with Davey Williams, WHITE EARTH STREAK with Torsten Muller & Gunter Christmann, with Misha Feigin YOKEL YEN, and most recently AMBIENT VISAGE with Susan Alcorn, WATERS ASHORE with Misha Feigin & Dave Liebman, and Table of the Elements collectors edition (LP) YTTRBIUM, solo viola transformed.
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You could check out www.the-improvisor.com for more info than you'd ever want to know about the artist and improvised music.
NEW CD RELEASES include Davey William's new ANTENNAE ROAD, STRINGTREK's FLOATING BRIDGES with Ladonna Smith and Misha Feigin,
Waters Ashore with Dave Liebman, and AMBIENT VISAGE with Susan Alcorn
and next to come LaDonna Smith with Michael Evans' DEVIANT SHAKTI.
Then expect Federico Barabino's OMGAMIRA.
See our catalog at www.transmuseq.com
