SEARCHING FOR 200 GUITARISTS and 16 bass players!!! to play this August (2009) at Lincoln Center outdoors.
If you'll be in New York and you're interested in playing in A Crimson Grail, please go to this site and fill out the application on-line:
http://www.lincolncenter.org/wordlessmusic
The deadline for appying is 15 June. See you there! Current projects:
Touring a concert for 200 electric guitars entitled A Crimson Grail.
Touring A Secret Rose for 100 electric guitars, el. bass and drums.
Touring An Angel Moves Too Fast to See for 100 electric guitars, el; bass and drums.
GUITAR TRIO ALL STAR European tour - This tour starts in March 2008 to coincide with the Radium 3-CD "Guitar Trio Is My Life" release. With Rhys on guitar plus local luminaries (total 6 or more el. guitars, el.bass, drums) from the city we are playing in. Visual element by Robert Longo. Started in March continues through 2009!
For info on booking G200, G100 or G3, contact Regina Greene at Front Porch Productions:
All Rhys' major compositions are available on recording there from the Table of the Elements Records...
Influences
Many influences coming out of Amercian contemporary music like John Cage, Tony Conrad, Eliane Radigue, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, Morton Subotnick.
From rock, the Ramones, Iggy Pop, John Cale, Black Sabbath, early AC/DC.
From jazz Don Cherry and Ornette Coleman.
From electronica I like many people, I suppose Atari Teenage Riot and Ed Rush were particularly inspiring. Also my good friends from Cold Cut, who single-handedly got me into playing with flexistential, scratchtological downtempo grooves!
Sounds Like
Concert of G3 in Groningen, Netherlands on Wednesday, 29 October, at the Grand Theater at 11 p.m.
In addition to Rhys playing, Dik Smit, Peter van de Heide, Olaf Veenstra, Maurice van der Es and Frank Hiep performed on electric guitar, with Floris Vermeulen on electric bass and Thomas de Jager on drums. the film was shot and edited by Paul Schwarte (thanks, Paul!)
Hi. My name is Rhys. I'm a classically-trained composer from New York. I was born in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. And yes, this is really me. I'm not dead yet. At least not the last time I took my pulse: this is the official site.
After I got out of conservatory, I was a concert producer at a place in Soho called the Kitchen, I founded the music program and produced people like Maryanne Amacher, Robert Ashley, Gavin Bryars, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Micheal Nyman, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich on the avant garde side of things, and Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and Fred Frith on the alternative rock side of things.
After a number of years as a concert producer, I got tired of producing other people's music. I had heard an early concert of the Ramones and was inspired by it, so I picked up electric guitar and made a composition called GUITAR TRIO in 1976/77 which combined the minimalist tendencies within which I had been working with a rock instrumentation and musicians.
I was introduced to electronic music and composition by Morton Subotnick in the late 60s, in the early seventies I studied composition with La Monte Young and played in Tony Conrad's early group, these guys are, along with Terry Riley, the founders of American minimalism; so Guitar Trio is a bit like, Tony Conrad meets the Ramones!
After working with 3 electric guitars, I upped the number to 6, and finally in 1989 to 100 electric guitars with a piece called AN ANGEL MOVES TOO FAST TO SEE, which I have been touring around the world with ever since. It was composed in France, where I had moved to that year. So I have been touring with an orchestra of 100 electric guitars for over 17 years now.
A recent piece in this genre was commissioned last year (2005) by the City of Paris for an all night festival called La Nuit Blanche. It was for 400 electric guitars. We played a piece called A CRIMSON GRAIL MOVES TOO FAST TO SEE at Sacre Coeur in Paris, the concert lasted 12 hours, we had a blast! .
A new version of CRIMSON was commissioned by the Licoln Center Out of Doors Festival last year, but unfortunately the performance was rained out. Plans are in the works for doing it again in August 2009, date to be announced next week.
Concurrent with all this, I started playing trumpet in 1983, and after ten years of learning how to play the damn thing, released my first record with me as a trumpet player on a UK label called Ninja Tune.
I switched to trumpet because I was losing my hearing playing guitar; also I was interested in jazz. My training on trumpet is completely in the jazz tradition, when I practice at home I play over bebop changes. But when I play out it tends to be over drum n bass or whatever current trend has come out in the context of electronica that sounds cool.
When I switched to trumpet, I kept all my electric guitar distortion devices, so my trumpet sounds quite close to a distorted electric guitar.
Aside from performances with my 100+ guitar orchestras, I am currently touring a version of GUITAR TRIO for between 6-10 electric guitars, el. bass and drums. I come to the city the piece is being performed in and work with the local luminaries of the town I am playing in and we mount a performance. You can get links to some of the performances by checking out my blog on myspace or going to http://www.rhyschatham.net
I have just finished a solo project with me on el. trumpet and guitar, which I plan to tour soon in collaboration with the video artist Angie Eng. I'll be posting snippets of the performance on this site shortly.
I currently live in Paris, France...
To order Rhys' vinyl records and and CDs (at highly competitive prices)
go here:
Dans le cadre de l’exposition UN TRI au [mac] de l’un des pionniers de la poésie action JULIEN BLAINE LE VENDREDI 10 JUILLET au [mac] À 20H30 69 AVENUE D'HAÏFA, 13008 MARSEILLE.
PERFORMANCE POÉSIE CONCERT JOHN GIORNO & JEAN-MARC MONTERA
Au milieu des années 1960, John GIORNO décide d’ouvrir la poésie à la culture de masse en exploitant les nouveaux moyens de communication : téléphone, télévision, disques... Il crée au tournant des années 1970 la maison de disque Giorno Poetry Systems qui édite de nombreux albums sur lesquels figurent les noms de William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson. Infatigable pionnier de la poésie performance, John Giorno compose une poésie conçue pour la lecture publique et l’exercice scénique.
Parmi les plus actifs dans le champ des musiques improvisées, Jean-Marc MONTERA multiplie depuis les années 1970 les rencontres et les contacts avec d’autres univers artistiques jusqu’à rendre de plus en plus floue la « barrière » entre les genres. Utilisant tout le registre des cordes amplifiées et acoustiques, résonances, percussions, distorsions, extensions et détournements en tout genre, il évoque un monde sonore abstrait ainsi que le mécanisme quotidien de la ville et du travail.
Cornelius Cardew et la liberté de l'écoute
curated by Jean Jacques Palix et Dean Inkster
LUNDI 22 JUIN 2009 / 20H30 : CONCERT AU CAC BRÉTIGNY /
Monday 22 June 2009 / 8.30 p.m.
MEDITATION ON WAGE LABOR AND THE DEATH OF THE ALBUM
de TERRE THAEMLITZ (Tokyo)
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Navette gratuite (free shuttle) pour le CAC Brétigny
au départ de Paris à 19h face à l'OPERA BASTILLE
retour prévu sur Paris vers 23h.
Sur réservation - info@cacbretigny.com –
tel 01 60 85 20 76
ONE ONE(chanteuse de DEERHOOF et chanteuse de TENNISCOATS) + CANCAN (Greg de DEERHOOF et Ueno de TENNISCOATS)+ LE TON MITE (super pop lunaire déjantée)+ ELWOOD & GUTHRIE (drums & banjo)
Cornelius Cardew et la liberté de l'écoute Cornelius Cardew and the freedom of listening curated by Dean Inkster & Jean Jacques Palix
DIMANCHE 7 JUIN 2009 DE 14H A 17H : CONCERTS AU CAC BRÉTIGNY / Concerts on Sunday 7 June 2009 / 2 p.m. - 5 p.m.
THE TIGER’S MIND (1967) de CORNELIUS CARDEW avec NINA CANAL, NADIA LICHTIG, MICHAEL MORLEY (NZ), & SARA STEPHENSON (NZ) et la participation de DAVID WATSON (NY)
VOLO SOLO (1965) de CORNELIUS CARDEW avec RHYS CHATHAM
TREATISE (1963-1967) de CORNELIUS CARDEW avec MARCUS SCHMICKLER (KOELN), JEAN JACQUES PALIX, MICHEL GUILLET, & SAMON TAKAHASHI
Online Now!
