The Vigil [all-night music festival]
Saturday, April 28, 2012, at 6:30 PM (until 7:30 AM the following day). RAIN SPACE: Atrium of the Brown Center and Cohen Plaza, 1301 Mount Royal Ave., Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. Free event.
Two years ago I premiered my doctoral dissertation piece, Mandala of the Four Directions, and with it, the first all-night music festival known as The Vigil. Now in its third year on the Cohen Plaza at MICA, The Vigil will feature performances by Baltimore artists and bands including Yeveto, Wendel Patrick, Geodesic Gnome, dead mellotron, Tendrills, jason.sloan, Chris Pumphrey Sextet, Liz Meredith & John Somers, plus performances and installations from students in MICA’s sound courses this semester- Sound Art & Sound Installation Art.
Four stages surround the plaza, representing the cardinal points. Individual performances can thus overlap. At the same time, a few performances (including one by the STEIM Sound Project Studio group: Andrew Scotti, Faith Bocian, Tyler Tamburo, Shawn Cook, Sasha de Koninck, Jason Sloan & myself) will utilize all four sound systems at the same time.
The opening act of The Vigil will take place in the Brown Center atrium- the premiere of my latest piece, ZeroTime Operations, which will use Skype to bring together local performers (representing Mobtown Modern) and a group called Recover Band, based in Rome. From my press release on the work:
The performance is imagined to take place in the future, following a collapse of the global economy, a loss of digital communications for 20 years, and a dark era of isolationist and totalitarian governments across the globe. Following a revolution, an experimental reconstruction of global communications has begun, led by musicians who aim to establish a new international mode of musical communication. The only surviving audio recordings from the past are vinyl records. These form the basis for live improvisation, directed by a graphic score and a system of visual cues between the two groups of performers.
Social media communications between participants – performers and audience alike – will guide digging expeditions in each city’s used record stores, as a preparation for the performance. Twitter users are encouraged to communicate about records that will be brought to the performance, using the hashtag “#stickerloop”. Attendees are invited to bring old records featuring any of the following instruments (solo, or as prominent as possible): clarinet, synthesizer, drum kit, or bass guitar. These correspond to instruments that will be played live by the group in Rome- Recover Band. They, in turn will perform with records featuring instruments to be played by a small group Baltimore musicians, presented by Mobtown Modern Sound Lab at MICA. Students in Spangler’s Sound Art course will collaborate on the turntables and
electronic aspects of the performance.
Full Schedule for The Vigil:
**Sound sculptures & installations from Jason Sloan’s Sound Installation Art class will be placed throughout the space**
6:30 PM – Mobtown Modern presents the premiere of “ZeroTime Operations”, a networked performance in collaboration with Recover Band (Rome), composed by Erik Spangler [Brown Center atrium]
7:40 – STEIM Sound Project Studio: Tyler Tamburo, Sasha de Koninck, Andrew Scotti, Faith Bocian, Shawn Cook, Erik Spangler & Jason.Sloan
[Cohen Plaza- North, South, East & West stages]
8:00 – Geodesic Gnome [South stage]
8:20 – Essays [West stage]
8:40 – Wendel Patrick [North stage]
9:00 – Yeveto [South stage]
9:20 – Chris Pumphrey Sextet [West stage]
9:40 – Tendrills [East stage]
10:00 – dead mellotron [South stage]
**transition to ambient/downtempo stage of the night**
10:20 – Chang Park [North stage]
10:40 – Liz Merideth & John Somers [East stage]
11:00 – jason.sloan & Erik Spangler [West stage]
11:20 – Ray Van Ha [North stage]
11:40 – Shawn Cook & jason.sloan [South stage]
**midnight until dawn: performances by members of Erik Spangler’s Sound Art class**
12:00 – 4 corners improv I
12:20 – Josh Newcomb [East stage]
12:40 – Zoe Burke [South stage]
1:00 – Itay Niv [West stage]
1:20 – Devon Brown [North stage]
1:40 – James Padham [East stage]
2:00 – Greg Murphy [West stage]
2:20 – Katie Ball [North stage]
2:40 – Amanda McMicken [South stage]
3:00 – Tsai Lian [West stage]
3:20 – Sophie Monosmith [East stage]
3:40 – Joshua Nissim [South stage]
4:00 – Alex Leggin [North stage]
4:20 – Michelle Shen [West stage]
4:40 – Matthew Thompson [South stage]
5:00 – 4 corners improv II
5:20 – Rachel Jones [East stage]
5:40 – Rose He [North stage]
6:00 – Jeremy Cain [South stage]
6:20 – Josh Burke [West stage]
6:40 – Caitlin Reid [East stage]
7:00 AM – Robin Foster [West stage]
7:30 – end






