Plastic Palace PeoplePlastic Palace People

Live: Phew Okkyung Lee + Jim O'Rourke Duo Konrad Sprenger Christoph Heemann was forced to cancel his Japan tour due to hospitalization. Thus we present a special modified program. Please come and enjoy. We all wish Christoph a speedy recovery. Artist information: Phew  Okkyung Lee  Cellist Okkyung Lee is one of the most dynamic forces in improvised music today, a fearless and powerful performer whose playing incorporates a love of noise, extended technique and elements from the outer fringes of contemporary composition. A native of Korea, Okkyung Lee has been devel­op­ing her own voice in a con­tem­po­rary cello per­for­mance and impro­vi­sa­tion. Using her clas­si­cal train­ing as a spring­board, she incor­po­rates jazz, sounds, Korean tra­di­tional music, and noise with extended techniques. Since mov­ing to New York in 2000, she has per­formed and recorded with numer­ous artists such as Derek Bai­ley, Jaap Blonk, Nels Cline, Anthony Cole­man, Mark Dresser, Shel­ley Hirsch, Susie Ibarra, Vijay Iyer, Eyvind Kang, Alonzo King, Chris­t­ian Mar­clay, Raz Mesinai, Min Xiao-Fen, Thurston Moore, Ikue Mori, Lawrence D. “Butch” Mor­ris, Jim O’Rourke, Zeena Parkins, Marc Ribot, Marina Rosen­feld, Elliott Sharp and John Zorn to name a few. Okkyung holds dual bachelor’s degrees in film scoring/contemporary writ­ing & pro­duc­tion from Berklee Col­lege of Music, and master’s degree in con­tem­po­rary impro­vi­sa­tion from New Eng­land Con­ser­va­tory of Music. Jim O'Rourke  Born 1969 in Chicago. O’Rourke encountered the music of Derek Bailey as youngster and began visiting him in London at the age of 13. Eyes opened to the power of improvisational guitar, he released several of his own highly experimental works and has worked closely with John Fahey and Loren Mazzacane Connors. During his long association with the Chicago experimental and improv scene O’Rourke participated in several bands and projects including Gastr Del Sol and Loose Fur. His work with Takehisa Kosugi music director of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as well as Tony Conrad, Arnold Dreyblatt, Christian Wolff and others built bridges between contemporary and popular music. O’Rourke’s release of landmark albums Bad Timing and Happy Days in 1997 and Eureka in 1999 garnered much attention. From 1999 to 2005 he was a member of Sonic Youth, playing bass, guitar and synthesizer as well as recording and mixing the band. In 2004 he won a Grammy Award for his production of Wilco’s A Ghost is Born. O’Rourke has also earned a loyal following for his participation in numerous albums by various artists around the world. He has a deep knowledge of Japanese culture and currently lives in Tokyo. Some of his many production credits in Japan include Quruli, Kahimi Karie, and Eiko Ishibashi. He also continues to be a consummate collaborator, working with Akira Sakata, Merzbow, Yoshihide Otomo, Seiichi Yamamoto, Boredoms and others. His recordings of Toru Takemitsu’s Corona for pianists Tokyo Realization was awarded the Agency for Cultural Affairs Arts Festival Award for Excellence in 2006. He has also scored films by Werner Herzog, Olivier Assayas, Shinji Aoyama, Koji Wakamatsu and others. His own short films have been part of the 2004 and 2006 Whitney Biennial and the 2005 Rotterdam Film Festival. O'Rourke is a diverse and powerful artist. Always searching, his borderless activity goes beyond the common labels Alternative, Post-rock, Experimental-pop, Film music, Free music, Jazz, Americana, Contemporary music and continues to defly classification. Photograph by Ujin Matsuo Konrad Sprenger  Konrad Sprenger is the pseudonym of Joerg Hiller, a composer, music producer and artist based in Berlin. He was born in 1977 in Lahr, Germany. Hiller runs the Choose record label, for which he has produced recordings by artists Ellen Fullman, Arnold Dreyblatt,Robert Ashley and Terry Fox among others. Since 2000 Hiller regularly performs and works together with minimal music composer Arnold Dreyblatt and composer/ instrument builder Ellen Fullman, the bands Ethnostress and Ei and collaborates with the art collective Honey-Suckle Company. His recent focus has been on live performance with a computer-controlled multi-channel electric guitar. [About the computer-controlled multi-channel electric guitar] Konrad Sprenger explores rhythmic patterns based on the Euclidean algorithm, to evoke a kind of cognitive insecurity through metrical dissonance. Sprenger approaches the strings of the guitar as frequency generators, tuned and set into motion by various electronically controlled mechanical actions. The music relates to the insistent rhythms of Minimalism, Krautrock and Techno, and their shared focus on transcendence through propulsive, full-spectrum sound. The custom-built instrument was conceived by Konrad Sprenger, and realized by Sukandar Kartadinata and Daniel van den Eijkel. [Konrad Sprenger Official Website](http://www.konradsprenger.com) Plastic Palace People (Jim O'Rourke & Christoph Heemann)  Comments on the CD "Plastic Palace People Vol. 1" .... “An album of previously-unreleased recordings that go back as far as 1991 when Jim O’Rourke had just graduated from music school and traveled to Aachen, Germany to meet Christoph Heemann - who had just set up his studio there. Both The Elvis Messiahs - Jim’s first band from school days - and Christoph’s H.N.A.S. were in their final stages, and both collaborators felt the desire to explore different directions, drawing inspiration from their wide ranging musical interests and varying backgrounds. Volume One presents an intense three-part journey, a mix of granular synthesis and concrete sounds, reshaped, reassembled: “But there was something high in the sky, swinging slowly down toward the mound. Something globular that wore what looked like a shining crown and shook like a mound of jelly. Nearer it came and nearer, swinging lower with each vibration of its circular bulk. It blazed suddenly into sharp visibility. It wasn’t a king, and it wore no crown. It was a floating spheroid, veined and translucent, filled with an intricate assortment of moving parts that gave off a continuous whirring sound...” Christoph Heemann  Born in 1964 in Aachen, Germany, Heemann began his musical work in 1983 as a founding member of the group HIRSCHE NICHT AUFS SOFA (H.N.A.S.), who released several albums of their surreal collagemusic between 1985 and 1993, drawing inspiration from such diverse elements as musique concrete, avantgarde, krautrock and improvised music. After the group disbanded Heemann continued working solo and with the group MIMIR (with Edward Ka-spel and Jim O'Rourke), the drone projects MIRROR (with Andrew Chalk), and IN CAMERA (with Timo van Luyck). Heemann's solo compositions have often been described as "ear-movies", in which he fuses field recordings, acoustic instruments, electronics, and electroacoustic sounds into audio narratives. Aside from this Heemann has done a series of musical collaborations (with Jim O'Rourke, Lee Ranaldo, Charlemagne Palestine, William Basinski) and works as a producer (Keiji Haino, Charlemagne Palestine, Limpe Fuchs, Current 93). He has run the Streamline label since 1994 Special Thanks:  Related events Thursday October 23, 2014 Okkyung Lee Jim O'Rourke Oren Ambarchi Open 6:45pm / Start 7pm Place: Playhouse, Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center (River Walk 6F) Prior booking is essential [CCA KITAKYUSHU](http://www.cca-kitakyushu.org/english/index.html)