Fans of the music of Robert Ashley will know Tom Hamilton as the guy behind the consoles who has mixed the voices and processed the electronic soundtrack in real time for all of Ashley’s performances for the past twenty years. Others might be aware of his multifaceted production work and some of his fascinating electro-acoustic collaborations with free jazz improvisers such as Bruce Eisenbeil and Bruce Arnold. The truly lucky have also been exposed to Hamilton’s own fascinating compositions, such as London Fix, an algorithmically generated electronic score based on the vagaries of the London stock market, or his remarkable works for acoustic instruments and processors employing an electronic harmony generator that were collected on last year’s Local Customs.

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Kvist Records unearths Tom Hamilton’s long-forgotten electronic magnum opus

For all of the ways artists such as Kraftwerk and Devo increased awareness of the synthesizer, they may have done the instrument an injustice. These progenitors portrayed synth music as impersonal and robotic, all head and no heart. But in the hands of Tom Hamilton, the synthesizer is not a cold, dead instrument. The avant-garde composer utilizes the endless sonic possibilities of oscillators and filters to channel the unbridled human expression of a A Love Supreme-era John Coltrane or free-jazz saxophone expressionist Eric Dolphy.

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Separate Checks is a new work by composer/performer Tom Hamilton that combines electronic sound with acoustic performers. Hamilton continues the direction started in his CAMA event last season by directing a stream of improvising musicians to create a confluence of changing sonic ideas and moods in the midst of his sonic environment.

Bassist Zimbabwe Nkenya, percussionist/electronic musician Rich O’Donnell, and reed player Dave Stone will join Hamilton in the spontaneous creation of Separate Checks.

Hamilton’s work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. He often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of “present-time listening” on the part of both performer and listener. Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, has worked on more than 60 recordings, including 12 CDs of his own music, and is a longtime member of composer Robert Ashley’s touring opera ensemble.

More info can be found here.

Kvist 006 – Pieces for Kohn/Formal & Informal Music by Tom Hamilton is out now on 2 x CD format and available for purchase on the release page.

About Pieces for Kohn/Formal and Informal Music:

Reissue of 2 out-of-print works originally released on the artist’s own Somnath label. Formal and Informal Music contains the title piece Formal and Informal Music (1980), and Crimson Sterling (1973) for electronics, winds and percussion, and also features JD Parran, woodwinds and saxes, and Rich O’Donnell, percussion. Pieces for Kohn is comprised of four electronic pieces, musical responses to four paintings by artist Bill Kohn.

About Tom Hamilton:

TOM HAMILTON has been composing and performing for over 40 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. Hamilton often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of “present-time listening” on the part of both performer and listener.

Hamilton was a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and he participated in a residency at the foundation’s center in Umbria. His CD London Fix received an honorary mention in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. His performing and recording colleagues have included Peter Zummo, Bruce Gremo, Karlheinz Essl, Bruce Arnold, Rich O’Donnell, Jonathan Haas, Jacqueline Martelle, Al Margolis, Steve Nelson-Raney, Hal Rammel, Christopher Burns, Thomas Gaudynski, Rick Aaron, Thomas Buckner, David Soldier, Bruce Eisenbeil, Richard Lerman, and Lisle Ellis. He has been a collaborator with visual artists, including Fred Worden (filmmaker), Van McElwee and Morey Gers (video artists), and the late Ernst Haas (photographer).

An active participant in New York’s new music scene, Hamilton was the co-director of the 2004 Sounds Like Now festival, and he has co-produced the Cooler in the Shade/Warmer by the Stove new music series since 1993. He is a longtime member of composer Robert Ashley’s touring opera ensemble. His audio production can be found in over 50 CD releases of new and experimental music, including recordings by Muhal Richard Abrams, David Behrman, Thomas Buckner, Bernard Hoffer, Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, Phill Niblock, and “Blue” Gene Tyranny.

Tom Hamilton’s sound installations have been presented in New York at Diapason, Studio Five Beekman, the 479 Gallery and Experimental Intermedia, and elsewhere at CCNOA (Brussels) The St. Louis Art Museum, CalArts (Valencia, CA), the Sound Symposium festival (St. John’s NF), Woodland Pattern Book Center (Milwaukee) and the Subtropics festival (Miami).

Recordings include:
Local Customs (Mutable)
Shadow Machine (Pogus)
Intersections (Muse-Eek)
Disklaimer (Muse-Eek)

London Fix (Muse-Eek)
Analogue Smoque (Pogus)
Jump The Circle, Jump the Line (Mutable)
Slybersonic Tromosome (Penumbra)
Sebastian’s Shadow (Monroe Street Music)
Off-Hour Wait State (O.O.)
Act of Finding (O.O.)

Saturday, March 13, 2010 – 7:30 pm
Kranzberg Arts Center
501 N. Grand

John Tamm-Buckle will be performing a piece, Dronning Maud Land, for the The New Music Circle. Read more about it here.

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Part 2:

Part 3:

Kvist005 - Guillaume Gargaud - Here

Kvist 005 – Here by improvisational guitarist Guillaume Gargaud is out now! Go to the release page to place an order. Reviews forthcoming.

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