The Close/Far Family is an artist collective and record label composed of bands, musicians, engineers, and sound artists based in Springfield, Missouri; Chicago; Brooklyn; and St. Louis.
This October, Close/Far presents a tour featuring groups from the collective, performing a single morphing set of music and sound art through a handmade multichannel sound system/installation/instrument—transmitted through wood, clay, wire, and twine. For more information and music downloads, see http://close-far.com.
Tour Schedule
October 8 - St. Louis, MO, Floating Labs; with Kevin Harris, Ghost Ice, Tatsuya Nakatani
October 9 - Springfield, MO, SquidFoo Art Gallery; with F of X
October 10 - Kansas City, MO, FOKL; with Expo‘70
October 11 - Lawrence, KS, Wonder Fair; with Adamon
October 12 - Tulsa, OK, SoundPony
October 13 and 14 - Shreveport, LA; McNeill Street Pumping Station New Music Festival [Coppice only]
Featured Artists
AWN
Jonathan James, Joseph Kramer, and Nathan Cook have been performing and recording in this electroacoustic improv trio since 2004. Awn has released four recordings through Close/Far under their previous moniker, Yawn. Beginning with 2004's “Sap,” which comprised extractions from improvised recordings, Awn has explored themes of temporality, resolution, cosmology and aural flux. The group's most recent album, 2006's ritualistic “The Halcyon and The Mendicant, was drawn from live improvisations in different performance locations, and focused on the rawness and intimacy of acoustic instrumentation.
COPPICE
Coppice (Noé Cuéllar & Joseph Kramer) is a Chicago-based duet of bellows and electronics. Since its formation in 2009 they have produced original compositions for stage, fixed media, and performed installation settings, with a focus on adhering textural attenuation, processed gradation, the contours of instrumentation, and their multiple aspect highlights.
Their variable instrumentation departs from bellows and reed instruments (accordion, pump organ, shruti box, harmonica), custom electronics (reproduction, transmission, spatialization, interference and gentle feedback), and multi-channel systems adapted in ways responsive to location, audience flow, and aural perspectives.
They have recently appeared at the Museum of Contemporary Art, New Music at the Green Mill, New Capital, and ACRE (Chicago); Music with a View (New York); Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts (Minneapolis); Dragonfly Festival (Göthenburg, Sweden); as well as internationally.
N.N.N. COOK
N.N.N Cook is the solo performance project of the St. Louis-based sound artist, improviser, graphic designer, and visual artist Nathan Nolan Newrohr Cook.
He performs regularly in St. Louis, and has shared the roster with national and international artists such as: Jozef van Wissem, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Rene Hell, Jason Kahn, Lazy Magnet, and Nightmares. As well as local artists: Ghost Ice, Regicide Bureau, Kevin Harris, and Raglani. He has performed in St. Louis at: The Saint Louis Contemporary Art Museum, The Lemp Neighborhood Arts Center, Apop Records, Floating Laboratories, The Way Out Club, and The Open Lot.
Currently, he is in the process of curating and producing a cassette compilation of sound art, electronic, and electroacoustic music comprising artists from St. Louis scheduled for release in January 2012.
QUARRY HOUSE
Quarry House is a long-distance collaboration between Jonathan James (Springfield, MO), Joseph Kramer (Chicago, IL), and Meg Kramer (Brooklyn, NY). In the Januaries of 2009 and 2010, the trio of long-time collaborators gathered in their hometown of Springfield, MO, to write and record music. The result of these sessions was a collection of haunting avant-pop songs, which employ layered vocals, unconventional uses of traditional instrumentation, and homemade/modified instruments and electronics.
In live performance, Quarry House will reinterpret their songs through a multi-channel surround sound audio installation.
Quarry House will release its first EP, THOSE, on October 8, 2011 through Close/Far. It will be available as a digital download and as a limited-edition CD with handcrafted packaging and liner notes.
Press Contact:
Meg Kramer Email: quarryhousemusic@gmail.com