Current American experimental music

[gohleekwang]

what is going on American experimental music? i m particular interested with those who are below 40 years old. i know the music / cd of Greg Davis, Jeph Jerman, Sean Meehan, Graham Lambkin, Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley etc.. but there much be more, right? i mean it is a big country.

[RFKorp]

At first I thought this was a very strange question to be asking. I figured there must be SO MUCH talk about current American musicians on this board but I just went back through the topics on the first few pages and was shocked to realize just how euro-centric the mindset is when talking contemporary improv....

Nevertheless, I'm really not sure how to begin this discussion since I'm not sure who you're including in your "etc" (made most confusing due to the inclusion of such an outsider to the "scene" as Lambkin) and have no idea who the rest of the globe is or isn't aware of....

[7/4]

crap...I'm too old to talk about myself.




.

[Joda]

what is going on American experimental music? i m particular interested with those who are below 40 years old. i know the music / cd of Greg Davis, Jeph Jerman, Sean Meehan, Graham Lambkin, Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley etc.. but there much be more, right? i mean it is a big country.

Canada's even bigger, eh....

(much less people though)

[jon abbey]

hopefully this won't degenerate into people just naming themselves and their buddies, but it's obviously such a broad topic that it's ripe for that kind of thing.

some other names I'm sure you know, but who should be mentioned: Jason Lescalleet, Joe Colley, Kevin Drumm, Bonnie Jones.

I think there are a few reasons there are fewer quality musicians in this area than one might expect from a country as big as the US:

1) very little financial support.

2) the gravitational pull of established scenes. so if you're an improvising musician in NYC, for instance, it's pretty hard to not fall into either the John Zorn or the William Parker axis. same seems to be true in recent years for many Midwest musicians and the Wolf Eyes/No Fun crew, those are just a few examples.

3) where free improv is a genre/area in and of itself in Europe, in the US there's very little history in this tradition. there's no real established festival scene, and it's only in the last decade or so that musicians like Bhob and Greg have emerged.

[Richard Pinnell]

what is going on American experimental music? i m particular interested with those who are below 40 years old. i know the music / cd of Greg Davis, Jeph Jerman, Sean Meehan, Graham Lambkin, Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley etc.. but there much be more, right? i mean it is a big country.

Am I allowed to point out that Lambkin is actually English or do I get accused of nationalism if I do?

[kcorcoran]

I tend to be very Japan / Euro -centric in my listening, so I am happy to take a shot at this post and remind myself of the people I enjoy stateside.
I am guessing we are talking those who fit into the rough territory of the names you already listed, and not just any experimental territory?
To your list I would certainly add Kevin Drumm, Tatsuya Nakatani, Bryan Eubanks, Ernst Karel, Kyle Bruckmann, and the guys who record(ed?) as BNSF from Seattle.
I saw Steve Swell and Nate Wooley once in Detroit, and though I don't know their output beyond that set (with Nakatani), they brought a nicely refined approach to my experience with American improv.

I have always thought Portland was pretty forward-thinking in terms of Westcoast improv, as Super Unity and the Bike Ensemble and then GOD would put pretty great material forward. There is an amazing player named Kelvin Pittman in that area who doesn't put much work out but who I count as one of my favorites at least on this side of the states, I can't pass mention on the prolific Yellow Swans, and Pat has always brought a very tasteful sensibility of texture and balance to his many projects, imo. I should probably leave this topic in the hands of Bryan or Mr. Foster, but I definitely thought it should be mentioned in this thread.

Otherwise, a lot of great folks working in the more sculptural/post-production sound field in the states, though it might not be exactly what you're looking for, I would encourage you to at least give these people a listen: Steve Roden, Dale Lloyd, Michael Gendreau, Joe Colley, Randy Yau, Rick Reed (pretty nice duo with Keith Rowe on his elevator bath disc), Stuart Dempster, Dimmer (Thomas Dimiuzio/Joseph Hammer), Matt Shoemaker.

My post is almost exclusively west of the Mississippi, maybe someone can shed more light on the younger Middle/East improv names?

[meadowphantasm]

there are also many artists of fine caliber that don't even bother with releases/performances/self-promotion that don't register on the radar

[jon abbey]

there are also many artists of fine caliber that don't even bother with releases/performances/self-promotion that don't register on the radar

if they don't bother with releases or performances, how does anyone else know about them? and what's the point of bringing them up?

[b e]

.

[jon abbey]

there's a lack of venues right now also, at least in NYC.

[Damon_Smith]

Despite Jon's wish I would say I fall into the category, and others I would mention are Weasel Walter, Jerome Byerton, Nate Wooley, Reuben Radding, Liz Albee, Jacob Lindsay, Aurora Josephson, Peter Evans, James Fei and Jen Baker.
All friends or colleagues but I stuck to those with available recordings.
The Bay Are tends to get a steady stream of young musicians due to Mills College. Younger players you might hear more of soon are Charity Chan, Jacob Felix-hule (of the band Ettrick) Tony Dryer, and Ava Mendoza.

[kcorcoran]

I think an established venue is not even as much a problem for American experimental music, as long as a sturdy group of supporters exists in the given city. House concerts are one of the most consistent supporting venues in central CA, in addition to small performance spaces/galleries in the bay area, and as these go with shutdowns the same people reorganize in a different space. It is exhausting, but it maintains the vitality for the community. I think the concern comes more with the idea of lack of history, as Jon says. Not in a way that the artists need history to draw on in order to create new music, but in the way that most people still don't know how to approach certain branches of sound experimentalism, which they might if it were incorporated into their general awareness of art history.

In Sacramento, we really don't have much accommodation at all, but there have been a number of great performances and makeshift venues in the area due largely to our Davis radio station, which introduces many students to various forms of new sound, and a strong (small) community which more or less stems from involvement with that station. However, that population is also largely student-transient and doesn't see a lot of nourishment in the long term, just a continual young contingent who come out to house shows. Oakland has harbored many great under-the-radar performance spaces over the years, and every show seemed to be very rich with community there as well. Mills is a strong organizer, but again a student population may not lead to a concrete establishment for the scene.

I'd say a committed community is the crucial point, but even then, the community of NYC, Portland, CA Bay, LA, Chicago, Seattle, Amherst are difficult to sum up as "one country's scene" when compared to Berlin and Cologne or Tokyo or Seoul, just in terms of distance and communication.

[Dan Warburton]

what is going on American experimental music? i m particular interested with those who are below 40 years old. i know the music / cd of Greg Davis, Jeph Jerman, Sean Meehan, Graham Lambkin, Bhob Rainey, Greg Kelley etc.. but there much be more, right? i mean it is a big country.

I'm assuming this is some kind of April Fool about seven months early, coming from someone of your breadth of knowledge on the subject, Lee. But if it isn't, why the age 40 cut off? You believe in some kind of "burnout", as if musicians were Goldman Sachs futures traders? Very curious.

[gohleekwang]

I'm assuming this is some kind of April Fool about seven months early, coming from someone of your breadth of knowledge on the subject, Lee. But if it isn't, why the age 40 cut off? You believe in some kind of "burnout", as if musicians were Goldman Sachs futures traders? Very curious.

no Dan, it just a number, i was thinking should i key in number 30 / 40 / 50? so i get the in between. and it is serve as a starting point

btw perhaps you know that on some other age range are better to start with?

[gohleekwang]

Am I allowed to point out that Lambkin is actually English or do I get accused of nationalism if I do?

ok, a few man in and this one out of the list

[gohleekwang]

thank you all for the recommendation, more names are welcome.

one of the reason i posted the question is it taken me too much time to find a little result, spent time to search & listen on myspace on those bad quality mp3, and some personal webpage were like treasure hunting for me to find the "enter" button...

again about the age range i set it according to Europe model (between 35 to 45 years old), that's why i make it 40.

[faster]

There are a bunch of guys in Philadelphia you might want to hear: Jesse Kudler, Tim Albro, Dustin Hurt, HZL, etc. They all play together & mix it up a lot. I don't know their music well, but they're all pretty young and pretty active.

[dave quam]

there are a bunch of young guys in chicago now

[kcorcoran]

Also, there are some young guys using the name 'engendered species' I remember hearing some solo and group tracks from, thought they were onto some pretty good stuff when I heard it last year. I think they are split between Chicago and NJ.

This one is pushing it, as he lives in Canada, but it's still the American continent, and he's good: Jeffrey Allport