Chuck van Zyl with Video Projections by Ugly Bike at The Gatherings Concert Series / St. Mary's Benefit - 200th Anniversary In-Person Event (plus Live Stream) Sunday 15 September 2024 7:30PM at St. Mary's Hamilton Village 3916 Locust Walk in Philadelphia, PA Free Admission / Donations Requested Proceeds to Benefit St. Mary's Hamilton Village

Chuck van Zyl returns to The Gatherings Concert Series for a Special Benefit Event on Sunday 15 September 2024 marking the 200th Anniversary of St Mary's Hamilton Village. .

Best known as host of STAR'S END (WXPN's renowned radio program of spacemusic dreamscapes) and as coordinator of The Gatherings (Philadelphia's premiere concert series of innovative music), Chuck van Zyl has also been making his own unique style of Electronic Music since 1983. Using a variety of modern analog synthesizers and sequencers, and operating at an emotional and enthusiastic pitch, Chuck van Zyl realizes music that possesses as much the buzz and crackle of electricity as it does the frigid depths of space. . From his instruments' storm force of sound comes delightful throbbing bass lines, echo-warping chimes and a mystery machine pulse, against which Van Zyl sways and plays synth strings, Mellotron choir and full-blooded lead lines. Synthesizer blips interlock and pound out mighty sequencer patterns, yet this mechanical rigidity is somehow softened - as lines of dancing arpeggios pump up against tuneful melodies and ethereal harmonic progressions. Further in, disarmingly calm passages reduce the level of density and energy with insinuating modulations and vaporous aural textures. . Throughout his live sets Chuck van Zyl pushes and pulls, expands and contracts his music, and manages to establish an engaging contour through various scenarios and scenes... to attain a rare unity. Offering vivid synthesized sonorities the music's appeal lies in its minimalist values, and in this musician's ability to create an uncommonly intimate and absorbing listening experience. Anyone in love with Spacemusic and its very specific poetry will want to hear his work in concert. .

Review: Live on Star's End 11.05.23 by Chuck van Zyl Nearly four decades into the pursuit of Electronic Music Chuck van Zyl seems to have more to express now than ever before. Carried out as the second of two substitution sets during the Back in Time six-hour special edition of Star's End Ambient Radio the album Live on Star's End 11.05.23 (54:01) reveals an artist occupied in a deep level of self-searching and discovery. On 5 November 2023, as Philadelphians partook in the annual turning back of the clocks and returning their lives to Standard Time, Chuck van Zyl and his associates provided listeners with an extra-long live concert edition for one of the world's most persistent programs of Spacemusic. His Live on Star's End 11.05.23 was realized on-air between 5:00am-6:00am as the last of six sets in an extended broadcast of live-to-air performances. The piece Lodestar was plotted and patterned to light up the small hours before dawn. Within its beautifully crafted opening zone of reverberant random piano we transition into a refined ethereal realm. Roaming on a moonlight moon-ray, soon a spare sequential pattern emerges. As the vague, drifting notes cautiously align and organize into mechanized pulsations, further in fluttering effects emit echo trails in swirling spacey traces of sound. When random gives way to rhythm additional lines emerge - with sequencer runs overlapping, interweaving and wandering along the inevitable arc of this expanded nocturnal excursion. Developing in converging assemblies of broken chords, then mending and blending in circuits of synchronized signals, a tricky timing subtly slows the rate of the well-ordered patter - where the unwound, decelerating tones allow Van Zyl's lead line narrative to narrow in on the truth. Seeking, striving, in it with all his heart, Chuck van Zyl's radio recital resolved at 6:00am in a soft Sunday morning landing back on Earth. In thoughtful repose the receivers of this epic transmission slipped further into their electric poetic galaxy vast dreams - waking later to wonder where and with whom had they travelled the long night before. Live on Star's End 11.05.23 will be released by Synkronos Music on 15 September 2024 to coincide with the Chuck van Zyl concert for The Gatherings Concert Series. - From the Press Release   15 September 2024

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This event will also present the work of video artist Ugly Bike (Neil Cippon), who will generate projections of original, ever-evolving graphics on the interior features of the St Mary's sanctuary space - all in time with the improvised live musical expressions of Chuck van Zyl. . New T-Shirt News: The Gatherings Concert Series limited edition 2024 Season T-Shirt will be available to attendees at our merch table on 15 September 2024. (Black Shirt, Off-White Printing, Designed by Neil Cippon) .

The Gatherings Concert Series presents Chuck van Zyl live in a Benefit Event marking the 200th Anniversary of St Mary's Hamilton Village on Sunday 15 September 2024 at 7:30PM (doors open at 7:00PM) in the church sanctuary of St. Mary's Hamilton Village 3916 Locust Walk (just east of 40th & Locust) on the Penn campus in West Philadelphia. Free Admission/Donation Requested. (all proceeds benefit St Mary's Hamilton Village) Advance Registration is available through Humanitix. (please click the graphic above and register through Humanitix) Additional Material: Directions to The Gatherings Concert Series Questions? Please Send an Email St Mary's Hamilton Village - 200th Anniversary St Mary's Hamilton Village owes both part of its name and its location to William Hamilton, a distinguished member of a once-famous Philadelphia family that owned a large tract of land in the then open country beyond the Schuylkill river. In 1808, William set aside two pieces of land in the newly developed "Hamilton Village" to provide sites for Episcopal and Presbyterian churches. On 6 July 1824 the cornerstone for the original church was laid by Bishop William White, who on 16 June 1827 returned for the consecration. By 1871 the congregation had grown so large that it needed a much larger facility, which was completed in 1874. St Mary's Hamilton Village has always been more than a place of spiritual welcome and discovery, but also a place to belong. Having long been a community hub, for both the University of Pennsylvania campus and the greater West Philadelphia neighborhood, they have been hosting music and other cultural and arts events for over fifty years - including (since 1998) The Gatherings Concert Series. For more about St Mary's Hamilton Village, please access: www.stmarysatpenn.org CIMA of PA - The Corporation for Innovative Music and Arts of Pennsylvania The Special 200th Anniversary Event with Chuck van Zyl at The Gatherings Concert Series on 15 September 2024 is presented in cooperation with St Mary's Hamilton Village by CIMA of PA (The Corporation for Innovative Music and Arts of Pennsylvania) - the all-volunteer, IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization behind the organization and production of The Gatherings Concert Series. The basic mission of CIMA of PA is to bring innovative music concerts to the public and further the advancement of this form of art. For more about CIMA of PA, please access the Mission Statement

Chuck van Zyl Youtube Live Stream Sunday 15 September 2024 In-Person Concert/Live Stream - Complete Performance : :

For more about St Mary's Hamilton Village and the 200th Anniversary, please access the: Official Website: www.stmarysatpenn.org Insightful Article: St Mary's Church: Half a Century of Music by Yoni Kroll (29 October 2021): WXPN Local Feature For more about Chuck van Zyl, please access the: Official Website: chuckvanzyl.weebly.com Bandcamp: chuckvanzyl.bandcamp.com STAR'S END Profile: www.starsend.org/chuckvanzyl.html Chuck van Zyl in The Wire June 2020: Feature (off-site) Photos and Video of Chuck van Zyl live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 9 December 2021 Concert Announcement for Chuck van Zyl live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 21 March 2020 Photos and Videos of Chuck van Zyl live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 21 April 2018 Photos and Reviews of Chuck van Zyl live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 12 November 2016 Photos and Reviews of Chuck van Zyl + Jeff Coulter live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 15 November 2014 Photos and Reviews of Chuck van Zyl + Terry Furber live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 17 November 2012 Photos and Reviews of Chuck van Zyl live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 13 November 2010 Photos and Reviews of Chuck van Zyl live at The Gatherings Concert Series in Philadelphia: 17 May 2008 For more about Ugly Bike, please access the: Official Website: www.uglybike.com

The Gatherings Concert Series is presented by the all-volunteer staff of The Corporation for Innovative Music and Arts of Pennsylvania

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