2016 Season

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Slow Meadow plus Hotel Neon - 9 April 2016
Matthew Kidd is a defector from the mainstream. Wishing to no longer follow its rules, he takes his Ambient Chamber Ensemble Slow Meadow into a more open realm. The dreamy mix of gentling fuzzing guitars, shape-shifting digital breaths and skeletal string backdrops emerge out of a subtly attuned intelligence - and causes the listening mind of the audience to hush and fall in line with a serene, slower pace. In sonorous glimpses of delicacy and intimacy Slow Meadow presents consonant textures beneath a hope-tinged atmosphere. Fundamental in these compositions is the idea that people are reachable, that beauty and music can make a difference. With such an expansive promise, this work seems inexhaustible.
Opening for Slow Meadow was the Ambient electric guitar trio Hotel Neon
Slow Meadow plus Hotel Neon debuted at The Gatherings Concert Series on Saturday 9 April 2016. Many Thanks to Everyone who attended this event.
Concert Photos

The Tangent Project
The Tangent Project plus Guitar Pilots - 21 May 2016
Veteran Spacemusic duo The Tangent Project features the ample talents of synthesist Jeff Coulter and guitarist Harrison McKay. Experimenting with sounds and textures reminiscent of the classics Rubycon and Phaedra their approach incorporates a unique sensibility and outlook. Coulter's sequencer runs, synth pads and melodies all move at different speeds while McKay's processed guitar alternates between emitting atmospheric textures and liquid lead solos. Their realizations are in constant motion, either pushing forward, or churning in stillness, or at some indistinct level in between. Coulter and McKay explore areas of both dark and light. Their music is a culmination of a lifetime worth of experience.
Opening for The Tangent Project was Guitar Pilots (the recently formed duo featuring Art Cohen & Scott Watkins).
The Tangent Project plus Guitar Pilots performed at The Gatherings Concert Series on 21 May 2016. Many Thanks to Everyone Who Attended!
Concert Photos
Guitar Pilots

Modulator ESP
Modulator ESP plus Jason Sloan - 17 September 2016
Exploring sound, texture and atmosphere, the music of Jason Sloan is often smooth and spacious. It opens up and fills ambient areas with the slow motion of sustaining chords and a gradual metamorphosis of timbre. By adding the elements of rhythm and melody, his works provide a surprisingly deeper examination of the interior landscape. With layers of reverberant e-bow guitar over sampled percussion loops or cloud-soft synth pads churning alongside digital-age beats, Sloan's musical ideas posses a shimmering exuberance. Sparking, then smoldering, his music plays out across an ever-changing landscape - and deserves praise for aiming so high.
Prolific UK synthesist Jez Creek records and performs under the name Modulator ESP. Producing improvised experimental soundscapes using synthesizers, sampling, sequencing, looping and processing to create strange worlds of sound. Falling somewhere between '70s Spacemusic, noise and dark ambient drone, the music of Modulator ESP travels to the furthest reaches of sound and art.
Many Sincere Thanks to Everyone who came out to, and who helped out with, the concert!
Concert Photos
Jason Sloan

AirSculpture - 8 October 2016
Consisting of Adrian Beasley, John Christian and Peter Ruczynski, AirSculpture has been using concert spaces to facilitate electronic experimentation since their first live event in September of 1995. Over the years this UK trio have found that the atmosphere of the venue, the attention of the audience and several other immeasurable factors, have a significant affect on the interaction between players and acts as a fuel for their performances. The dynamics and energy of each realization is controlled by a blend of digital technology and analogue control; the music benefiting through the immediate and tactile interface with the gear and with each other. It is this relationship and experience which allows AirSculpture to create spontaneous and effective electronic realizations in the live environment.
UK Spacemusic outfit AirSculpture returned to Philadelphia and The Gatherings Concert Series on 8 October 2016
Concert Announcement

Chuck van Zyl - 12 November 2016
Best known as host of STAR'S END and as coordinator of The Gatherings Concert Series, Chuck van Zyl has also been making his own unique style of electronic music since 1983. Sometimes referred to as "the children of space", Chuck van Zyl's generation of musicians are more than just carrying on an earlier tradition. Seeing creativity as a component of his own personal spirituality, his musical realizations are fueled by everything from music technology to a greater cosmic awareness. His musical sensibilities evoke a sense of discovery, with each concert marking a new frontier of sound.
Chuck van Zyl realized a live set of music using various vintage analogue synthesizers and modern day replicas at The Gatherings Concert Series on 12 November 2016 at 8:00PM, with Geoffrey Waterman providing an opening set. This event offered Free Admission - with donations accepted at the door. Thanks for Your Generosity!!!.
Concert Photos

loscil - Benoît Pioulard - Hotel Neon - 19 November 2016
As loscil, ambient/electronic project of Vancouver-based composer Scott Morgan has developed a monumentally scaled ambient style. His churning soundworlds lead the listener to a lost lower frozen world - complete with snowy static, boreal climate and whistling white noise effects. Operating at a high conceptual level, every time Morgan has a chance to explore new ground he takes it. The cyclical nature of rhythms calls to mind wheels spinning, gears turning, valves opening, steam venting, machinery throbbing. This music is not linear, it travels less out along a timeline than it does in an irregular sphere around a core - which in this case is loscil. Allowing his compositions to work on us may lead to a slowed, more sensitive state of mind - one which brings us closer to an artist functioning at the cross section of technology, culture, art and craft.
loscil, along with Benoît Pioulard and Hotel Neon, returned to Philadelphia for a late season performance at The Gatherings Concert Series on 19 November 2016. Many Thanks to Everyone Who Attended!
Concert Photos

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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