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Richard Pinhas / Jerome Schmidt

live at

The Gatherings Concert Series

2 November 2002 - 8:00pm

St. Mary's Hamilton Village
3916 Locust Walk, University City, Philadelphia, PA

Richard Pinhas + Jerome Schmidt

Richard Pinhas + Jerome Schmidt

Richard Pinhas

Richard Pinhas

Jerome Schmidt

Jerome Schmidt

Review: Gathering Pinhas

A toasty St. Mary's, her radiators steaming, played host to soundscape experimentalist Richard Pinhas and his return Gathering performance in Philadelphia Saturday night.æ

Pinhas's 1999 concert was a rather bizarre affair based on his current release of that time, "Schizotrope."æI recall arriving late for this show and, upon my belated barge through the door at the back of the church that evening, also remember having the blast of sound that greeted me nearly blow me clear back to my hard-to-find parking spot. This concert event would turn out to be a tougher than usual pill to swallow, especially for a relative Pinhas newcomer (and I'm guessing I wasn't the only Gatherer that evening who experiencing Pinhas live for the first time), but one certainly did have to respect the music's originality and the artist's willingness to experiment and alter a listener's perspective of sound and vision.

You might say I approached Saturday night's performance better prepared. The evening would kick off with Chuck van Zyl's introduction of Jerome Schmidt, who would accompany Pinhas throughout the performance, on laptop computer, and of French poet Chloe. After a little engine revving by Schmidt, he laid out a Pinhas-like sound base to a recital by Chloe. Pinhas would then replace Chloe on-stage.

Soft notes strummed on Pinhas's guitar introduced the two sets and an encore; each representing the outset of a slowly constructive evolution of sound. Richard Pinhas seemed such at ease last night. He smiled throughout the performance, often laughing spontaneously. Having set fibers of sound in motion, he would sit back and observe the lighting effects of the church; allowing the surroundings to captivate him, as they were us all. In comparison to his 1999 performance, there was much more subtlety in Pinhas's expressions. As a result, I found myself able to enjoy Pinhas's signature moments of unbelievable intensity much more so this time, literally transporting myself to temporary hypnotic states. "Event and Repetitions," a fine new release by Richard Pinhas, plotted the course for Saturday night's musical journey.

The quality and diversification of music offered by the Gathering concert series is a precious gift to those of us who love the soundworlds of the uninhibited. The hard work and extreme dedication provided by the promoters of these events should never, ever, be forgotten. Watching what these guys go through in making this incredible series work is humbling.

by soma611
As Posted to The Spacelist: Mon 4 Nov 2002

Richard Pinhas   Richard Pinhas

Richard Pinhas + Jerome Schmidt   Richard Pinhas + Jerome Schmidt

Chloe   Chloe   Jerome Schmidt

Richard Pinhas   Richard Pinhas   Richard Pinhas

Richard Pinhas   Richard Pinhas

Concert Photos by Bill Forcier

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