Wednesday, February 1, 8pm Charles Curtis plays Eliane Radigue UCSD University Art Gallery, Mandeville Center free admission French composer Eliane Radigue has pioneered pure analog synthesis since the late fifties. Working with analog tape and a custom ARP synthesizer, she has created a unique body of work described by the New York Times as "a steady stream of sonic activity taking place right at the edge of one's perception". For decades she has been a kind of underground luminary, and in recent years her work has exercised a decisive influence on a younger generation of musicians working with electronics in a minimalist aesthetic. Cellist Charles Curtis worked closely with Radigue on the creation of her first-ever work for an acoustic instrument without electronics, "Naldjorlak". The Tibetan title referst to the motion of all life toward unity. The piece is approximately one hour in length.

Charles Curtis, Matt Lorenz and Mykal Board at Voltaire in OB/SD CA
November 18th 2005 by Eric Nielsen

One of the last shows at the Voltaire Collective was performed last night. Charles Curtis opened and closed the show with 2 cello pieces he will be performing in NY and on the east coast next month. The genius of Curtis was apparent throughout his 2 pieces. The first piece of what he called an evening of long and uneventful cello pieces focused on creating overtones. These overtones floated and modulated around the artist space in a dreamy way. He got overtones off of all the different parts of his cello, the stand, the strings below the bridge, and the wood. These dreamy overtones modulated through the body of the wood and sounded slike a synthsizer or a modulated tone shimmering above the player like an aura.

He finished the night with a long piece that included some very eastern sounding scales that incorporated more of the dreamy overtone stuff. This song had more of a melodic sense than the first. The effect was one of complete meditation as this went on for nearly an hour. For the last piece he used a drone loop in differnet notes as background. He used a pedal to trigger the key switch and would shift in and out of these different phrasings after breathing in the new drone sound. The drones were beautiful resonant sounding thick strings with the ambient and room sound of the bow in it. This small and cold room in the Voltaire space has held some excellent events full of modern masters and this closing night felt like a perfect piece, as Charles droned out the end of a meditative space. It felt somehow perfect. And, as the last strings silenced the empty space in the room breathed. It was so valid and strong that when the applause started Charles asked people to stop because the quiet was so perfect.

The night also included Matt Lorenz doing interesting tape loop and cb radio sounds. He used a suitcase as a damper/tremelo, putting in a machine and opening and closing the lid. His show was short and quite nice in an ambient modern world way. The outside sounds from the street creeped in to mix with his show, as the buses and people passed they became part of the ambience in the very well listened room. One nice thing about Voltaire, people really listen there.

There was also the spoken word of Mykal Board of Art and Artless. He read from one of his books about his meaning of life.

The true meaning of my life was debated in the meditative cold air of Ocean Beach last night as I dreamt about the beauty in that little room on Voltaire.