Sound Exploration Series
Northbrook Public Library
1201 Cedar Lane
Free Admission

Saturday, September 16, 3-4:30pm
Northbrook Library Auditorium

ESS is partnering with the Northbrook Public Library as part of their Sound Exploration Series to present a special concert of improvised music featuring Rafael Toral, electronics; Tim Daisy, drums; Mars WIlliams, saxophone.

Rafael Toral plays electronic music today as a jazz musician would play his instrument, applying jazz discipline and working practices to his abstract electronics. The result is truly evolutionary music, once described as “a brand of electronic music far more visceral and emotive than that of his cerebral peers”. Melodic without notes, rhythmic without a beat, familiar but strange, meticulous but radically free, it is riddled with interesting paradox. Toral has developed a musical system to physically play experimental electronic instruments and puts it to practice with large-scale project Space Program — a complex network of recordings and performances to deliver music that is full of clarity and space, articulating silence and sound in a thoughtful, yet physical way.

Formerly known for his drone/ ambient work with guitar and electronics and acclaimed records such as Wave Field (1994) or Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance (2000), he has radically renewed his approach to music, launching the jazz-inspired and alien-sounding Space Program in 2004, using experimental electronic instruments.

Toral’s long time connection with Sei Miguel is central to the development of the Space Program. Other collaborations include Jim O’Rourke, Evan Parker, John Edwards, Joe Morris, Tatsuya Nakatani, Chris Corsano, Manuel Mota, David Toop, Alvin Lucier, John Zorn, Phill Niblock, Christian Marclay, Sonic Youth, João Paulo Feliciano, Rhys Chatham, Lee Ranaldo, C Spencer Yeh, Dean Roberts… In 1998 he became a member of MIMEO electronic orchestra. Its other members are Keith Rowe, Thomas Lehn, Kaffe Matthews, Marcus Schmickler, Jérome Noetinger, Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg, Gert-Jan Prins, Cor Fuhler and Phil Durrant. Since 2008 he directs the Space Collective, a slowly developing orchestral group. Also active in visual and spatial arts, Toral has produced video and several installations from 1994 to 2003.

Rafael Toral has performed throughout Europe, Canada, USA, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. He has been active performing and giving workshops.

Chicago – based drummer, marimbist, and composer Tim Daisy has worked in the fields of

improvised and composed music since 1997. He has performed, recorded, and toured with many acclaimed musicians and ensembles from both the North American and European improvised music scenes including: Mars Williams, Ken Vandermark, Fred Lonberg -Holm, Elisabeth Harnik, Dave Rempis, James Falzone, Russ Johnson, Havard Wiik, Mikolaj Trzaska, Clayton Thomas, Per Ake Holmlander, Steve Swell, Aram Shelton, Michael Zerang, Kyle Bruckmann, and Katherine Young. Tim organizes tours and composes music for three of his own ensembles including: the chamber music trio Vox Arcana with James Falzone on clarinet and Fred Lonberg -Holm on cello, Trio Red Space with Mars Williams on reeds and Jeb Bishop on trombone, and The Steel Bridge Trio with Aram Shelton on reeds and Safa Shokrai on bass.

His solo project Red Nation explores the art of improvisation in an electro-acoustic setting. Utilizing multiple percussion instruments including gongs, bells, mixing bowls, kitchen utensils, metronomes, various found objects, turntables, and radios. Tim creates various improvised situations in a solo context, with all of his tools arranged on the floor in various patterns.

Major accomplishments include: Named one of thirteen “Drummers for the Future.” By Downbeat magazine (2003) Extensive tours throughout North America and Europe with acclaimed avant- garde jazz ensembles including the Vandermark 5, The Rempis Percussion Quartet, The Engines, The Frame Quartet, the Resonance Ensemble and Made to Break.

Major festival appearances including the North Sea Jazz Festival, The Newport Jazz Festival, The Chicago Jazz Festival, Alarme festival Berlin, Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival Montreal, the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville, and the Music Unlimited festival in Wels, Austria. An original work for solo percussion and dance commissioned by the Chicago-based dance ensemble The Seldoms titled “Marchland.” This new work was premiered to wide acclaim in March of 2010 at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago: http://theseldoms.org/marchland A 2016 Audio residency at the Dom Kereta “Keret House” in Warsaw Poland which explored spatial limitations and its effect on sound making: https://www.facebook.com/domkereta/ A 2016 Florasonic commission by the Experimental Sound Studio called The Glass House. A site specific, multi-layered composition which ran for three months at the Lincoln Park Conservatory in Chicago. http://www.experimentalsoundstudio.org/pages/event_detail/52.php?id=416 Tim also owns and operates Relay Records, documenting much of the creative work that he has been involved with in Chicago and abroad since 2011. http://www.timdaisyrelayrecords.bandcamp.com Since June of 2014, he has been a co- programmer for the Option music salon at Experimental Sound Studio. The programming explores contemporary perspectives on improvisation and composition in a ‘salon’ format, enabling local, national, and international artists to publicly discuss their practice and ideas as well as perform.

Mars Williams is an open-minded musician, composer and educator who commutes easily between free jazz, funk, hip-hop and rock, Mars has played and recorded with The Psychedelic Furs, Billy Idol, Massacre, Fred Frith, Bill Laswell, Ministry, Power Station, Die Warzau, The Waitresses, Kiki Dee, Pete Cosey, Billy Squier, DJ Logic, Wayne Kramer, John Scoffield, Charlie Hunter, Kurt Elling, Swollen Monkeys, Mike Clark, Jerry Garcia, Naked Raygun, Friendly Fires, The Untouchables, Blow Monkeys and virtually every leading figure of Chicago’s and New York City's "downtown" scene.

John Zorn credits Mars as "one of the true saxophone players--someone who takes pleasure in the sheer act of blowing the horn. This tremendous enthusiasm is an essential part of his sound, and it comes through each note every time he plays. Whatever the situation, Mars plays exciting music. In many ways he has succeeded in redefining what versatility means to the modern saxophone player."

In 2001 Mars received a Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Record with his group Liquid Soul.

Despite his busy touring schedule with Liquid Soul and The Psychedelic Furs, Mars manages to stay active on the Chicago underground improvising scene. In recent years he has toured and recorded with the Peter Brötzmann Tentet, Switchback, Full Blast, Scorch Trio, the Vandermark 5, Boneshaker, Chicago Reed Quartet and Cinghiale, teaming him with such musicians as Ken Vandermark, Hamid Drake, Michael Zerang, William Parker, Kent Kessler, Fredric Lonberg Holm, Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee, Paal Nilssen-Love, Mike Reed, Jeb Bishop, Harrison Bankhead, Dave Rempis, Kidd Jordan and Matts Gustafson.

He performs weekly in Chicago along with Jim Baker, Steve Hunt, and Brian Sandstrom in the improvising quartet “Extraordinary Popular Delusions”. As a bandleader, he continues to perform and record CDs with his own free-jazz groups, the NRG Ensemble, Witches & Devils, Slam, XmarsX, Mars Trio, Boneshaker and The Soul Sonic Sirkus which features improvising musicians and aerial circus performers. Along with Die Warsau’s Van Christie, Mars has started Ratking Music, a production company focusing on music for film and television.

In addition to performing and creating music, Mars has been an educator in the field of woodwinds and jazz improvisation for over thirty years. Mars held the position of Woodwind Instructor at Bard College for two years. In the last few years Mars has presented Master classes and clinics to a number of private and public institutions including, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the University of Chicago, Roosevelt University (Chicago, IL), and June Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art (Auburn, AL).

Sound Exploration Series at Northbrook Library: Daisy/Toral/Williams