Friday, September 3, 2021
7:00pm CT
Streaming on Twitch
FREE, $5+ suggested donation (100% goes to the artists)
Join pt.fwd for a streaming concert and fundraiser featuring performances by sound artists, musicians, and composers from Central Illinois and beyond.
ARTIST LINE-UPS / SET TIMES
7:00pm CT - Becky Grajeda and Beth McDonald
7:30 - Will Yager
8:00 - Rairie
8:30 - Runsitter
9:00 - Alex Braidwood
9:30 - Mark Booth
ARTIST BIOS
Becky Grajeda is a sound and performance artist and theatrical sound designer of Mexican and European descent. Her abstract sound collages and installations primarily focus on the intricate sounds of everyday mechanical objects. In her direction-based and/or improvisatory sound performances she experiments with the perceived meaning in texts by authors such as James Baldwin and Bohumil Hrabal when read aloud simultaneously or repetitively by performers of different ages and ethnicities. Her work has been exhibited and/or performed in Los Angeles, Chicago, and throughout Europe. In 2014 she received a grant from the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to document three of her performative sound works. beckygrajeda.com
Beth McDonald is a classically trained tuba player gone awry. She performs mainly as an improviser and experimentalist, using the tuba acoustically or in conjunction with electronic effects pedals and/or software. She is half of No Trust, and a member of the Duck Brain Ragtime Band. You can hear Beth on a variety of recordings, including multiple livestream performances in 2020, and the 2019 record by No Trust. In 2021, she released the album “Densing,” which is a collection of improvisations for tuba, electronics, and ambient resonance.
Learn more about Beth and listen to her music at www.bethtuba.com.
Will Yager is a versatile bassist/improviser committed to experimental music, improvisation, and collaborating with living composers in the creation of new solo repertoire for the double bass. He is a founding member of the soprano/double bass duo LIGAMENT and improvising trio Wombat. Recent appearances include performances at the Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival, Open Air Media Festival, MOXsonic Festival, Oh My Ears, Big Ears Festival, Feed Me Weird Things, SPLICE Festival, and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival.
Rairie (Brian Fitzgerald): The third-person bio format doesn’t fit with the narrative I’m trying to create, which is one of closeness. My goal is to break down barriers, not construct them. I want you, the maybe listener, to feel connected to the collage of sounds that I glue together. I want my digital music to evoke analog feelings. To attempt this, I rely heavily upon audio, obtained from many places, obscure and obvious. Anything from Swities’ screams to Splice samples. I add lush layers of software synths, pads, bass, and drums. And then I sing. My lyrical content is often deeply personal, and ranges in complexity; usually heavy stuff like grief and addiction. I enjoy collaborating with other artists. Some of my influences include Foxing, Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), hyperpop, and clinical depression. My first, self-titled album, as well as a few singles, are available on most major platforms. A more comprehensive library can be found on my SoundCloud. If you'd like, my socials are @rairiemusic
Runsitter is the alter ego of Ryan Nolan who is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and turntablist based in Normal, IL. While unable to be easily categorized, a strong nod to heavily improvisational, rhythmic, and genre-bending live performances permeate this artist’s aesthetic. When not performing solo, Ryan is also the bass player in the jazz-adjacent band, Disorganizer.
Alex Braidwood is a sound artist, media designer, and educator who maintains a practice exploring issues of sustainability at the intersection of art and science. He has been an artist in residence in an Australian mountain village, on an Iowa farm, at a mid-western biological field research station, and on Isle Royale National Park. He has exhibited art, led workshops, lectured on his work, and performed live at a variety of events and venues throughout the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Alex is currently Director of the Artist-in-Residence program at Iowa Lakeside Lab and Associate Professor at Iowa State University.
Mark Booth is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist, sound artist, and writer. He received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Exhibitions and projects include God is Represented by the Sea, Adds Donna Gallery Chicago, Nothing to do with wizards, O’Connor Gallery, Domincan University, River Forest, IL., pierecednightstarvoice at Schalter Gallery, Berlin, Germany, The Stinging Tentacles Of Anxiety That Constrict The Heart Are Healed By The Light Of An Inner Sun, Gahlberg Gallery, College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, IL., Spanish Still Life (or a large list of merged animals), Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL., Endless (Perverted by Language/Delay 1968), UBS 12×12, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL. Collaborative projects include the exhibition (6) The Speed of the Word Sound/The Sound of the Word Speed, at Light Projects, Northcote, Victoria, Australia, with Micheal Graeve, and the performance Quiet (A disruptive fog (or a hogshead full of vapor called memory) in Chicago, Illinois with Karen Christopher and John Sisson. He has performed and exhibited in the United States, Scandinavia, Australia and Europe. Booth is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.