Weekly link #4: Sigur Ros - Heima (2006)

This is the first weekly link in 3 weeks! Apologies, my friends.

Though well known in commercial streams, Sigur Ros is a group of musicians who in 2006 (after touring the globe for a few years) went on a tour of their native Iceland that reached out largely to smaller communities, and rural areas.

The tour brought them to perform outdoors, in small function halls, abandoned warehouses, and condemned valleys, as well as your typical venues for a band of this scope.

During the tour, they were augmented regularly by a string quartet. They also collaborated with various local musicians (from wherever they were playing) that included a brass band, a choir, and a traditional Icelandic folk vocalist. Their keyboard player says at one point "We are giving back to Iceland...but they can also back us up."

The tour was beautifully documented, and all of the venues are spoken of in depth. This documentary, and all other aspects of the groups work on this tour is amazing to me. It's something I will look up to for a long time to come!

Triiibe Installation Recap

In November, when I first went to Triiibe's installation at the 808 Gallery, I was hoping to find a venue for some simple experimentation, and maybe talk to them about their field. I wanted ideas about how to effectively reach out to students in the art world. After talking to Triiibe on that first day, I thought we would play there maybe once, and introduce some new musicians to our way of community authorship of a work.

We ended up playing there three times over the course of December with a developed "script" - a set of perimeters that gave us a structure to build on, and our building on that structure was new every week. Everyone involved (including Triiibe) was thrilled, and wants to keep working together in the future.

Each week (Saturday afternoons) brought in some new individuals, ensembles, and repertoire. The second week included actors and dancers, and on the third we welcomed some of our observers (ages 4-32) to contribute to the performance.

The installation, and the space it was in allowed for a new experience for everyone involved. The artists loved what we created within their project, and the performers really enjoyed the collective building and individual experience of this work.

Actors, Dancers, and Musicians from four schools contributed to the performances and scripts for this installation. We intend to work on more material next semester. There is a definite energy and connection between everyone here that I'm happy to say will be explored more. People are already coming up with ideas for new ensemble pieces, and their own projects . These are connections we're going to retain and work from for a long time to come, and that is the top goal of the collective and forum.

Pictures from the 808 gallery

Inter-NEC @ Triiibe: Video

Here's a video of yesterdays work. Cheers!

Inter-NEC @ Triiibe

The Inter-NEC collective made it's first contribution to the Triiibe installation In Search of Eden this past Saturday at the 808 Gallery. I think it's safe to say that our scheming worked out positively, and everyone who was there enjoyed it.

We were about a dozen musicians from three different schools, and though most of us had never played together before, the space and how we used it provided a great first meeting. The stipulations I created (originally handwritten on a sheet of printer paper) can be found here.

Lautaro Mantilla brought in a pre-formed quartet with Daniel Hawkins, Borey Shin, and Dave Cordes. They were able to play a few pieces of theirs, and move about the gallery as well. Rob Flax (with whom I visited the installation before Thanksgiving) brought in a few of his friends from Allston as well as NEC, and some of them teamed up for improvisations and exploration of shared repertoire. At one point, everyone played musical laser tag. There were always sounds coming from all the corners of the room that were consistent, but ever changing.

The last thing to happen was a fiddle tune that Rob began as a solo - it was exciting, but also fairly simple, so we couldn't help but all join in. Everyone was left in a good place, and we can't wait to return next week.

Saturday December 11th - 4pm at 808 Commonwealth Avenue - we hope you'll join us!

Weekly Link #3: Erin & Colin Gee

Actor & Composer, Brother & Sister. An interesting and relevant partnership that I've been about alot recently (We've been working with Triiibe - a collective of artists, of whom three are identical triplets).

The project featured in this video was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra. They also commissioned Dan Trueman (director of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra - featured in weekly link #1).

New England's only Thai Brass Band

It's been one heck of a week so far, and things show no sign of slowing! I think this video is proof of that:



Goodnight, All!

Weekly Link #2 - Double Edge Theatre

The Double Edge Theatre is an experimental theatre company founded in Boston about 25 years ago. though they are now located in the Berkshires (Ashfield, MA). New England Conservatory Alum Scott Halligan (M.M 08) is the music director.

In addition to productions that get adjusted for years, they do outreach performances, and offer workshops and camps of various lengths that are open to the community.

Inter-NEC at BU - Triiibe Installation

Look for Inter-NEC at 808 Commonwealth Avenue (a big gallery at Boston University) - Dates TBA. We'll be participating in a installation currently being built there by Triiibe - a group of performance artists and photographers that formed in 2006. The installation is called In Search of Eden - A Work in Progress. Triibe's website is here: http://triiibe.com/v1/triiibe.html

We will play at the installation two or three times with various musicians, and will let you know exactly when that will be!

Recent/Upcoming events

Our most recent concert (11/20 - video below) went really well. I think there was a sense of unity from piece to piece - a great flow. The concerts we're doing up until next semester will be in a recital format, but I think there's fluid quality to this that you don't get in your standard chamber or new music event. This is definitely one of our goals.

There were four soloists, one duo, and two larger ensembles. One of the groups is an improvisation ensemble from NEC, and the other was made up of students from NEC, Longy, and Bridgewater State. We played a graphic score which was made by Nathaniel Karahalis (Longy M.M 2012). We're working on creating a large ensemble to play open-instrumentation pieces, graphic scores, and original music which has been sent to us (more info on a call for scores will be upcoming). We'll be playing on almost every concert next semester.

Our next concert will be on December 12th at NEC (room G01 - 241 St. Botolph St.) - 8pm. Info on artists TBA.

11/20 Inter-NEC Concert Sampler

Inter-NEC's 11/20 concert in Jamaica Plain, MA:

Peter Negroponte solo at 11/20 Inter-NEC Concert

Here's percussionist Peter Negroponte's "Special Olympics" at our concert last Saturday - more videos soon!

We Play New Music

"A Dark Circle of Shadowy Figures Hovering"

Early on

Here are some pictures from events that I (&/or others) put together that really got the ball rolling. Mo Now, here we are in 2010 going on 2011 with some really cool things lining up for our future!

Weekly Link #1 - Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PlOrk)

The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (or PlOrk) is an ensemble at Princeton University whose members come from a variety of majors at the school. The students are united by an interest in music and/or technology, which allows them to collaborate using laptops and other electronic devices that are programmed to function as musical instruments:

Inter-NEC & the Inter-Collegiate Collaboration Forum

Hi Folks,

This is the blog of Inter-NEC, and our Inter-Collegiate Collaboration Forum. Inter-NEC is a group of students, faculty, and Alumni from the New England Conservatory in Boston who are dedicated to cross-departmental collaborations and events. We started a concert series with this name last year, and we've recently received a grant from NEC to expand beyond the school. We are starting a forum so that Boston-Area college students, faculty, and alums can brainstorm on how to build new collaborations, and give us ideas for events and concerts they'd like to see happen.

This forum currently exists through Gmail, Facebook, and Google Groups, though a website will be in the works - our current email is bostoncollegiatecollaboration@gmail.com

Our events in the spring will take place at the following schools and venues:

New England Conservatory
Massachusetts College of Art and Design
Longy School of Music
The Theatre at the Cambridge YMCA

If you have any thoughts or ideas, feel free to email us! We'll get in touch with you about your idea, and send you contact info for others who can help bring it to life. Every week, we'll post some of these ideas you send, and also share links of potential models, or generally interesting projects we see other people doing around the country.

The next Inter-NEC event takes place on Saturday, November 20th at St. John's Church in Jamaica Plain. A flyer for the event is attached to this post. We hope to hear from you soon!

Sincerely,
Jason Belcher - Inter-NEC founder