Named after a remembered year of sadness and isolation in an industrial quarter of Brooklyn, Stephen Griesgraber’s Redhooker is probably best described as the sound of loneliness with a resolve to patience. With Vespers, his second CD release, this classically-trained guitarist from Slow Six and formerly of Antony and the Johnsons invites us to bask in the combined warmth of three violins (Andie Springer, Maxim Moston, Ben LIvely), a bass clarinet (Peter Hess), and an electric guitar (Griesgraber himself), dancing at the juncture of Renaissance and Baroque polyphony, experimental minimalism, and improvisation. Reconnecting with a faded but poignant memory of singing in a Madrigal choir college, Griesgraber combines composed counterpoint with live improvisation using a foot-operated Max/MSP application, which plays randomized snippets of sound from the performance that is currently unfolding. Whether we hear them live or on record, the ensemble takes the experience of spontaneous interactive music-making and folds it back onto itself: what we hear is not only the sound of the players responding to one another in real-time, responding to the recording, but also responding to their own responses earlier on in the performance. How could an empty apartment be full of so many voices? And who would have thought that the story of a hard Redhook winter could leave us feeling so warm?

Arturo en el Barco is the work of Angélica Negrón a young composer from Astoria, NY via San Juan, Puerto Rico. She writes lo-fi ambient compositions that are mostly crafted live through piano, toys, accordion, found sounds, violins, music boxes and voices. Drawing inspiration from old family pictures, floating soap bubbles, random noises, marine creatures and puppets made by her friends, she is interested in creating a personal microcosm of recollections through sound.

The group has performed in venues such as Monkeytown (NYC), Le Poisson Rouge (NYC), Glaz'art (Paris, France), The Tank (NYC), Galapagos Art Space (NYC), and in the National Museum of Mexican Arts (Chicago) as part of the Latin American Electronic Music Festival. Releases include albums on Observatory Online (Austria) and Carte Postale Records (Belgium) and also various compilations from labels such as Aerotone (Germany), Tri-Postal (Belgium). At-At Records (México) and Si No Puedo Bailar (Brazil). Originally a solo endeavor, the project has recently evolved into a chamber ensemble for live presentations with performers Andie Springer (violin), Insia Malik (violin), Beth Meyers (viola & banjo), Evelyn Farny (cello), Matt Marks (french horn) and José Olivares (laptop).

Through combining these instruments with electronics mostly crafted through multiple layers of organic sounds, the project intends to evoke in the listener a sense of quiet adventures that happen when you travel to an imaginary past full of distant memories that are indistinct because they probably never actually happened.