Sunday 21 July 2024, 7.30pm
75 Dollar Bill's Che Chen comes to OTO with two new projects: a duo with violinist/vocalist Talice Lee, and a first time trio with London-based players Liran Donin (double bass) and Angus Tarnawsky (drums and synthesizer). Chen and Lee (who are married and also play together in the 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band) started their duo project in the midst of the pandemic, shaping harmonic tuning matrices and hypnotic rhythmic patterns into unhurried and ecstatic structures for guitar, violin, malfunctioning electronics and voices. This will be only the second time this material has been performed live, the first being the aptly titled Alone Together concert at Roulette Intermedium, just as things were beginning to open up in the spring of 2021. Chen and Tarnawsky know each other from early 2000s DIY spaces in Brooklyn that are now long gone, but somehow they never played together before. Donin and Chen have only been corresponding since 75 Dollar Bill's last appearance at OTO in 2023. Three strong and sympathetic players, and we'll get to watch their take on the guitar, bass and drums trio emerge in real time.
1st set: Che Chen, Liran Donin, Angus Tarnawsky trio
- Liran Donin: double bass
- Angus Tarnawsky: drums, synthesizer
- Che Chen: guitar, aux percussion, homemade instruments
2nd set: Che Chen & Talice Lee
- Talice Lee: violin, voice, electronics
- Che Chen: guitar, voice
Che Chen is an improviser, bandleader, multi-instrumentalist and show organizer based in Queens, NY. An energetic presence in New York City’s experimental underground since the early 2000s, he has tread an idiosyncratic path from noise duo True Primes to studying guitar in Mauritania and improvising with veterans and upstarts from NYC’s creative music scene. In 2012, he and “plywood crate” player Rick Brown founded 75 Dollar Bill, a group with flexible personnel whose hybrid music synthesizes modal and rhythmic concepts from the “non-Western” world, Sun Ra’s space chords and the minimalist and No Wave histories of their hometown. Organizing concerts has always been a parallel activity for Chen, stemming from a firm belief that music is social and must take place in community. He has organized hundreds of DIY shows in New York City including the monthly series Fire Over Heaven at Outpost Artists Resources since 2017.
chechen.bandcamp.com/
75dollarbill.bandcamp.com
Talice Lee is violinist and singer originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Based in New York since 2009, she is equally at home in song-based, composed and improvised music contexts. She is a member of the 75 Dollar Bill Little Big Band and has lent her violin playing and singing abilities to the songwriting projects of Sue Garner and poet Morgan Vo, experimental pieces by Cody Boyce and Che Chen, and improvised settings with veteran NYC free improvisers Daniel Carter and Todd Capp.
Liran Donin, A composer, improviser, and multi-instrumentalist currently based in London. With a distinctive deep-toned bass, inventive sound design, and lyrical approach to composing and writing, Liran is carving a unique and inventive soundscape across his work. In addition to commissions, he plays with 1000 Boats, Ill Considered, Earth and Bones, LgoYgo, and Led Bib, as well as collaborating with The Harvest Time Project, Pandit Shardah Sahai, Mulatu Astatke, Chrissie Hynde, and many more.
Angus Tarnawsky is an Australian-Canadian artist, musician, researcher, and curator based in London, UK. When improvising in solo or collaborative settings, he shifts between a mix of live drumming, analog synthesis, real-time audio sampling, and the use of dub style processing. His solo music has been released by Berlin-based label Inner Surface Music, while many of his collaborative ventures alongside other artists (Brian Chase, Stanislava Pinchuk, 1000 Petal Lotus, Nathan Liow) are documented on lathe cut records released by his own label, In Context Music. As an artist and researcher, he is currently pursuing a PhD in Communication Studies, where he investigates everyday listening practices in urban spaces via site-specific workshops and installations.
angustarnawsky.com
incontextmusic.com
