soundShoppe presented by SASSAS

soundShoppe will form a sound orchestra. Instruments will include circuit bent/homemade devices, accordions, bowed instruments, modular synthesizers, acoustic objects that make sounds (such as long reeds whipped into the air), gongs, percussion objects, voice, drones, guitars, whistles and other indescribable object. Sound will range from quiet to loud, from drones & clicks to static.

2019 participants include:

Joe Potts has performed experimental music and exhibited visual works and art/sound installations in the U.S., Europe and Asia since the 1970’s.
      Potts co-founded the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS), the seminal experimental music collective, “which put LA on the Noise Music map.” His band/art project AIRWAY, which buries subliminal and hypnotic techniques beneath walls of harsh noise, is said to have inspired the Japanese noise movement. Potts is currently performing as a member of Extended Organ, a 5-person ensemble that creates electro-acoustic music with a horror movies ambiance.

Janet Housden spent 37 years playing drums and bass in various underground rock ensembles before she realized that she was done with melodies, harmonies, riffs and hooks and would much prefer making noise, the more random and abrasive the better. Once she discovered SoundShoppe’s monthly workshops, it was all over. She is currently working on making her electric violin sound like a pterodactyl being run over by a garbage truck. Here’s a recent interview with Janet: https://pleasekillme.com/janet-housden/?fbclid=IwAR1Sbz7IWGInA_l6TeA5vKH…

Jorge Martin was a clarinetist straight outta Downey (8 miles NE of Compton). At some point, something happened, and he picked up a guitar and started playing in a punk band that covered GG Allin, Negative Approach, and The Avengers tunes (and some originals). From there, he delved into the bowels of violent noise via the duo, Spastic Colon. After finally making a few friends, he and another guy opened the Impala Café (DTLA) in the 90’s and then joined the supergroup, Sleestak. Now, he mostly collaborates with others, such as Anna Homler as a duo and in Homler’s Breadwoman. The majority of his time is spent at UCLA looking at Human Genetic Diseases, with a crack team of researchers trying to figure out “what’s that mutation doing?” 

Don Lewis a Los Angeles-based sound artist, dissects sound into its fundamental frequencies, and uses these components to go further into the sound, much like zooming in on a fractal. And like a fractal, one can zoom in further and further and never reach the end.
      Notable performances have included the Long Beach Soundwalk, Norcal Noisefest in Sacramento, Los Angeles Free Music Society: Beneath the Valley of the Lowest Form of Music at The Box, Los Angeles, and radio appearances on KCHUNG and UB Radio.
      Collaborative partners have included Leticia Castaneda, Albert Ortega and Joe Potts among others. Lewis sees his practice as aligned with the Theatre of Eternal Music, a 60s New York trance group founded by LaMonte Young, Tony Conrad, and John Cale.
      Lewis’s debut CD Lost In Largesse by his solo project Small Drone Orchestra, was released on Bandcamp in 2015. His work is featured on several compilations including Beyond the Pink Live (Organ of Corti, 1999), Blorp Esette Gazette (Transparency, 2014), LAFMS Box Box (The Box, 2016), and a forthcoming split cassette with Sobbing Honey.

Noisician Andy Sykora (b. 1967, Los Angeles) spontaneously composes using glitch delay pedals, gongs and a percussive myth without regard for entertainment or art. He has unleashed sounds around American, Australia and New Zealand. He is a founder and 33 year member of Enrich’d White, an improvisational ensemble capable of nightmarishly gentle ambient, harsh noise, absurdist social critique and psychotic rawk.