Adam Shead is a Chicago based percussionist, composer, and improviser. For tonight’s performance Shead will present a new electroacoustic work titled “so that our hands are touching”. Utilizing an assortment of resonant metal objects and electronic toothbrushes Shead creates a slowly progressing atmosphere of overtones and upper partials, indeterminately exploring the harmonic and melodic nature of the implements at hand.

Aram Shelton : Tonal Masher

Aram Shelton's solo electroacoustic music is based on explorations of the resonant feedback frequencies that are unique to the saxophone. As Tonal Masher, he focuses on a different aspect of the saxophone by first removing the mouthpiece and reed. Using feedback generated via saxophone, microphone and amplifier, he uses nontraditional fingerings to coax an instrument specific set of tones from a vintage horn. Using a custom built Max patcher, the resulting music features patient polyphony from a monophonic instrument, and highlights the percussive aspects of the saxophone via key clicks and pad thumps.

Since 2001, Shelton has been using computer based live sampling via Max/MSP in a variety of settings to extend and rearrange the sounds of acoustic instruments. The Wire has found his music to be a “focused symbiosis of breath and circuitry” while Cycling 74 has featured Shelton's work in an article titled "Inverting the Instrument". Due to the ongoing concept of sonic rearrangement, Shelton has chosen the anagram Tonal Masher as an apt moniker.