March 1, 2011
Opalnest presents:
SONIC ARCHITEXTURES

Opening the 2011 Armory Week is SONIC ARCHITEXTURES, an evening of performances remixing strands of analog and digital improvisations – a balance of post-punk impulses, subliminal electronics, vinyls and harp with arty experimental films, including Rey Parla’s “Rumba Abstracta” and Peter Gregorio’s “Holographic Principal Generator”.
Framing the night’s performances are Maximus Clarke’s anaglyph 3D projections, viewed with spectacles dubbed FREEDOM FILTERS. Audiences are encouraged to participate by having their portraits taken on the greenscreen for future retrospection.
Thomas Watkiss opens the night with hypnotic drones meticulously composed to set the ambiance. Using dense layers of symphonic chords, composer Zach Layton performs an improvised set with percussionist Ryan Sawyer aka Lone Wolf.
Renowned as an avant-garde ensemble, MERCE is the musical vision of Maria Chavez and Shelley Burgon. Creating a sonic atmosphere, Chavez’s turntables culls from her “pencils of sound” while Burgon’s harp melodics unifies the whole experience. Tonight, Merce collaborates with visual artist Rey Parla, whose rigorous and experimental multimedia work is a dance of stimulating visual music.
SONIC ARCHITEXTURES is curated by Helen Homan Wu, and co-presented by ARTCARDS for 2011 Armory Week New York.
SCHEDULE
» 9 pm Thomas Watkiss / Maximus Clarke
» 10 pm Zach Layton & Ryan Sawyer / Peter Gregorio
» 11 pm MERCE (Maria Chavez and Shelley Burgon) / Rey Parla
ARTISTS
MERCE is a duo comprised of harpist/electronic musician Shelley Burgon and turntablist Maria Chavez. The duo performs improvisation-based song pieces based on loops and live processing. Merce has performed at Roulette, Issue Project Room and most recently for the Saturday Sessions at MoMA PS1.
Thomas Watkiss constructs his sound works from a careful mix of guitars, 6 string bass, synthesizers and field recordings to create dense ambient atmospheres laced with heavy metal distortion. Thomas has performed across the US and toured extensively throughout Europe for his fourth LP record release ”Whote – Align”. Watkiss recieved an MA in Interdisciplinary Studies at Konstfack and is a member of ASCAP living and working in New York City.
Maximus Clarke is an experimental visual aritst. He is also the multimedia electropop performer Maxx Klaxon. He grew up in Miami, studied literature and film at the University of Florida, and received an MFA from the Graduate Film Conservatory at Florida State University in 1999. After moving to New York City, he briefly worked in film and television production. Max is currently exploring the medium of anaglyph 3D, producing stereoscopic still images and videos, and developing new multimedia performance pieces featuring 3D projections. For the past 5 years, he has been the co-curator of SPLICE, an electronic music performance series based in New York City.
Zach Layton is a guitarist, composer, curator and new media artist based in Brooklyn with an interest in biofeedback, generative algorithms, and free improvisation. Zach has performed and exhibited at The Kitchen, ISSUE Project Room, PS1, Sculpture Center, Transmediale Berlin, Roulette and many other venues internationally and locally. He has collaborated with Vito Acconci, the Joshua Light Show, Andrew Lampert, Bradley Eros, Alex Waterman, Luke Dubois & Matthew Ostrowski (Fair Use Trio), Tristan Perich, MV Carbon, Jessie Stead and many other artists, musicians, filmmakers and friends.
Ryan Sawyer aka Lone Wolf (b. 1976) grew up in San Antonio, Texas, where he played drums in various punk rock bands, most notably, At The Drive-In. After 21 years in Texas, he decided to move to New York to pursue a formal education of music and broaden his understanding of music making on the drum set. Ryan has played and recorded with hundreds of improvisors and bands while maintaining his own groups (Tall Firs, Glass Rock, Stars Like Fleas) throughout the years. His collaborations include Charles Gayle, Thurston Moore, Jandek, TV on the Radio, Celebration, Scarlett Johansson, and Rhys Chatham. Ryan also led and co-wrote the New York Chapter of The Boredoms’ 88 Boadrum, a piece that incorporated 88 drummers playing an 88 minute piece of music co-written by Ryan Sawyer and Gang Gang Dance.
Peter Gregorio works in large-scale painting, print, video, and installation, creating pieces and experiences that remix given architecture with new cultural landscapes and contemporary ideas in cosmology, post-humanism, and information dynamics. He has exhibited work nationally and internationally, as well as directed and organized independent projects. Gregorio is the Founder and Editor of VECTOR Artist’s Journal. He currently lives and works in New York and is a resident at the ISCP.
Rey Parla is a painter and filmmaker. He creates what he calls “Scratch | Graphs” much in the same way as he works on his Visual Music films: distressing the celluloid, deconstructing and rebuilding the emulsion with color and chemical liquids. Rey makes camera-less abstract photographs by dealing directly with the materials at hand. “Scratching is a primitive act. It allows me to connect with a much simpler side of humanity.” He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
DETAILS
SONIC ARCHITEXTURES
@ White Slab Palace
77 Delancey St. (at Allen St.), NYC
9pm-12am
Free
Map