at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

Sunday, October 16, 2011
3:00pm


Alex Cline, Lady Noise and William Roper

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook

sound. at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook features new compositions by percussionist Alex Cline, experimental collective Lady Noise and brass specialist William Roper. These new SASSAS commissions will be played by more than 30 Los Angeles area musicians arrayed in different locations across the historic topography of the Overlook. SASSAS invited each composer to make a field recording at the Overlook and respond to it with a new work focusing on percussion (Cline), electronics (Lady Noise) and lip reeds (Roper).

The Baldwin Park Scenic Overlook is unique in the greater Los Angeles area and California State Park system. A historically complex site, the Overlook offers 360 degree views of the Los Angeles Basin as it resides at the juncture of industry and parkland / preserve. Adjacent to the location of the 1963 Baldwin Hills Dam break and just north of an active oil field, the park was the site of a decade long development battle which was successful in fending off a 230-home development, but failed to stop the flat topping of the hill. Parts of the park have been regraded and in certain ways the land still looks as though it's recovering from the earlier violence. (Christopher Hawthorne, Los Angeles Times).

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook
6300 Hetzler Rd.
Culver City, CA 90232

>>Admission: FREE

Street parking is available along Jefferson Blvd., but come prepared for a steep climb up the Overlook stairs. Limited parking is available at the top of the hill for $6.00. Carpooling is strongly encouraged.

Schedule / times are appoximate


3:00 P.M. / Overlook apex
William Roper, Fanfares and Arhoolies for Lip-Reed Instruments and Percussion

Players: Kevin Brown, Ray Burkhart, Clifford Childers, Dan Clucas, Steve Durnin, James Ford, Bruce Fowler, Darrell Leonard, Loren Marsteller, Joseph Mitchell, Phil Teele and Michael Vlatkovich
Fanfares and Arhoolies is supported by a CCI ARC Grant
William Roper, Overlook field recording

3:40 P.M. / Overlook garden amphitheater
Lady Noise, Untitled (Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, Oct. 16, 2011)

Players: Lady Noise (Kelly Coats, flute; Kathleen Kim, violin; Gabie Strong, electric bass; and Sandy Yang, electric guitar) in addition to Jesse Appelhans, Aisling Cormack, James Hamblin, Julia Holter, Janet Kim, Stefan Scott Nelson, Ron Russell and Jonathan Silberman.
Lady Noise, Overlook field recording

4:20 P.M. / Overlook pavilion
Alex Cline, Overlook

Players: Christopher Allis, Trevor Anderies, Erin Barnes, Joseph Berardi, Alex Cline, Germaine Franco, Dave Shaffer and Rich West.
Alex Cline, Overlook fIeld recording

 

Composer Bios


Percussionist-composer Alex Cline has been a mainstay on the jazz and new music scenes of Los Angeles for over thirty-five years. Combining colorful and sensitive percussion sounds with a drumming foundation based in the jazz tradition, Cline is recognized for his contributions to the music of such artists as Vinny Golia, Julius Hemphill, Bobby Bradford, Horace Tapscott, Wadada Leo Smith, Charlie Haden, and countless others. His work as a composer and bandleader has been documented on recordings with his groups, the Alex Cline Ensemble and Alex Cline's Band of the Moment. Cline was included in Michael Bettine and Trevor Taylor's book Percussion Profiles among twenty of the "world's most creative percussionists." Most recently Cline has re-envisioned the Chicago Art Ensemble's 1969 album-length masterpiece People in Sorrow for a performance at REDCAT for an all-star ensemble.


Lady Noise, founded by artist Gabie Strong, is the free-form sound collaboration between Kelly Coats (flute), Kathleen Kim (violin), Gabie Strong (bass) and Sandy Yang (guitar and drums). Lady Noise performances draw on visual elements to create an atmosphere of sound and landscape. Compositions are explored between modes of structure and improvisation, creating spaces of interplay and entropy. Disrupting conventional spatial formations of live sound performance, the group freely shapes the area reserved for hearing and language to present the listening audience with the aching beauty of amplified harmonic decay.

Lady Noise has performed at the UC Riverside Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts; The Japanese American National Museum with OMAYUMI, Steve Irvin, and Alan Nakagawa for RED FLAT; at LACE with Raquel Gutierrez for GUTTED; The Collective Show; Human Resources; and the Liz Glynn designed Verse | Chorus | Verse amphitheater at the 2011 Art Los Angeles Contemporary fair.


Willliam Roper is a composer, performer and visual artist. He has fulfilled commissions from Dance L.A., the Gloria Newman Dance Theatre and has a long list of collaborations with recognized artists in video, theater, performance and dance. His compositions have been performed by such groups as the California E.A.R. Unit, TaiHei Ensemble, Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble and the Cal Arts Cello Ensemble. As a performing artist, Roper has appeared in North America, South America and Europe as soloist and in ensembles as diverse as free improvisation groups to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has released ten CDs as a leader or co-leader on Asian Improv Recordings, Nine Winds, ArtShip Recordings and Tomato Sage Recordings.

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sound. 2011 is produced by Cindy Bernard in collaboration with Scott Benzel, Gregory Lenczycki, Jorge Martin, Renee Petropoulos, Joe Potts, Dawson Weber, Board of Directors; Danny Gromfin, Board of Advisors.

The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound (SASSAS) is supported in part through grants from the Culver City Performing Arts Grant Program with support from Sony Pictures Entertainment, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Good Works Foundation, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the West Hollywood Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission and the support of our members. For further information on SASSAS: www.sassas.org or contact us at 323.960.5723.

Contribute to SASSAS at the $50 level and receive discounts for sound.

Designers from left to right: Djego Padilla (2008); Hedi El Kholti / Channa Horwitz (2007); Wendy Furman (2006); Linda Nishio (2005, 2004); Tom Recchion (2003,2002, 2001); Cindy Bernard (2000; 1999). 2009 anniversary logo by Cindy Bernard.

Los Angeles County Arts Commission