Last Saturday I had the pleasure of taking part in the fifth ever biannual(-ish) Naked Noise improv event at the Ithaca Community School of Music and Arts. This time around it was curated by the capable folks at Ithaca Underground and involved a dozen or so musicians, most of whom had not met one another prior to performing two 45 minute sets. Shout out to Jon Eckhaus, Mario Gutierrez, and Ethan of Time/Being plus Annie Lewandowski of Powerdove, polymath Matt Saccuccimorano of Orbiting Art Ensemble, Chris Demetriou of Last Dot and the Kraken Quartet, Weston Czerkies of Sunken Cheek, Erik Johnson, Mike Amadeo of The RealBads and Misses Bitches, and Jasper Minson of You Still Have Friends. The incomparable Trevor Pinch also joined in on Minimoog and his own DIY synth.

Here's a recording of the 2nd one of these we did. (Keep in mind it's an attempt to capture, with one H2 field recorder, about a dozen musicians scattered around what's basically a recital hall with high ceilings.) ->

We've been doing this for a while. The show began when a three band bill with Sun Spells, Time/Being, and The Invisible Hand decided that, instead of playing regular discrete sets, it would be more fun to scatter around the room and have everyone play simultaneously for two hours. NN4 had two dozen performers and it was an awesome cacaphony. This time around it was positively tasteful. I probably wont be in Ithaca for the next installment, but I'm glad it's looking like this wont be the final installment.

ALSO: Earlier in the day as part of the Moog Exhibit at the Tompkins County History Center there was a DIY synth workshop with synthbuilder Taylan Cihan. I didn't make it, but it sounds like it was at least as awesome as Taylan's workshop for last year's DIY Electronic Music Symposium, for which I did a quick circuit bending and cassette tape loop demo.