Stop Making Sense
A Sonic Performance Series curated by Randy Nordschow
This series features experimental music and interdisciplinary performances in a format that pairs two unrelated artists in single evening events in an aim to create a dialogue between the work, to reveal affinities, and provoke unexpected associations.

Compomicro-Dexall
Spezza Rotto
(Saturday, October 13th, 9 PM)
$7-$10 sliding scale admission
The evening begins with Compomicro-Dexall’s Memory, or Cream of Memory, a new piece that entangles sheets of noise, delicate microrhythms, massive stomping marches, and a curiously haunting Spanish prose. Mike Guarino (drums/percussion) and Jake Rodriguez (bass/voice/synth) will provide the tools for clarification as they dislocate the divisions between composed and improvised music.
Guarino and Rodriguez have been playing together since 1995 in various configurations, and under various names including Livestock and Topple.
Spezza Rotto is a ferociously absurd mix of rock, noise, opera and Futurism. The band's lyrics are translated via the Internet into Italian, and delivered in a virtuosic tongue-in-cheek demeanor. With spastic melodies and a flare for the dramatic, the inscrutable atmosphere is by no means lost in the translation. Spezza Rotto is John Shiurba (guitar), Eli Crews (bass), Morgan Guberman (vocals), and Tom Scandura (drums). Other entities these fellas have been involved in include: Anthony Braxton Ensemble, the Molecules, Boar Baby, Optimist International, Eskimo, Grnd Ntnl Brnds, Ebola Soup, Moe!kestra, Shinola, Spotted Dick, the Roofies, Witches and Devils, and Vacuum Tree Head.

Cenk Ergun & Alvin Curran
Kattt Sammon with Peggy DeCoursey & Andrew Harkins
Sunday, October 21th, 9 PM
$7-$10 sliding scale admission
Oakland based composer and founding member of Simple Sample, Cenk Ergun, together with internationally renowned composer and sound artist Alvin Curran, present a duo for laptops and samplers, Super Patlican - a Mediterranean mythology in the form of an eggplant - an ancient digital vegetable. From Mount Olympus on the southwestern shores of Turkey, there is a site where methane fires are burning day and night from the rocky ground- a kind of inexplicable magic where earth, air fire and water all converge. Cenk and Alvin are seen sitting in a nearby cafe drinking dark strong tea from a glass...without any reason they start laughing, and from nowhere the music begins.
Using her voice and body (movement) to create evocative and intense sound works, Kattt Sammon focuses her attention on the details that create syntax. Joined by Peggy DeCoursey and Andrew Harkins, Sammon will explore and play with meaning, asking: What happens to a house when the person is not at home and the phone rings? What does it say about yourself if you choose not to put a napkin on your lap at the dinner table? Why does a word that is written mean something completely different when it is said out loud?

Blevin Blectum (aka D84)
Tog
Saturday, October 27th, 9 PM
$7-$10 sliding scale admission
Blevin Blectum, who also appears as D84, is one half of Blectum from Blechdom. Tonight she depends on her own samplers, live electronics, and talon slalomings. Her music has been released on the Dial, Orthlorng, Deluxe, Phthalo, Toyo, Ski-pp, andTigerbeat6 labels. She recently returned from the Ars Electronica 2001, where Blectum from Blechdom was a recipient of the Digital Music Prize.
Recently transplanted from Tokyo, Tog is a new media duo of sampling artists that create crispy, geometrical sound environments of digital origin. Basing their work together in live improvisation, Tog crafts strangely cheerful vistas with colors drawn from the 21st century’s sonic palette of electronic culture. Tog has performed in public parks, cyber space, universities, bars, and music venues such as the Knitting Factory.