Clavius Productions presents the return of Erik Ruin's Ominous Cloud Ensemble to one of our favorite venues, West Philly's Rotunda. Joining us will be DC's renowned duo Janel & Anthony, who have released albums on Cuneiform. Anthony is also the guitarist in The Messthetics with Joe Lally and Brendan Canty of Fugazi. They will each perform solo sets before collaborating with the Cloud.
doors at 7:30pm, all ages
Erik Ruin's Ominous Cloud Ensemble
https://ominouscloudensemble.bandcamp.com/.../soon-now-gone
https://www.facebook.com/Ominouscloudensemble/
https://ominouscloudensemble.bandcamp.com/.../soon-now-gone
https://www.facebook.com/Ominouscloudensemble/
ERIK RUIN'S OMINOUS CLOUD ENSEMBLE is an ever-evolving, collectively-improvising large ensemble for projections and music, led by visual artist Erik Ruin, lauded by the New York Times for his "spellbinding cut-paper animations." Erik manipulates intricate paper-cuts and painted films on overhead projectors to create abstract landscapes and fragmentary scenes that are nonetheless charged with meaning, merging with music that ranges from dark atmospherics to ecstatic peaks of dissonance. Recently his work has grown to encompass manipulated video footage and hand-drawn animation. Members of the ensemble include a rotating cast of Philly's finest musicians -- for this performance they include Myles Donovan (Disemballerina) on viola and harp, Carlos Santiago (Normal Love) on violin, Jesse Sparhawk (Fern Knight) on pedal steel and guitar, Julius Masri (Mephisto Halabi) on electronics, composer Quinn Collins on bass and Scott Verrastro (Kohoutek) on percussion/flutes/whistles.
Anthony Pirog
https://anthonypirog.bandcamp.com/
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pocket-poem-2
https://anthonypirog.bandcamp.com/
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pocket-poem-2
Anthony Pirog is a guitarist who currently lives in New York City but honed his unique take on freely improvised music while living in the Washington DC area. He is a guitarist well-versed in many genres of music and performs as a solo musician, in a duo with cellist Janel Leppin, and leads his own trio and sextet. As a composer, he is adventurous and explores the possibilities that the guitar, both acoustic and electric, has to offer. He has recently released his first solo CD on Sonic Mass Records titled Beginning to End, which is a collection of guitar improvisations.
Mr. Pirog has mastered the use of many effects pedals and his performances produce an eclectic set of improvisations. He has toured the U.S. extensively and performed with Elliott Sharp and Mary Halvorson and has opened for such people as Peter Brotzmann, Andrea Parkins, Susan Alcorn, Marshall Allen, Evan Parker, Alan Licht, Jandek, Matmos and Eugene Chadbourne. He was also a member of Skysaw (with Jimmy Chamberlain of Smashing Pumpkins) and is currently in the Messthetics (with Joe Lally and Brendan Canty of Fugazi).
Janel Leppin (born 1981) is an American singer, jazz cellist and multi-instrumentalist. She has performed at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and at many international festivals worldwide including the High Zero Festival, the Swedish Women in Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival and Washington Women in Jazz Festival. She has acted as curator for works shown at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the ISSUE Project Room.
Leppin has released three solo recordings, Mellow Diamond (2016), Songs for Voice and Mellotron (2016), and American God (2017). She collaborates as part of Janel and Anthony with her husband, American guitar player Anthony Pirog. Recordings of her work as a composer and side musician appear on Sacred Bones, Bella Union, Touch, Tzadik, Sub Pop, Editions Mego, Sister Polygon, Dischord Records, Ideologic Organ and Cuneiform Records. Her work uses experimental, avant-garde, jazz, free jazz, classical, ambient and rock influences.
Admission is FREE. Donations are strongly suggested.