The Loose Filter Project

If John Cage were alive today

Dustin Soiseth — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:14:47 PST

he'd dig this house-sized, nature-powered music box created by NOLA's Quintron. If you liked Singing House you should check out Quintron's Drum Buddy. Acquire one and you could improvise trios with Fred Armisen and Lauri Anderson.

Pulp Fiction in chronological order and the inevitable majority of remix culture

Stuart Sims — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:30:07 PST

Something I've wanted to see for years, Pulp Fiction in chronological order: Plus, a very interesting thought about the inevitably rising majority of remix culture: "For most people, sharing and remixing with attribution and no commercial intent is instinctually a-okay..... What happens when — and this is inevitable — a generation completely comfortable with remix culture becomes a majority of the electorate, instead of the fringe youth?"

Temescal noir

Dustin Soiseth — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:45:35 PST

Mason Bates performs his very cool piece The B-Sides with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

“It’s Just a F**king Little 16th Note. But You Have to Play It.”

Stuart Sims — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:09:46 PST

Great short read about the best lesson ever learned from a teacher.

I left my quarter tone marimba in San Francisco

Dustin Soiseth — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 10:41:46 PST

A few months ago I was fortunate enough to be asked to write an article for NewMusicBox about the SF new music scene. For the next few weeks I dutifly pounded the pavement (and Bay Bridge), met a lot of very cool folks, and heard some fantastic new music. The article, published last week (link below), centered around the remarkable Magik*Magik Orchestra, then branched out from there in a 6 Degrees from Kevin Bacon kind...

Yes, Jesus Loves Me - Free Ives Download

Dustin Soiseth — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:53:40 PDT

UPDATE: Well, the free download is no longer available, but you can hear Hilary performing some of the tunes found in the sonatas, as well as some Bach, courtesy of NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts. Hilary Hahn on Tiny Desk NYC's Q2 is commemorating Ives' birthday by offering a free download - today only! - of Hilary Hahn and Valentina Lisitsa's recording of Ives' Violin Sonata No. 4 'Children's Day at Camp Meeting. Great performance.

Performing Arts job plunge: sobering stats reveal rapidly growing fundamental crisis

Stuart Sims — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 12:14:21 PDT

The past few months have seen a steep decline in the number of performing arts jobs in the United States, with employment now at its lowest level since 1990: More here. It is now more important than ever for those of us in the performing arts to ask some hard questions about the sustainability of how we do what we want to do.

Brooklyn Phil Fall Preview

Dustin Soiseth — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 09:11:22 PDT

UPDATE: the audio is off the air, unfortunately. Mos Def's performance of Rzewski's Coming Together, was really something. Here's a different recording of the piece. Frederic Rzewski - Coming Together In case you missed it, here's the Brooklyn Phil's Fall Preview Concert featuring music by Mos Def, Frederic Rzewski, Lev Zhurbin, David T. Little and Corey Dargel. It's only up for a few more days.

Golijov introduces his works

Dustin Soiseth — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:18:35 PDT

Osvaldo Golijov discusses his works - nifty resource from WQXR. It's not the most in-depth stuff, but it's still nice to hear a composer talking about their works.

OPERA REMIX is here! Tonight!

Stuart Sims — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:22:17 PDT

Tonight at the State Theater in Modesto, California: Opera Remix, from Townsend Opera. You can read all about it on the Remix webpage, but this event is a major foray into the real world for the Loose Filter philosophy (disclosure: I'm Creative Consultant for this project with the opera company...so any similarities are not coincidental at all). Here's a clip from the reading rehearsal last night with orchestra only, playing Jonathan Newman's setting of Here...

What happens when you let the students program the concert?

Stuart Sims — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:54:37 PDT

Being an entirely student-run ensemble, the Trinity Orchestra in Ireland does just that. Their repertoire from last spring? Daft Punk: Their most recent concert featured The Arcade Fire. You can follow them on Facebook here.

On second thought

Dustin Soiseth — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:30:41 PDT

Jonah Lehrer writes about how emotional decision-making may be better than rational decision-making when faced with complex choices. While there is an extensive literature on the potential wisdom of human emotion, it’s only in the last few years that researchers have demonstrated that the emotional system (aka Type 1 thinking) might excel at complex decisions, or those involving lots of variables. If true, this would suggest that the unconscious is better suited for difficult cognitive...