Birdsongs of the Mesozoic (Multi-media Concert Performance)

When: 
Saturday, May 3, 2008 - 8:30pm
Room: 
32-123
Lecturer(s): 
Birdsongs of the Mesozoic

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic is a 4-piece electrified modern music ensemble formed in 1980. Michael Bierylo (guitar/laptop), Ken Field (sax/flute/percussion), Erik Lindgren (piano), and Rick Scott (synthesizer) have been recognized both individually and collectively as significant contributors to the world of modern creative music. With over twelve releases, the group has received international acclaim for its unique and creative blend of musical styles. Additional information is available at www.birdsongsofthemesozoic.org.

Birdsongs' performance will be augmented by large-screen real time projected visuals, including algorithmic imagery by musician and software designer Ned Resnikoff. Resnikoff will be employing his own custom music animation software Vizzy Lights, a real-time version of his Vizzy program. Vizzy is a music visualization process that uses multi-resolution wavelet-based spectral analysis to produce a responsive, detailed view of sound. Spectral data is embellished using OpenGL graphics, and controlled by a custom software application that allows the user to travel visually through sonic space.

"One of America's most original bands." - Honolulu Star-Bulletin

"If Beethoven were alive today he might even want to sit in with these guys."
Roanoke Times & World News

"A mesmerizing instrumental venture into the space-age jungle." - Billboard

"Pioneering" -Time Out NY

"Nearly legendary -- a chugging rough-edged chamber-rock ensemble" - Village Voice

"Very few bands have ever managed to straddle the worlds of modern classical music and rock as successfully as this one..." - All Music Guide

Sponsored by the Greater Boston Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (GBC/ACM) -- GBC/ACM is the local chapter of the international ACM-- the world's oldest and largest educational and scientific computing society, dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences, and applications of information technology, and for interpreting their impact on society at large. GBC/ACM sponsors monthly meetings on cutting edge topics in computer science, software development, and information technology.

Cost: Free

Lecturer Biography: 

For 25 years, Erik Lindgren has been prolific as a composer with over 4 dozen contemporary classical works. Along with Rick Scott, Lindgren is a charter member of Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, which formed in 1980. He also runs Arf! Arf!, an archival label with over 5 dozen releases dedicated to the preservation of '60s Garage/Psychedelic Rock and "Incredibly Strange Music." Arf! Arf! has also issued 4 CD retrospectives of his 1970-'80's studio moniker The Space Negros. Since 1979, Lindgren has run Sounds Interesting, a state-of-the-art 24-track digital studio and commercial music production company. Credits include scores for all three networks, PBS, Polaroid, Boston Globe, Prentice Hall, and Eastpak. His passions include travel, horseback riding, lap swimming, and record collecting.

Ken Field is a Cambridge-based saxophonist, flautist, percussionist, and composer. A member of Birdsongs since 1988, he has recorded eight CDs with the group. Field has performed in the US, Canada, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Japan, and has been Composer-in-Residence at the Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), the Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida). His releases include the solo CDs Subterranea and Pictures of Motion, documenting Field's ccompositions for layered alto saxophones, and Tokyo in F, a live recording of a spontaneously improvised Tokyo concert with three renowned Japanese musicians. His projects have been released on the Cuneiform, O.O.Discs, sFz Recordings, Sublingual, and Innova Recordings labels, and have been featured in The New York Times, Saxophone Journal, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and many other publications. Year of the Snake, recorded with his brass band the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, was included on best-of-year lists in New York City, New Orleans, and Milan. Field is a Vandoren Performing Artist. His music is also heard regularly on the children's television program Sesame Street. Information and CDs are available at www.kenfield.org.

Rick Scott is a founding member of Birdsongs, and still a man of few words.

Originally from Detroit, Michael Bierylo's early musical education came from a wealth of encounters ranging from Contemporary Composition with William Bolcom at the University Of Michigan to a misspent Summer playing Union halls with Motown sidemen. Further enlightenment followed under the tutelage of Guitar Pedagogue Jon Damien and Composer Michael Gibbs at Boston's Berklee College Of Music. Upon graduation (yes a BM.........) Bierylo spent most of the Reagan years in the wild and woolly Boston Rock scene. During this time, an ongoing interest in technology and introspection yielded two nationally distributed solo recordings, Lifeline and Cloud Chorus.
The 1990s brought new directions with tenure in Ibrahima's World Beat, documented on the release Sama Yie as well as a foray into eclectic improvised music with Packing For Egypt. In 1991, Bierylo replaced founding member Martin Swope in Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic. Mr. Bierylo is currently an Associate Professor of Music Synthesis at Berklee College of Music. His project studio, Virtual Planet, has been the source of music and sound design for numerous Film, Video and Multimedia projects over the last several years, serving clients such as Hasbro Interactive, Nintendo and Nickelodeon. A recent project with Olive Jar Animation Studios yielded music and sound design for Universal Studios Island Of Adventure. The studio continues as a laboratory for ongoing research. Mr. Bierylo lives at home (not his studio) with wife, child and 3 cats in lovely Brighton, Massachusetts.

Ned Resnikoff has been playing with music and computers for 25 years. His music visualizations have played in various film festivals and venues, including the Boston Visual Music Marathon and SIGGRAPH 2007. For more information about his work, please visit www.nedwaves.com.

Directions: 

Building 32 is the Stata Center on 32 Vassar Street. More information about the Stata Center can be found on the MIT campus map.