alexwand

[alexwand]

Spectre

Hello friends! On the summer solstice, I'll be releasing Spectre, a 36-minute electroacoustic work that is a major component of my dissertation at UC Santa Cruz. The piece is comprised of field recordings from the Monarch Waystation Soundmap (MWS) project, and the complete materials—music, score, and dissertation essay—will be available on my Bandcamp.

Pre-order Spectre

Massive thanks to the MWS core collaborators who infused the project with their love, sweat, and creativity: Lydia Barrett (Ursa La Verre), Erik Miron (Comrade Caracol), Kyle Baker, Jessica Hemingway, and Stephanie Cheng Smith. For anyone interested, check out this wonderful 10-minute special on MWS by audio documentary maker Lusen Mendel that recently aired on KALW.

NYCEMF

In celebration of the release, cellist Ivan Carames and I will be performing Spectre as part of the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival on June 26th at the Sheen Center for Art and Culture in Greenwich Village. If you’re in the area, message me for the details!

Upcoming Shows

A Dawn and Two Dusks on May 30th and 31st at the Arboretum, Santa Cruz. Curated by Anna Friz, performing with Balakrishnan Raghavan and Rodrigo Barriga.

Rufus' Retreat (a solo guitar set) on June 7th, 4pm at Solarc, Los Angeles

Partch Ensemble on June 13th and 14th at REDCAT, Los Angeles

Two Tides on exhibit at ICOSA in Austin, playing on loop from sunset to sunrise in their art gallery, collaboration with Kathryn Shuman

Have a great Spring/Summer!

<3

Alex

[alexwand]

Announcement: I've accepted a teaching position at the University of Michigan! 

I'm thrilled to be joining the faculty at U-M's Residential College, where I'll be the Head of the Music Program. The Residential College is an amazing liberal arts living-learning community that was formative in my own education as an undergrad. I'm very happy to be returning to my home state and alma mater to teach music there. It's the beginning of the blue years. Go Blue!

[alexwand]

Kathryn Shuman and I are releasing an album on SADFAM Records! We're celebrating with a performance at Solarc Brewing in Los Angeles on March 23rd, 5pm wsg/Steve Blum. Hope to see you there. More info on the release below.

"Two Tides" is a meditative journey in which ethereal tones float serenely over field recordings of the sea. Like the rolling of the tide beneath the waves, Kathryn Shuman's vocals and Alex Wand's viola da gamba form subtle currents that draw the listener from moment to moment. Recorded in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz, California, this piece explores the ocean's contrasts, ebbing and flowing between the fleeting and the timeless.

-Erik Miron

We were thinking a lot about temporality when we made this. The irregular rhythms of the waves overlapping with the longer-scale time of the grotto in which they were recorded (Mitchell’s Cove in Santa Cruz). The grotto, carved out by the tides over many years, became the resonant body for the sounds of those same waves in the piece.

-Alex and Kat

Pre-order Two Tides here.

[alexwand]

9am-5pm: A looping installation of Monarch Waystation Soundmap (film) and Spectre (electroacoustic composition).

8pm: A set by Rodrigo Barriga followed by a live performance of Specre by Alejandro Botijo Madrid, Ivan Caramés, and Human Hemingway.

Tickets here!

-Alex

[alexwand]

Hello friends,

Kyle Baker and I created a film about the MWS project! The film contains new arrangements of sounds and songs made during our long-distance cycling pilgrimages and highlights some of our core collaborators: Jessica Hemingway (dance), Erik Miron (music), and Lydia Barrett (animation). In the film, we explore themes such as embodied listening, cycling stories from the road, and ecological futurism. We highlight the Western monarch’s perspectives, histories, and migratory challenges as well as the project's music practices.

We are excited to present our new monarch film at Solarc in Los Angeles this Wednesday at 7:30pm. See you there!

Best,

Alex

[alexwand]

Premiering my electroacoustic composition "Spectre," a collection of field recordings and songs from the Monarch Waystation Soundmap project. Sharing the bill with Odeya Nini and Rodrigo Barriga at Radius Gallery in Santa Cruz.

[alexwand]

New release!

"A Song Begins" is a musical manifesto set to synth-activated ocean waves. I'm happy to be releasing this on sadfam records as I made it in the context of this community and because this piece reflects our broad conception of “song” — encompassing everything from field recordings to electronic pieces to folk tunes.

The cover artwork is by my friend Sarah Butler, who is an artist and dancer—I'm a big fan of her work. I've always loved her embroidered photographs, so I commissioned her to make the artwork in that style. The picture is of the beach in Santa Cruz, where I took the field recording heard in the piece.

During the pandemic, Sarah and I were exchanging letters when Sarah was living on a farm in the Midwest. After I wrote this manifesto, I sent it to her by mail. She was one of the first people to read it, and she wrote me a letter back that was encouraging. It was part of the reason why I've decided to release it.

It's available on bandcamp and streaming platforms. Thank you for listening!

-Alex

[alexwand]

I had a fantastic time presenting an installation of Dance of the Planets and performing with Balakrishnan Raghavan at the Smithsonian for Sound Scene 2024!

[alexwand]

Happy spring equinox! Balakrishnan Raghavan and I present: “Tanjore Lullaby.” This piece is a musical improvisation for voice and resonator guitar based on a traditional lullaby from Tanjore, a city in India close to where Bala’s grandmother is from. We recorded this track in one uninterrupted take in the summer of 2023. Bala is an incredible Carnatic vocalist and dear friend, and it’s a pure joy to play music with them. Our piece is available on all streaming platforms. Thanks for giving it a listen!

[alexwand]

We've curated a music festival in LA celebrating the 10th anniversary of songadayforamonth.com. Come on by and help celebrate!

[alexwand]

[alexwand]

Desert Magic Bay area show this weekend. Hope to see you there!

[alexwand]

Join us at MorYork on May 26th! MorYork is a magical gallery run by Clare Ellis that features a lifetime of his incredible and bizarre found object artworks (think: a couch made of 10,000 rulers, cabinets adorned with human teeth, scrabble boards spelling Shakespeare poetry). Heather Lockie's Marshwah ensemble will be opening the evening, followed by a Desert Magic premier of new tao songs with dance interventions by Jessica Hemingway. We hope to see you there! Awesome poster by Mustafa Walker.

[alexwand]

Korea pt. 2 This past weekend, Partch did three concerts and a workshop at the Tongyeong Int’l Music Festival where we played Harry Partch’s Daphne of the Dunes and Plectra and Percussion Dances. What a treat to get to perform this music for new audiences, and alongside great acts such as Ensemble Modern, Giardino Harmonico, Wu Wei and more. Had so much fun making music and exploring this coastal city with my bandmates. I also stayed a few extra days and took a ferry to some of the nearby islands. Here’s a few moments that stand out in my mind: walking through the cherry blossom-lined streets in downtown (and getting our dance on to some live music happening nearby), Partch pre-show tuning meditations — think: four of us tuning a couple hundred zither strings in 43 notes per octave (quite a grounding thing to do before a performance, actually), digging into the very metal odd-meter harmonic canon riff in Daphne while Tim and Dustin rip bass boo/bass marimba solos, a chance dinner meeting with Kichul, a fan who came from Seoul just for our shows (he had all of our albums!), an electric concert by Korean folk song master Lee Hee-Moon (we even got to meet him afterward), the barefoot hike around Hansando Island where I made field recordings of virtuoso bird calls and stumbled upon a perfectly serene cat lounging on the mossy rocked shore. Until next time, Korea. 안녕히 가십시오!

[alexwand]

Korea pt. 1 안녕하세요, greetings from South Korea! Had a very special week at Woljeongsa monastery where I learned Seon meditation from Sunim and got to hang with Moonsu, who translated and taught me about Korean Buddhism and the history of this magical place. Some highlights: the sound of the 'call to service' bell at 4:20am every morning, performing a solo set for an evening gathering at the temple, going on barefoot walks in the Odaesan forest, teas with Sunim, Moonsu, and friends. I was really inspired by Sunim's meditation prompts that flipped the act of listening onto itself: "what is doing the hearing/listening?" (Hint: not the ears!). Moonsu also organized a show for me at his friend's bar in the city of Gyeong-ju. Thanks so much for your generosity and kindness, Sunim and Moonsu. Stay tuned for part 2: The Partch Ensemble (@partchensemble) is playing at the Tongyeong International Music Festival (@timf_tongyeong) this weekend!

[alexwand]

Dance of the Planets by Desert Magic // Winter Solstice, 2022. danceoftheplanets.com Performed by Heather Lockie, Kathryn Shuman, Erin Schneider, Lydia Barrett, Steven Van Betten, Balakrishnan Raghavan, Sepand Shahab, Diego Gaeta, Steve Blum, Alex Wand. Film shot and edited by Colin Rosemont.

[alexwand]

I wrote an article about Mappping Sonic Futurities that recently came out in Refract's 'Sensing Place' publication! Here's the link. Thanks for reading!