SWARMIUS

REFLECTIONS ON THE 2015 CARLSBAD MUSIC FESTIVAL

Unusually hot, muggy weather did not discourage Saturday’s (August 29) crowds from sampling that cornucopia of musical possibilities offered at the annual Carlsbad Music Festival. Now in its 12th season, the festival opened with two programs on Friday (August 28) evening, but Saturday’s day-long calendar bulged with multiple simultaneous offerings in venues spread across downtown Carlsbad.

Although contemporary music appears in numerous styles and approaches, two Saturday programs struck me as polar opposites on one significant continuum: simplicity to complexity. In her solo recital at the Carlsbad Community Church, pianist Vicki Ray set out the minimalist aesthetic in masterful accounts of works by Steve Reich, Somei Satoh and Donnacha Dennehy. In the open-air stage at State and Grand, composer Joseph Waters and his Swarmius Ensemble played ten of Waters’ intensely layered, ruggedly contrapuntal and fiendishly virtuosic works.

To be clear, I am not implying for a moment that Ray’s pieces for piano and recorded or digitally manipulated sound sources were simple or that they did not require a highly sophisticated technique to perform. On the contrary, the Reich “Piano Counterpoint,” for example, required precise ostinato patterns to be repeated for great expanses of time, and Dennehy’s “Stainless Staining” worked dynamic and textural crescendos into his even denser iterations over longer stretches. Ray’s control and stamina throughout was amazing, and for the high degree of precision these minimalist works required, I never sensed a mechanical or purely metronomic approach to her passionate performance.

If these minimalist icons value stasis, or subtle variation within the clear boundaries of a stable soundscape, Waters’ approach values the constant development and extension of athletic, hyperkinetic themes. His “Dragon” and “Orpheus is a Tip-toed Steam Horse” seem at times to be overlapping cadenzas for the alto and soprano saxophones and the vibraphone, with the computer synthesized continuo egging them on.

Ray’s pieces suggested Zen meditation, while Waters’ work suggested spirit-possessed Pentacostal exultation. If these two approaches could be compared to 20th century painting, Ray’s minimalism might be a dark Mark Rothko and Waters’ exuberance a swirling surrealist Joan Miró.

Ray’s performance of Japanese composer Somei Satoh’s “Incarnation II” proved the most Zen-like, relying on the quick alternation of close tones in the middle of the piano keyboard being repeated by one-second delay through the speakers. This wall of sound suggested the drone of a squadron of propellor-driven aircraft flying high above the landscape.

Swarmius introduced two premieres for the Carlsbad Festival audience, “St. Francis,” an ode to living in harmony with creation, as espoused by Pope Francis’ recent encyclical “Laudato Si’,“ and “Pacific 565 Fugue Remix,” a recasting of a J. S. Bach Fugue (the one attached to the famous D Minor Organ Toccata) as an extroverted Cuban dance. For those who know the organ fugue, it was fun hearing its contrapuntal themes weave in an out of this boisterous choreography.

Kudos to the Swarmius virtuosi: alto saxophone Todd Rewoldt, soprano sax Michael Couper and vibraphone/percussion maestro Andrew Kreysa. Neither the heat of mid-afternoon nor the wail of the Amtrak trains that roared behind them (the State and Grand corner is but a block from the Carlsbad Amtrak and Coaster station) interfered with their concentration and adroit realization of Waters’ demanding scores.

Fans of minimalism and contemporary piano performance take note. In Ray’s verbal program notes explaining how Reich’s “Piano Counterpoint,” which was originally scored for six pianos, was transformed into the version she performed, she said that the pianist Vicky Chow had recorded four of the six piano parts on the track that came through the speakers, and the other two piano parts were combined into the solo score Ray realized. Vicky Chow will appear in concert at Dizzy’s on October 29, 2015, as part of this fall’s Fresh Sound series.

Under Founder and Artistic Director Matt McBane, the Twelfth annual Carlsbad Music Festival filled Carlsbad Village with music from August 28-30, 2015.

www.carlsbadmusicfestival.org - SAN DIEGO STORY

January 31, 2008 George Varga

'SWARMIUS,” the debut album by the San Diego trio of the same name, should delight listeners with an appetite for edgy aural adventure. But it may also puzzle anyone who tries to describe the dizzying, multi-genre-leaping work produced by this freewheeling San Diego group, whose members' stage names (such as “Fiddlus El Gato”) seem inspired by those of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band.
SWARMIUS' members gamely summarize their music as “an unlikely sonic fusion of hip-hop and lounge-techno meets modern-classical.” It's a catchy monicker, even if it makes for a clumsy acronym – USFHPLTMMC? – more suggestive of an exclamation by Superman's impish nemesis, Mister Mxyzptlk.

But it doesn't really do justice to SWARMIUS' shape-shifting synthesis, which also draws from jazz, the Yoruba music of Nigeria, Eastern European klezmer, Indonesian gamelan, electronica, hip-hop, vaudeville, avant garde, and more.

If this sounds like the ultimate mash-up for hipsters, it probably is. But the members of SWARMIUS appear capable of more than crafting a meticulous studio creation that can't be reproduced live. This should be demonstrated at their Saturday album-release concert at the Neurosciences Institute Auditorium in La Jolla.

One of the most appealing qualities of SWARMIUS' music is how well it mixes acoustic instruments (specifically, violin, saxophone and vibraphone), with laptop computers. What results is simultaneously exotic and familiar, intricate and inviting. (You can order the CD online from swarmius.com.)

All three of the group's core members are music professors at SDSU. However, at just age 32 each, saxophonist Todd “Saximus” Rewoldt and violinist Felix “Fiddlus El Gato” Olschofka are young enough to be grad students, not faculty members.

The third member, Joe “Jozefius Rattus” Waters, 55, is the director of SDSU's electro-acoustic and media composition. Swarmius' album also features Oregon percussionist Joel “Crotalius Redfoot” Bluestone. He'll be featured at Saturday's concert, along with dancers Leslie Seiters, Ron Estes and Justin Morrison.

SWARMIUS' goal is to make classical music relevant and appealing to younger audiences. It's a daunting task, but the group seems up to the challenge and its album features some of the most enjoyable cutting-edge music I've heard in quite a while. - San Diego Union Tribune

by Kinsee Morlan

San Diego City Beat, Sept. 20, 2006

Joseph Waters, a skinny and intense man with a gray crew cut and thick, wild eyebrows, takes the small stage at San Diego State University’s Smith Recital Hall. He introduces himself as Jozefius V. Rattus, invites the crowd to squeeze in closer, and begins poking fun at the antievolution theory “intelligent design.” The crowd of mostly students and faculty giggles and applauds. Two hip–looking cats in their late 20s join Waters on stage—Todd Rewoldt (aka Saximus), with his shiny alto saxophone, and Felix Olschofka (aka Fiddlus), with his violin. Collectively, the three go by the name SWARMIUS.

Waters leaves the stage and heads to the back of the recital hall, where he’ll be working the soundboard and playing music from his laptop. Rewoldt and Olschofka kick things off with “Suite for Violin and Saxophone,” a lovely piece of chamber music written by composer Adolf Busch. The violin is near perfect and the sax never sounded so classy.

The second piece is a Waters original—he splits his time as a composer and professor of music at SDSU, where he holds the title of director of electro–acoustic and media composition. The piece is called “Vivaldi Fireflies” and it’s a hell of a lot different than the first. Rewoldt and his sax leave the stage. The violin is plugged in, and explosive electronic sounds sweep in and out. The sounds are manipulated field recordings of instruments, streams, bugs and pretty much anything you can imagine, and they are being generated by Waters’ laptop. He’s written a software program that lets him strike the keys of the computer as if it were a musical instrument.

The music is intense, crammed with dramatic crescendos followed by abrupt pauses. It’s gorgeous, but undefinable. It makes you wonder: Is there an audience for this? Rewoldt and his sax reenter for the third piece. It’s another Waters original called “Intelligent Designs,” and it’s got soul—you can hear it when a sample of Ludacris’ hip-hop hit “Roll Out” is pounded out in chorus by the electronics, violin and sax. After the show, the question—Is there an audience for this strange music?—is answered. One woman runs to the front of the recital hall, bangs on the stage and tells Waters the show was “phenomenal.” Two younger women approach him a little later. “That was, like, the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard!” one of them shrieks. “Will you sign our programs?”

So, there’s at least a small audience for it.

But don’t let the enthusiasm fool you—Waters’ music is still a far cry from the gushing waters of the mainstream. Positioned on the outer banks of the avant–garde, his electro–acoustic music is considered experimental—the word itself scares most people away. They immediately think weird and never even give it a listen. Waters wants that to change. Describing himself as a “populist composer,” he wants to “make love with popular culture.” He says his dream is to break his music from its constrictive shell—he wants to bring experimental music to the masses.

“I knew that I wanted to start some type of experimental who–knows–what,” said Waters, “something to do with weird art and interesting music.” Waters’ dream has taken shape as the New West Electro–Acoustic Music Organization (NWEAMO), a festival showcasing experimental electro–acoustic musicians and composers from around the globe. Now in its eighth year, NWEAMO has grown from its beginnings as a small, underground music gathering in Portland, Ore., to a full–blown, multi–city music festival—albeit still underground— drawing in relatively big–name performers. The Nortec Collective has been in a past lineup, and this year, Bradford Reed of the Blue Man Group will perform.

The festival is traveling to Portland this week, San Diego next week and New York in the first week of October. Waters says he wants to attract bigger, more diverse crowds than in years past. He says he’s sick of playing music for the same old electronica-loving music nerds. “I really want to reach into popular culture but keep that aura of experimentation,” Waters said. It’s no easy task, especially in San Diego, where the only venue he’s ever been able to secure is the Smith Recital Hall. “Now it has the stigma of being held at a university,” said Waters, ?which I really want to get away from.”

To help loosen the mood of the festival, Waters clears the chairs from the first few aisles of the recital hall. He leaves room for dancing and puts down air mattresses close to the speakers so people can kick back, close their eyes and get the full experience. “When it’s all happening, it’s such a blast,” he said. The music you’ll hear at NWEAMO this year can’t be easily put into one nice little musical–genre box. On the more conservative end, you’ll see performers like Adam Raquesa using his voice, piano and laptop. On the more radical end, you’ll see guys like Canadian composer Maxime Rioux, with his army of 40 automates—tiny robot–like instruments built from pieces of instruments and second–hand household items.

The one unifying factor is the festival’s theme this year—the influence of African music. Most of the showcased compositions will be more rhythmic and beat–oriented. Lukas Ligeti, the son of famous composer György Sándor Ligeti—whose works have helped score some of Stanley Kubrick’s films—will be performing his African–influenced music, compositions he describes as a mix of “Western jazz, improvisation and African traditional.” “My music is unusual in a lot of ways,” said Ligeti. “But a lot of people can relate to it.”

SWARMIUS will be playing their Ludacris–inspired piece at the festival, too.

“It’s beyond what you’d hear on the dance floor,” explained Waters; “it keeps the idea of beats, but it pushes it to a more interesting level.”

NWEAMO will be held at the Smith Recital Hall on SDSU campus Thursday, Sept. 28, through Saturday, Sept. 30. $8—$12. www.nweamo.org or call 619–594–1696.

09/20/06





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- San Diego City Beat

Swarmius is a four-man unit. Their music combines industrial, modern classical, world influenced music and a bunch of other things for a mix that has its own trajectory.

Heading up the band is Jozefius (Joseph Waters) who composes the music and uses a laptop to stretch, alter and augment the sounds created. Todd Rewoldt plays reeds, Felix Olschofka is on violin (quite adeptly so), and Joel Bluestone is the percussionist.

Their first, self-titled album (on Aleppo) has some rather startling musical content. Think of Zappa in his most ambitious vein. But don't think of his music; Swarmius does something different. There are driving pulses, exotic timbres, somewhat traditional sounding violin concerto pyrotechnics juxtiposed with rather untraditional accompaniment, and on from there.

The results are rather marvelous. Swarmius respects no rules about what goes with what. And that is most refreshing. Highly recommended.

Go to www.swarmius.com for more info.
posted by gapplegate at 5:08 am
labels: "fusion", industrial, modern classical, music beyond category
- Gapplegate Music Review 1

Reviews:

"....marvelous, orchestrally conceived music [with] driving pulses, exotic timbres, violin concerto pyrotechnics and on from there. Combines industrial, modern classical, world influenced music and a bunch of other things for a mix that has its own trajectory. Swarmius Defies Categorization."
— Gapplegate Music Review

"Dizzying, multi-genre-leaping work — [a] shape-shifting synthesis — simultaneously exotic and familiar, intricate and inviting — One of the most appealing qualities is how well it mixes acoustic instruments with laptop computers ...."
— San Diego Union Tribune

"ravishingly beautiful..."
— Paris Transatlantic Magazine

"It is Moby gone over to a dark side, where Yoko Ono is the Dungeon Master and Brian Eno keeps score."
— The San Diego Reader

" ...The music is intense, crammed with dramatic crescendos followed by abrupt pauses. ... gorgeous, but undefinable."
— San Diego City Beat
- San Diego Union Tribune, San Diego Reader, San Diego City Beat, Paris Tans-Allantic, Gapplegate Musi