NEQUAQUAM VACUUM
PERFORMING AT SOMEDAY
Saturday, Jan 20 › 9pm › $5
GEKIKAI: post-asiatic salon starring BILL HORIST, VANESSA SKANTZE, DOUGLAS RIDIGNS, SHERI BROWN, NOAH MICKENS, IN THE DEEP MUSEUM, and NEQUAQUAM VACUUM.
"Gekikai" is a Japanese term, meaning both "The World of the Theater" and "The Ways of the Barbarian". Thus Gekikai is the name of our post-asiatic salon: a performative cultural space at the interstices of the radical and traditional arts of Asia and the West. Butoh, odissi, raga, jazz, noise—filtered through a post-modernist and distinctly Western perspective.
This installment of Gekikai revisits a long-form improvisation that happened earlier this year in Seattle. Bill Horist, arguably the world's great virtuoso of the prepared guitar, heads up a cast of post-asiatic musicians who interact both physically and sonically with dancers from the P.A.N., Death Posture, and Societas Insomnia.
About the artist
Founded in the year 2000 by Noah Mickens and Tyler Armstrong in a basement in Portland, OR; Nequaquam Vacuum self-released three CDs (Nequaquam Vacuum, |0|, and Jing) before coming into its golden age with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Travis McAlister in 2002. Using a combination of scrap metal percussion, homemade stringed instruments, the traditional drums and wind instruments of various cultures, glossolallia vocals, and live electronics and effects processing; the Vacuum developed a sound through lengthy improvisations which married the musics of the West and the East in an experimental context. Comparisons have been made to Indonesian gamelan, Chinese Noh Theater, Harry Partch, SPK, Tribes of Neurot, night ragas, and Einsturzende Neubauten. Appropriately enough, Nequaquam Vacuum has collaborated extensively with the butoh troupe P.A.N.; as well as other post-asiatic performers such as Soriah, The Master Musicians of Hop-Frog, and Sikhara. Other collaborators of particular note include saxophonist Steve MacKay, prepared guitarist Bill Horist, singing bowl sampler David Miranda, synthesizist Brighten Richardson, clarinetist Jonathan Sielaff, guitar-and-bass team Sam Mickens and Jherek Bischoff, and jazz duet Obe’Skupla.
During the unexpected disappearance of Mr. Armstrong, who turned out to have been in Turkey, Nequaquam Vacuum evolved into a rotating ensemble which primarily featured Mickens and McAlister, guitarist James Davis, sitarist Brian Crowl, scrap percussionist Rale Sidebottom, and the nomadic floutist and violinist known simply as J. This same period saw many of these musicians involved in creating music for the underground circus troupes Cicuri Curajul and Thee 999 Eyes Ov Endless Dream, and for the nightmare performance troupe Societas Insomnia.
The future remains as uncertain as ever, but for the moment the troupe seems intent upon the fusion of asiatic and western approaches to improvisation and instrumentation, extended rhythmic soloing, and unexpected outlashings of violence. We are entering into a period of providing the soundtracks for a recurring series of butoh and post-asiatic performances called Gekikai.
Performer links
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