Brooklyn Bound - So Percussion

The loft scene is alive!

Now in its fifth year, Brooklyn Bound is a popular series of concerts at Sō’s working studio in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn. Casual and intimate, the concerts feature us and emerging ensembles from our local scene. The groups are encouraged to try out new material, premiere new commissions, completely experiment, or just get another performance under their belt.

When Sō Percussion first started performing in New York City, there were many venues – Galapagos, The Stone, 285 Kent, The Tank – where artists could play for small groups and experiment. We’d try new music and get feedback from other artists and avid fans of our scene. In recent years these venues moved away or closed as rents skyrocketed. We want to keep some of that spirit alive in our own studio, both for ourselves and for younger artists who need to play those gigs as well.

Brooklyn Bound is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Upcoming Shows

November 6, 2018 – Empyrean Atlas, Charmaine Lee, and Kaoru Watanabe

Empyrean Atlas is the band of composer/multi-instrumentalist David Crowell. Members of Empyrean Atlas have performed and/or recorded with the Philip Glass Ensemble, The National, Bear in Heaven, Steve Reich, Steve Coleman, Bing & Ruth, Briars of North America, Olga Bell, Happy Place, Little Women and many others. Empyrean Atlas has been featured on the New York Times Pop Music Playlist of the Week as well as numerous times on WNYC’s New Sounds program, including a live performance with John Schaefer and a special podcast on electric guitarist/composers. In July 2015, Wilco named Inner Circle as one of their 17 favorite records of the year.

Charmaine Lee is a New York-based vocalist from Sydney, Australia. Her music is predominantly improvised, favoring a uniquely personal approach to vocal expression concerned with spontaneity, playfulness, and risk-taking. Beyond extended vocal technique, Charmaine uses amplification, electroacoustic feedback, and microphones to augment and distort the voice. She has performed with leading improvisers Nate Wooley, id m theft able, and Joe Morris, and maintains ongoing collaborations with contemporaries Lester St. Louis, Conrad Tao, Zach Rowden, Leila Bordreuil, and Ben Bennett. She has performed at venues such as the Met Breuer, Roulette, the Stone, and Experimental Sound Studios (Chicago). As a composer, Charmaine has been commissioned by the Wet Ink Ensemble (2018), and has a forthcoming commission with Spektral Quartet (2018).

Kaoru Watanabe is a composer and musician specializing in Japanese flutes and percussion, known for working a wide range of artists, from Yo-Yo Ma and the Silkroad Ensemble to filmmaker Wes Anderson to flamenco dancer Eva Yerbabuena. Watanabe will be performing excerpts from a new work-in-progress suite called Gokan.

For more information about this event, please visit our Facebook page.

To read more about the artists:

empyreanatlasmusic.com
www.charmaineleemusic.com
www.watanabekaoru.com

November 7, 2018 – Anna Meadors, Evan Chapman, and Go Placidly with Haste

Evan Chapman will be performing a program of newly commissioned solo works for drum set & electronics by composers Ted Babcock, Alicia Walter, Ian Chang, Anna Meadors, Robert Honstein, Alexis Lamb, and Molly Joyce.

Go Placidly with Haste is a new set of flexible instrumentation music I have been writing over the past year. It including a series of ensemble pieces along with a series of solos to be interspersed. At Brooklyn Bound, we will play a set of 5 of these pieces as we experiment with what live versions of these pieces can be.

Joy on Fire (John Paul Carillo, Anna Meadors and Chris Olsen) will debut several works-in-progress, including “Thunderdome (Hats Off to the Mods)” and “Shortages.” These two songs were written in collaboration with Best New American Series award-winning poet Dan Gutstein. Though Dan will sing and recite on these tunes in the future, he will not be present for Brooklyn Bound, as he currently resides in Humboldt County, CA. In lieu of Dan’s presence, Anna will sing/chant—her first live lead-vocal performance!—on “Thunderdome.” And on “Shortages,” the vocal—for this performance only—will be replaced by Anna’s alto sax. Anna will also be performing a work-in-progress solo saxophone piece, and will be playing with Evan Chapman on Bird Fish, which she originally wrote for him as a solo drum set and electronics piece.

For more information about this event, please visit our Facebook page.

To read more about the artists:

www.evanmchapman.com
www.jasontreuting.com
www.joyonfire.com

March 5, 2019 – Arx Duo, Alex Dowling and Emma O’Halloran, and Travis LePlante

March 6, 2019 – Owen Lake and the Tragic Loves, W2, and Sō Percussion

May 7, 2019 – Kendall Williams, Daniel Matei, and Troika

May 8, 2019 – An evening curated by DITHER

Doors at 7:45pm
First come first served
$10 suggested donation

Sō Percussion studio
20 Grand Ave, #205, Brooklyn
(between Flushing and Park)

email Yumi Tamashiro for more information.

Click here for Studio Tech Specs