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Earshot Jazz presents The Seattle Phonographers Union
Thursday July 23
7:30 pm
$7-$15 sliding scale
Chapel Performance Space
4649 Sunnyside Ave. N, 4th floor, Seattle, WA (corner of 50th St. in
Wallingford)

The Seattle Phonographers Union is a collective of Seattle sound artists who
improvise with unprocessed field recordings from around the world. we strive
to create compelling juxtapositions of everyday and esoteric sounds to
arrive at surreal soundscapes.

Presented by Earshot Jazz, “The Second Century” series presents groups whose
members appear to have their fingers on the pulse of change in the art form.
The goal of the Second Century series is not to grant greater credence to
any particular way of creating jazz, nor to rule out any way of deploying
its previous stylistic turns. But moving ahead, through whatever combination
of mining the past and making use of new ideas, is the key: The series aims
to detect some of the directions jazz and jazz-related musicians are taking
to enliven their playing and our listening.

The members of the group are Steve Barsotti, Pete Comley, Christopher DeLaurenti, Doug Haire, Susie Kozawa, Dale Lloyd, Perri Lynch, Robert Millis, Toby Paddock, Steve Peters, and Jonathan Way. Barsotti explains the group’s relation to jazz: “While the SPU may sonically sound distant from the traditional jazz intrumentarium, our unusual approach honors the core of jazz and all improvised music: listening.” They proceed without a predetermined format, scores, charts, or even cues. “Collectively, we wait and listen,” says Barsotti. “Without conferring, we trust our ears to listen to ourselves and each other, fashioning immediate juxtapositions, gradual contrasts, and subtle layers.”

The uncanny results are strangely provocative. And, as Barsotti says, “some members do not believe what we make is music; others within the SPU stoutly do.”
www.seapho.org

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