PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact
Edward Schocker, Executive Director
(510) 545-6689
Thingamajigs and Shapeshifters Cinema Announces
Edward Schocker’s Dodecachordon 7-12
A multi-hour sound world based on a 16th Century book
Dodecachordon 7-12
Sunday, May 21, 2023
11am - 6pm
Shapeshifters Cinema
567 5th Street
Oakland, CA 94607
OAKLAND, CA, –Dodecachordon, a 12-part work by composer Edward Schocker, combines multiple electric guitars and the natural acoustics of a room to explore the energetic relationships between pure harmonic vibrations. Supported with live projected images by Keith Evans, Shapeshifters Cinema will be transfixed with abstract projections and the deep sound of drones produced by six electric guitars. Listeners are encouraged to traverse throughout the space and explore the unique acoustic and psychoacoustic phenomena that occur.
Sharing the title with a 16th century book written by a Swiss Monk, Heinrich Glarean (1488-1563), Dodecachordon reflects the Medieval church modes into a modern light using alternate tuning systems. Neither a performance nor an installation, this 6-hour work invites audience members to come and go as they please and to stroll, lay down, or meditate within a sonically and visually altered space.
“I’ve always been fascinated with the church modes of the Medieval Period. Although we only use the major and minor scales today, each of these six Medieval modes have unique brightnesses and darknesses that have not been fully explored in music. With Dodecachordon I was motivated to look deeper into the harmonic sound worlds of these ancient modes.”
About the artists:
Edward Schocker is a composer and performer who creates music with made/found materials and alternate tuning systems. In 1999 and 2000 Edward was artist in residence at the European Dance Development Center in Düsseldorf, Germany where he took part in and conducted workshops in instrument building, and composer/choreographer collaborations. In 2004 Edward composed music for an UNESCO sponsored work with Echo Arts –a large bicommunal project in Cyprus that helped build understanding between communities in conflict.
Edward’s artist in residence and commissions include Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Stanford Lively Arts, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Sacred and Profane Chamber Choir, Firebird Youth Chinese Orchestra in San Jose, and Youkobo Art Space in Tokyo. In 2006 he was awarded The NEA/Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Fellowship to research Japanese musical instruments and tuning systems, and in 2010 received a 6-month residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts. Recently he was an artist in residence at the Paul Dresher Ensemble’s ARC program.
Keith Evans is a paranaturalist, investigating the natural and historic narratives of the Bay Area landscape primarily through an expanded idea of cinema and performance. His artwork is created in a cross-media array; Using language, graphics, book arts, installation, kinetic sculpture, dance, film, video and sound. His most recent works were utube, for Shapeshifters Cinema and an installation, neither here nor there, as part of Ambient Dew Point, a gallery exhibition displaying works by Bay Area media artists.
CALENDAR EDITORS, PLEASE FILE UNDER EVENTS, FESTIVALS, OR MUSIC:
Edward Schocker’s Dodecachordon 7-12
Presented by Thingamajigs and Shapeshifters Cinema
Sunday, May 21, 2023, 11:00am - 6pm
FREE Admission
Shapeshifters Cinema
567 5th Street
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 545-6689