Cosmists-Luggage Store, SF CA; 2/5/16

Driving into San Francisco, Andrew and I were a bit worried about snarled traffic due to the Superbowl mania currently infecting the City, but, by some minor miracle, we were able to snag a space really close to the Luggage Store, pretty much right at 6th St. and Market. It seemed like a portent of a good night.
Indeed, a good night it was! Cosmists played two pieces: one from a score that I wrote, featuring colored, circular matrices that were used as guides for improvised playing, cues for poems, and short notated rhythmic cells. Using this method makes me very happy, and I felt that, for the most part, it worked really well. Cosmists were able to collectively produce about 32 minutes of interactive playing from this guide! I was happy with our ability to produce some really good silences, along with more active and busy spaces. Additionally, I enjoyed getting bowed and scraped sounds from my kit. Also great was the fact that Andrew and Collette both read their own poems! I read one by Tu Fu and one by Isaac Rosenberg. Our second, shorter piece, featured more scraping at the drum set and some more percussion from Collette.
We were really stoked to play with Ecosono Ensemble, who were incredible and intense in a very controlled, subdued way.
What a great night! Many thanks to Outsound for putting this coherent bill together!

Below: Andrew jokes around during sound check, and Collette's floor-based rig

Below: Cosmists' set up, and close up of my kit, which reminds me of kits of 1920's Jazz drummers!

Thanks to Collette for continuing to play with Cosmists!
Below: full photo of Cosmists, courtesy of Glen Whitehead. Thanks, Glen!