Join us for Silver Ochre's Who Are U.S. - Hyperspeed Overdrive on Saturday, June 24, 2017 at 8pm. Tickets $5 at the door. Doors open at 7:30pm. This concert is sponsored by WORT 89.9 FM!
Who Are U.S. - Hyperspeed Overdrive is a rapid fire live audio/visual experience of an epic journey throughout the continental U.S. in 2016 by two perpetually touring artists, ACVilla (videographer) and Thollem (composer/keyboardist). This is a 7-month/48-state U.S. journey condensed into a 47 min/8 sec ride. With Thollem on an unruly electronic beast of vintage keyboards, stomp boxes and a microphone, Silver Ochre’s touring stateside statewide from April 6th - Nov. 19th.
ACVilla’s “vibrant, often run-and-gun footage is expertly matched to Thollem’s strangely nuanced sonic output. The video opens with quickly paced imagery that is often sped up, too, and it follows the keyboardist’s baroque barrage of organ notes in a distinctly rhythmic way. At the same time, the videographer uses her own camera pans and movement to echo Thollem’s hairpin compositional turns while providing the perfect visual compliment.” (Live Eye TV)
Thollem is a pianist, keyboardist, composer, improviser, singer-songwriter, activist, author and teacher. He's spent his life skirting and erasing the edges of boundaries musically, culturally, geographically. His work is ever changing, evolving and responding to the times and his experiences, both as a soloist and in collaboration with hundreds of artists across idioms and disciplines. Though Thollem's widely known as an acoustic piano player, he's also the lead vocalist for the Italian agit-punk band Tsigoti and has recently branched out significantly into the world of electronics through a multitude of projects. Thollem has spent his life traveling throughout the country. His works for Who Are U.S. - Hyperspeed Overdrive are an amalgam of Thollem's sonic impressions of the U.S, forging elements of a wide variety of styles and approaches of today's extremely multi-cultural America. Sometimes recognizable, sometimes not, the music shares ideas, approaches and sounds from Bluegrass to Gamelan, Punk to Free Jazz, Salsa to Noise, Baroque to Hip-Hop to Persian music and more.
Silver Ochre is Thollem's audio/visual collaboration with videographer ACVilla. Perpetually touring artists, Thollem and ACVilla create projects that express socio-political environments from different angles. Their works focus on the moment at hand with the benefit of the public in mind. They seek to inspire active sensory experiencing, curiosity, reflections and affirmations of the individual and their community. Silver Ochre’s 7 episode series last year was edited to create their final feature-length movie. Who Are U.S. 2016 has been released internationally and is available via the World Wide Web. (silverochre.com/hot-pursuit-of-happiness.html)
