animals & giraffes (phillip greenlief & claudia la rocco) + ORTET, Joan Hawkins, Kyle Quass
7PM June 26, 2024
Backspace Gallery
inside Bonne Fête
112 West 6th Street
on the square in Bloomington IN
animals & giraffes
Phillip Greenlief – tenor saxophone, Bb clarinet https://www.phillipgreenlief.com/ https://www.phillipgreenlief.com/animals-and-giraffes
Claudia La Rocco – voice, text https://claudialarocco.com/
ORTET
Marty Belcher – saxophones, live processing Tony Brewer – sharky, Foley table, voice Norbert Herber – woodwinds, electronics Chris Rall – saxophones, turntable, piano, lap steel, modular synth Joe MF Stone – drums, samples, voice https://ortet.bandcamp.com/
Joan Hawkins – spoken word
Kyle Quass – trumpet https://kylequass.bandcamp.com/
phillip greenlief and claudia la rocco met during an artist residency at headlands center for the arts in 2013. greenlief asked la rocco to provide text for his map score QUARTET, and the work was performed at the center for new music on their best coast composer’s series in september 2013. this initial collaboration inspired them to form the project animals & giraffes, an ever-changing ensemble exploring improvisation with artists from different disciplines.
animals & giraffes was ensemble in residence at the center for new music (SF) from october 2017 – october 2018, where they performed two interdisciplinary concerts and engaged in monthly “improv happy hour” sessions with various bay area improvisers from music, dance, literature, and the visual arts.
animals & giraffes have performed at pieter (los angeles), the scottsdale museum of contemporary art, the lab (SF), the outsound new music summit, and reed college (portland). they have produced two CDs – JULY, released on the edgetone records label (bay area) and LANDLOCKED BEACH on creative sources (portugal).
the most recent animals & giraffes release – LIVE AT MEDICINE FOR NIGHTMARES – featuring kyle bruckmann (oboe, english horn, electronics), alexandra buschman (voice, electronics) and adriana camacho torres (contrabass) was released by creative sources (portugal)
This event was co-produced by the Writers Guild at Bloomington and the Urban Deer performance series and made possible in part by the Indiana Arts Commission, Bloomington Arts Commission and the Bloomington Urban Enterprise Association.