Easy Not Easy V

New Music Performed for the First Time (Ever) In Front of an Audience.

Featuring:

Nicolas Collins
Michael Zerang
Dave Rempis
Whitney Johnson (Matchess)
Rob Frye (Bitchin Bajas)
Brian Sulpizio (Health&Beauty)
Nnamdi Ogbonnaya
Jenna Lyle
David Hall
Doug Kaplan (MrDougDoug / Hausu Mountain)

Based on the composer David Behrman’s idea of “Deceptively Simple Scores” with complex results, EASY NOT EASY is a concert series that asks composers and music makers of all kinds to submit “easy pieces” to be performed with no rehearsal. An adhoc ensemble is assembled to perform those pieces, for the very first time, in front of a live audience. Easy Not Easy creates an opportunity for the refinement of ideas through its simple restrictions, bringing musical ideas into the realms of visual and conceptual art, and artists across genres and mediums together in an act of realtime art making.

Easy Not Easy plays on two very important issues in the realm of “composer-ly” music – first, the difficulty of finding space and resources for rehearsing new music – and second, the frequent (if unintentional) exclusion of certain music makers from the opportunity of having their music performed by an ensemble of musicians. It opens the act of “composing” to non-traditional music makers, as well as visual, textual and conceptual artists. It opens the act of interpreting written music to musicians who do not usually do so.

Originally conceived by artists Matt Mehlan and Doron Sadja as a benefit for Roulette Intermedium’s (http://roulette.org) move from Manhattan to Brooklyn in 2010, ENE has featured composers: Christian Marclay, Pauline Oliveros, Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Darius Jones, Tim Kinsella, James Falzone, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Greg Saunier (Deerhoof), Matana Roberts, Cory Archangel, Tomeka Reid, Dan Deacon, Tyshawn Sorey, Duane Pitre, Catherine Lamb, Ben Lamar-Gay, Jamal Moss, and many more.

This is the 5th edition of Easy Not Easy, which has become a recurring event, curated and organized by Matt Mehlan. Info and recordings from previous ENE concerts can be found here: http://freemusicarchive.org/curator/Roulette/Roulettes_EASY_NOT_EASY_Festival

Matt Mehlan is an artist, musician, and arts organizer living in Chicago, where he is a Lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Manager of the Chicago Artists Resource. Based in Brooklyn for 10 years, he fronts the b(r)ands Facelessness, Skeletons, and Uumans, is a member of Congotronics Vs. Rockers, and runs the record label Shinkoyo.

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