Ain Soph Aur » Past Performances

Live in the Bungalow Art Center’s Mondo Cinema Screening Room

Sander — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 23:09:15 +0000

We were invited by Actuary’s Dustin Johnson to open a show featuring several experimental music luminaries, including The Degit Noor Fakirs, Actuary, Amps For Christ, Koonda Holaa, and VJ Franz K. Both of us were in a good place, and ended up someplace special.

Circumambient Superficies – Live – 11-18-12

ASA on Open Windows

Sander — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 23:02:23 +0000

In June we were invited to perform live in the studios of the Monday night Open Windows show, curated by Steve Baretta and Ustad Morelock, on KillRadio.org. It had been quite some time since we’d played live, together, so we were both really excited to do our thing. The set seemed to unfold in the blink of an eye, and Ustad’s description of it was “Fucking ZEN!” Anyway, here’s the recording:

The Hidden Nexus – Live on KillRadio.org’s Open Windows – June 25th, 2012

You can also listen to our post-performance conversation.

We’ve continued to receive kind comments from people about this performance, which is always nice.

ASA 2nd Aniversary Show – Recap/Recordings

Sander — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:12:56 +0000

The celebration of Ain Soph Aur’s 2nd anniversary was an opportunity to acknowledge our previous work, and look forward at the same time. In discussions with Carl, we came up with the idea of inviting artists who had performed with us before. In the past two years, we’d performed with 6 artists. Unfortunately, Hermit The Flog now lives in Portland, and Naill Morgan isn’t old enough to get into bars. Happily, all the other artists, David Witham, Jeremy Morelock, David Bunoan, and Christie Scott, were all willing and able to perform with us. To maintain parity, we invited two other artists to join us: Kirk Pickler and Mike Weber.

The idea we had was for the guest musicians to each have 20 minutes on stage with us, including a 10 minute overlap with another guest. We even made a schedule:

Intro 00-10 Sander/Carloff
10-20 + David B
20-30 + Kirk
30-40 – David B +Christie
40-50 -Kirk +Mike
50-60 -Christie +David W
60-70 – Mike +Jeremy
70-80 -David W
80-90 SRW & Carloff
90-120 Everybody!

(The ‘+’ indicates when an artist should begin, and the ‘-’ indicates when they should end.)

The schedule was never meant to be rigid, but more of a guide. Good thing, as we didn’t do a very good job of explaining it to our guest artists. Still, the performance did have a nice ebb and flo to it.

Although there were a few technical issues to contend with, I felt that the performance was, overall, quite good.

We recorded the two hour performance from the mixing board, and also made a room recording.

For those who feel daunted by navigating through a 2 hour performance recording, I’ve excerpted a 10 minute segment where Kirk Pickler plays a beautiful flute solo, one that features the lap steel stylings of Mike Weber, and another where Carl and I have an impromptu melodica duet, accompanied by David Witham on manipulated organ, and Christie Scott on vocals toward the end.

There are a total of seven 10-minute excerpts. You can find them all on the ‘Audio Tracks‘ page.

If you’re interested, I posted some anticipatory musings about the performance.

We extend our sincere thanks to our family and friends for their love and support, and to Ken Huntington for being open to hosting us.

Live at Jawbone Canyon

Sander — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:22:26 +0000

The Hop-Frog Kollectiv’s sporadic roaming festival, Nomadic Transmissions, took root in the Mojave desert this last weekend. 25 performances over two nights, lots of good friends, etc. I wasn’t up for camping, so drove out Saturday afternoon and arrived just after dark. We were schedule to play at 8 PM but, due to some last minute changes, went on a bit later. As is our habit, we often invite people to join us and, last night, vocalist Christie Scott (Bavab Bavab) lent her dulcet tones. Due to an oversight by both Carl and myself, we didn’t record the first part of our set but, at some point, Carl hit record and we captured the last half of our performance. I’m so glad he did.

Here is Upon the Lips of Angels.

I’ve uploaded a few photographs of the event to facebook.

Live Room Recording of Slow Sound Festival Performance

Sander — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:25:29 +0000

Wow! I felt really good about tonight’s performance. It was great having David Witham sit in with us and, not surprisingly, his talent and artistry contributed greatly to the evening.

The event was well attended, and people seemed to enjoy what we did. (that’s always a nice bonus!)

We should have photos soon but, for now, here’s a recording of the show:

The Appearance of Innocence

Because we were using two (2) PA systems, one for Carl and one for me, with David split between them, I wasn’t able to get an accurate board recording. Although you can hear some talking, and the occational passing vehicle, the recording is actually quite nice.

Thanks to everyone who came, and thanks to all who support us in other ways. We really appreciate it.

Aug 15 ‘09 @ Echo Curio

Sander — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:22:49 +0000

Carl and I performed at Echo Curio last Saturday. It was a fun show.

Listen to the board recording:

The Inner Restraints Of Conscience

You can also see some photos.

Live at The Puka – 01/05/2009

Sander — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 07:45:10 +0000

Last night, Ain Soph Aur somewhat prematurely celebrated their one year anniversary at the place where it all began back in February of 2008: The Puka Bar. More specifically, Ken Huntington’s Long Beach Musicians’ League helped to ‘midwife’ ASA into existance by asking me if I wanted to organize an evening of eclectic music performances.

Last night, Carl Off and I were joined by David Bunoan, a celebrated local guitarist, amp tech, and all-round good egg. He used some unique Moog-designed pedals, and a tricked-out iPod Touch, to create all kinds of tweets, warbles, and wails. It was great! Carl and I had our usual contingent of bells and whistles (literally).

The recording is about 25 minutes long, and goes through several distinct phases. It starts out quite quiet, and gets quite loud. As with all of our recordings, I recommend a listening with a good set of headphones.

The performance was entirely improvised, unplanned, and wonderfully intuitive.

Following our set, SMGSAP and Between Ravens and Crows performed great sets of their own.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s Epiphany’s Labor.

Live @ OCCCA: The First and Fourth Intellects

Sander — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:12:56 +0000

Karloff and I were invited to perform at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art in the heart of Santa Ana’s Artists’ Village. Opening the show were “Between Ravens and Crows,” followed by Ain Soph Aur and, closing the show, was Madamn Grislee.

Due to an oversight on my part, the audio recording captured ambient sound where Karloff and I were seated, but not the sounds the audience heard. While not capturing what I intended, it still produced several nice sections, one of which I’m including here:

The First and Fourth Intellects – Part 2

Karloff can be heard playing organ and bass, and I the lap steel guitar, shaker, and maybe even some voice.

Please feel free to leave comments.

Live @ Koos: In A Strange Country

Sander — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:10:36 +0000

Last night Karloff and I were joined by Jeremy Morelock and Nial Morgan. We opened a wonderful show at Koos Art Center. We were followed by John Schneider’s breathtaking performance of microtonal music for refretted acoustic guitar, written by legendary American composer Lou Harrison. Following John’s performance, Master Ho’s Pin Peat ensemble performed Khmer Classical Music with intensity, precision, and passion. The room was thrumming with the energy flowing from the stage.

Ain Soph Aur’s performance was 30 minutes, but I excerpted two parts. The first is from the beginning, and the second from the end.

In A Strange Country – Part 1

In A Strange Country – Part 2

Please feel free to leave comments.

The Meditative Madness of Winter

Sander — Sat, 17 May 2008 00:59:27 +0000

Ain Soph Aur performed at {open} on May 15, 2008 as part of their 3rd Thursday series. Joining us for our set was 15 year old Nial Morgan (Deer Tear).

Hear a board recording of the performance, or view two 10 minute video excerpts.

[Please note that the audio quality of the videos is greatly diminished due to YouTube's proprietary compression system.]

Part 1:

Part 2: