On December 9th, Japanese sound artist FUJI|||||||||||TA returns to UPEND with a gripping new set at Zebulon.

Ever-seeking sounds yet unheard, Yosuke Fujita reinvents again. With an intentionally pared-down setup, he uses an airbrush to deftly direct air onto and into lightweight metal organ pipes of his own design. A microphone within amplifies the bursts of flitter and hiss, and the clicks that punctuate them when he taps the device against the pipe. By sampling these newly-discovered sonic textures on-the-fly and weaving them back into the mix, Fuji|||||||||||ta creates a unique hybrid of live performance and musique concrète composition. He calls it “A School of Sardines in the Pipe.”

Los Angeles–based composer, performer, and instrument creator Liam Mooney opens the show. Mooney also often utilizes airflow in his work, using vacuum to actuate vibrations of drum heads, building textures from electroacoustic hum.

This salon-style evening will feature music selections from Eduardo F. Rosario (Estuario), a listener known for sharing intriguing discoveries of musics and forms obscure and unaligned.

Fuji|||||||||||ta Photo: Olivier Jaquet

On February 7th, spectacles of cacophony and physicality as EVICSHEN – the astounding noise performance project of Bay Area sound artist Victoria Shen – hits @zebulonla on the very same bill as Japanese extreme snare drummer RYOSUKE KIYASU. Plus the blurb and pivot of L.A.’s own BROMP TREB.

As Evicshen, Victoria Shen has found exponential potential in noise-as-art and vice versa. Shen regales audiences with a sequence of sonic situations using an array of instruments and techniques—many of which she designed herself—whether it’s the shrill, metallic warble of an electro-acousticified band saw or vinyl records she has cut up, recollaged, and recast as new colored discs, playing them back simultaneously by the power of four with her “Needle Nails”– styli extending from each finger on one hand. Amongst other radical gestures, she may dramatically rig herself with metal wire (or is it a cello string?) looped around her neck and one heel, transforming herself into a bowed instrument. And you can’t miss the bullwhip crack!

The Japanese snare drum soloist Ryosuke Kiyasu rips and thrashes, pushing limits of what can be improvised with a couple of drumsticks, a snare, a mic, and a table. Amidst cathartic whole-body maneuvers, he can just as easily issue a flurry of rolls and virtuosic high velocity click-clack on the rims, or in turn growl right into the heads, or even take the party to the floor for some scrape and drag.

Bromp Treb is a single human – Neil ‘Cloaca’ Young – who teases a tangle of crisscrossed gear and microphoning in a revue of body comedy and little ‘lectronic frenzies.