NECESSARY MONSTERS

Necessary Monsters is a staged song cycle loosely based on Jorge Luis Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings — a collection of fictional creatures gathered from all corners of the world. Along with poet Rafael Oses and theater director Paul Bargetto, I created a psychological safari through facets of the human experience and imagination as represented by nine of these creatures. We're currently recording these songs, and look forward to staging the whole piece again soon.

Necessary Monsters was co-commissioned by the Museum for Contemporary Art in Chicago, by Alverno Presents and by the National Performance Network Creation Fund.

Carla Kihlstedt (violin, voice, piano)
Rafael Oses (text/libretto)
Matthias Bossi (drums, piano, voice)
Chris Fisher-Lochhead (violla, piano)
Freddi Price (trumpet, euphnium, guitar, percussion, piano, voice)
Michael Mellender (guitar, bass, trumpet, percussion)
Nina Rolle (accordion, percussion, piano, voice)
Theresa Wong (cello, piano, voice)

CAUSING A TIGER

“As I sleep, some dream beguiles me, and suddenly I know I am dreaming. Then I think: This is a dream, a pure diversion of my will; and now I have unlimited power, I am going to cause a tiger.”
— Jorge Luis Borges

Dreams are fantastical (re)creations collaged and cobbled together from our collected images, thoughts and experiences, and exploded and reassembled with no regard for rectitude or precedent. Using field recordings made from various tours in Europe and the U.S. as both anchors and points of departure— fractured details like the drunk crooner in a circus tent in Italy, the triumvirate of barking dogs outside of Warsaw, a bicycle-mounted calliope in Holland-- we create a sort of musical dreamscape-travelogue.

Matthias Bossi (drums, percussion, piano)
Carla Kihlstedt (violins, voice, percussion)
Shahzad Ismaily (percussion, harmonium, guitar, bass)
* plus field recordings collected on various of their travels.

2 FOOT YARD

2 Foot Yard is a song-writing collective. With limited instrumentation (violin, cello, voice, drums, guitar) we try to break through our own preconceptions of what song-writing can or should be. Sometimes this leads us towards songs with the simplest of forms, and sometimes, towards more abstract and unpredictable structures. Our first cd is available on the Oracles series of Tzadik (Carla Kihlstedt - 2 Foot Yard). Our second cd (2 Foot Yard- Borrowed Arms) is self-released, and available on cdbaby.com.

Marika Hughes (cello, voice)
Shahzad Ismaily (drums, guitar, voice)
Carla Kihlstedt (violins, voice)

SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum is a family, a traveling circus, a soothsayer, a band, a call to arms, a blind man standing naked in the middle of the bay bridge, a saturnalian celebration.... and yes, a Museum. We are collectively (but not all) makers of instruments, investigators of trees and lichen, entertainers of slugs, barkers and bakers, finders and fixers, drawers and snappers, and brave putters-together of thought into great big orderly messes of sound and fury.

TIN HAT

Purveyors of subtle texture, elegant arrangements and evocative melody, this is a composer’s collective built on old friendships. We have always held fast to a self-chosen limitation of acoustic instrumental music (with a few special vocal appearances by Mike Patton, Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, and me. We've released 5 cds, the most recent of which (The Sad Machinery of Spring on Hannibal/Ryko) is inspired by the writings and drawings of the Polish surrealist Bruno Schultz.

Ara Anderson (trumpet, pump organ, celeste, etc.)
Ben Goldberg (clarinet, contralto clarinet)
Carla Kihlstedt (violins, viola)
Mark Orton (guitar, dobro, banjo, etc.)

THE BOOK OF KNOTS

An NYC studio collective based in Brooklyn’s Studio G, The Book of Knots is a bull in a china shop. We begin most songs as a foursome, and then add all manner of guests (Tom Waits, Mike Watt, Rick Moody, David Thomas, Carla Bozulich, Zeena Parkins, Jon Langford and Megan Reilley.) Our first cd (The Book of Knots on Arclight Records) is a waterlogged collection of songs chronicling mostly failed sea-faring voyages. The second (Traineater on Anti-) is a portrait of crumbling mid-western rust belt towns. The third, about flight and space and often overzealous human ambition will complete the trilogy (by sea, by land, by air).

Matthias Bossi (drums, voice, keyboards, etc.)
Joel Hamilton (guitars, etc.)
Carla Kihlstedt (violins, voice, etc.)
Tony Maimone (bass, etc.)

MINAMO

Minamo is a Japanese word meaning the surface of water. It is also the name of my duet with Satoko Fujii, which lies at the crossroads of improvised music and classical violin/piano sonatas. Partly rooted in our shared history with classical and contemporary music, the improvised pieces that emerge between us have structures that I usually only expect of meticulously composed music. Our first cd (Henceforth Records) documents the very first times we ever played together-- a concert in San Francisco, and one in Wels, Austria. Our latest, Kuroi Kawa - Black River (Tzadik) is a double-cd-- the first is a set of miniatures recorded in the studio, and the second is a live performance at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

CLASSICAL ENDEAVORS

Much of my life in the world of classical music has developed around my friendship with composer Lisa Bielawa. I had all but abandoned the formal classical music world, and slowly but surely, she coaxed me back by writing pieces for me that are intellectually rigorous, musically intricate, and utterly beautiful. Two powerful examples are her Kafka Songs (on the Tzadik Composer's Series) and her Double Violin Concerto written for me and Colin Jacobsen. There are several other composers with whom I have worked directly, including Michael Fiday, and the late Jorge Liderman. 

COSA BRAVA

Fred Frith has loomed large in my personal pantheon of inspiring musicians for two decades now. From the breadth of his musical output, it is clear that he is more interested in ideas and processes than he is in fixing an aesthetic identity for himself or anyone else. Cosa Brava is his latest song band (more or less), complete with infectious melodies, intricate but transparent rhythms, and totally satisfying anthems. Our first cd will come out on the Swiss label Intakt in 2009.

Matthias Bossi (drums, percussion, voice)
Fred Frith (guitar, bass, voice)
Carla Kihlstedt (violin, voice)
Zeena Parkins (accordion, keyboard)
The Norman Conquest (sound manipulation)

CONCURRENCE

Concurrence is a 4-speaker sound installation. It is a collaboration with Wellington Bowler and is made entirely from our respective field recordings collected on our travels around in Europe, America, Asia, and Africa. Using hand-held recorders, we both captured sounds and events separately in 16 countries over 8 months. With Dan Rathbun of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, we then distilled hours of recorded material into a 36 minute piece played on four speakers and installed in a small trailer. We created this piece for the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria in November, 2007.

Wellington Bowler (field recordings)
Carla Kihlstedt (field recordings)