Outer Ear Festival is an annual presentation of sonic arts, including performances, installations, and broadcasts. It is the only comprehensive sonic arts festival in the Chicago region.
Outer Ear Festival of Sound, 2007
8th annual
Outer Ear Festival of Sound
November 4 – December 2, 2007
Sunday, November 4, 2007 – Thursday, February 28, 2008
Opening reception: Sunday, November 4, 3:00PM - 5:00 PM
Fred Lonberg-Holm: photo-sound-esis I
Site-specific sound installation
Lincoln Park Conservatory
2391 N. Stockton Drive, Chicago
Hours: open daily, 9:00AM - 5:00PM
free admission
Wednesday, November 7 - Tuesday, November 20
Christina Kubisch: Electrical Walk: Chicago
A one-hour participatory sound walk in the Chicago Loop.
Visitor’s Center
Chicago Cultural Center
77 E. Randolph
daily 10AM – 5PM
free
presented in partnership with the Goethe-Institut Chicago
Wednesday, November 7
Artist’s talk with Christina Kubsich
The distinguished German sound installation artist discusses her 30-year career of creating sound works in public places and galleries.
Goethe-Institut Chicago
150 N. Michigan, Suite 200
6:00 PM
free admission
Wednesday, November 7
Immediate Sound Series with Chris Mann (voice), Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello), and Jason Roebke (bass)
Improvised music
The Hideout
1354 W. Wabansia
$7
Advance tickets available at www.hideoutchicago.com
Co-presented with Umbrella Music’s Immediate Sound Series
Thursday, November 8
Sound-Cinema-Performance
Gene Siskel Film Center
164 N. State Street
A special two-part program co-presented with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Sound Department and Department of Film Video and New Media as part of Conversations at the Edge.
Separate tickets must be purchased for each part of the program.
$9 / $7 students / $4 AIC students, faculty, and staff / $5 Film Center members.
- 6:00PM: Terri Kapsalis, John Corbett, and Danny Thompson: The Hysterical Alphabet, performance with video and sound. A Theater Oobleck Production.
- 8:15PM: Daniéle Wilmouth and Morganville: A Heretic’s Primer on Love & Exertion: 29 incidents of dual consequence, video
- Chris Mann: boy, what god could’ve done if only he’d had money, performance for amplified multi-channel voice
With a special intermission performance by cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm at 7:30
Friday, November 9 – Sunday, December 16
Opening reception: Friday, November 9, 6:00PM – 9:00PM
Rebecca Kressley: Five Girls (It Held Her Very Close, Their Terrible Cries, There, at the Bottom, They Knew if They Stayed Very Still), four-channel video installation
Audible at ESS
5925 N. Ravenswood
Hours: Saturdays and Sundays 1:00PM – 5:00PM, and by appointment anytime
Free admission
Friday and Saturday, November 16 and 17
Clairaudient: Spurious Landscapes
Performance for electronically prepared grand piano
Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N. Ravenswood
8:00 PM
$10/$7 for students and ESS members
Reservations highly recommended: very limited seating — please call 773-769-1069.
Sunday, December 2
Improvised music workshops
conducted by members of the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet
Experimental Sound Studio
5925 N. Ravenswood
- 11:00am-1:00pm: Paal Nilssen-Love (percussion) and Ken Vandermark (reeds)
- 1:30pm-3:30pm: Mats Gustafsson (reeds) and Michael Zerang (percussion)
- 4:00pm-6:00pm: Per-Åke Holmlander (tuba) and Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello)
$15 per session, $25 for two, or $40 for all three. 10% discount for students and ESS members.
Open to proficient acoustic or electronic musicians with some improvising experience. Limited space available! Pre-registration required by calling ESS at 773-769-1069.
The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet will perform at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday, December 1 at 9:00 PM. Please contact the MCA at www.mcachicago.org or 312-397-4010 for information and reservations. And visit www.tentet.umbrellamusic.org for information on additional Chicago performances in November and December by members of the Tentet sponsored by Umbrella Music.
Presenting partners:
Goethe-Institut Chicago
Umbrella Music
Theater Oobleck
The Chicago Cultural Center
The Gene Siskel Film Center
The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Sound Department and Department of Film Video and New Media
The Chicago Park District
The Governor’s International Arts Exchange Program of the Illinois Arts Council
The National Endowment for the Arts
Artist accommodation provided by Days Inn Lincoln Park North: www.lpndaysinn.com.
The Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet has been performing large ensemble improvised music in various iterations for ten years, with numerous concerts and recordings to their credit. The current lineup includes Peter Brötzmann (Germany), Johannes Bauer (Germany), Jeb Bishop (Chicago), Mats Gustafsson (Sweden), Per-Åke Holmlander (Sweden), Kent Kessler (Chicago), Fred Lonberg-Holm (Chicago), Joe McPhee (New York), Paal Nilssen-Love (Norway), Ken Vandermark (Chicago), and Michael Zerang (Chicago).
Clairaudient (Chicago) is a collective that works in electro-acoustic sound. The members are pianist Stephen Hastings-King, who specializes in contemporary experimental approaches to the instrument, and artist Brett Ian Balogh, who works at the intersection of objects, sounds and spaces.
John Corbett (Chicago) is a writer, musician and curator. He has released several CDs, including “I’m Sick About My Hat.” Corbett is a regular contributor to Downbeat and other journals, produces the Unheard Music Series via Atavistic Records, teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is the co-director of the Chicago gallery Corbett vs. Dempsey.
Terri Kapsalis (Chicago) is a writer, performer, and health educator. Her short fiction has appeared in The Baffler, Parakeet, and on numerous CDs, and she is the author of the book “Public Privates: Performing Gynecology from Both Ends of the Speculum.” She is a founding member of Theater Oobleck and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Rebecca Kressley (Chicago) is a new media artist who uses digital collage, multi-channel installation, sound composition and live performance to experiment with contrasting simultaneous visual and sonic rhythmic structures. Her work has been shown in a wide variety of festivals, galleries, and museums. She is currently working towards her MFA at the Slade School of Art in London.
Christina Kubisch (Germany) has a prolific art-making career spanning thirty years. Noted throughout the world for her sound installations in public spaces, galleries, and museums, she also makes performances, visual art works, and collaborative projects.
Fred Lonberg-Holm (Chicago) is a cellist, composer, improvisor, and artist. He leads the Valentine Trio and is a member of the Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet, Vandermark 5, Fast Citizens, Flatlands Collective and many other ongoing ensembles.
Chris Mann (Australia) is a vocalist, composer and sound poet. A former member of the Australian improvising ensemble The Machine for Making Sense, he explores the limits of text, voice, speaking, and listening in composed and improvised contexts.
Morganville (Chicago) is the performance art duo of Trevor Martin and Kym Olsen. They use text and movement in disarming explorations of sexuality, violence, love, and memory.
Jason Roebke (Chicago) is an improvising bassist. In addition to his many performances with improvising musicians, he also collaborates with dancer Ayako Kato in the duo Art Union Humanscape.
Danny Thompson (Ann Arbor) is a founding member of Theater Oobleck, for which he has written too many plays, including “Necessity,” “The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett as Found in an Envelope (Partially Burned) in a Dustbin in Paris Labeled ‘Never to be Performed. Never, Ever. Or I’ll Sue! I’ll Sue from the Grave!!!’,” and “Big Tooth High-Tech Megatron vs. the Sockpuppet of Procrastination.”
Daniéle Wilmouth (Chicago) is a filmmaker who often incorporates choreography into her work, not only as cinematic subject, but as an integral part of the filmmaking process itself. She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Past Events
Outer Ear Festival has taken place annually since 2000. Programs for prior years will be available shortly.
