Ryan Gaston / Sarah Belle Reid
Haruhi Kobayashi / Paige Alice Naylor
The CLEAT Series has an incredibly special November edition planned with visiting artists Sarah Belle Reid + Ryan Gaston visiting Chicago and presenting new work for 16 channels. Reid and Gaston are presenting a structured improvisation for piccolo trumpet, MaxMSP, and homemade electronic instruments. The piece was developed over the course of the 2024, using the 16-channel CLEAT system. Much of the sound material explored in this work is created from very short bursts or grains of sound, which are strung or clustered together to form larger gestures. To accomplish this, they use a granular sample player built in MaxMSP, and a hardware-based pulsar synthesizer—a new instrument developed by Gaston specifically for use in this piece. The result is a dynamic, unpredictable soundscape that swings between sparse, delicate textures and frenetic swarms of noise.
Paige Alice Naylor and Haruhi Kobayashi are no strangers to the Elastic stage, but this will be the first time here presenting work as a duo. Each of them have written music for the CLEAT system in the past, often using voice as a central compositional tool. For this performance they will be remixing songs from their U.S. September tour using the CLEAT system, blending voices and electronics to create a more immersive, embodied experience.
Music at 8pm
$15 / $10 w/ Student ID - Tickets Available at the Door
Artist Bios
Sarah Belle Reid (b. 1989) is a performer-composer who plays trumpet, modular synthesizer, and an ever-growing collection of handcrafted electronic instruments. Her unique musical voice explores the intersections between contemporary classical music, experimental and interactive electronics, noise music, and improvisation. In addition to her performance and compositional work, Reid runs an online music education company dedicated to teaching sound synthesis and electroacoustic composition to professional and hobbyist musicians.
Ryan Gaston (b. 1990) is a performer/composer, instrument designer, and writer who makes devices and music that combine sonic elements of noise, free improvisation, and experimental electroacoustic music. Gaston's creative work explores temporal perception by using chaotic electronic structures as the conceptual basis for both electronic instruments and compositions. His writing focuses on the history and techniques of experimental electronic music and electronic musical instrument design, with a special focus on American west coast trends in the second half of the 20th century.
Paige Alice Naylor is a Chicago-based experimental vocalist, sound artist and educator. Through sound-making and performance, she investigates time, perception, the breakdown of language, and themes of death. Her direct and interpersonal approach creates live sonic environments which feel vulnerable and intimate. Her work has been featured in The Wire, National Public Radio, Longform Editions, Newcity Art, Chicago Reader, surgeryradio, and WHURK Magazine, among others.
Haruhi Kobayashi is a Chicago-based sound artist and vocal performer, originally from Tokyo, where she began her career as a J-pop singer-songwriter. She explores the social and emotional connotations of voice, manipulating it into unidentifiable sounds to liberate it from its “human” constraints. She is currently the High Concept Labs AIR resident 2024.