Empty Words Ensemble

June 12, 2005 3PM

@ the Charleston County Public Library

               Music has come a long way since it started. In that time there has been music that was popular and not popular, accessible to the public and not accessible to the public, pretty and not pretty, pure and not pure. Much of the music made was easily categorized and described with words because it so closely resembled that which came before it. The twentieth century brought on many new styles of music. New and radically diverse styles were being created more frequently, and these styles were subject to more and more variation from within. In the last fifty years the rate of change of creativity and diversity has accelerated even more. There seems to be no end to the list of styles of music today. But even this grand list of words describing music does not encompass all the music that can be played.

               The Empty Words Ensemble hopes to further break the boundaries that separate music. Our music begins where silence ends. We take into account all the music that has influenced us individually and collectively. We are not concerned with styles or genres, we are concerned only with music. We will approach music from the very basic aspect of sound, creating sonic textures on the fly with only our aesthetic sensibilities as a guide. We will take into account the effects of modern music on improvisers of all genres. We will continue the time-honored tradition of spontaneous invention, while at the same time freeing ourselves from tradition. We think this is a pure form of music that happens spontaneously while being informed by our study of form, melody, harmony, rhythm, style, and texture.

Program to be announced from stage

performer’s bios:

Philip White (laptop, guitar, voice) has been heavily active in the Dutch punk-rock community of late, but his roots lie in the dirt of North Carolina; literally. For years his main source of creative output was sampling the brain activities of worms and grubs during their daily routine and processing that information in such a way as to make beautiful music. In between his hardcore gigs overseas he enjoys dirty kitchens and indoor sports such as air hockey and sitting down.

Nathan Koci (keyboard, electronics, voice) falls asleep a lot... and I mean a lot. If there are relatively quiet moments during this performance chances are good that our friend is dozing behind his borrowed keyboard. Never fear, though, for he also volunteers as a firefighter and responds immediately to the ringing of bells which are on hand in case of such emergencies. Ask him about that fire on the Harbor last year... great story.

Ron Wiltrout (drums, percussion, voice) has very large hands. Attributable, no doubt, to the amount of coffee he drank when a toddler, it has opened many doors to him as well as set him back with many challenges. He tries not to dwell, however, and lives his life the only way he knows how. He knows everything about basketball, and would love to discuss the playoffs with any and all audience members.