Bearthoven: TV Dinners
Piano trio Bearthoven. Photo credit: Jaime Boddorff.
Bearthoven is a Brooklyn-based piano trio composed of members Karl Larson (piano), Pat Swoboba (bass), and Matt Evans (percussion). The ensemble combines their individual voices and diverse musical backgrounds, coming together to create a versatile trio focused on frequent and innovative commissioning of up-and-coming composers. On April 4, Bearthoven launches TV Dinners, a weekly streaming concert series for the month of April supported by the Johnstone Fund for New Music. Tune in to their Facebook event to watch! Bearthoven joins Classical Post for a Q&A about TV Dinners.
Programs:
April 4
Matt Evans: New Topographics
April 11
Karl Larson plays Anthony Vine:
Music for an apartment on Coles St.
April 18
Bearthoven plays Jaimie Branch:
new piece for streaming ensemble*
CP: How are you leaning into the streaming/zoom culture musically? How is TV Dinners a work of performance art in and of itself?
Karl: All musicians are living the same reality right now, so I think it makes sense that people are drawn to streaming performances. Since live music is about this communal experience that we all share (performers / audience / composers / critics / etc.), I’m not surprised there’s been this explosion of streaming shows and / or other types of online content.
From Bearthoven’s specific perspective, we had an opportunity, and we took it. We’re very fortunate to have the support of the Johnstone Fund for New Music, which is presenting this event.
I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily performance art - Jaimie Branch’s piece is currently being written, and will feature the three of us playing together from our individual apartments. It’s definitely an interesting premise, but I see it more as her working within the confines of a given situation, which is a reality for any commission, in one way or another.
Matt: Since the beginning of quarantine I quickly jumped into learning to stream video as a project to keep me occupied. I was tipped off to a few different options and started playing around with streaming to this website twitch.tv that is mostly gamers streaming speed runs but has quickly (in the last few weeks) become a hub for the DIY and underground music communities. Labels like Whatever’s Clever, Leaving Records and series like ESS in Chicago and The Kitchen here in NYC have all started streaming performances to keep the dialog alive.
I wouldn’t say TV Dinners is a performance piece itself, it’s really a live stream concert series conceptualized and supported by the Johnstones. Now with the series in motion, I am finding it interesting to “Mcluhan” the context and try to make the medium the message. Live streaming from your living room is just about as Public Access TV as we can get these days, so the aesthetic seemed like a simple vibe to grab onto.
CP: Is TV Dinners conceptually inspired by Robert Ashley’s Perfect Lives in any way?
Karl: Nope! Just a funny name that encourages people to eat food and watch us on their computers - this is a super heavy time, and I don’t think we need any “corona concerts” or anything like that. That said, I would love to hear what Robert Ashley would have done in this situation.
Matt: Nah, but I’ve definitely been inspired by the Perfect Lives visuals as I’ve been putting together the visual element of these twitch streams. The colors and video effects in Perfect Lives are supremely absurd and simultaneously ahead of their time. I think he was working with some higher ups in the TV industry and they were just down to get wacky. A favorite vibe of mine.
CP: Is the work being premiered on April 18 (for streaming ensemble) a piece that was already in the works or is it written for TV Dinners? How does it deal with the time delay?
Karl: No, this is a brand new commission that came about because of our current situation. It’s been in the works for about a week, so we’re all still working on figuring some of the specifics out. Anyone who has been working over Zoom (or a similar platform) knows that lag is a real issue, so we’ve been talking with Jaimie about aiming for something free of pulse (or something that artfully plays with the lag problem - it’s not wrong if it’s purposeful, right?).
CP: How does streaming concerts bring communities together? How does it change the “concert” experience? Does it emphasize our solitude in this moment?
Karl: Those are all excellent questions that I don’t really have the answer to. I think for a lot of people, this is as close as we can come to a concert experience in our current situation, which is important for performers and audiences alike.
It certainly changes the concert experience, but I do think this is still a different experience from watching something that’s pre-recorded. Even though it’s flung through the internet onto your computer, you’re still experiencing it real time, so there’s still that element of excitement, and risk - anything could still happen.
Does it emphasize our solitude? I think solitude is impossible to ignore at the moment, but these sorts of performances might help people feel some solidarity in their solitude.
Matt: I’ve been streaming a bunch of friends shows the past few weeks and digging that it’s become a place to connect with friends in a virtual way while sharing the same experience. Since we can’t be in a room together, at least we can be in the “chat” room, haha.
That said, I think the “chat” is a really important part of the live-stream experience. I’ve noticed that, as a performer, a group that’s chatting and commenting a bunch during a stream makes me feel the “presence” of the group and eases my stream anxiety. It’s the only way to “feel” the audience is participating. This is basically 100% the opposite of a live show whereI’d want everyone to be quiet and listening. But since we can’t share space, it’s positive to have the chatter as a reminder of who’s listening. At it’s best, the chat takes on a life of it’s own— and it “feels” like a community to me.
CP: Can you talk about your rehearsal process over zoom/skype? Are you leaning towards playing works that aren’t set to a pulse at this moment to account for the time delay?
Karl: We haven’t gotten that far yet - the first two shows are solo performances (Matt Evans is playing music from his new album, New Topographics, on April 4, and I’m playing ‘Music for an Apartment on Coles St.’ by Anthony Vine on April 11).
CP: Matt Evans can you talk about New Topographics? Is it an ongoing project? Is it improvised or composed? What instruments will you be playing? Does performing at home affect your playing, especially in terms of volume (to not disturb neighbors)?
Matt: New Toporgraphics is a solo record I’m about to release later this month (April 17th with Whatever's Clever). It’s a collection of aqueous abstract instrumental Tracks for drums and electronics that I’ve been developing over the last few years. I wanted to make music that has a strict form but allowed me to react to different spaces and contexts, so it’s landed somewhere between composition and improvisation. I’m also going to share some video work I’ve been developing and premiere a music video for a new track I’m “releasing” next week.
Thankfully all of my roommates and neighbors are musicians and are fairly pre-conditioned to house shows since we’ve been doing concerts at the space (lovingly named “Tortoise Town” by my roommate Ben Seretan) for the past few years. I’ll play a little different at home, “play to the room” as they say, but I’m not sure what it’s going to feel like to play this music without an in-person audience. I can get into a pretty deep zone in my practice space but the stream energy is very new to me. I’m hoping to obtain some energy from it.
CP: Karl Larson, can you talk about Music for an apartment on Coles St.? Is it a new work? If so, how does it integrate the current situation musically/conceptually? If not, how does it feel for it to now be so literal?
Karl: Anthony Vine wrote this piece for me in 2017. Matt Evans and I used to live together in an apartment on Coles Street in Red Hook (both of our first apartments in NYC), and Anthony stayed with us for a couple of weeks when he first moved to the city. The piece is based off of his experience listening to me practice through the walls of the apartment. The music is very sparse and muffled, and has the sort of consonant dissonance that I really enjoy.
I picked this piece for this series because it’s all about experiencing a space - we’re all confined to our own spaces right now, and I hope people can listen to this piece and meditate on their surroundings and find things about their own settings that are joyful and comforting.
