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go back... January 27, 2006Who: High Mayhem StudiosWhat: Not-for-Profit Emerging Arts Facility, Record Label, & Multimedia Production Collective
High Mayhem – “a perpetual infatuation with an innovation” Bad Alchemy , Germany
Founded in 2001, High Mayhem Emerging Arts is a not-for-profit emerging arts facility, record label and multimedia production collective based in Santa Fe , New Mexico . It is an art space, a record label, and a multi-track recording studio. We challenge the homogenizing effect of pop-culture groupthink by providing opportunities for and fostering collaborations with underrepresented “experimental” artists.
Why is High Mayhem not-for-profit? We are not a commercial studio. We are working as a service to artists, giving them space to practice, perform, and record. And, we provide a service to the community by exposing them to these emerging artists. Artists often perform with no pay. We do “creative bartering” by documenting or recording in exchange for the performance. We facilitate things that may not otherwise happen.
What does High Mayhem do? We curate performances, workshops, and recording sessions year-round with musicians and artists, local and global, and bring them together for new collaborations. High Mayhem actively supports experimentation in the arts, especially improvisation and recombination across media to foster emerging art forms. We seek out other brave explorers (and welcome those who have discovered us) to join us in producing innovative and thought-provoking experiences for our communities. Further, we encourage and organize collaborative experiments across disciplines; new forms emerge from mutated traditions and pure invention. For studio performances we multi-track every one of our productions and supply raw tracks to the artist or we produce and release them ourselves. We also co-release or co-produce projects artists have recorded on their own. For High Mayhem Festival performers we multi-track, mix, and professionally master the performance, and provide each performer with a production master CD in exchange for their performance.
The High Mayhem space is used for live performances year-round. And, we put on an annual three-day festival which is staffed by over 25 volunteers. High Mayhem Officers are: Carlos Santistevan, Yozo Suzuki, Mike Rowland, Shawn O'Neal, Joe Picard, Alex Neville and Max Friedenberg.
About the High Mayhem Festivals In the last 4 annual festivals, High Mayhem has presented over 170 artists, 75 musical ensembles, over 25 multimedia performances, 20 spoken word artists, and 15 film screenings to the Santa Fe Community.
October 19 - 20, 2002 High Mayhem produced its first Festival. In a salon-type environment, artists, musicians performed for enthusiastic onlookers. It was High Mayhem's first foray into multi-track documentation. Recordings were given to artists to do with what they pleased. High Mayhem artists, The Late Severa Wires, (see artists listing below) released their live performance as a debut album.
On November 7 – 9, 2003 High Mayhem produced its second annual Experimental Multimedia Festival at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe , NM . The three-day festival featured 19 musical acts and a dozen other performances. We produced a double disc multimedia compilation of this festival. Disc A is an audio CD compiled by Ultraviolet, which features small segments of each of the musical acts, mixed into one long continuous amalgam. Disc B is a multimedia disc which features videos, photos, graphics, and MP3 recordings of each bands entire performance.
On October 8 – 19, 2004, High Mayhem held its third annual Experimental Multimedia festival at the Paramount nightclub in Santa Fe , NM . A three-disc compilation of this festival has just been released. Disc A and B contain recordings of all of the musical performances. Disc C is a CD Rom with images and over 11 hours of MP3's from the festival.
On October 7 – 9, 2005, High Mayhem held its fourth annual Emerging Music and Arts Festival and the Wise Fool and Bikanda performance spaces in Santa Fe , NM . The festival included a wide range of music, video arts, performing arts by nearly 30 artists, and a gallery of art curated by BANG! All performances were recorded, and a CD is forthcoming.
The following are High Mayhem artists:
Audible Whispering Half Quartet Audible Whispering Half Quartet (Gaspar Cabanes and Alex Neville ) uses instruments they created, such as two percussive tables built into a turn table case and a PVC clarinet. They also use a one-string electric cello, a seven-string electric guitar, voice (both sampled through single sequence station) and sampled Rhodes piano.
DERAIL Their sound is derived from psychedelic, rock, noise, and experimental backgrounds. They just release their debut album, engine room , which documents their entire performance at High Mayhem Festival 2004.
Green Orbit Green Orbit is a sonic duo out of Santa Fe , NM . Kay Levels and Carlos Santistevan use a combination of vintage and state of the art electronics to improvise very wide-band soundscapes and rhythms from sources - flute, bass, guitar, live samples, current event singing, piloted feedback, reflexive spoken word and the “Rhythm55”. Green Orbit is currently producing a split album with 7ate9.
Grilly Biggs Grilly Biggs is an electronically driven improvisational ensemble. The group fuses Avant-Garde, Drum'n'Bass and electronic sounds into an acoustic setting that features two drummers. Grilly Biggs is a live double drumming groove experiment made up of Matthew McClimon (Vibraphone), Matthew Golombisky (bass),Quin Kirchner (drums), and Milton Villarrubia III (drums.)
Late Severa Wires The Late Severa Wires has been an institution in High Mayhem's inception. The group consists of Ultraviolet ( turntables), Yozo Suzuki ( guitar), Mike Rowland ( drums), and Carlos Santistevan ( bass). The marvel is the group's ability to create music that seems to emerge by the collision and interactions of air molecules instead of the instruments themselves.
Out of Context Spontaneous group composition, led by J.A. Deane. They have produced three albums, including Never Never Land , which overlaps and mixes four live performances done as a musical score for the 1937 film Peter Pan at the 1999 Taos Talking Picture Festival; their new release, One Inch = 25 Miles , documents the live re-working of Sumner Carnahan's book of the same name.
Ray Charles Ives Instrumental groove duo making music from drums, bass, fender rhodes, samplers, voice, and toys fashioned by live looping and layering into a wonderfully glorious sound. Their debut release is clandestine pedestrian . More at rcimusic.com.
7ate9 7ate9 is an electronic duo that makes ambient sounds from the consumption of drums beats. Yozo Suzuki and Roland Ostheim use drum machines, a Casio keyboard, and a Nano loop step sequencer. 7ate9 is currently producing a split album with Green Orbit.
Simulate Sensual Simulate Sensual is the project of Ultraviolet and Betty Payne. On the one hand, their sound mimics the irony of pop culture with danceable rhythms and bouncy melodies. On the other hand, their sound rejects the ubiquity of pop culture by using sardonic lyrics and minor chords. With tightly composed pieces as well as spontaneous noise bursts, Simulate Sensual explores the beautiful within the ugly; the pleasure of pain; the power of desperation; and the ecstasy of precision.
Taiji Pole The reverberation of the universe's inception fashioned by two basses and flute. Shimmering, arching structures of feedback interweave into an intrinsic and meditative sound.
Ultraviolet Ultraviolet cultivates his sound through diversity. Rather than churning out typical 4/4 based dance sets, Ultraviolet merges the unusual and unexpected into gorgeous and powerfully driven montage. What sets Ultraviolet apart from others working with turntables is the skillful ability to both move a dance floor and perform within ensembles.
Uninvited Guests A revolving improvisational ensemble led by Carlos Santistevan on bass, featuring many of the finest improvisers from NM and beyond. The debut album is a compilation of live recordings from 2002-2005.
Useless Eaters Useless Eaters bring their highly danceable mix from Darmstadt , Germany ,where all three members attend the Tönenkunst Institute. Special K, 20,plays guitar, keyboard and laptop sampler. Sirkit, 19, handles lapsteel and
WATIV William A. Thompson, IV took recording equipment with him when he was deployed to Iraq , capturing on his CD, Baghdad Music Journal , the sounds that he discovered and the emotions they evoked. This is a story that defies words.
Zimbabwe Nkenya New Mexico's leading bassist and bandleader, High Mayhem produced his album Zimbabwe Nkenya and The New Jazz which features solo tracks, quartet pieces, and an improvisation piece with Dave Wayne and Rob Brown (from the William Parker Quartet.)
How can I learn more about High Mayhem artists and activities? Visit www.highmayhem.org/press for images and music samples, or to purchase albums. You can also call 505.501.3333 or 505.470.5291. Or, better yet, email max@highmayhem.org or press@highmayhem.org .
What do people have to say about High Mayhem? “There is a group of improvisational experimental humans known as High Mayhem” – Soundwaves “There's a heartbeat in the universe; there's a pulse in our planet. And Santa Fe 's meta-art collective High Mayhem is always checking out those beats, then wailing them via their improvisatory music-as much theater as sound.” – Pasatiempo
“…a tidal wave of aural antics” – Craig Smith
“There seems to be no end to the number of people who are or want to be involved in High Mayhem Studios, and perhaps it's because someone finally got it right.” – Santa Fe New Mexican
“Someone finally opened the door to artists instead if poseurs, addicts, and greedy promoters . ” – Pasatiempo
“High Mayhem has a way of finding some of the most innovative acts around” – One Final Note
And about the High Mayhem Festival? “…the breadth and depth of this festival mark it as among the most extraordinary events for emerging arts, not only locally, but on a global scale.” – Peter Breslin, Santa Fe Reporter
“One remains astonished by the impressive control which is proof each one of the groups are the worthy heirs to the American pioneers of the parallel music of the 60's-70's ” – Liability Webzine , France
“An Extraordinary festival” – Vital Weekly , Germany
“A very interesting mix of improvisation, rock, jazz, beats, influences of world music, etc. Most acts meet considerable musical standards and have an original approach.” – Staalplat , Germany
“I must admit that it opened a completely new world for me” – Dorf Mulder , Neatherlands
“Every band has a different approach to sound…(they) get people to rethink the conception of songs and of composition” – Santa Fe New Mexican
“The High Mayhem concept of art, music, and movement as a single experimental idea shared by many…. The production was, quite frankly, kick-butt fantastic” – Rob DeWalt
“It's hard to stop the momentum of these strange, twisted and amazing bands ” – SantaFe Reporter
“The festival featured bands whose overarching philosophy seems to be that the traditional musical structures are outdated and arbitrarily restrictive” – Jonanna Widner
The Festival CD “stands on its own as a work of art” – One Final Note “A haven for up and coming experimental artists” – Ryan McDermont
“The audio disc itself is amazing” – One Final Note go back...
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