Maria Chavez and Jordi Wheeler present their first recorded release for Takuroku, The Kitchen Sessions: 1-5, 2020, an audio result of a 2 day Recording Residency at the legendary theater The Kitchen in NYC.
Due to Covid 19 quarantine restrictions, the Kitchen, like Cafe OTO, has had to temporarily close, but is still providing the venue as a resource for artists to use during this difficult time. The NYC venue offered Maria a 2 day Recording Residency in their main space with an onsite engineer and access to their Steinway B grand piano.
Maria presented her new instrumentation set up for the Recording Residency:
4 Numark TTX turntables
4 RAKE Double Needles (8 needles in total invented by Randal Sanden Jr.)
2 Xone DJ mixers
She invited one of her regular collaborators, Jordi Wheeler, most recently a member of Amen Dunes, to bring his multifaceted talents on prepared piano, bass guitar, and electronics to the session.
These recordings are the result of active listening and improvisation with a new configuration of instruments inside the legendary theater space.
The Recording Residency at the Kitchen provided a safe space for Maria, (currently on medical sabbatical while recovering from a rare brain surgery in the Spring of 2019 and who expects to return to public performance in 2022-23) accommodating her current condition while allowing the duo to experiment with her new/ larger set up at lower volumes frequencies and generally reacquaint themselves with each other after over a year and a half of not being able to perform together.
Chavez and Wheeler have been performing as a duo since 2015. Their sound piece “Is Made Uneasy” is the intro to Maria’s long form sound piece, Between a Gunshot & a Whisper, as part of Every Time An Ear Di Soud for Documenta14 in Kassel, Germany.
Their duo work has been presented by Cruces Espacio de Arte in Madrid, Spain, as part of the Abasement Series at Max Fish, NYC and has aired on KunstRadio, Vienna, 3cR Melbourne, Australia, the Lot Radio, Brooklyn.
Born in Lima, Peru and based in NYC, Maria Chávez is best known as an abstract turntablist, sound artist and DJ. Coincidence, chance & failures are themes that unite her book objects, sound sculptures, installations & other works with her improvised solo turntable performance practice. Her latest album, “Maria Chavez PLAYS Stefan Goldmann’s Ghost hemiola” was nominated for a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik in Jan. of 2020.
Currently, Maria is on the cover of the textbook on the History of Experimental & Electronic music by Routledge Publishing, was a David Tudor and Robert Rauschenberg Arts Fellow and a Research Fellow for Goldsmith's Sound Practice Research Department (2015-17). Her large scale sound & multi-media installations along with other works have been shown at the Getty Museum, the JUDD Foundation, Documenta 14 in Kassel, Germanyand HeK (Haus der elektronischen Künste Basel) amongst many other institutions around the world. She is currently an artist in residence with EMPAC (The Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center) until 2022 and will present a new sound installation for BRIC Arts "Latin Abstract" painting exhibition from Jan. - May 2021. She is on a medical sabbatical due to receiving brain surgery in Feb. 2019 and will return to performing for the public in 2022-23. She appreciates everyone's patience and compassion during this difficult time.
www.mariachavez.org
www.mariachavez.org
mariachavez.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/maria-chavez
www.instagram.com/chavezsayz/
twitter.com/Chavezsayz
www.facebook.com/MariaChavezSound
thecreativeindependent.com/people/sound-artist-maria-chavez-on-memory-trauma-and-imagining-a-new-world/
Born in NYC, but currently living elsewhere, Jordi Wheeler is a multi instrumentalist who has quietly made his musical presence felt, from touring with Psychic Ills, to shaping the recorded and live visions of other artists such as Mike Wexler (Amish records, Mexican Summer, three:four,) and most recently, Amen Dunes (on whose last two records, Love, and Freedom, (Sacred Bones) he features significantly.) His solo work tends to focus on longer form meditations where he “becomes his ears.”
Currently Jordi is wishing he could get into the practice space w his pals in SMMRSL, and is working on a rough mix for a piece he is making with Alex Verdú, of Mecánica Clásica, which will be featured on a compilation benefitting Sunview Luncheonette, a DIY venue in Brooklyn venue also struggling due to Covid world.
