Takehisa Kosugi and Jim O’Rourke present a program of eight duos—partially overlapping and using various electronic sound modification devices including delay/samplers, pitch shifters and multiple-processors.

Kosugi – O’Rourke

No. 1 Violin – Guitar
No. 2 Violin – Hurdy Gurdy
No. 3 Object – Guitar
No. 4 Violin – Power Book

Intermission

No. 5 Voice – Guitar
No. 6 Violin – Electronics
No. 7 Electronics – Guitar
No. 8 Violin – Guitar

Takehisa Kosugi (b.1938, Tokyo, Japan) is a composer and violinist, and an early member of Fluxus. In 1960, he co-founded the Group Ongaku, the first collective music improvisation and event performance group in Tokyo. During this period, his event pieces were introduced by Fluxus in Europe and the United States. From 1965 to 1967 Kosugi lived in New York, creating mixed-media performance works and giving electronic music concerts with Nam June Paik and other Fluxus members. In 1969 he co-founded the Tokyo-based Taj Mahal Travelers (PICNIC BAND), a collective improvisational group that performed its music outdoors, which continued until 1976. As a composer he participated in Expo’70 in Osaka, with works commissioned for environmental sound events for the Festival Plaza. He has been a composer and performer for the Merce Cunningham Dance Company since 1977, and was appointed its musical director in 1995. Kosugi’s performances and sound installations have been presented at various festivals and museums in the U.S., U.K., Europe and Japan.

Jim O’Rourke (b.1969, Chicago, Ill.) encountered the music of Derek Bailey as youngster and began visiting him in London at the age of 13. Eyes opened to the power of improvisational guitar, he released several of his own highly experimental works and has worked closely with John Fahey and Loren Mazzacane Connors. In 1993, O’Rourke co-founded the experimental rock group Gastr del Sol with David Grubbs. In the same year, he formed the avant-rock group Brise-Glace with Darin Gray and Dylan Posa. Throughout the 1990s, O’Rourke was a member of the band Illusion of Safety. O’Rourke’s solo albums include Terminal Pharmacy (1995), Bad Timing (1997), and Eureka (1999). Since 1999 he has performed and recorded as a member of Sonic Youth.

Presented in partnership with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Workshop: Kosugi performs Catch Wave, an interactive workshop for students based on experiential interactions with varied sound works: one Fluxus event, one live electronic work, and one electroacoustic piece. MCA, 220 E. Chicago Ave., Saturday, March 11.