Together We Sound Festival @ Wasserman Projects

6:30 pm - Doors & Juan Martinez’s percussion bike available to play & ride

7:00 pm – Concert: Akropolis & Zac Brunell of Detroit Bureau of Sound

9:00 pm – Post concert reception

ABOUT THE CONCERT

Akropolis opens the concert with brand new commissions by composers including Theo Chandler and Stacy Garrop. Akropolis’ set is followed by Detroit experimental percussionist Zac Brunell performing works for amplified cactus by Steven Snowden and John Cage. The concert concludes with the world premiere of Steven Snowden’s new work, Sprocket. Sprocket joins the reed quintet with a rideable percussion bicycle designed and fabricated by Detroit resident and Kresge Arts Fellow, Juan Martinez, and performed on by local experimental percussionist, Zac Brunell. This project will be the centerpiece of Akropolis’ 2019 Together We Sound festival in Detroit, MI and is made possible thanks to support from High Wire Lab, the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

ABOUT THE PERCUSSION BIKE

Like Juan’s other larger-than-life, rideable public art pieces, his percussion bike uses pedal power to create numerous sounds. As the percussionist pedals the bike (while fixed in place or not) a set of custom-designed and fitted levers and gears will create several effects that change depending on how fast the bike is pedaled. It’s been awesome to be working collaboratively with Juan, Steve, and Zac over the past year to determine what sounds the bike produces and how to incorporate them in Sprocket.

Having composed for unconventional metal materials previously, like shrapnel and car parts, Steve’s goal is to fuse industrial sounds familiar to Detroit with pedal-powered effects that mesh with Akropolis’ wind power. We’ve long admired Steve’s compositional storytelling abilities, and we can’t wait for him to extend his brilliance onto the reed quintet.

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Performance will take place in Wasserman Projects' galleries, set among artworks by Miami-based, Brazilian artist Martiza Caneca, Brooklyn-based artist Jack Henry, and Detroit-based artist Scott Hocking. While presented in three distinct shows, the featured artists are, nonetheless, connected by their mutual interest in the evolution and state of urban environments. From Caneca's richly-colored, cinematic photographs to Henry's abstract sculptural works to Hocking's monumental installation, the artists take as their subject the current landscape of the Americas.