[ basso bongo ]

Basso Bongo is a state-of-the-art, computer-assisted duo dedicated to the principal of using technology as extensions of thier instruments. The performance is a culmination of the first of two one week residencies at the Hartt School of Music.

The performance begins with Men In the Cities, a composition by Amy Knoles as a computer/ electronic percussion realization of a body of work by artist Robert Longo. Basso Bongo incorporates slide projections of Longo’s images into this performative, multi-media collage.

Another selection, S.O.S was conceived by Basso Bongo and a diverse community of children while the duo was in residency at the Kohler Art Center in Wisconsin. This piece combines the recorded voices of children with a harmonized bass line to create an eerie pathos that gives way to bouncy insouciance.

Things That Don’t Belong in Houses is a multi-movement work composed by Todd Winkler where computer technology expands the performance capabilities of a duo playing MIDI percussion and electronic double bass. During this piece the ensemble explores the possibilities of computer "performers" who are responsive to and interactive with the live sound.

The night includes three other selections by innovative composers Randall Woolf, Glenn Hackbarth and James Sellars.