A debut album from Popebama + Gold Bolus Recordings.
Available NOW on CD & Digital Release
Nation Building, Popebama’s debut album from Gold Bolus Recordings, is a 40-minute guide to forging your own sound world. Through concept, play, notation, rehearsal, performance, and extensive touring, four original works (two by Erin Rogers, two by Dennis Sullivan) capture the duo’s hallmark performance energy in a refined studio mix. Noisy, experimental, multi-instrument, text-laden, with custom electronics, intricate setups and an unwavering attention to detail, Popebama’s work applies the freshness of experimental sound and free spirit of improvisation to precise execution and formal notation. From their ambitious first ventures in 2016, seasoned composer-performer- improvisers Rogers and Sullivan pooled their collective everythings to uncover new ground in sound and performance.
Known for her work with thingNY, Hypercube, and New Thread Quartet as a saxophonist/improviser and composer, Erin Rogers, applies clever orchestration and lyrical phrasing to junky sound-makers and multitasking instrumentalists in Wormhole (2017) while stepping into a concerto of unconventional saxophone sounds, pushed-and-pulled by an industrial engine of wood, metal, and noise in Light-On-Light (2018).
At home in the percussion/electronics laboratory, Dennis Sullivan explores complex rhythmic and acoustic sound-blending in Shedding Waste (2016), where refined instrumental techniques are tempered by cheap, lo-fi noises at an inconceivable pace. A master solo performer, groundbreaking composer, and founding member of the electro-percussive duo Radical 2, Sullivan piles table-upon-table of instruments, electric and acoustic, connected through endless circuitry in Gamma Chamber (2018), casting the listener into a dark cavern of metallic resonance, with thousands of small sounds bursting to be heard.
credits
Label: Gold Bolus Recordings
Catalog Number: GBR049
Recorded by: Zach Herchen at Adelphi University Performing Arts Center
Editing, mixing: Zach Herchen
Mastering: Caley Monahan Ward
Artwork: Christopher Lauto
track listing
Wormhole (2017) by Erin Rogers | (12:53)
Shedding Waste (2016) by Dennis Sullivan | (10:21)
Light-On-Light (2018) by Erin Rogers | (10:43)
Gamma Chamber (2017) by Dennis Sullivan | (20:30)
Preview track:
Audio/Video by Zach Herchen
Upcoming:
Popebama Presents:
Works by Popebama & Rick Burkhardt
Saturday, December 11, 8pm (in-person)
South Oxford Space – 138 South Oxford St, Brooklyn
Tickets online/at-the-door ($10-$20 sliding scale)
Noisy, multi-instrumental, text-laden, Popebama applies the freshness of experimental sound and free spirit of improvisation to precise execution and formal composition. Since 2016, Erin Rogers and Dennis Sullivan have pooled their collective experience as composer-performer-improvisers to uncover new ground in both sound and performance. Joined by composer-performer-playwright Rick Burkhardt on accordion, the program will begin with an improvising trio, followed by a new work for multiphonics + percussion and electronics by Rogers. The event will culminate in the premiere of Wing, a ~30 minute journey of 2 playing/speaking instrumentalists, recounting visual details from a long-ago scene complete with imaginative excursions and daydream-y escapades; the fusion of instruments, sound, and text becoming a singular thought, in the seamless way Burkhardt has become known for.
More Info + Tickets
Proof of vaccination (12 and older) against COVID-19 required for entry. Please complete this form before arrival: https://airtable.com/
In the Rearview Mirror:
Guest Ensemble, Splice 2021
Popebama (Erin Rogers + Dennis Sullivan) will be the featured guest ensemble at Splice 2021. The online institute runs June 28 through July 2 and features public performances.
*Check back for performance schedule*
SPLICE Institute is an online, week-long, intensive summer program for performers, composers, and composer-performers interested in music that combines live performance and electronics.
For info about Splice: https://splicemusic.org/institute/about
For info about Popebama: https://splicemusic.org/institute/faculty
Open Call: Merche Blasco @The Shed
Popebama (Erin Rogers + Dennis Sullivan) will join multimedia artist + composer Merche Blasco for Open Call.
Jun 24 + 25, 2021
The Shed, NYC
Infrequent Seams Streamfest 2
Catch Popebama on the Infrequent Seams Streamfest alongside an incredible lineup of artists. Set #1 is a performance of “Fuse” by Patrick Chan while set #2 features two newly minted works from the Popebama vault, including the Dennis Sullivan‘s “Gamma Chamber” and the ultimate joystick competition “Showdown.”
Thurs, June 17 @7:00p ET
The live stream is hosted on Bandcamp, and requires a free Bandcamp fan account to view.
Link to tickets ($5) and stream HERE
Yarn/Wire Feedback: Episode 43
TELEMETRY
The UVA Department of Music and The Bridge PAI present Telemetry, a streaming event featuring Popebama. The NYC-based experimental duo will present the video premiere performance of Ryan Carraher’s …and try to become the Light? an ever-contorting, other-worldly journey of body, mind and reality, followed by Chin Ting Chan’s Fuse I, an exploration of hollow sounds, electronic triggers and ensemble interplay. Popebama will also perform co-composed work by the performers, Erin Rogers and Dennis Sullivan.
Music begins at 7:30pm streaming from https://www.twitch.tv/thebridgepai
The Telemetry Series, supported by UVA Arts and the Office of the Provost and the Vice Provost for the Arts is always free and open to the public. This monthly music series occurs in partnership with The Bridge, and features UVA faculty, students, locals, and renown experimental performers. They push boundaries of musicianship by offering a unique laboratory to engage new methods of composition and instrumentation. Unlike anything else in the city, Charlottesville artists and audiences connect with new concepts and are continuously inspired towards ingenuity through unique sound experiences.This monthly music series occurs in partnership with The Bridge, and features UVA faculty, students, locals, and renown experimental performers. They push boundaries of musicianship by offering a unique laboratory to engage new methods of composition and instrumentation. Unlike anything else in the city, Charlottesville artists and audiences connect with new concepts and are continuously inspired towards ingenuity through unique sound experiences.
“from the edge”
Johnstone Fund presents Popebama + Tower Duo
Time: 3:00 pm
NYC-based duo Popebama (Erin Rogers, saxophone + Dennis Sullivan, percussion) and Columbus-based Tower Duo (Erin Helgeson Torres, flute + Michael Rene Torres, saxophone) team up for an afternoon of video premieres presented by the Johnstone Fund for New Music. Tower Duo leads the show with the premiere of “Deceptive Stillness: Isolation Vignettes” by Michael Rene Torres, a new work of 8 miniatures for flute and saxophone and video that explores eclectic scenes and sounds. Popebama takes the stage with the premiere of Wing, a story told through small sounds and sentence fragments by Obie award winning composer/playwright, Rick Burkhardt followed by the premiere of edgewise, a masked excursion into the world of electronic voice phenomena for two performers + electronics, by Kittie Cooper. The program will conclude with Rogers’ Light-On-Light – a fiery adventure in time and transit.
3pm EDT // Sun, Aug 9
Watch the show at:
www.facebook.com/johnstonefund
CHARLOTTE NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL
Wednesday, June 17, 2020
Charlotte New Music Festival presents
Popebama (1pm) & the Byrne:Kozar:Duo (1:30pm)
You can watch the live concert on either:
YouTube Live – youtube.com/c/charlottenewmusic
Facebook Live – facebook.com/CharlotteNewMusic
Popebama will present a series of quiet but energetic pieces amplifying small sounds in a small apartment. Composed in -the-moment, by Erin Rogers (saxophone) + Dennis Sullivan (percussion).
The Byrne:Kozar:Duo will be presenting music by Icelandic composer Finnur Karlsson, NYC based vocalist and composer Jeffrey Gavett, and a sneak preview of a new work by Beth Wiemann!
Popebama takes residency as part of the Collaborative Composition Initiative (CCI)
Popebama joins Unheard-of//Ensemble and composition faculty for the Collaborative Composition Initiative at Stony Brook University. As part of CCI’s intensive 5 day workshop from June 15-19th, 2020, Popebama will give a Q&A session followed by an evening performance via Zoom virtual meeting software:
June 17, 2020 // 5pm
Q&A – for CCI participants only
June 17, 2020 // 7pm
Concert performance by Popebama – for CCI participants only
Links will be provided.
Program: new works written for Popebama
Wing (excerpt) by Rick Burkhardt
edgewise by Kittie Cooper
Each of the twelve composer participants selected will workshop and premiere a new work written for Unheard-of//Ensemble. A typical day consists of composition lessons or open workshop rehearsals in the morning. Afternoon seminars focus on a wide variety of topics (fundraising, practical electronics in new music, performance and politicization in composition, graphic scores and notation), along with workshopping and group collaborations between composer participants. Each night features a concert by Unheard-of, faculty, and guests performing 21st century works alongside composer workshop premieres. All composer participants will receive audio and video recording of their work at the end of the festival.
More info on CCI HERE
Bearthoven: New Works ft. Popebama @ LPR
Le Poisson Rouge (map)
158 Bleecker St
New York, NY 10012
