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
Postponed:
Telemetry: Popebama, Trash Cats, Jordan Perry & Heather Mease, Becky Brown
Popebama is postponing their appearance on Telemetry a later date TBD. Please tune in on Oct 14th to see the other great artists on this bill.
The UVa Department of Music and The Bridge PAI present the first ever streaming Telemetry event featuring performances from Popebama, Jordan Perry & Heather Mease, Becky Brown and Trash Cats Music begins at 7:30pm streaming from https://www.twitch.tv/thebridgepai
In the Rearview Mirror:
“from the edge”
Johnstone Fund presents Popebama + Tower Duo
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