EROTIC BOULDERS

Johannes Bergmark amplified found objects
Damian Bisciglia amplified found and modified objects, electronics
Mitchell Brown analog electronics
Joseph Hammer real-time tape loops, electronics

Erotic Boulders came out of the mail contact between Bergmark and Bisciglia (connected through Adam Bohman in London). When Bergmark had a solo tour on the US West Coast in 2005, Bisciglia put Bergmark in touch with his collaborators in Erotic Boulders, Brown and Hammer for a concert at the Open Gate Concert Series at Eagle Rock Cultural Community Center in Los Angeles, CA. Bisciglia very rarely plays in public, but the next year he made one of those rare exceptions for the premiere of Exotic Boulders, an expansion of the other group with Bergmark, after some recording sessions in Brown's home studio. The pictures on this page are taken at that concert.

In 2009, Erotic Boulders (now taking back the former name) played another set of gigs in California, on Echo Curio (Echo Park, Los Angeles), Club Dingaling at Hyperion Tavern (Silver Lake, Los Angeles), on the radio shows The Kids are Alright hosted by Professor Cantaloupe with a bunch of kids and adult passers-by; and Glossolalia on KXLU 88.9 fm in Los Angeles and live stream, and Composers Decomposed series at Heco's Palace, Oakland. They were then expanded with the guests Kio Griffith and Bobby Loachfillet.

In December, 2012, Damian Bisciglia died. I wrote this little tribute to him. My hope is that Erotic Boulders will continue in one way or another, through live playing, and the recordings we did and planned to release. Meanwhile, this web site will remain up as it is.

Johannes Bergmark is an improviser, electro-acoustic music and text-sound composer, sound poet, writer, piano technician and surrealist. He plays improvised and live electronic music for invented instruments of his own design, selected objects, the musical saw, toys, voice and electronics. He has toured internationally and collaborated with other artists worldwide, made sound sculptures, interactive sound installations and taught and lectured. In some settings he has also acted, danced, used objects or done jester tricks. Bergmark was residing in Los Angeles in 2006 but otherwise lives in Stockholm, sweden, and is active in Fylkingen, the organization for radical and experimental art in Stockholm, at the electronic music studio EMS and in the Surrealist group in Stockholm. Currently he is active in many groups and collaborations.

bergmark.org

Mitchell Brown (left in this picture) often takes cues of focused listening from the developmentally disabled children he has assisted daily since '95 at a special education school in Glendale. In some of the children, the reduced capability to interact with others allows them to flourish internally through self-stimulation of the senses in a solipsistic manner. Brown doubles as Professor Cantaloupe while DJ-ing on KXLU on Wednesday nights for a children's show, The Kids Are Alright, and Glossolalia, a sound-art show. He runs the Melon Expander record label, supporting humble hermits working in the field of electronic, electro-acoustic and various head musics, new and archival.  

www.myspace.com/magneticbrown www.melonexpander.com

Joseph Hammer (right in this picture), a sound artist from Los Angeles, has actively created experimental works since 1980. His practice draws on the complexities of the process of listening and playing, reflecting on the role of the audience versus the performer, and uses music as it influences our notion of time, memory and intimacy as the basis for improvisation and abstraction. As a member of the trio Solid Eye, Hammer has performed widely (including a one month tour of Japan) and is an influential contributor to the Los Angeles underground sound community. The analog tape loop is his magic carpet, marrying sound fragments in ferric oxide.

www.josephhammer.com