Amphibian Lark at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
While downtown art space Gallery at Avalon Island regularly presents music each month with the truly excellent In-Between Series, it occasionally opens its great and under-utilized upstairs theater whenever special engagements come along. And any time Silver Apples visionary Simeon Coxe comes to town would certainly qualify as special.
Amphibian Lark at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
This time, he came with current collaborator Lydia Winn LeVert as Amphibian Lark (July 15). Unfortunately, he brought just a laptop instead of his legendary self-made musical technology, and it wasn’t the most active or vigorous set of the night. But their combined spirit was requisitely left-field.
Amphibian Lark at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
At its most salient, the performance offered minimalist transmissions that channel some of the original frontier of electronic futurism that Simeon anticipated way back in the ‘60s. Add in a curious chanteuse-pop edge and you’ve got an act that blends weird innocence, outsider edge and otherworldly frequency.
Unbliterati at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
The openers of this avant-garde showcase were also of particular note. Representing Orlando was Unbliterati, the side dish of recently revived, locally legendary free-dance band Obliterati (who have some recording history with Simeon Coxe).
Unbliterati at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
Unbliterati at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
Unbliterati at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
In this iteration, the art freaks broke up the perpetual groove of their flagship sound and injected a little more nerve and improv. With their collision of No Wave, post-punk, jazz and electronic, however, they were still like a virile conjuring of the seminal NYC art-rock scene of the ‘70s and ‘80s.
Voice Hoist at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
I’ve seen plenty of loopers but almost none as based on vocals as intriguing Sarasota artist Voice Hoist. It’s a bewitching project that weaves tapestries from layers of voice that aren’t simply waves of ambience interacting incidentally but whole melodic structures with design and aggregate effect.
Voice Hoist at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
Finally, there was ambient tape act Proud/Father. Sonically, the New Orleans artist showed the ability to scale monolithic summits like Fuck Buttons, something I don’t say lightly. But it doesn’t take a drone aficionado to be swept by his multimedia show.
Proud/Father at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
Proud/Father at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
Visually, sonically and conceptually, the performance was set in the context of his current muse of Latin-American revolution, employing video from the ‘80s and reworking the audio from it into his sonic composition. Together, his escalating noise and images of real strife coalesced into a powerfully evocative and consuming experience.
Proud/Father at the Gallery at Avalon Island Credit: Liv Jones
