Mare Island Performance announcement

'Silver Blood' at Reedemer Lutheran

It was welcome to feel 'human' again.  I cancelled my last performance the day of because I've been so out of sorts with myself this past year.  The look of that last venue didn't help my imagination much either.  Last night's tabernacle however,  with it's vaulted wood ceiling and nuanced control panel making possible so many configurations of lighting, was perfect for our combined sets (Matt Hannafin, Catherine Lee and John Savage performing Cage's 'Ryoanji', and Branic Howard and I each doing our own things).  As always for me, the most rewarding performances begin with a peripheral 'noticing' of all the friends who don't show up, and end with a few conversations with the unfamiliar listeners who so generously share their impressions of the music.  One guy told me it was his "favorite Loren Chasse show".  Humbling.  Another guy who seemed to be the old guard of Portland art eccentrics asked where he could see/hear me doing this same piece again.  The card he handed me read 'Jimmy Crack Corn Productions' and his persistent smile and sincerity as we spoke in the lobby inspired me to search for that card in my pockets last night and prop it up against the book pile beside my bed as some cheerful charm against the shitty nights' sleeps I've been having.

Last night, my favorite moment was the mylar 'serpent' that I hoisted up while pulling a cord woven through the strings of the viol-uke.  It seemed to float in the center of that room and the light from my flashlight sent silvery fascial forms creeping across the ceiling.  Funny how my love for dim and moody lighting had the effect of subverting my interactions with my gear as I awkwardly groped in the shadows looking for mallets, for the end of a string, and even for knobs on the mixer.  And lastly, it wouldn't be a successful show if I didn't have a mess to clean up afterwards.  Last night included lentils, sand, and volcanic pebbles in neat lines along the aisle carpet as well as wrestling with an ancient vacuum that merely moved the material around as it inhaled and sporadically exhaled from its bloated bag.  I'm 45 and have yet to earn a 'roadie'...

January performance announcement

Season of the Decomposers

For my class unit on Ecosystems, we have been studying the role of decomposers.  At the Oregon Mycological Society's annual exhibition, I picked up an oyster and shitake mushroom kit for my classroom (one student said, "Mr. Loren, I think I can guess what oyster mushrooms taste like, but I think I'll get in trouble if I guess what shitake mushrooms taste like!")
Here are some prints we made, the first showing some fascinating white spores from the shitake on black paper.

Afoot on the Paradise Park Trail at Mt. Hood this past Sunday.  Spectacular fungi persevering above the snowline....

Somehow, this delicate knot of lichen expresses something about which the mushrooms remain quiet.....

New release on Notice Recordings

http://www.noticerecordings.com/

Brainwashed review

New releases and a performance

I've got a new CD called 'The Animals and Their Shadows' released by Semperflorens (thank you Sergei!).  Also, a tape called 'The Sodden Floor' on Notice Recordings (thank you Evan!).
On October 3rd I'll be performing with Rafael Toral, Debris Field, and Birch Cooper at the Projection Museum in Portland.....

here's a look at  The Animals and Their Shadows

Haunted land

 My friend Bill and I explored this northeast corner of Washington--a place called Valley, a lake called Waitts--for a few days.  

"Characters at the Water Margin' reviewed in Brainwashed

 Read Brainwashed review

Xhurch performance with Matt Hannafin

Elk Rock Garden

leg of winter

The brick wall seemed just the perfect height for a jump--possible, but with just enough risk to make it impressive.  So standing there, I pumped my legs and hopped up to a standing position.  But wouldn't a video be great?  So again...losing balance and landing back on the sidewalk and then a hasty third attempt, without any of the fine tuning, the eyeing of distance between my body and the wall.  Without listening too hard, I still hear the crack of my shin.  See the flap....and through the blood, the bone.

The idea of a 'tour cd'...

With a 'rare' performance coming up in LA this weekend,  I was inspired to compile some musical strays from the past year.  Each of these pieces is part of a larger body of work still taking shape, yet the ones I included here are more or less 'finished'.   One is a track I was asked to make for a Daido Moriyama project featuring his zoo animal photos but seeing how I haven't heard anything about this in a few years now, I'm imagining it's mine to do with what I want.  I've also been having fun with a dulcimer my friend Greg Bianchini made for me, run through a generous amount of reverb.  The there are my amateurish pluckings on various weird string instruments I continue to find at flea markets.  I also included a 'rehearsal' recording for this upcoming show.  Even if the live event bombs, I have this record of my attempts which I quite like. 
Kendra Lichtenwalner sweetly donated covers for the CDr from her own drawer of stray prints and paintings.  Inevitably, we will be working together soon on an lp.  Here are a few examples of the covers I'm taking to LA....

visiting LA, August 23rd

Some trials for an upcoming performance in LA

'Fantasy of Heat' photos

I just returned from a drive up California's eastern highway 395....from Yosemite, Mono Lake, then a detour through Lava Beds National Monument and onward to Bend, OR where a spectacular storm filled the sky at our backs with arcs and shaggy vertical bolts of lightning.  Back in Portland, the heatwave persists and tonight I took some photos inspired by the soaring temperatures and blaring sun....

Apparitions from Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

Yesterday a great storm hit the neighborhood.  Here's what showed up in the aftermath.....

"Characters at the Water Margin" CD released on Unfathomless

view release news at Unfathomless

Performance with Matt Hannafin at the Improvisation Summit of Portland

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