Lou Bunk is a composer and improviser of minimal yet intricate music that investigates sound and silence through extended instrumental techniques, microtones and custom-made electronic and acoustic instruments. (full Bio)

Recent Projects

Form-and-timbre: The BSC and the Boston Improvising Community, A chapter I wrote for the book “Analytical and Cross-Cultural Studies in World Music”, Oxford University Press (2011) Avaialble on Amazon.

Luna, for saxophone and electronics is inlcuded on Phantasm, Eric Honour's recent release on Ravello.

Scratch-O-Lin, a homemade instrument of cardboard, Styrofoam and elastic bands.

Being and Becoming, a lifelong composition exploring how subtle change can both lead to and be structural transformation.

Opensound, a concert series I co-produce in Somerville MA.

Tower of Electro-Acoustic Flim-Flammery, A vertical improvising instrument of sound making trash and bric-a-brac.

Grizzler, a gigantic improvising ensemble, directed by Dave Gross.

2lous, an improvising duo with Lou Cohen.

Star of Love, a Children's Opera about love and music.

2011

Nov. 6 Study for Bowed Cardboard, for scratch-o-lin and live electronics. At New England Conservatory in Brown Hall

Aug. 4 Being and Becoming, for toy piano and electronics. ICMC 2011 in Huddersfield England. Performed by Xenia Pestova.

April 30 Luna, for alto sax and electronics will be played by Kevin Baldwin at the Random Access New Music Festival in Long Island.

May 21 Study for Bowed Cardboard, for scratch-o-lin and live electronics, Sonorium, Salem MA

March 15 Scelsi Frammenti, for singing violist. Wendy Richman plays this at Oberlin Conservatory

March 4 Performing (on Tower) at XFEST 2011 at the 119 Gallery in Lowell MA. 8PM. This is a free for all where Walter assigns ad-hoc ensemble.

Jan. 24 World Premier of of my new piece "Scelsi Frammenti" for singing violist which I wrote for the amaaaazing Wendy Richman!. Concert is part of the Forge Festival. 8pm at The Bushwick Starr, 207 Starr St., Brooklyn, NY, I'll be there. Stop by. Other composers writing for singing violist are: Christian Carey, José-Luis Hurtado, Everette Minchew, Arlene Sierra, and David Smooke; the program will also include Giacinto Scelsi's _Manto III_ for singing violist, and pieces for viola & electronics by Kevin Ernste, Kaija Saariaho, and Hillary Zipper.

2010

Dec 18 2lous at Sun Worship VI at the Buoy in Kittery, ME. 8PM. Also Playing: Peace Loving, Loup-Garou, Greg Kowalski...

Nov. 12 Performing on viola and scratch-o-lin with Grizzler at Fleisenberg Floft, 381 Congress, Boston

Sept. 16 Being and Becoming, for bass clarinet is played by Krista Martynes at Opensound in Somerville, MA

Sept. 15 Being and Becoming, for bass clarinet is played by Krista Martynes at the Zetigist Outpost in Cambridge MA. Also Playing: Grizzler!

Sept. 12 Performing (on Tower) and scratch-o-lin at Lou Cohen's house concert.

June 1-5 EM see Pea is played at ICMC as part of 60 x 60.

May 22 Performing (on Tower) at 21Grand with Ken Ueno and Mat Ingalls. 8PM

May 22 Performing (on Tower) at The Lab with Ken Ueno and Mat Ingalls. Noon for a vegan pancake event!

May 21 Performing (on Tower) at CNMAT, Opensound West with Ken Ueno and Mat Ingalls. This trip out west is part of a new improvising project Ken and I are starting.

May 21Being and Becoming, for Toy Piano and Electronics will be played by Xenia Pestova on Interstice: 242 Young St. (Peel & Wellington), Montreal

May 8 Performing (on Tower) with Grizzler at Mobius "Artrages". 8PM

May 3 The Franklin Pierce Percussion Ensemble will play my piece Etude: Being and Becoming, for improvising ensemble at FPU in Cheney Hall at 4:30.

May 1 2lous at the 119 Gallery in Lowell MA. 8PM.

April 22 The Dartmouth Contemporary Music Lab will play my piece Etude: Being and Becoming, for improvising ensemble at Mobius in Boston at 8pm. Same program as April 20.

April 20 The Dartmouth Contemporary Music Lab will premier my piece Etude: Being and Becoming, for improvising ensemble at The Tank in NYC at 7:30. Also on the program:"Quartet for the Highest Two Es with Duet for Six Sounds Each" - Chris Peck, "Sticks and Tones" - Alex Wroten, "Guitars: for 6 electric guitars" - Patrick Barter, "Focus" - Seth Cluett, "Means of Uniting Them" - Chris Peck, And a new piece by Paul Osetinsky

April 15 Gabby Diaz performed my solo violin piece "Es vee Pea " for a couple classes of mine at FPU.

April 7 Performed two improvisations with Mike Bullock for a couple classes of mine at FPU.

April 3 Hip-Hop Opera at the Calderwood Pavilion in Boston. I helped the junior class at the Codman Academy in Dorchester MA developed this super too cool for school production.

March 27 Being and Becoming, for Toy Piano and Electronics played by Xenia Pestova on Opensound. Also playing was: Duck That:
Angela Sawyer, electronics, duck calls , Joshua Jefferson, saxophone, duck calls, Steve Norton, reeds, duck calls, Lou Cohen, laptop powered by Csound, id m theftable

March 26 Being and Becoming, for Toy Piano and Electronics was premiered by Xenia Pestova at Franklin Pierce University where I teach various course related to computer music composition and music technology

March 26 EM see Pea was played in Carter Hall in the Peterborough Townhouse in Peterborough, NH as part of Art for Water: an interdisciplinary investigation of water designed to raise awareness about our relationship with water, and especially our water use and habits.

Feb 20 Performed (on Tower) with Grizzler on Opensound

Jan. 23 Performed (on Tower) with Grizzler at 381 Congress St in Boston. Grizzler is a big band free improvising group lead by Dave Gross and has a rotating membership of near 20 including: Jules Vasylenko, Angela Sawyer, Nathan Ahlers, Josh Jefferson, Polly Hanson, Lou Cohen, Steve Norton, Forbes Graham.

Jan 16 Performed a solo on my Tower of Electro-Acoustic Flim-Flammery at Opensound. Also playing: Trio: Matt Samolis, flute
Thadd Comstock, microtonal guitar, Glen Petit, fretless bass, Eisen-beast: Andrew Eisenberg, percussion, Jules Vasylenko, reeds, Brendan Murray Quartet, Brendan Murray, electronics, James Coleman, Theremin, Mike Bullock, bass, Dave Gross, saxophone

2009

Dec 18 2lous at the 119 Gallery in Lowell MA. Also on the bill: Lynn Eriksen & Paul Kafka-Gibbons - movement EMU: Joe Burgio & Paul Kafka-Gibbons - movement with Steve Norton - sax, bass clarinet, Andy Eisenberg - percussion, Walter Wright - analog synths & video, Abram Taber - multi instruments, 7 Ton Hand: Joe Sanci - guitar, Sarah Reinold - bass, Mark Anderson - drums

Dec 12 My solo violin piece "Es vee Pea " was be performed by Gabby Diaz on the Boston Modern Orchestra Project's series Club Cafe

November Griffin Campbell and Michael Straus played my piece "The Ant's Elbow" on their mini-tour The Ant's Elbow Duo Project.The concerts took place at the following venues:

Nov. 5 Nicholls State University, Thibodaux
Nov. 3 Open Ears Series, Blue Nile, New Orleans
Nov. 2 Southeastern State University, Hammond
Nov. 1 Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

Sept 25 Bought a house in Somerville MA (awesome!) with my girlfriend Emily P. Smidt!

March and April Eric Honour played my piece "Luna' on tour through the US and Europe. Other composers on the tour where Massimo BIASIONI (Italy), Christopher BIGGS (USA), Luigi CECCARELLI (Italy), William COOGAN (USA), Zachary CROCKETT (USA), D. Edward DAVIS (USA), Karlheinz ESSL (Austria), Eric HONOUR (USA), Ed MARTIN (USA) , and Scott MCLAUGHLIN (UK). The concerts took place at the following venues:

April 19, Lutkin Hall, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.
April 16, Immediate Arts, Minneapolis, MN
April 9, University of Wisconsin-Oskkosh, WI
April 6, Grant Hall, University of Missouri-Kansas City, MO
March 28, Franklin Pierce University, Rindge, NH
March 26, Woody Tanger Auditorium, Brooklyn College, NY
March 20, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, England
March 18, Conservatorio di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
March 17, Istituto Boccherini, Lucca, Italy
March 14, Essl Museum, Vienna, Austria

March 2, Completed my chapter "Form-and-timbre:The BSC and the Boston Improvising Community" for the book Analytical Studies in World Music, Volume II, Edited by Michael Tenzer and John Roeder, and to be published by Oxford University Press. The BSC is a Boston based improvising ensemble directed by saxophonist Bhob Rainey.

2008

Dec 12 My solo cello piece "Six Pococos" was be performed in Montreuil, France by Delphine Biron. Thanks to Matt Lima and Multilatérale for programing these pococos

Nov. 15 2lous performed at the 119 Gallery in Lowell MA. Also on the bill: Mitchel K Ahern - instruments brewed from household objects, Joe Burgio & Bodydrama - movement, Marc Bisson - tabletop guitar, wind-up bunnies, & much more, deiX - voice, glass plate with contact mic, Katt Hernandez - violin, Walter Wright - analog synth & video.

Oct 19th Aaron Trant performed "Etude:Being and Becoming" at Boston Conservatory for the Mass. Percussive Arts Society "Day of Percussion". Sam Z. Solomon commissioned this work to be published in his collection of snare drum etudes.

Oct 7th Defended my Dissertation!!! The title is "An Evolving State of Déjà Vu: Orbital Form in Morton Feldman's The Viola in My Life (2)" Eric Chasalow was my advisor, Davy Rakowski was the second reader and John Mallia was the outside reader.

Oct. 3 Performed with Vic Rawlings and Lou Cohen at "String Theories" presented by the New England School of Art and Design. Again I performed with my TEAFF

Aug 16th Performed John Cage's Variations III (with Tim Feeney, Lou Cohen, James Coleman, and Wendy Richman) on my Tower of Electro-Acoustic Flim-Flammery

June 21st 2lous performed on Open Sound. Also on the bill were Jeffrey Allport, Greg Kelly, Ernst Karel and Ricardo Donoso.

May 2nd The Shana's Mango Experience performed Stockhausen's 'Unbegrenzt' for a Stockhausen tribute concert at Brandeis University. Also playing was Onda and Basically Science

April 27th2lous performed some electro-acoustic noise for a very special Open Sound at The Nave Gallery.

April 7th 2lous performed on the Coup d’etat music series with w/ Vic Rawlings / Mike Bullock and the Calliope Quartet

April 4th Rane Moore played 'Being and Becoming' in Somerville MA on the concert series Open Sound.

February 24th I gave a presentation to the Boston Microtonal Society that focused on my pieces 'Luna' and 'Being and Becoming''

February 12th'Player Piano' was performed at the University of Southern California by Veronika Krausas' player piano. The concert was a CD realease for the Player Piano Project. The CD can be purchased on CD Baby.

February 5th Eric Honour performed 'Luna' at The Centre for Music Composition and Performance in Athens Greece as part of a lecture-recital series.

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