Duo Cataclysma…
is the electro-acoustic duo of Jeff Kaiser (trumpet, flugelhorn, and laptop/electronics) and Seth Andrew Davis (electric guitar, laptop/electronics). The group focuses on improvisation and interactive electronics with live signal processing and virtual/artificial/robot agents. The group is heavily influenced by American free jazz, European free Improvisation, and Electro-Acoustic free improvisation traditions.
Check out their first release:
Jeff Kaiser…
…is a music technologist, trumpet player, composer, conductor, and scholar. Classically trained as a trumpet player, Dr. Kaiser now views his traditional instrument as hybrid with new technology in the form of software and hardware interfaces that he creates for his performances and recordings. Dr. Kaiser gains inspiration and ideas from the intersections of experimental composition and improvisation and the timbral and formal affordances provided by combining traditional instruments with emerging technologies. The roots of his music are firmly in the experimental traditions within jazz, improvised, and Western art music practices. Kaiser considers his art audio-centric, but he also works with live video, tracking, and interactive technologies. He has performed in China, Mexico, and throughout Europe and the United States. His work is featured on Clean Feed Records, Leo Records, NineWinds, Cuneiform Records, and his own label, pfMENTUM, among others.
Embracing the idea of being an artist/scholar, Dr. Kaiser has also presented at national conferences, including the Society for Ethnomusicology, the International Society for Improvised Music, SPARK, and invited presentations at colleges and universities. His scholarly work ethnographically explores contemporary musicians who use new, repurposed and reinvented electronic technologies, and critically examines how these musicians conceptualize their practice. He is particularly interested in changing notions of agency, instruments, and virtuosity, and how artists, audiences, and critics construct what is valuable and desirable in these emerging fields. In addition to documenting how creative individuals configure technologies for their own purposes, Dr. Kaiser argues that technologies can also configure musicians and musical communities by affording specific ways of creating sonic and social value.
Seth Andrew Davis…
…is a performer, composer, improviser, technologist, new media artist and educator from the Kansas City area. Davis is involved in the improvised music/free improvisation, experimental, and electronic music scenes in Kansas City. Davis’ music runs the gamut of compositions for orchestral and chamber ensembles, performances with free-jazz/free improvised music ensembles and large groups, live and interactive electronics, solo performance, collaborations with dancers and video artist, and the design and collaboration of autonomous and interactive artificial life agents and 3D environments.
Davis has performed and has had his music performed in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Davis has had his work performed at various conferences and festivals including the New York City Electro-Acoustic Music Festival, Kansas City Performing Media Festival, Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest, the International Navy Saxophone Symposium, National Flute Association Convention, Making Moves Dance Festival, MoxSonic, New Interfaces For Musical Expression (NIME), & the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC). Davis has had pieces performed by the Mnemosyne Quartet, Project C4, Dionysus, Second Nature Ensemble, Chi Him Chik, Sputter Box, Apply Triangle, loadbang, EMAS, No Treble Low String Trio, UCM New Technologies Ensemble, newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, And2Percussion & the Symbiotique Nonet. Davis has performed with notable musicians in the improvised music and jazz scenes such as Douglas R. Ewart, VInny Golia, Ra Kalam Bob Moses, Jeff Kaiser, Damon Smith, Weasel Walter, Sandy Ewen, and many more. Davis’ music has been featured and released on labels such as EMAS Records, Lurker Bias, Neuma Records, Mother Brain Records, Personal Archives, Ramble Records, and Relay Recordings.
Davis is also a co-founder of Second Nature, a free jazz/new music/math-rock ensemble, was the guitarist in the new music ensemble Project C4 (2018-2020), and is a founding member of EMAS: Extemporaneous Music & Arts Society. Davis is also an active concert organizer in the Kansas City music scene as the Vice President of KcEMA (Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance) and as the Production Coordinator of newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble. In 2020, Davis co-founded Mother Brain Records with saxophonist & composer Michael Eaton. Mother Brain Records is a Midwest based label focused on releasing the works of artists in the experimental & improvised music scenes. From 2019-2022, Davis was an artist resident with Charlotte Street Foundation. In 2021, Davis co-founded EMAS (Extemporaneous Music & Arts Society) along with Evan Verploegh. EMAS is an improvised music & arts collective based in Kansas City that is dedicated to advancing creative work in Kansas City. Davis currently is an adjunct instructor at the University of Central Missouri teaching Applied Music Technology and at the Kansas City Art Institute teaching music technology courses.
