#tom chiu

[jgthirlwell]

Tom Chiu is a New York violinist and composer and member of Flux Quartet. He recently released a huge new album on double CD entitled The Live One. JG Thirlwell wrote the sleeve notes for the album.

[jgthirlwell]

11/15/14  Famed Berlin mastering engineer Rashad Becker played his own rad set at Issue Project Room using real-time synthesis and sampling for his sonic palette. Opening was composer / percussionist Eli Keszler , with a skittering, drony work joined by Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet on violin and Leila Bordreuil on cello.

[jgthirlwell]

12/11/13  Violinist Tom Chiu of Flux Quartet kicked off the winter 2013 concert series at Phill Niblock's Experimental Intermedia space. As there was a party blasting on the floor below, leaking muffled dance kick drums through the floor, Chiu chose to try and mask the sound by pumping a 59 hertz tone thru the PA, giving us one more sonic element to try to tune out. Chiu's three pieces included "Ping pong effects, angular amplitudes, registral retrogrades, timbral topology, and emotive extremes all mesh into one in the blender of sonic ideas". The ping pong effect wasn't panning as you might expect, but an actual ping pong ball which he balanced across the strings of his instrument on the third piece, presumably to achieve some harmonic or resonance. The ball kept rolling off, and, in a sisyphean effort, he kept replacing it of the strings near the bridge, only for it to fall off again a few seconds later. He said that the piece was an homage to the Fluxus movement, so perhaps the failure was a component of the performance. His first piece of the evening was rivetting, spanning over twenty minutes and demonstrating his incredible technique and mastery of the instrument with flurries of cascades and arpeggios across the strings increasing in intensity. On the second piece he dispensed with the tone explored various effects including pitchbending with a whammy pedal. I'd love to hear Mr Chiu's work again on an evening where he's not competing with Xmas parties..