The Lab

The Lab is a nonprofit experimental art and performance space located in the Mission District of San Francisco.

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Ben Vida and Yarn/Wire: "The Beat My Head Hit" + Charles Curtis & Dafne Vicente-Sandoval: "Ultra White Violet Light"

  • The Lab 2948 16th St San Francisco, CA, 94103 (map)

Sat., Dec. 16 at The Lab
Doors 8pm / Show 8:30pm
Buy Tickets
$24 advance incl. fees / $25 door / discounted or free for members
Request your personal member DICE Code here.
Questions? Contact thelabsf@thelab.org

Where Ben Vida’s music has previously explored the sound of text at the outer register of electronic composition, here, in collaboration with the Yarn/Wire quartet and the vocalist Nina Dante, the voice and the words it works to inhabit are placed back at the time-scale of a song. There is a familiarity to this music’s combination of restrained melody and heightened atmosphere. It feels, softly, like it’s made by a band: piano, percussion, voice. A composition kept aloft and even by its four stewards through a simultaneity of effort. The pace, across five pieces, hurries and relaxes but never outruns or distends language. You could find a story in the words being sung, if that’s what you need.

Charles Curtis & Dafne Vicente-Sandoval perform Curtis's Ultra White Violet Light, released in 1997 as a double-LP meant to be performed simultaneously. This performance will include Curtis on cello and voice, and Vicente-Sandoval on turntables.

Charles Curtis: Ultra White Violet Light (1997) (cello, spoken word, simultaneous LP playback)

Live microphone feedback interludes by Dafne Vicente- Sandoval

Ultra White Violet Light is a composite performance superimposing three musical compositions and two spoken texts. The individual elements can be combined freely, with independent start times and durations. Ultra White Violet Light was first issued in 1998 as a double LP to be played back on multiple stereo sets. In live performance, some of the material will be played back from the original LP's in a fluid live mix, and some elements will be played as live cello performance and reading.

With the support of Villa Albertine. Villa Albertine is creating a network for arts and ideas spanning France and the United States. It offers tailor-made residencies for global creators, thinkers and cultural professionals.