Descriptions, sounds, and dreams of vastly juxtaposed scales come together in Incognita Ex Terra as collaged fragments of notation, improvisation, noise electronics, and field recordings. The words are likewise a combination, alluding to sources from D.H. Lawrence to A.R. Ammons to Joni Mitchell. Altogether, what is attempted here is to bring the cosmic and planetary together with the microscopic and earthly, just fitting onto the thin plane of human perception. It is a ballad to and away from the ‘correlationist’ circle, commenting on how we can exist and know the world and staging a brief expansion into the parts of it we might not otherwise regularly sense.
Ben Zucker (composition, electronics, video) practices acts of conceptual juxtaposition and experiential speculation, as an intentionally wide-ranging composer, audiovisual artist, and multi-instrumentalist. He has contributed to experimental music scenes of the Bay Area, Connecticut, London, Chicago, and beyond, working with musicians including Anthony Braxton, Matana Roberts, Myra Melford, Karen Borca, The Crossing, The Vocal Constructivists, Rinde Eckert, and the San Francisco Choral Artists, in addition to frequent performances as a soloist, bandleader, and ensemble contributor. His composed works have received awards and performances by ensembles including the Mivos Quartet, the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Khorikos, Ensemble Entropy, and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, as well as being performed at DOCNYC, the Darmstadt Fereinkurse, Art Omi, Trinity College Dublin, and the Banff Centre. He has been acclaimed as a “master of improvisation” (IMPOSE Magazine) and “more than a little bit remarkable” (Free Jazz Blog) for his solo albums combining brass, percussion, voice, and electronics, released on labels including Not Art Records, Dinzu Artefacts, Verz Imprint, and I Low You. He currently lives in Chicago, studying, performing, teaching, and organizing as a doctoral student at Northwestern University.
Instagram:
Ben: http://www.instagram.com/benzuckersounds
Musicians
Hannah: https://www.instagram.com/hanethomson
Annabell: https://www.instagram.com/anna_bellmusic
Maria: https://www.instagram.com/a_girl_named_maria_