Fire Over Heaven lumbers toward winter with a terrific double bill featuring extended voice and trombone duo, Beamsplitter, in trio formation with guest guitarist Julien Desprez, and a new duo from sonic sculpture builder Yitian Yan and guitarist Chi Hsun (aka Casper) Wang. Beamsplitter are a multinational duo hellbent on pushing the vocabularies of trombone and human voice to their breaking points. Consummate improvisers and collaborators, they’ve invited French guitarist/strobe operator Julien Desprez (in town rehearsing for Nate Wooley’s 7 Story Mountain piece) to bring his deft guitar skills to this already heady mix…Yitian Yan & Chi Hsun Wang are new (to me) on the scene, they’ll be combining Yan’s elegant homemade resonance/feedback instruments and Wang’s subtle guitar work, but I have a feeling they will be playing the space as much as anything else…Hope you’ll join us. *Also, a quick mention that FOH will be taking December off and returning again on January 16th.

Thanks for listening,

C.C.
organizer, Fire Over Heaven

Schedule:
7:30pm – doors
8:00pm – YITIAN YAN & CHI HSUN WANG
9:00pm – BEAMSPLITTER + JULIEN DESPREZ

BEAM SPLITTER & Julien Desprez

BEAM SPLITTER is a duo for amplified voice, trombone and analog electronics.

Utilizing the pure sounds of acoustic and closely amplified sound sources, the duo joins together two individual voices into a distinct dialog that delves beyond the borders of the corporeal elements of extended technique and sound. There is an intimacy and conflict that becomes evident as the two personas intertwine, in moments joining together seamlessly and in the next, being left with the feeling of irrevocable fracture. The two manage between these extremes with a kind of improvised grace that reveals an effort towards a common goal. It is an honest metaphor for a human relationship in process that even in the most serene moments can leave one raw and entirely exposed.

Since beginning their collaboration in 2015, BEAM SPLITTER have been extensively touring the globe, in Europe, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Taiwan and the USA. They have presented their music in a wide variety of spaces, taken part in larger commissioned works at the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires and largely conceptualized a theatrical adaptation of MEDEA in front of the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, Ukraine (for butoh dancers and musicians) produced by the Ukho Agency. They have shared their collaborative projects with artists such as Phil Minton, Bob Ostertag, Valentin Tszin, Flavia Ghisalberti and the Norwegian duo, Streifenjunko, with Eivind Lønning and Espen Reinertsen.

“BEAM SPLITTER’s album is quite something. Meticulously realised trombone scapes combine elegantly with an extraordinary array of virtuosic vocal formant manipulations. Always inventive, often deeply emotive, this is a beautiful duo.” — Chris Abrahams (The Necks)

“Slow in motion, yet quick in phrasing, BEAM SPLITTER swings precariously from trapeze bars, spinning wingless above the ground, taunting Mother Earth to claim gravity’s fugitives.” — Todd Gruel, A closer listen (USA)

“BEAM SPLITTER forges a sonic depiction of urban density, a sea of diverse voices and personalities. During their set, they leapt into action with fierce momentum. Their sound is rich with extended technique, their distinct voices channel breath with precision and a fluid display of volume dynamics. (…) Voice and trombone may have radically different constructions, but each is similarly a tube of air that projects sound when it strikes resistance with a vibrating object.” — Phillip Wayne Greenlief, Artforum
beamsplitter.org

Julien Desprez is a musician and performer based in Paris. Jazz and rock were his early musical loves but they evolved rapidly to free forms where body and space find their places through sound. As his practice progressed, his conception and approach to his instrument as well, and music and space changed. He is now considering the guitar more like a battery, an organ, a modifiable instrument deployable at will. Through a mix of actions on the instrument and a play of foot on efect pedals, taking inspiration from the technique of Tap Dance, it completely opened the possibilities, sound and physical environment of the instrument. This results in a practice where body is engaged to its fullest. Now evolving between sound art, performance and contemporary improvisational music, his work today is centered around all the questions that exist within a stage space, through body, space, sight and light, but where the sound remains the central pillar. Julien is also a co-founder of the Collectif Coax, a music cooperative based in Paris and created in 2008, which was recently labeled “Compagnie Nationale” by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. He also played with Charlie Haden, Mats Gustafson, Jeanne Added, Edward Perraud, Thomas Depourquery, François Jeanneau, Louis Sclavis, Stephane Payen, Guillaume Orti, Benoit Delbecq, Tortoise, Han Bennink, Hubert Dupont, Rob Mazurek, Jef Parker, Frank Vaillant, Gilles Coronado, Beniat Achary, Noël Ackchoté, David Grubbs, Doug Wamble, Marc Ducret, Sylvain Darrifourcq, Eve Risser, Mederic Collignon, Magic Malik, Emmanuel Bex et Hasse Poulsen.
juliendesprez.com

Yitian Yan & Hsi Chun Wang

Yitian Yan
Yitian Yan’s installation and performance practice explores fluidity and gravity in daily currents, lightly constructing tensions and connections in spaces between individuals and architecture. Yitian’s work has been subject to a solo exhibition at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural Center, New York, and has been exhibited and performed at Power Station of Art, Shanghai, Takahashi Shipyard Building, Kagawa, Photo LA, and the Art Institute of Chicago. Raised in Shenzhen, China, Yitian received an MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018, currently lives and works in New York.
yitianyan.com

Chi Hsun Wang known as Casper is a guitarist and composer born and lives in NYC. Her music is better described as free improvisation and weather-like. Casper works with several artists and performs in galleries since 2017.