Don’t You Wonder Sometimes

Posted by: mikronesia

02 Feb

Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet

I’m really honored to be working with Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet again this season. Our new work EPHEMERAL is our grandest to date. Seven dancers, lighting design by Dutch artist Katinka Marac and an evocative score of environmental elements and sonic stillness.

EPHEMERAL
Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater, Philadelphia
Feb. 19-21

Tickets can be purchased online also running concurrently will be a dance-film festival that Nora has curated.

David Bowie Night

Last month planet Earth lost one of its a greatest visionary artists of the last century: David Bowie. David’s music and style had a huge influence on me. As I tweeted the morning of his death: “He taught the world it was ok to be different, it was ok to experiment, it was ok to change.”

In two weeks I’ll be part of an all-star night of Philadelphia musicians playing Bowie’s music. I’ll be playing keyboards with some (very talented) friends. I don’t want to spoil the surprise but we’ll be playing two songs from my favorite Bowie album as well as his last epic artistic statement.

DAVID BOWIE TRIBUTE NIGHT
Thursday, February 11at 8 PM
The Fire
412 W Girard Ave, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19123
$8 / 21+

Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State

March 19, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. – March 20, 2016 at 7:00 a.m.
thefidget space
1714 N Mascher Street Philadelphia
$10 – $20 sliding scale

This is going to be a 12-hour long concert of sleep music! Bring a sleeping bag, pillow and blanket, enjoy some dream tea and snuggle in for 12-hours of dream drones and tape loop lullabies. I’ll be performing ambient music all night with visuals from Alex Bond focusing on themes of Bardo, reincarnation, Dream Yoga and sleep (un)consciousness.

To get a taste of the kind of music you’ll hear, please check out my 2014 sleep music album, Quiescent. It’s an eight-hour mix of music for the four sleep cycles.

2015 In Review

Posted by: mikronesia

29 Dec

Hello and happy holidays! I wanted to thank everyone for their support of my musical projects throughout 2015. Below is a recap of projects I worked on in 2015 with some free downloads, videos and other media.

In a River the Color of Lead

Early this year I released my 8th solo studio album on NOREMIXES. The album is a continuation of my exploration of the piano as an object of beauty and noise. It was released digitally and as a vinyl record (with support from Kickstarter backers). I’m very proud of this work and hope you all got a chance to listen to it.

NOREMIXES Store

Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet

In February I was delighted to perform with my long-time choreographic partner Nora Gibson and her company Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet in the premiere of 2^57,885,161-1. This ballet was a meditation on the mathematical concept of twin primes. The premiere was well received and sounded and looked gorgeous. Excerpts from the premiere can be viewed here on Vimeo.

In 2016 I’ll be working again with NGCB on an even more ambitious project EPHEMERAL, a work about time for dance, light, and environmental sound score.

EPHEMERAL
Christ Church Neighborhood House Theater, Philadelphia
Feb. 19-21

Tickets can be purchased online and you can support NGCB’s second season on their Hatchfund page.

Field Recordings / Cities and Memory

This year I began to really explore the sound world of actual places through field recording. I published several works through the brilliant UK based site Cities and Memory. Here are three pieces they published:

Turtle River (Philadelphia) presented on World Listening Day and at the Oxford Contemporary Music Festival.
Corca Dhuibhne (Western Ireland) field recordings and reimagined sounds recorded in Dingle and the Cliffs of Moher.
Utopia part of an international collection of artists who created an imaginary sound world for the Thomas More novel Utopia (1515)

The last piece I wanted to share was from the Papal visit to Philadelphia in September 2015. The piece contains recordings I gathered over three days as about a million people descended on center city Philadelphia to celebrate the historic visit by Pope Francis. As with many of these recordings, I sought to remove the element of time and create a shifting landscape of timeless space.

dark matter

This season I am Artist in Residence at <fidget> along with choreographer / artist Zornitsa Stoyanova. In November we collaborated on the performance film dark matter. It was premiered at the <fidget> Fall Experimental Music Festival.

The above photo is by Glenn Benge from the premiere.

Here’s a review from Thinking Dance

Excerpt from dark matter on Vimeo

Save the Date

In March 2016 I’ll be performing another concert at <fidget>. This is going to be a 12-hour long concert of sleep music! Bring a sleeping bag, pillow and blanket, enjoy some dream tea and snuggle in for 12-hours of dream drones and tape loop lullabies. I’ll be performing ambient music all night with visuals from Alex Bond focusing on themes of Bardo, reincarnation, Dream Yoga and sleep (un)consciousness.

To get a taste of the kind of music you’ll hear, please check out my 2014 sleep music album, Quiescent. It’s an eight hour mix of music for the four sleep cycles.

Liberation Through Hearing During the Intermediate State
March 19 7pm – March 20 7am
thefidget space

Happy New Year!
Michael

Fall News

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: dance • performances • recordings • residencies

21 Oct

Hi folks, it’s been a few months since my last update. I’ve been working on lots of studio projects with some occasional shows.

Here’s a rundown of recent projects I was involved with this fall.

Utopia

Over the past few months as I’ve gotten more into field recording and Deep Listening, I’ve been producing sounds for the site Cities and Memory. The most recent piece I did for them was part of a project to imagine sounds for the 16th century Thomas More’s novel Utopia. For my piece I focused on a darker aspect of More’s work: slavery. This seedy aspect of this well known concept of Utopia seemed to echo the modern day issue of hidden slavey in our “advanced” society.

Read more and listen to the piece at Cities and Memory.

Papal Sound Collage

Another recent sonic piece I created was an audio collage of the sounds of Pope Francis’ historic visit to Philadelphia in September 2015. Approximately one million people visited Philadelphia creating one of the largest gatherings in the city’s history on the Ben Franklin Parkway. For three days I walked around with my field recorder and captured the sounds of the crowds, choirs, vendors, singers, chanters, musicians and ambiance to create an sonic photograph of what this beautiful weekend was like.

Listen to the Papal Sound Collage

The Buddy System

The Monday after the Papal visit I was honored to perform along side two giants in the electronic music scene: King Britt and HPrizm (from Antipop Contortium) for their Buddy System series at Johnny Brenda’s. Myself, finger drummer phenom OddKidOut and Matthew Law (AKA DJ Phsh) joined King and Priest for a smoking improvisational set of electronic music. I’ve heard the recordings back and they’re quite good. Look for some excerpts coming soon once the Buddy System site launches.

<fidget> Residency / dark matter / Fall Experimental Music Festival

I’m also excited to announce that I am artist in residence at one of the most vital performance laborites in Philadelphia, thefidget space, for their 2015/16 season. As the resident composer/musician I’m sharing my time with choreographer/artist Zornitsa Stoyanova. We’ve been working together off and on for almost nine years! Throughout 2015 we’ve been doing some experiments with sound, dance, reflective mylar and modular lighting. On Friday November 6 we’ll be debuting a new piece that showcases some of that work. dark matter will contain four channel surround sound music, video, dance, mylar, smart phone media and live music. I’ll be joined by another old friend, violinist Carlos Santiago, for this performance.

Friday, November 6, 8pm
at thefidget space (1714 N Mascher St)
Space Pulse Pattern Presence, with:
dark matter, by Michael McDermott and Zornitsa Stoyanova (2015/16 <fidget> artists in residence)
SP3, by <fidget>/Peter Price & Megan Bridge (work-in-progress)
and guest curator Flandrew Fleisenberg welcomes:
ID M Theft Able, Himself (Portland, Maine)
Bromp Treb, Performance (Western Massachusetts)
Tickets: $10- $20 sliding scale

New Website

Finally I’d like to welcome you to my new website SoundofListening.com. For years I’ve done sound art, film and dance scores, ambient music albums, performances, etc. all under the umbrella of Mikronesia. The Mikronesia moniker will still live on, but that will refer specifically to ambient music recordings, shows and productions. With Sound of Listening I want to highlight my work with Deep Listening, Field Recording, Sonic Awareness and Interaction. Check it out!

In a River the Color of Lead

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: albums

02 Mar

In a River the Color of Lead was released by NOREMIXES in March 2015. It was pressed to vinyl thanks to the support of a successful Kickstarter campaign

Press release from the label about the record:

In a River the Color of Lead follows Mikronesia’s, Quiescent, which was a sprawling eight hour suite of music that patterned itself after the four sleep cycles and was meant to be experienced as a companion to a full night’s sleep or in smaller doses during meditation or yoga. Using that as a reference point, In a River the Color of Lead feels like the colorful awakening from Quiescent’s sleep state. The first piece, ‘Unfolder’ is a nearly twenty minute journey with waves of piano, organ and synthesizers which organically create intricate, cascading melodies. In Mikronesia’s words, “(by the end) the listener is completely engulfed in a river of thick sound.”

The following three works showcase a much more introspective and delicate compositional style, with Mikronesia using acoustic piano processed via iPad and computer. There is a stillness to these pieces which compliments the density of ‘Unfolder’, and by the time ‘Sotapanna’ concludes, there’s a real sense of closure for In a River the Color of Lead, decidedly Mikronesia’s most personal music expression to date.

Purchase Online:
iTunes
Bandcamp
Spotify
Juno Download
Beatport
Boomkat
Amazon

2-57,885,161 -1 by Nora Gibson Contemporary Ballet

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: dance

22 Jan

TICKETS ARE NOW ON SALE FOR NGCB’S PHILADELPHIA HOME SEASON CONCERT.
FEBRUARY 27-28, 2015, The Performance Garage
1515 Brandywine St., Philadelphia
Click the link below to purchase:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/1049834

NGCB will premiere 2^57,885,161 -1, in concert on a split bill with neo-classical choreographer Bryan Koulman (NYC). There will be live music all evening featuring electronic music composer, Mikronesia, who will be performing his original score live, as well as classical musicians to accompany Mr. Koulman’s repertory.

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Categories: Fun

16 Sep

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Categories: Fun • Superb

15 Sep

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Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: Fun • Superb • Uncategorized

15 Sep

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Quiescent

Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: albums

05 Sep

For much of 2014 I worked on a suite of very still and subtle music. Perhaps this was a merging of my music and meditation practice. Perhaps this was a result of pairing down my once sprawling studio of synthesizers, machines and wires to a much simpler setup. Perhaps it was just music in the universe that needed to be born. Since I started making ambient music over 10 years ago, I’ve always had an interest in music to sleep to. I enjoy the idea of music that is not always listened to with the active mind, music that washes over someone’s subconscious as they sleep.

Release info

Quiescent is journey into a meditative dreamland. Created by composer Michael McDermott, the album in its entirety is an eight hour long soundtrack patterned after the four sleep cycles. The music gently drifts with you as you release into slumber and then brings you back through to the other side of consciousness. This album can be experienced as a companion to a full night’s sleep or in smaller pieces during yoga, meditation, relaxation or being. The album is pay-what-you-wish pricing, so you may download it for free or if you can place a monetary amount on eight hours of original music anything is appreciated.

Download from bandcamp

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Posted by: mikronesia

Categories: Fun • Superb

15 Aug

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