Ben Neill

Ben Neill (mutantrumpet/electronics,) with John Conte (bass) & Jim Mussen (drums,) presents XIX, a concert of music and interactive video (in collaboration with artist Bill Jones) based on samples of 19th century music and art.  Short fragments from works by Beethoven, Berlioz, Chopin and others are digitally expanded and reworked into new compositions for Neill’s ensemble. As a composer, performer and inventor of the mutantrumpet, Neill has recorded seven CDs of his music and has collaborated with Page Hamilton, David Behrman, John Cale and Coil, among others.

David Watson and Katherine Liberovskaya

Bagpipe Extrapolations

Uncustomary perspectives on bagpipe sound with David Watson's unconventional approach to the traditional instrument in responsive dialogue with offbeat perspectives on the instrument itself and its player with Katherine Liberovskaya's multiple live camera JITTER/MAX/MSP set-up enabling her to mix and process the cameras' points of view with pre-recorded moving images in real time.   

David Watson has "blown the bagpipes, microtonally skirling and droning, into the 21st century". His work on this instrument subverts conventional expectations, drawing on traditional sources but placing them in the outskirts of new music infinity. Performances range from delicious silence to a veritable 'wall of sound.'

Katherine Liberovskaya is a Canadian video & media artist, working predominantly in experimental video since the late eighties. In 2003 she began exploring live video mixing in improvisation with live new music/sound. Since, she has performed live video mixing at a variety of venues in NY, Montreal and Europe with a number of music/sound artists including: o.blaat, Toshio Kajiwara, Shelley Hirsch, Vortex, Anthony Coleman, Phill Niblock and Al Margolis (aka If Bwana) and many others.

Megumi and Junichi Matsuzaki


Junichi and Megumi Matsuzaki will perform solos and as a duo. Junichi has been performing on his “Cyber Guitar,” a table-top guitar prepared using “junk,” for the past ten years. The instrument is prepared with tubes, a mouthpiece, bells, a thumb piano and various other toys. For this Roulette show, he performs on his new model, “Cyber Guitar 2,” which retains all the junk and preparation of the original, but with better sound quality and more resonance. Megumi will play her sitar with pedal effects, making phrase loops, mixing up melody and noise and oscillating between acoustic and electric sounds.

Megumi & Junich Matsuzaki collaborate for the performance of their new evening length work commissioned by Roulette with support from the Jerome Foundation. Both hailing from Hiroshima, Megumi and Junich each bring their own distinct background and sensibility to their five-year long artistic partnership. Megumi is a painter, a noise musician, an installation artist and sitar player. Junich invented his “junk-prepared-guitar” in 1993 and started playing saxophone in 1995, collaborated frequently with artists from other disciplines and founded his own performance venue. Since moving to NYC, Megumi and Junich formed a trio, ana o keke, and have performed throughout the city at venues such as Issue Project Room, SubTonic, PS 122 and Chashama. http://www.joyfulsonicwash.com

Jessica Feldman

Composer/Sound Artist Jessica Feldman offers up a night full of new pieces made especially for Roulette, including a new intermedia piece for voice and video-camera-monitored-mouth, performed by soprano Beth Griffith. Feldman’s work tends toward interactivity, frequently crosses through many artistic disciplines and often occurs in extremely public or extremely private spaces. Her pieces have been performed, installed and exhibited at art galleries, parks, city streets, tiny closets and concert halls. Recent venues in NYC include The Kitchen, the Flux Factory, the Tank and Danspace at St. Mark’s Church. Her sounds activate the physicality of the space and the body and have been likened to “one of those Japanese fish that, if cooked right, is delicious. If cooked wrong, it kills you.” (Neely Bruce.)

David First

Composer/guitarist David First will present Rocking Pipeline Witness Apologies to Dennis – a new drone-field work dedicated to the memory of his teacher Dennis Sandole, featuring Peter Zummo (trombone,) “Blue” Gene Tyranny (harmonically-tuned keyboards,) Christopher McIntyre (trombone) and First (guitar/laptop.) This work will continue First’s usual concerns with various species of acoustical and metaphysical phenomena as well as attempt to make amends for his oft-regretted irresponsibilities regarding his relationship with the legendary Sandole. The New York Times calls First “a fascinating artist with a singular technique,” and the Village Voice, “a bizarre cross between Hendrix and La Monte Young.”

Leslie Ross

Leslie Ross, bassoonist, improviser, composer and instrument-builder, has been creating and performing since the mid 80s. In her Roulette performance, she continues to explore the rich multi-phonics and micro-tonal possibilities of the bassoon (often with electronics or computer) along with her settings of formal scores where improvised material tests -- and where necessary, breaches -- the set boundaries. She will present several new forms as well as excerpts from her sporadically kept ‘music journal’ (3rd installment.)

Matana Roberts

Saxophonist/composer Matana Roberts presents CoinCoin:Installation 1, the first performance of her in-progress musical narrative, which explores the defining moments of one people’s shared history using the traditions of jazz- and improvisation-inspired music. Through original compositions and various ensemble configurations, Roberts pulls together tales from 7 generations and 4 continents of her own colorful ancestral lore in order to paint a musical portrait of an extraordinary, yet classic African American history. With Hill Greene (bass), Jessica Pavone (viola), Daniel Levin (cello) and Mazz Swift (violin), Daniel Givens (laptop and slide projector). Commissioned by Roulette with support from the Jerome Foundation.

Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez

Electric Kulintang (Susie Ibarra & Roberto Rodriguez) presents a performance of new works entitled 7000 Mysteries. With acoustic and electronic soundscapes, Ibarra (acoustic and electric kulintang, percussion, compositions) and Rodriguez (electronics, claypot, cajon la peru, percussion) weave melodies and rhythms that evoke Filipino folkloric trances in several new sonic narratives. Ibarra’s music is largely influenced by her work in avant-garde and experimental music. She currently performs solo works and with in groups with Jennifer Choi, Craig Taborn, Sylvie Couvoisier, Ikue Mori and Mark Dresser, among others. Rodriguez draws upon his influences across the board of traditional Cuban music to contemporary music in the genres of pop, rock, jazz, world music, avant-garde and classical. He has played with Rufus Wainwright, Joe Jackson, John Zorn, Marc Ribot, and Leo Wadada Smith, to name a motley few. He currently leads his septet, Septeto Rodriguez.

Michelle Kinney and Jacqueline Ferrier Ultan (Jelloslave)

Cellists Michelle Kinney and Jacqueline Ferrier-Ultan have been exploring their collaboration together since 2002 when they discovered a personal and musical kinship that took on a life of its own as Jelloslave. Jacqueline-Ferrier-Ultan and Michelle Kinney use all 8 amplified strings to sing, squawk, scream, growl and purr their way through their eclectic repertoire. They each bring to the duo a varied experience with several of new music's most innovative composers and performers. Including (on the short list....) Henry Threadgill, Myra Melford, Lloyd Ultan, Brandon Ross, George Cartwright, Anthony Cox and Buth Morris. Jelloslave recently released a CD on the brand new internet label, Sugarfootmusic.com.

Special guests tonight include: VJ Neverwas on projections and guitar, and Michael Ferrier, sax.

Raz Mesinai

Raz Mesinai's music is a unique synthesis of modern composition, cinematic sensibility, freeform electronics and a contemporary take on ancient shamanic and trance traditions. Tonight Mesinai explores the human voice through a microscopic lens, premiering a new piece inspired by the enigmatic book "Seth Speaks," in which author Jane Roberts experiences a prolonged conversation with the disembodied spirit "Seth." Composed of scrupulously edited text from their conversations, Mesinai's work creates a tapestry of otherworldly communication. Featuring the versatile vocalists Jessika Kenney and Haleh Abghari.