The University at Albany Performing Arts Center, operating under the auspices of the College of Arts and Sciences, is pleased to present the three experimental music groups in Proctors’ Dangerous Music Project in a series of lecture/demonstrations in the Recital Hall of the UAlbany Performing Arts Center on the uptown campus. These events are presented in association with Proctors through support from the New York State Music Fund established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. The lec/dems will take place on the evening prior to each group’s full concert at Proctors in its new GE Theatre.

Kicking off the series on Friday, February 1, 2008 at 7pm is F’loom. This avant capella vocal trio showcases its cutting-edge “language music” – original works that inhabit the fertile, mysterious realm that lies between pure language (speech) and pure music (song). Its original all-vocal compositions seethe with satire, social commentary, pop diatribe, slap, zap, melody, poetry and comedy. Its eclectic repertoire runs the gamut from classical to avant-garde, Celtic to jazz, medieval chant to post-post rap.

Defying easy categorization, the group’s work has been described as “post-dada doo-wop,” “polyrhythmic mouth percussion,” “three-headed performance poetry,” “a cappella linguistic polysemy” and “Mummenschanz rap.” Toronto’s Globe and Mail classified F’loom this way, “Perhaps it might help to think of them as a capella rappers with classical training, jazz sensibilities and PhDs in English . . . noteless harmonies, senseless sonnets and schizoid scherzos.”

The members of F’loom include Robert Kulik (aka “the conductor”) who has wielded his baton on both sides of the Atlantic and worked for many years in New York City as a composer, guitarist, vocalist and photographer; Bess Phillips (aka “the diva”) who has sung the gamut from early music to contemporary opera to word jazz to Celtic funk and has been a featured soloist for numerous orchestras nationwide; and Rick Scott (aka “the composer”) who spent the better part of a decade studying composition in Germany at the Freiburger Musikhochschule and counts Frank Zappa, Karlheinz Stockhausen, North Indian classical drumming, 60’s pop and horror movie sound tracks among his main compositional influences.

F'loom's language music is acclaimed by audiences all across North America. F'loom has appeared at numerous prominent venues including the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, Florida; the Knitting Factory; The Bottom Line; the Juilliard School of Music; Broadway's John Houseman Theatre; the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center; Brown University; Dartmouth College; University of Rochester; the Utah Arts Festival in Salt Lake City; the Ottawa Folk Festival; and the Intermedia Arts Center in Minneapolis. F'loom has appeared twice as guest artists on NPR's "Weekend Edition," been featured several times on CBC Canada and WGBH's acclaimed "Sound and Spirit."

F'loom has also appeared with prominent artists including Eric Bogosian, Lily Tomlin, Christine Lavin, The Bobs, Margaret Atwood, Paul Metcalf, Moxy Fruvous, David Francey, Laura Smith and Jesse Winchester.

The series at the UAlbany Performing Arts Center will continue with lec/dems by Clogs, an Aussie-American alt-classical quartet, and LEMUR, a group of artists and technologists who create exotic sculptural instruments which integrate robotic technology, on March 7 and April 4, respectively. Both events are scheduled for 7pm.

Admission to the lecture/demonstrations is free but a ticket is required. For further information, contact the Box Office at (518) 442-3997 or visit the Performing Arts Center website at www.albany.edu/pac.

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