Latitudes 21

Acoustic improv trio Sult embraces an other-worldly matrix of scrapes, thrums, and throbs. The charismatic Matt Robidoux invites listeners into a lysergic world oscillating wildly between hysteria and self-possession. Zachary James Watkins (guitar) and John Diaz (drums) join forces to form Foreign/Domestic.

This concert took place on September 28, 2023 at St John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in San Francisco.

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Sult explores the hidden sounds of acoustic instruments (guitar, contrabass, percussion), magnifying them with microphones so the audience can join them inside their silent cacophony. Subtle harmonics become saws cutting through metal and creaking wooden bodies become sinking ships. Their expression is primitive and raw, but while their playing embraces chaos, it is matched with discipline and the history of a decade-long mind-meld. The group sounds as one, with the gestalt of simultaneous layers taking primacy over any solo expression. The equality of the voices, however, invites the listener to focus on threads of their own choosing and make their own discoveries.

Sult is a trio with members from Oslo and Oakland. They have been working together since 2007, and have regularly toured Europe and America. In addition to collaborating with musicians such as Bill Orcutt, Okkyung Lee, and Fred Frith, they have been regularly performing Skeleton with live cinema artist Greg Pope. They are also active as organizers within their respective local music communities.

Matt Robidoux is a San Francisco-based composer, improviser, educator, and community organizer interested in the convergence of movement and sound, especially with regards to accessibility in contemporary music and the communicative capacities of sonic energy. Their primary instrument is the corn synth(kinetically operated randomness system [k.o.r.n.])—a modular architecture that interprets physical input from two “ears of corn” sculptures cast in aluminum.

They hold an MA in music composition from Mills College, where they studied with Roscoe Mitchell, Zeena Parkins, Laetitia Sonami, John Bischoff, James Fei, David Bernstein, and Daniel Schmidt. Their scholarly work is scheduled to be published as a chapter in Improvising Across Abilities: Pauline Oliveros and the Adaptive Use Musical Instrument via University of Michigan Press in 2023.

The duo of Zachary James Watkins and John Diaz augurs high vibration resonance, making transparent the phenomenon of emotion and sound. Working it out in real time, it can be unclear whether your flesh just turned to goosebumps in excitement or danger but life is fun that way: fight or flee, go or stay, blow or belong. When faced with such choices, always take both. Nothing is softer than ashes.