Electronic music concert showcases student talent

Electronic Music students showcased their individual work in a student-produced concert, Thursday, Dec. 10 at the theater."It's really a student project," Music Professor Krys Bobrowski said. "They brought everything together and put on the production."

About 40 people attended the event, which included 10 tracks created by 13 class members. Music 292 students Gabe Jackson and Ben Mitchell hosted the event.

The first act was Matt Slusarz, described as a "one-man operation." Slusarz's piece, "I Just Made This Song Yesterday," featured overwhelming bass lines.

The night of pulsating music continued with student Allen Haysbert's song "Full Moon at the Beach." The "gut-thumping bass" filled piece was named because it sounds like something Haysbert would "bring to a bonfire at Ocean Beach," he said. Haysbert also manned the sound board for the concert.

Most of the musical numbers were purely instrumental, although host Mitchell and classmate Victor Gonzalez's original piece "All the Ways (I Feel For You)" featured Mitchell on vocals and Gonzalez on the keyboard.

After the duo, student Matt Henry took the stage. With an original take on concert presentation, Henry entertained the crowd with a three-minute projection of video game play from 1991's NES game "Adventures of Lolo 3" and sounds from a Virtual Arp 2600 plug-in, which digitally reproduces the original 1971 ARP 2600. An ARP is a popular analog synthesizer that was created in the early '70s which is still widely used in today's electronic music.

Next, Len Holmbe and Shad Lillie performed their song, "Desolate Trudge Through An 8-bit Jungle." Holmbe played the drum-bit live with his microphones hooked up to an ARP. The resulting effect sounded like clashing explosives. Using a Sony PSP, Lillie played 8-bit, video-game sounds to the mix, creating an electronic live piece. Lillie also reworked the Christmas classic, "Jingle Bells," into an upbeat, funky electronic ditty.

Student Julien Heng showcased a song created with Pro Tools and various EMU synthesizer modules. Gabe Jackson followed with a musically ambitious piece designed to make people want to dance, Jackson said. Although the audience stayed in their seats, most clapped along to his music.

Student Christopher Smith then took the stage to play his guitar through a series of electronic lab equipment, including the ARP 2600. He was followed by student Elena Orduyan. Ordyan's piece, "Jurassic Park," followed Smith because, when she put it all together, it reminded her of "Ice Age animals jumping and making all sorts of sounds," Smith said.

Casey Kottmeier and Jonathan Lipinski, concluded the evening with "El Concerto Intro/Funktar." The piece was two songs, written by both students and woven together. The songs were played on separate guitars and used a variety of mixing equipment. Background visualizations and Kottmeier's eccentric costume made the theatrical set stand out.

"Last semester, I was going to do this three-part song, and at the end of the first part, I accidentally hit a button that shut me down," Kottmeier said. "So I stopped not even halfway into it. So yeah, this time, it went pretty damn good."

Electronic Music classes are developing a MySpace page for student work. Although not complete, it can be found at http://myspace.com/csmelectronic.