 Other Ideas
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Moscovitz / Rosser
Exploration Of The Black Exterior-Improvisations F
CD
(2008)
Die Another Day Soundtrack songs From Exploration of the Black Exterior liner notes:
Exploration carries with it the idea of moving through uncharted terrain. In the broadest sense, exploration is a passage into the unknown, even if the topography is as familiar as the back of your hand. Now, in this moment, look at the back of your hand. Really look. Travel your eyes across its surface; discover for yourself how much there is to see, all the paths you've never followed, from the hint of blue veins beneath the skin to the puckering furrowed ridges on the midjoint of each finger!
On this CD, Howard Moscovitz and Kip Rosser explore through improvisation; each composition unfolds as an intricate dialogue between two musicians committed to reaching one another in sound, then extending that reach as an offering to the listener.
KIP ROSSER plays the theremin, the grandfather of all electronic instruments. (Today it remains the only instrument ever invented that is played without being touched; the thereminist makes music and sounds by moving both hands in and around two invisible electromagnetic fields). Seemingly far removed from such an unusual instrument is Rosser's formal training, all of which was in Theatre. With a master's degree in Directing, his productions have been produced in New York City since the late 1970's.
It was while working as a professional director and graphic designer that Rosser began playing the theremin over ten years ago. Since that time he has garnered overwhelming critical praise for his concert performances, club appearances and demonstrations and stage productions - events that combine genre-hopping music (from classical to jazz to popular), stories, performance art, and even audience participation. In 2006, Rosser received the honor of becoming a "Moog endorsed artist" from the late Dr. Robert Moog's company, Moog Music, Inc. He was also chosen to represent them at the annual conference of the American Music Therapy Association.
His music is frequently aired on FM stations WPRB and WFMU as well as the online Cygnus radio program, Spellbound, for which he has received First Place awards in both the Avant Garde and Electronic music categories for the last three years.
His partnership with Howard Moscovitz grew out of their mutual love of electronic music and the Electro-Music Festivals. Rosser now appears occasionally with Moscovitz's groups, Xeroid Entity and the Electro-Music Chamber Orchestra.
He continues playing anywhere and everywhere, including impromptu soloing outdoors on the streets of Manhattan - just for the fun of it.
HOWARD MOSCOVITZ has been involved in electronic music since 1967 when he started making tape music using a short wave radio as a sound source. He received his Bachelors of Music degree with a major in Theory and Composition in 1970 at Jacksonville University. Jacksonville was one of the first colleges to have one of the new Moog Modular Synthesizers.
In 1969 he studied Musique Concrete with Samuel Dolan at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Howard went on to study with Robert Ashley at The Mills College Center of Contemporary Music in Oakland, California. There, he received a Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1972. He also studied Computer Music at Stanford University with Leland Smith, John Chowning, and Jean Claude Risset.
Never satisfied with commercially available musical instruments, Howard began designing his own while still a grad student at Mill College. After working with his mentor, Stanley Lunetta, designing some of the very first digital synthesizers, Howard worked with Donald Buchla on the infamous Electric Symphony Orchestra which gave its one and only performance in 1974 at Berkeley, California. He has designed several unique electronic instruments, including signal processors and sequencers. Some of these were manufactured by Electronic Music Associates in the 1970's, and are highly desired today among collectors.
Howard earned a Masters in Electrical Engineering degree at the University of California at Berkeley in 1981 and moved to Pennsylvania to work at Bell Laboratories. There, he was on the design team which developed the first Digital Signal Processor (DSP) chip. These chips are now found at the heart of virtually every electronic musical instrument or signal processor in use today.
Howard is now devoting his time to composing and music performance. In 2003 he founded electro-music an interactive web site dedicated to furthering the art of electronic music. electro-music was received a Growing With Technology award from Cisco Systems in 2005. Howard has ...
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