Releases & Documents
Teodora Stepančić, Assaf Gidron, Martin Lorenz: Two Trios
Two Trios (INDEX-7) is the second release by the trio of Teodora Stepančić, Assaf Gidron, and Martin Lorenz, featuring new work by Stepančić alongside Swiss composer Jürg Frey of the publishing outfit Edition Wandelweiser. Recorded almost entirely without edits in February 2019 in the single-room Wind River Studio in the Santa Cruz Mountains by composer David Dunn, the pieces on Two Trios open themselves to the environment and the outside world, existing alongside the incidental sounds of the room and the forest just outside.
Ghost Ensemble: Mountain Air
Mountain Air (INDEX-8) is the second full-length release by Ghost Ensemble, and features the first commercially available recording of Pauline Oliveros’s “Mountain Air,” composed in 1992. The work, originally conceived as “Arctic Air” for the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra, changes title to reflect the performance environment; this release was recorded at the studio Wind River in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Oliveros’s work is followed by works commissioned by the ensemble between 2016-20, composed by Teodora Stepančić and Marguerite Brown, and recorded in Santa Cruz during Ghost Ensemble’s 2018 and 2020 tours.
Carmina Escobar: Feast of Beams, Keepers of Light
Feast of Beams, Keepers of Light was a modern day spectacle, tailor-made for the Santa Cruz coastline by vocalist and composer Carmina Escobar. This site-specific work unfolded over the course of many hours, as performers converged on Lighthouse Point in Santa Cruz while bicycling with whistles, dancing with long reflective sheets, singing through megaphones, and surfing with bird calls. The performances drew on through sunset, highlighting features of the landscape and ending with a large-scale group performance and land acknowledgement by artist and activist Catherine Herrera.
the real world / pile of debris
A compilation of live recordings presented by Indexical in Santa Cruz, California, throughout 2019.
The Essential Indexical: Early MMXVIII
The Essential Indexical a thrice-yearly digital release of new and experimental work presented by Indexical. The Essential Indexical: Early MMXVIII includes performances from Indexical’s 2018 Santa Cruz concert series, from January through March of 2018.
Ghost Ensemble: We Who Walk Again
Ghost Ensemble began in 2012, dedicated to new perspectives that explore the experience of listening. The music we create and perform realizes a wide spectrum of sonic spaces and engages performance practices between and beyond improvisation and fully measured notation; the common thread is an aim to shift our attention, perception, or experience of time.
The Essential Indexical: Late MMXVII
After sorting through quite a few recordings from the last third of 2017, we’re thrilled to release a compilation of some of the most unique and memorable tracks, with always-glorious artwork by Mustafa Walker.
The Essential Indexical: Mid MMXVII
Indexical announces The Essential Indexical: Mid MMXVII, a compilation of two hours of live and live-in-studio recordings of experimental and new chamber music from Santa Cruz, California. Mid MMXVII spans genres and disciplines, from compositions recorded by the New York-based Mivos Quartet to live electronic sets of atmospheric work by Samson Stilwell and Ashley Bellouin & Ben Bracken, to Weston Olencki’s multi-part piece for five-string bass duo Bass2Bass.
The Essential Indexical: Early MMXVII
Experimental music is not just about producing a couple high-profile concerts. It’s about the scene. Representing the community through documentation and recorded material is always difficult, but over 10 concerts in the last 5 months, we’ve accumulated such a wealth of recorded material that we can’t help but spend time polishing it and making it available.
Andrew C. Smith: Larry Polansky’s Piano Study #5 (for Just Fender Rhodes)
We’re thrilled to announce a new series of limited-edition lathe-cut records, single sided, with performances on Side A and screen-printed designs by Mustafa Walker on Side B. The first release is Larry Polansky's Piano Study #5, for just intonation Fender Rhodes, performed by Andrew C. Smith and engineered by David Dunn, with a screen-printed tuning lattice showing through a transparent record.
Listening Through 2016
Throughout 2016, Indexical presented a dozen events at Radius Gallery (Santa Cruz), The Invisible Dog Art Center (Brooklyn), and
Happy Valley Band: ORGANVM PERCEPTVS
The Happy Valley Band is the Great American Songbook heard through the ear of a machine. Composer / bandleader David Kant uses custom-built machine learning software to “unmix” pop songs and transcribe them back into musical notation. The Happy Valley Band plays what comes out. The machine analysis has no concern for the limits of human performance, and the resulting transcriptions are extremely complex, literal, and often impossible to play. ORGANVM PERCEPTVS, the group’s debut album, is about bringing to life this inhuman music. It features the core Happy Valley Band plus a cast of New York City and Bay Area experimental musicians.
Lightbulb Ensemble & Ghost Ensemble Live at Pioneer Works
From a live performance on Oct. 30, 2015, at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Oakland-based Lightbulb Ensemble’s process-based minimalism takes inspiration from the sounds and structures of Balinese gamelan, moving it in a new direction. NYC-based Ghost Ensemble was formed to perform their own music and the music of Pauline Oliveros, and focuses on creating meditative experiences.
Index 0
Index 0 showcases new work for strings, piano, and electronics from six young American composers: Elizabeth Adams, Jack Callahan, Stephanie Huguenin, Beau Sievers, Andrew C. Smith, and K.C.M. Walker. Their compositions are performed by avant-garde violin duo String Noise (Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris) with violist Dov Scheindlin (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Arditti Quartet) and cellist Brian Snow (Newspeak, Proteus Ensemble).