Fernandez Ranch by Tom Bickley and Nancy Beckman
Sound design/composition and video by Tom Bickley, still photography by Nancy Beckman. Created for the August episode of Mopomoso TV, a UK-based YouTube channel for improvised music. Fernandez Ranch uses percussion recorded on site at the trailhead for Fernandez Ranch layered with sound of a renaissance bassett recorder processed via Max.
The Harmony of the Spheres by Tom Bickley, Nancy Beckman, and Jim Wilson
A media project for the Poetry Collaboration hybrid event at The Center for Connection and Collaboration in Asheville, NC. Poet Jim Wilson's cinquain The Harony of the Spheres was the springboard for the piece, with sound design/composition and video by Tom Bickley, still photography and shakuhachi performance by Nancy Beckman.
In Consideration of the Earth by Pauline Oliveros
A video performance of the 1998 score by Pauline Oliveros. This piece was written for myself, Norman Lowrey, Abbie Conant, and Monique Buzzarté. I'm playing an Eagle alto recorder made by Adriana Breukink. The score is available in the Anthology of Text Scores by Pauline Oliveros. Recording permission by the Pauline Oliveros Trust and The Ministry of Maåt, Inc Members ASCAP. All rights reserved.
Aki アキ=Autumn by Ryohei Hirose
A video from the 2018 BFX American Recorder Society's Recorder Relay of Three Trapped Tigers performing Ryohei Hirose's Aki アキ = Autumn. (1969/1988). The original piece was for shakuhachi, and the recorder version created with recorder player Isao Moriyasu in 1988. David Barnett is playing a transitional alto recorder by Tom Prescott, Tom Bickley is playing a harmonic tenor recorder by Maarten Helder/Mollenhauer.
Exploring the Heart of Tones by Pauline Oliveros
A video performance by the Cornelius Cardew Choir, directed by Tom Bickley. We explore the pitch and temporal environment of Pauline Oliveros' score The Heart of Tone. We created this for the Pacific Pythagorean Music Festival 11 April 2021 presented by the Del Sol Quartet.
Frequency Modulation Radio: Iteration 41 live improvisation by Cilla Vee and Tom Bickley
Please click here to listen. This was the last live radio broadcast of Tom Dimuzuo's program Frequency Modulation Radio on KPFA FM, Berkeley, CA on 14 October 2018. Cilla Vee (voice and electronics), Tom Bickley, electronics.
Song, the Sixth
Here's a video from 2008 of Three Trapped Tigers performing Thomas Morley's Song, the Sixth from his Plaine and Easie Guide to Practicall Musicke (1597) on renaissance recorders by Tom Prescott.
Improvised Duo for Violin and Contrabass Recorder
Here is a recording of a live improvised duo for violin and amplified Paetzold contrabass recorder, from a performance on Wed. 16 Aug 17 at the Center for New Music in San Francisco. Composer/performer(violinist) Thea Farhadian and I used the strategy "start with drones and move toward more fragmented sonic gestures, and see what happens over a span of 10 minutes."
108: a Mala for Pauline
The Cornelius Cardew Choir performance of 108: a Mala for Pauline, a piece honoring my teacher and friend Pauline Oliveros. This was recorded live at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco on Sunday 7 May 2017. This performance is of the "public space" option, in which the sounds evoked by the score co-exist with the other sounds in the room. The microtonal dissonances are a happy result of an ensemble of instruments in different tuning systems along with the voices.
Three Propositions
Three Propositions, a video piece inspired by Wittgenstein's Tractatus. Video and poetry by Jaime Robles; sound design by Tom Bickley; sounds by Nancy Beckman, Tom Bickley and Jaime Robles. This was included in an exhibit in Exeter by the British Wittgenstein Society.
Three Solos
Three Solos by Dream Down Duvet (audio only): 1. Six Minute Meditation by Nancy Beckman (shakuhachi); 2. What I Know by Viv Corringham (voice and drone); 3. Connections Inside a Bone by Tom Bickley (recorder and voice); from the 10 pm set at The Stone, NYC, 30 Aug 2012. I'm playing a Mollenhauer Helder Tenor.
Microtonic Meditations for Endings and Beginnings: II. Scherzo
Microtonic Meditations for Endings and Beginnings: II. Scherzo by Bob Marsh (prepared accordion) and Tom Bickley (soprano recorder). Free improvisation recorded live at Meridian Gallery, San Francisco 10 Jan 2007. Released on Innova's CD Earth Music: Ten Years of Meridian Music: Composers in Performance. I'm proud to have co-curated this collection with Michael Zelner, Adria Otte, and Phil Gelb. Please enjoy our liner notes.
Mukaiji kai
Mukaiji kai, structured improvisation for ensemble on the traditional shakuhachi piece 霧海箎. 31 Jan 15 at the Fog Music Festival, the Second Act, San Francisco. I'm playing a Paetzold contrabass by Kunath and an Akai EWI 4000s wind synth.