Los Angeles musician Joseph Hammer returns to Lampo this month in a follow up to his 2007 performance of “Road Less Traveled.” Hammer (b. 1959, Hollywood, CA) has performed widely and contributed to the Los Angeles underground music community since the early 1980s.  Notably, Hammer participated in the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS), a loose collective of LA-based experimental musicians active through the 1970s and 1980s, and co-founded groups Points of Friction, Dinosaurs with Horns, and the trio Solid Eye.  His practice draws on the complexities of the process of listening and playing, using music as it influences our notions of time, memory and intimacy as the basis for improvisation and abstraction.

Wearing white cotton gloves, Hammer physically manipulates computerized sources that have been abstracted as tape loops on vintage magnetic audio gear, a high fidelity, full-track mono analog tape recorder serving as his primary instrument. He uses a series of real-time mechanical interventions to transform and layer the source material, physically manipulating the degree of exposure of the tape loops and creating varying strata of old and new information on the loop of magnetic tape.

For this Lampo performance, the artist will premiere “Dynasty III,” the latest installment in his “Dynasty Suite” series, drawing widely-collaged source material from songs that make the artist cry.  Come for the gorgeous plunderphonics; stay for a megadose of the lachrymose.

This performance is presented in partnership with Lampo. Founded in 1997, Lampo is a non-profit organization for experimental music, sound art and intermedia projects.