Seth Misterka    
 
 
 
 
STATEMENT:
 
Born Massachusetts. 1976. Initial interest in sound is electronic: exploiting the new technology of personal computing to create impossible sound masses.  The tools: a cheap Macintosh, a 4- channel Radio-Shack mixer, guitar amplifiers and pedals.  My source material is my CD collection. I deform the sonic content of the CDs into unrecognizable sonic material.  Ice Cube becomes a giant rumbling low sound.  The Beatles become a static, metallic drone.  Albert Ayler becomes a quivering, ear-piercing high sound. The various sound masses (3-dimensional sonic colors) are bounced against each other to create energy fields at the points of contact.  The goal is to overload the senses: to take them hostage for a moment.

In the fall of 1995, I meet Jeffers Egan.  His interest is in abstract (i.e., non-narrative) video: abstract painting that moves.  We collaborate on a project called iRem%2 (three full length compositions).  A large video screen. A large guitar amplifier.  Textures, colors, shapes (aural and visual) saturate the room: it becomes a thick jungle of sensory data.  At a performance in the Madison (WI) Civic Center, a layering of dense low sounds causes the catered glasses to shatter one by one: it is the physical manifestation of the composition's vibrations.

My interest in a more physically direct method of sound production leads me to the saxophone. An old student-model alto (abandoned by my brother) provides a convenient experimental apparatus.  I immediately seek ways to fuse my electronic music with my acoustic work.  In the spring of 1997, I join forces with Rafael Cohen and Pete Cafarella to form CCM4 (Cafarella, Cohen, Misterka Quartet). The fourth member is the "mystical other" of the electronic world.  The mystical fourth takes on a variety of manifestations: sine waves, appropriated manipulations of sonic material, electronic re-interpretations of rhythm sections, cues for notated material, guides for improvisation. The group's pieces cover a wide range of sonic terrain: harmonic drones, cued notation, call-and-response improvisation, energy improvisation, thru-notated rhythmic devices and themes.  CCM4's mission statement remains in effect: "CCM4 is a working group that explores collective composition / improvisation in an electro-acoustic environment"
 
 
 
SELECTED ISCOGRAPHY:

Sound Probe 2 (cassette in melted vinyl): "Rock and Roll Deconstruction Structures" - reinterpretations of Rock and Roll favorites
Newsonic 1 (video tape): iRem%2 - "Composition 3" abstract video and sound
Newsonic 4 (cassette): "Saxophone" - electronic manipulations of solo saxophone
Newsonic 5 (CD): The Middletown 3 - "10.5.97" with Jackson Moore and Jonathan Zorn
Newsonic 6 (CD): The Middletown Creative Orchestra - "10.6.97"
Newsonic 8 (CD): The Middletown 3 - "Nine Compositions"
Newsonic 9 (CD): The Middletown Creative Orchestra - "4.11.98 and 4.27.98"
Newsonic 10 (CD): CCM4 - "Construction, Destruction, Recreation"
 
 
 
CONTACT INFO:    E. smisterka@wesleyan.edu