RM Francis joins us from Seattle, alongside locals Eric Laska, Dave Smolen and Patrick Gallagher for a night of music.

RM Francis is an artist based in Seattle working with computer-generated sound and language via recording, installation, and performance. His practice foregrounds computation-based compositional strategies, focusing on methods that exploit discrepancies between human and artificial auditory systems. His current work exploits latent phonological data extracted from non-linguistic sound in order to generate the tonal, rhythmic, and semantic content of synthesized speech. The resulting asubjective narration articulates the potentialities of speech decoupled from embodied human expression, navigating between abstract sound and uncanny characterological specificity.

His oeuvre spans multimedia work incorporating sound, video, performance, and chocolate (Hyperplastic Other, 2017), investigations of historical computer synthesis methods (A Taxonomy of Guffaws, 2020), procedural text works for a chorus of synthetic voices (Every Single Person Has Some Muscle, 2022), and hallucinatory duets between dictation apps and deep learning networks (pedimos un mensaje, 2023). In addition to his solo projects, in recent years he has collaborated with Jack Callahan & Jeff Witscher, Jung An Tagen, and farmersmanual, among others.

Eric Laska is a musician and artist based in Philadelphia whose projects mostly take shape as sound installation, performance, or original songwriting. He is founding editor of the online audio journal Lateral Addition (lateraladdition.org) which seeks to enrich the conversations surrounding contemporary sound practices. Between 2018 - 2020 he co-ran the sound and media arts gallery Remote Viewing in Philadelphia with Geoff Mullen. His last two recordings of songs, Original Songs and the Relief EP, can be found online at ericlaska.bandcamp.com.

For nearly the first half of that time, he played as a solo artist and released his first composition Malleable Laminates in 2006, a multitrack composition for processed snare drums and electronics. The release served as the groundwork for his ever evolving hardware setups from guitar pedals to modular and later condensed to synth sequencing.

After 12 years away from solo work Smolen returned to his original mode and picked up where he left off. The past 3 years have been a process of connecting methods learned in collaboration and in the phases of his music prior.

Patrick Gallagher is a sound artist currently based in Philadelphia, PA. With a formal education in mathematics, Gallagher employs generative/algorithmic processes, guided improvisation, and intuitive sound collage in an effort to weave evocative and evolving sonic narratives. Exploring the various developments of 20th century composition and contemporary computer music, he seeks to fuse that technicality with the cathartic and rapturous nature of the DIY noise underground.

Previous works employed a wide range of sound sources - synthesizers, field recordings, tabletop guitar, etc. - however, Gallagher currently focuses almost entirely on digital synthesis, particularly additive and granular techniques.

Gallagher has released albums on cassette, vinyl, and CD through Enmossed, ENXPL (enmossed x Psychic Liberation), No Rent Records, Hot Releases, Refulgent Sepulchre, Tone Log, and other independent labels.

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