S t u d i o F i v e B e e k m a n

sound and intermedia gallery

Tom Hamilton

Drains and Pipes Forever

a continuous sound installation

Saturdays

2 - 9 PM

November 8 - 22, 1997

"Drains and Pipes Forever" is a sound installation by Tom Hamilton that uses the flow of water through one point of a home plumbing system to provide unique musical material. After magnifying and transforming these sounds, they are rearranged and placed back into a musical system of continuous ebb and flow, suggesting a subterranean world now brought to light. The kaleidoscopic nature of the sound environment shows us these sounds in ever-shifting changes of pattern and harmony, paralleling again the inherent properties of water in motion.

Tom Hamilton's best-known installation "Off-Hour Wait State" utilizes another continuous system - the New York Subway - to provide a source of structure and metaphor. Fanfare magazine called it "a remarkable art object" and England's The Wire magazine referred to its "powerful impressions of motion and stasis."

Tom Hamilton has composed and performed electronic music for over 25 years, and often features older analog synthesizers in performance and recording. His music frequently contrasts structure with improvisation and textural electronics with acoustic instruments.

Hamilton has been a collaborator with visual artists, including Heleen Waterbolk (computer animator), Ernst Haas (photographer), Van McElwee and Morey Gers (video artists).

His recent performances have included Peter Zummo, Jonathan Haas, Todd Reynolds and Richard Lerman. He performed and recorded with the improvising quartet Act of Finding with Bruce Arnold (processed guitar), Thomas Buckner (voice) and Ratzo B. Harris (bass).

Since 1990, Hamilton has been a member of composer Robert Ashley's touring opera ensemble, performing sound processing and mixing in both recordings and concerts, in Europe, Japan and the U.S.

Hamilton's newest electronic work, Sebastian's Shadow (Longer ramblings on a short Bach fugue) was just released on CD by Monroe Street Music.

For more information:

web site: www.goddard.edu/wgdr/kalvos/hamilto.html

e-mail address: thamiltn@aol.com