colourschool

Host Biographies

Jeff Allport most often plays a snare drum. With Robert Pedersen he has performed and recorded as part of a duo under the name Rough Noble.

Tim Olive, born and raised on the Canadian prairies, began playing electric bass at 12, travelling 100 km every week to study music theory and buy Seventies hard rock lps. Further listening brought exposure to blues, jazz, reggae, and punk rock. A move to “the city” and its record library revealed free jazz, early electronic music, and the music of Asia. Efforts were made to accommodate this range of music within the limits of rock instrumentation, but eventually regular rhythms and tempered pitches were jettisoned in favor of open forms, improvisation, and exploration of the full sonic possibilities of steel strings and magnetic pickups, the instrument moving from chest to lap to tabletop, the number and diameter of strings varying periodically. Extensive touring in North America, Europe, and Japan has provided opportunities to play with a wide range of musicians including, most recently, Alfredo Costa Monteiro, Haco, Sharif Sehnaoui, and Martin Tetreault. More important, however, is the shared development afforded by longer playing/recording relationships with Jeff Allport, Kelly Churko, Bunsho Nisikawa (a collaboration between Supernatural Hot Rug And Not Used), Phroq, Mike Shiflet, and Fritz Welch, and in conjunction with dancer Corrie Befort.

Robert Pedersen is currently keen on salvaging cassette recorders and re-wiring their circuits, exciting them into freely oscillating and fundamental sinewave frequencies, and creating feedback across the entire circuit grid. In the past year he has performed and recorded as part of a duo (with Jeff Allport) under the name Rough Noble.

Ken Roux makes machines and instruments that rework and distort sound. With roots in making noise music with modified consumer electronics, his recent work focuses equally on the visual component of inventing. The amplified chalkboards he built for the Signature Series at the Access Gallery fostered an audience-wide, instruction driven sound piece. Kenny has been an artist in residence at the Western Front, a jury member for and participant in the Signal and Noise festival, and a participant in Open Circuits at the Or Gallery. He has played numerous shows in venues around the lower mainland and with Canada Council support is currently creating a city-wide sound walk.