Listen to the Monster (mp3 samples, all from live performances)
Important Breather Holes
Crater Dust
Azalea (space, excerpt)
Odd Angle
Watch the Monster on Vimeo:
Click for a video of Delicate Monster at Electro Music 2010.
Delicate Monster performances:
November 3, 2011, 8:00pm
Event Horizon
The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street, Philadelphia
This is a free event.
Includes sets by The Great Quentini and Northern Valentine
Event Horizon website
Both Art Cohen (guitar) and Steve Bowman (synths) love to argue about what
makes good
music-with each other and with anybody else who feels as
passionately
as they do. Through Delicate Monster, they make their
arguments
in sound.
When Art and
Steve disagree with each other, it's a consequence of their
divergent
musical backgrounds. Art is rooted in psychedelic guitar,
Berlin-school
spacemusic, and American folk. He's been a fixture on the
Philly music
scene for 25 years-you may know him as half of the duo The
Ministry of
Inside Things (with Chuck van Zyl). Steve has a musty degree
in
Music from
Harvard, where he first encountered the Buchla. He draws his
influence from
classical music and radical composers like Ives, Stockhausen,
Subotnick,
Monteverdi, Bach, and Ligeti. (Their musical tastes do
overlap
with the
Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart). Art pushes Steve to let
the
music be clear
and simple and to groove on the repetition. Steve pushes Art
to surrender
to his weird side and luxuriate in the complexity of
counterpoint
and the thrill of dissonance. Playing together off and
on for 20
years, Art and Steve have managed to merge their stylistic
differences
into a novel musical language that is Delicate Monster.
Art and Steve
do concur on their fundamental approach to music. They agree
that live
music should be truly live, so Delicate Monster performs without
the help of samplers or recorded tracks. All
sounds
originate from
fingers on strings or keyboards (liberally enhanced by
loopers,
delays, effects, and arpeggiators). They subscribe to the
paradox that
to play freely in the flow of the moment-the highest experience
for performers
and audience alike-requires structure and discipline. All
Delicate Monster compositions are carefully planned
frameworks for constant
improvisation.
They agree
emphatically on the ultimate goal of performance-to create a
transcendent
experience for the audience. Delicate Monster tells stories in
sound, leading
the listener through extremes of sentiment ranging from
delicate to
monstrous, and employing musical devices ranging from open modal
harmonies and
shining melodies to extreme dissonance and brute cacophony.
Audiences
share in the musical adventure as Art and Steve reach for the
ultimate
agreement-the magical space where two prepared and practiced
musicians
connect in musical conversation.
Promo for One Thousand Pulses, written by Darren Bergnstein, Editor of EI-Music Magazine:
"The curiously-minted Delicate Monster is a duo consisting of guitarist Art Cohen and synthesist Steve Bowman.
Longtime players on their respective instruments, Cohen and Bowman share a passion for deep space topographies,
namely the starfields navigated by pioneers’ Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel/Manuel Gottsching,
Gunter Schickert, Zanov, et al.
Yes, there is much in the way of classic Teutonic electronics to be found
in the Delicate Monster stew, but Mssrs. Cohen and Bowman bring much more to the table.
Cohen’s licks aren’t about forging simple loops or fundamental digital processing:
he’s as likely to let fly plangent chords that arc to the heavens as much as play dazzling arpeggios.
And Bowman’s synths don’t simply lay down obvious Krautrock patterns or rely on rusty sequencers;
rather, the sounds he coaxes from his keys leap about and whorl amongst his partner’s fluid lines in equal measure.
The fact that Bowman is also an adroit player who revels in the alien otherness of his electronics
makes for a performer wholly uninterested in past clichés.
Prior performances by the duo include gigs around their native Philadelphia, live on WXPN radio for Stars End, as well as
a particularly noteworthy set at last year’s Electro-Music festival. On record, they have separately and collectively
released work (via cassettes) on Chuck Van Zyl’s Synkronos label;
to date, Delicate Monster is represented by a lone CDR, but growing buzz surrounding the group
should markedly expand their future catalog."
Steve Bowman, synths; Art Cohen, guitar
Delicate Monster lurks in the greater Philadelphia area, and welcomes opportunities
to perform for electro-music-loving audiences anywhere within driving distance.
Contact: Steve Bowman, Steve@DelicateMonster.com
Promo for One Thousand Pulses, written by Darren Bergnstein, Editor of EI-Music Magazine:
"The curiously-minted Delicate Monster is a duo consisting of guitarist Art Cohen and synthesist Steve Bowman.
Longtime players on their respective instruments, Cohen and Bowman share a passion for deep space topographies,
namely the starfields navigated by pioneers’ Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel/Manuel Gottsching,
Gunter Schickert, Zanov, et al.
Yes, there is much in the way of classic Teutonic electronics to be found
in the Delicate Monster stew, but Mssrs. Cohen and Bowman bring much more to the table.
Cohen’s licks aren’t about forging simple loops or fundamental digital processing:
he’s as likely to let fly plangent chords that arc to the heavens as much as play dazzling arpeggios.
And Bowman’s synths don’t simply lay down obvious Krautrock patterns or rely on rusty sequencers;
rather, the sounds he coaxes from his keys leap about and whorl amongst his partner’s fluid lines in equal measure.
The fact that Bowman is also an adroit player who revels in the alien otherness of his electronics
makes for a performer wholly uninterested in past clichés.
Prior performances by the duo include gigs around their native Philadelphia, live on WXPN radio for Stars End, as well as
a particularly noteworthy set at last year’s Electro-Music festival. On record, they have separately and collectively
released work (via cassettes) on Chuck Van Zyl’s Synkronos label;
to date, Delicate Monster is represented by a lone CDR, but growing buzz surrounding the group
should markedly expand their future catalog."
Steve Bowman, synths; Art Cohen, guitar
Delicate Monster lurks in the greater Philadelphia area, and welcomes opportunities
to perform for electro-music-loving audiences anywhere within driving distance.
Contact: Steve Bowman, Steve@DelicateMonster.com