Composer, improviser, field recordist, writer, occasional teacher, and self-described "new music rabble-rouser," Christopher De Laurenti's music is as polyvalent as his activities. It's hard to better his own description of his work. He writes, "My music, the offspring of my love affair with sound, incorporates murky atmospheres, unusual field recordings, everyday speech, and an array of instruments deployed in maniacal recombinant polyphony. I seek not only to capture the ordinary and extraordinary sounds of everyday life, but to bear witness to current crises that touch my conscience and impel me to respond." True to this intensely focused credo, De Laurenti's music shimmers and vibrates, energetically bristling with startling cuts and sudden shifts of mood and action. Unwilling to be confined to one of the many underground genres (field recordings, noise, acousmatique, lowercase sound, etc.) in electroacoustic music today, De Laurenti draws on the immense variety of sonic materials from celebratory parties ("The night I met Maria C_____", "At Stephie's", "Your 3 minute Mardi Gras" and untitled tracks on the "Sand Point Sound Gazetteer"), to political protests (his two colossal N30 works and "Two Secret Wars"), to the forbiddingly abstract sonic terrain heard in his collaborations with Artemiy Artemiev ("57 Minutes to Silence") and lowercase improvisations with "Rebreather", a duo with Alex Keller. Drastically deconstructed popular music ("Three Camels for Orchestra", "Day Ripper", "Sylvian's Wood" and "Cocaine") is a preoccupation, although a more indirect sonic appropriation appears in the background of many other later compositions ("Your 3 minute Mardi Gras" and "Adrift in NYC"). De Laurenti's chief work is "N30: Live at the WTO November 30, 1999" perhaps the most impassioned piece of "political" music since Luigi Nono's 1960s and 1970s compositions. By using vivid material directly connected with this tumultuous event, De Laurenti achieves what most "political" music fails to do, making the "message" into heart-stopping and unforgettable music. Due to his isolation in the Northwest United States and infrequent releases, De Laurenti is relatively unknown. One label described De Laurenti as "Seattle's odd man out" in the local experimental scene there, which, by virtue of the uncommon variety and boldness of his music, is true.

Freddie Brewer

Selected Discography

Solo

2003

Two Secret Wars - (CD)
Met Life 5: The Night I Met Maria C_____ - (ÑD)
Sand Point Sound Gazetteer - (CD-R)

2000

N30: Live at the WTO Protest November 30, 1999. Double Edition - (CD)

1995

Three Camels For Orchestra - (CD)

With Artemiy Artemiev

2002

57 Minutes to Silence - (CD, Electroshock Records ELCD 029)

Compilation CDs

Sonicbal - 2 - CD/ 2 Tracks
Phonography. Org 1 - CD-R/ 1 Track
Hearing Place - CD/ 1 Track
Electroshock Presents: Electroacoustic Music. Vol. V - (CD, Electroshock Records ELCD 013) - 1 Track - "Let Me Tell You about Tiger"
Owasso Night Atlas - CD/ 1 Track
Sonicbal 1999 - CD-R/ 1 Track

Festivals

2003

Hearing Place Audiotheque
Acousmania

2002

Northwest New Works
File: Sound Art
Surround Sound Transmissions

2001

7th Olympia Experimental Music Festival
Western Washington University's Electroacoustic Music Festival
Electroacoustic Music Days Boise Idaho
Mixtophonics in Vancouver, Canada

2000

Grays Harbor Community College
Center on Contemporary Art
Earshot Jazz Voice & Vision
Seattle Art Museum

1999

New Music Northwest
Day of Music at Benaroya
Electromuse 2at on the Boards
Artsedge

1997

Electromuse

WEBSITE: http://www.delaurenti.net