Fred Frith: The Process of Discovery

The music of violinist, improviser, composer, educator, organizer, and doula gabby fluke-mogul in duos with guitarist Ava Mendoza, violinist Laura Ortman, and sound artist Danishta Rivero with appearances by percussionist Nava Dunkelman and harpist Zeena Parkins recorded in performance at the Roulette concert hall in Brooklyn between 2022-25. Alongside concert excerpts, fluke-mogul describes a South Florida upbringing, influences from Fred Frith to Pauline Oliveros, and their approach to liminal and somatic expression.

Fred Frith is a composer, guitarist, violinist, improviser, band leader, educator, and an influential innovator across musical genres. He has formed or collaborated in bands and ensembles including Henry Cow, Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, John Zorn’s Naked City, Cosa Brava, and Keep The Dog. He has also worked extensively in scoring for film, dance, and theater and was a professor at Mills College from 1997-2018. In this edition Frith discusses his guitar techniques and philosophy of improvisation illustrated with excerpts from memorable appearances at Roulette such as his 1988 duo with bassist Joëlle Léandre, solos and collaborations with Danish saxophonist Lotte Anker and instrument builder Sudhu Tewari from 2024, and a 2013 ensemble presentation of his seminal 1980 album, Gravity. He appears on over 600 recordings.

Yasunao Tone (1935-2025) was a composer, sound artist, technology disrupter, theorist, and author who was a participant in the 1960s Japanese Fluxus movement, and an early influential innovator in noise and glitch music, conceptual art, chance operations, and computer-assisted composition. His work utilized optics, sensors, interactivity, and techno-abuse, most notably his technique of scratching the surface of compact disks in order to confuse the laser reader causing it to randomly select fragments of sound. He later transitioned to corrupting digital audio files using his own algorithms and software. He moved from Tokyo to New York City in 1972. This program includes performances by the artist at Roulette ranging from 1989 to 2022 tracing the evolution of his practice.

DoYeon Kim is known for her expansive and pioneering performances and compositions and for introducing the gayageum, an ancient Korean zither, into contemporary music. Trained extensively in jazz and improvisation as well as in the canon of classical Korean music including sanjo, jeongak, and modern gugak, DoYeon channels history, literature, and an ever-evolving sense of the human spirit. Here, with artist commentary, in performances at Roulette from 2023-24 with musicians Satoshi Takeishi, Tomas Fujiwara, Brandon Lopez, Yuma Uesaka, David Leon, Laura Cocks, Henry Fraser, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Sam Minaie, Matt Maneri.

The guitarist and composer Gary Lucas, acclaimed for his technique, imagination, and fearless commitment to both tradition and innovation from his work with Captain Beefheart, Jeff Buckley, his band Gods & Monsters, scores for silent films, reviving Chinese music, and many other projects presented all around the world, and all rooted in the Blues. The program includes Lucas' 2026 commentary alongside excerpts recorded for the Roulette concert series between 1992 and 2018.

Vocalist, percussionist, composer, music director, and community facilitator Anaïs Maviel has associated her practice with the inextricable currents that move spaces and people between times and lands. One passion is to explore the use of language, and its vibratory essence in music, expanding its power as a healing and transformative act. Here we hear the artist on voice, percussion, n’goni, and keyboards in solo and ensemble works recorded at Roulette between 2019-21 alongside commentary on her background, performance practice, alchemy, and collaboration.

The guitarist Wendy Eisenberg profiles Squanderers, the collaborative, improvising trio of Eisenberg with David Grubbs (gastr del sol) on electric guitars, and Bonner Kramer (Shimmy Disc) on bass ukulele. Eisenberg’s commentary reveals the roots and flowers of this multi-generational exploration heard alongside excerpts from their 2025 performance at the Roulette concert hall in Brooklyn.

Pianist/composer Aruán Ortiz, classically trained in Cuba and influenced by jazz musicians from Chick Corea to Muhal Richard Abrams, narrates his journey over excerpts from his 2025 concert at Roulette pushing the boundaries of musical Afro-diasporic traditions and storytelling. A 2024 Guggenheim Fellow, we'll hear solos and ensemble works with clarinetist Don Byron, flutist Nicole Mitchell, and percussionist Mauricio Herrera alongside strings and vocalists.

The sonic world and career of composer Pauline Oliveros (1936-2016) featuring a 2008 interview with the artist conducted by David Weinstein for the radio station of the Clocktower Gallery in support of an exhibition at PS1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1) entitled WACK: Art of the Feminist Revolution. We also hear solos and collaborative works recorded for the Roulette concert series dating from 1984 to 2014 including excerpts with the Deep Listening Band (Stuart Dempster, trombone, didjeridu and David Gamper (piano, "toys"), and a trio with David Arner (piano) and Doug Van Nort (custom electronics). The influence of Dr. Oliveros on contemporary music is unrivaled, from electronic innovations, sonic meditations, ceremonial works, the Deep Listening paradigm, her Expanded Instrument System (processing time and space), hot-wired accordion, and merging a social conscience with sound.

Vibraphonist, marimbist, and composer Patricia Brennan in conversation with excerpts from performances at the Roulette Concert Hall in Brooklyn. Raised in Mexico and now in Brooklyn and honoree of many awards, Brennan's work as a bandleader and side person includes projects with pianist Sylvie Courvoisier, trumpeter Adam O'Farrill, and her ensembles More Touch and Patricia Brennan Septet. Brennan celebrates a new album, Of The Near And Far on Pyroclastic Records, at Roulette on December 1, 2025, inspired by celestial configurations.