Ensemble Odd Appetite (USA)

Novel music

Based in New York City, Odd Appetite is a duo of performers/composers Ha Yang Kim (cello) and Nathan Davis (percussion). Unique instrumental staff indeed! They both received classical education in American and European conservatories. Odd Appetite composes and performs their own music as well as works of other composers. They offer music that is both subtle and visceral, complex yet unified by narrative and gesture. Critic Kyle Gann praised Odd Appetite in the Village Voice as "expert virtuoso players", and David Cleary wrote in "21st Century Music": "The splendid duo Odd Appetite displayed careful chamber music interaction, a well-tuned ear for ensemble balance, and technical dexterity to burn".

Odd Appetite often uses electronics to extend and exaggerate acoustic properties of their instruments. Imagine giant gongs, microtonal bells, drums, pipes, and hammered dulcimer heard alongside a de-tuned and amplified cello, processed with guitar pedals and electronic effects, all played with dazzling virtuosity, passion and spirit.

Their interest to studying and performing music of Bali and of South India (Karnatic music) are of special interest. They traveled the world in search of new sounds and languages, and their music is a manifestation of the zeal that we have for the music of today and this world.

Odd Appetite made its debut at Carnegie Hall as soloists with Gamelan Galak-Tika in Evan Ziporyn's Amok, and were featured in the 2007 Bang on a Can Marathon. They collaborated with Christian Wolff and the Downtown Ensemble in a series of NYC performances of Wolff's seminal Exercises, worked closely with Ziporyn on a number of projects, and recorded with Larry Polansky for his Four-Voice Canons disc from Cold Blue Records.

The duo has toured the U.S., The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Germany and Turkey. In Summer 2005 they toured Bali, playing with Galak-Tika in the Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar, the Kuta Festival, and in villages around the island. They played at such venues as The Salvador Dali Museum, Roulette, and Galapagos. Odd Appetite have been guest artists at The Boston Conservatory, Brown, Harvard, Brandeis, Wellesley, Dartmouth, and other colleges in the Northeast, where they have also been in residence and conducted educational outreach.

CDs:

Ha-Yang Kim - Ama (Tzadik)

Nathan Davis - Memory Spaces (Mytoeses Music)

Non Sequitur (Karnatic Lab Records)

Festivals:

Bang on a Can (New York, NY)

Bali Arts Festival (Denpasar, Indonesia)

Festival de Musica Electroacoustica (Havana, Cuba)

CyberArts Festival (Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Ought-One Festival (Montpelier, Vermont, USA)

Festival of Living Music (St. Petersburg, Florida, USA)

Bonk Festival (St. Petersburg, Florida, USA)

Musicians:

Evan Ziporyn

Christian Wolff

Lee Hyla

Larry Polansky

Louis Andriessen

Projects:

Music of Odd Appetite

Christian Wolff Exercises

American Experimentalism