Collision Stories

COLLISION STORIES

is a four-piece abstract sound brigade based in San Francisco, CA.

Members: Jorge Bachmann, Bryan Day, Michael Gendreau, and Mason Jones.

Instruments may include: analog and digital synthesizers, guitar, bass, turntables, percussion, theremin, and handmade sound machines.

The four members of San Francisco's Collision Stories came together after having encountered each other over a number of years, crossing paths here and there as they wove their strands through the experimental, psychedelic, improvisational, electronics, and avant-garde scenes. Once they finally gathered and spent an evening engrossed in collective sound-making it was evident that their diverse backgrounds coalesced into something unique and intriguing.

It's not easy to draw a line around the territory staked out by Collision Stories. The four-piece draws from a vast array of inspirations and makes use of an equally wide range of techniques, sound sources, mechanisms, and most importantly imagination. The recordings and live performances are in perpetual motion, shifting from moments of hovering drone to rhythmic interpolations and cosmic sorcery. Entirely improvised, the work shows deep listening and careful interplay that can move in moments from intense energy to wide-open drifting expanses. It's common for the listener to encounter baffling collisions of sonics that lack an obvious origin, and it's not unusual for the members to listen back and be unsure who did what, and how.

The quartet is eternally restless, and no two works are the same as the quartet searches for the next moment of joyous sonic interlock. Inspiration can come from the location, an accident of wiring, the preceding artist's set, or a chance word while setting up. One member may randomly decide to bring an entirely new instrument one evening, or to string effects in reverse to see what happens. Coincidence and change are essential elements.

All of the members have extensive resumes they bring to bear, as musicians, composers, visual artists, writers, and creators in general.

Jorge Bachmann aka [ruidobello] has worked as a media artist, experimental composer, and curator. He is a founding member of MEI.collectiv, a multidisciplinary group of artists. His eclectic work ranges from subtle musique concrete soundscapes to analog synth minimalism. Since the early 1980's he has been exploring the strange, unique and microcosmic sounds of everyday life, collecting field recordings and creating soundscapes meant for deep listening. In addition to Collision Stories he is one half of the synth duo Snowsteps. [website]

Bryan Day is a sound artist, musical instrument designer, and conceptual artist. His sound work focuses on the subtle textural interplay of natural recordings and amplified electronic sounds generated by his invented instruments. Using scavenged electronics, repurposed mechanical components, and amplified materials that you might find in your garage or your great uncle's office, he re-imagines them into constructivist sound sculptures. In addition to his own audio work, he has run the Public Eyesore / Eh? labels since 1997. [website]

Michael Gendreau started playing drums in 1972, and working with tape machines, scrappy electronics, and turntables a few years after that. He works as an acoustician, where his primary focus is on the design of very quiet research environments with respect to infrasound and vibration. He has worked both solo and in groups including Crawling With Tarts, rRope, Speed The Parting Guest, and others. His discography/videography contains more than 145 documented items since 1983. [website]

Mason Jones is an avant-garde and psych-noise musician, and owner/operator of the Charnel Music label since 1990. Primarily known as a multi-faceted guitarist, he recorded as Trance beginning in the late 80's, founded the band SubArachnoid Space with whom he recorded and toured from 1996-2002, and currently plays with Numinous Eye in addition to Collision Stories. He has also released numerous solo albums and collaborative works with Makoto Kawabata, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Astro, Monte Cazazza, and others. [website]