Freight Elevator Quartet
Encyclopedia
The Freight Elevator Quartet (FEQ) were a music performance group specializing in improvised
electronic music
active in and around New York City
. They performed and recorded continuously from 1996 to 2003, and collaborated extensively with experimental music artists such as DJ Spooky
and Elliott Sharp
, and avant-garde videographer Mark McNamara
.
In addition to using electronic
instruments (originally analog synthesizer
s and drum machine
s, later laptop
s and sampler
s), they also sported fairly unusual acoustic instrumentation, having a cellist
and a didjeridoo player in their regular line-up. FEQ began as a house band for a series of warehouse parties on 125th Street
in New York City, famously playing their first gig in a freight elevator
. Their eponymous first record, released in 1997, was completely made of live recordings from shows played in their first year of performing, featuring the lineup of Stephen Krieger on drum machine, Rachael Finn on amplified cello, Paul Feuer on didjeridoo, and R. Luke DuBois
on a Buchla
analog synthesizer. Their second and subsequent records saw the gradual expansion of their instrumentation (starting with Feuer doubling on keyboards and DuBois playing guitars) until by the time of their break-up in 2003 the entire band was effectively composed of multi-instrumentalists.
As a conceptual project the Freight Elevator Quartet combined influences from experimental music
and conceptual art
as well as a strong interest in musical Futurism
(played out in their joint recording with DJ Spooky, File Under Futurism). In their liner notes, they referred to themselves as a group of musicians in the present imagining the past imaging the future, a concept akin to the literary conceit of Steampunk
; by combining cutting-edge digital (computers, samplers
), obsolescent solid state
(analog synthesizers), classical 18th century (cello), and aboriginal (didjeridoo) instrumentation, the group deliberately confused the temporal reference point of their music. Stylistically FEQ was known to appropriate whatever genre
s they felt like, working to fuse different styles of breakbeat
, drum and bass
, downtempo
, digital hardcore
, rock
, hip hop
, classical
, and, most conspicuously, academic computer music
. Though always billing themselves as an electronica
act, their music has many stylistic similarities to the later genre of post-rock
. Most of their recordings are culled from composite takes of live performances, though they have released two studio albums as well, both of which feature songs with guest vocalists, including Lorraine Lelis of the band Mahogany and Spezialmaterial recording artist Josh Druckman (as JMD).
The Freight Elevator Quartet were for many years the unofficial ensemble-in-residence of the Computer Music Center
, Columbia University
. Following their breakup, DuBois remained active as a laptop musician and conceptual artist, working extensively with contemporary and avant-garde music performance composers and groups, such as LEMUR
, Christian Marclay
, Bang on a Can
composer Michael Gordon
, vocalist Lesley Flanigan, and violinist/composer Todd Reynolds.
also
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
active in and around New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. They performed and recorded continuously from 1996 to 2003, and collaborated extensively with experimental music artists such as DJ Spooky
DJ Spooky
Paul D. Miller , known by his stage name DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid, is a Washington DC-born electronic and experimental hip hop musician whose work is often called by critics or his fans as "illbient" or "trip hop". He is a turntablist, a producer, a philosopher, and an author...
and Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City since the late 1970s, Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock,...
, and avant-garde videographer Mark McNamara
Mark McNamara
Mark McNamara , is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1st round of the 1982 NBA Draft....
.
In addition to using electronic
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
instruments (originally analog synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
s and drum machine
Drum machine
A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
s, later laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...
s and sampler
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
s), they also sported fairly unusual acoustic instrumentation, having a cellist
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
and a didjeridoo player in their regular line-up. FEQ began as a house band for a series of warehouse parties on 125th Street
125th Street (Manhattan)
125th Street is a two-way street that runs east-west in the New York City borough of Manhattan, considered the "Main Street" of Harlem; It is also called Martin Luther King, Jr...
in New York City, famously playing their first gig in a freight elevator
Elevator
An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...
. Their eponymous first record, released in 1997, was completely made of live recordings from shows played in their first year of performing, featuring the lineup of Stephen Krieger on drum machine, Rachael Finn on amplified cello, Paul Feuer on didjeridoo, and R. Luke DuBois
R. Luke DuBois
Roger Luke DuBois is an American composer, performer, conceptual new media artist, programmer, record producer and pedagogue based in New York City.-Biography:...
on a Buchla
Buchla
Buchla & Associates, Inc. is a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, notably synthesizers and unique MIDI controllers. The 200e Electric Music Box and Lightning III are currently in production.-Buchla Music Box :...
analog synthesizer. Their second and subsequent records saw the gradual expansion of their instrumentation (starting with Feuer doubling on keyboards and DuBois playing guitars) until by the time of their break-up in 2003 the entire band was effectively composed of multi-instrumentalists.
As a conceptual project the Freight Elevator Quartet combined influences from experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
and conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
as well as a strong interest in musical Futurism
Futurism (art)
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane and the industrial city...
(played out in their joint recording with DJ Spooky, File Under Futurism). In their liner notes, they referred to themselves as a group of musicians in the present imagining the past imaging the future, a concept akin to the literary conceit of Steampunk
Steampunk
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
; by combining cutting-edge digital (computers, samplers
Sampler (musical instrument)
A sampler is an electronic musical instrument similar in some respects to a synthesizer but, instead of generating sounds, it uses recordings of sounds that are loaded or recorded into it by the user and then played back by means of a keyboard, sequencer or other triggering device to perform or...
), obsolescent solid state
Solid state (electronics)
Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
(analog synthesizers), classical 18th century (cello), and aboriginal (didjeridoo) instrumentation, the group deliberately confused the temporal reference point of their music. Stylistically FEQ was known to appropriate whatever genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
s they felt like, working to fuse different styles of breakbeat
Breakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
, drum and bass
Drum and bass
Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...
, downtempo
Downtempo
Downtempo is a laid-back electronic music style similar to ambient music, but usually with a beat or groove unlike the beatless forms of Ambient music. The beat is sometimes made from loops that have a hypnotic feeling...
, digital hardcore
Digital hardcore
Digital hardcore is a subgenre of hardcore punk incorporating influences from electronic music. Digital hardcore fuses elements of hardcore punk with various forms of electronic music...
, rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, and, most conspicuously, academic computer music
Computer music
Computer music is a term that was originally used within academia to describe a field of study relating to the applications of computing technology in music composition; particularly that stemming from the Western art music tradition...
. Though always billing themselves as an electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
act, their music has many stylistic similarities to the later genre of post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
. Most of their recordings are culled from composite takes of live performances, though they have released two studio albums as well, both of which feature songs with guest vocalists, including Lorraine Lelis of the band Mahogany and Spezialmaterial recording artist Josh Druckman (as JMD).
The Freight Elevator Quartet were for many years the unofficial ensemble-in-residence of the Computer Music Center
Computer Music Center
The Computer Music Center at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. The Center was founded in the 1950s as the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center....
, Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. Following their breakup, DuBois remained active as a laptop musician and conceptual artist, working extensively with contemporary and avant-garde music performance composers and groups, such as LEMUR
League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots
The League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots, or LEMUR, is a Brooklyn-based group of artists and technologists developing robotic musical instruments. Founded in 2000 by musician and engineer Eric Singer, LEMUR's philosophy is to build robotic instruments that play themselves...
, Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay
Christian Marclay is a Swiss-American visual artist and composer.Marclay's work explores connections between sound, noise, photography, video, and film...
, Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon...
composer Michael Gordon
Michael Gordon (composer)
Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism and post-minimalism.-Early life:...
, vocalist Lesley Flanigan, and violinist/composer Todd Reynolds.
Members
- R. Luke DuBoisR. Luke DuBoisRoger Luke DuBois is an American composer, performer, conceptual new media artist, programmer, record producer and pedagogue based in New York City.-Biography:...
- analog synthesizersModular synthesizerThe modular synthesizer is a type of synthesizer consisting of separate specialized modules connected by wires to create a so-called patch. Every output generates a signal – an electric voltage of variable strength...
, Max/MSP programming, laptop performance, guitars, bass, keyboards - Paul Feuer - didjeridoo, digital synthesizers, banjo, percussion
- Rachael Finn - celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, effects processing, drum programming - Stephen Krieger - drum programmingDrum machineA drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums or other percussion instruments. They are used in a variety of musical genres, not just purely electronic music...
, sampler performance, synthesizers, music production
also
- Johnathan Lee - bass guitar, drum programming
- Ken Thomson - saxophone
- Mark McNamara - video artist
Discography
- The Freight Elevator Quartet (Electronic Music Foundation, 1997)
- The Freight Elevator Quartet's Jungle Album (Electronic Music Foundation, 1998)
- DJ Spooky vs. the Freight Elevator Quartet: File Under Futurism (Caipirinha/Sire, 1999)
- File Under Futurism EP (with DJ Spooky and A Guy Called GeraldA Guy Called GeraldA Guy Called Gerald is the stage name for the musician, record producer and DJ Gerald Simpson ....
) (Caipirinha/Sire, 1999) - The Freight Elevator Quartet Becoming Transparent (Caipirinha/Sire, 2000)
- Exasperation EP (with JMD, Kit ClaytonKit ClaytonJoshua Kit Clayton, better know by his stage name Kit Clayton, is a San Francisco-based electronic and digital musician and computer programmer...
, Datach'iDatach'iDatach'i is the pseudonym of Joseph Fraioli, an electronic musician based in New York City. Datach'i's music places an emphasis on complex drum programming and elaborate timing.-Biography:...
) (Caipirinha/Sire, 2000) - The Freight Elevator Quartet Fix it in Post (Cycling'74 Music, 2001)
External links
- [ Biography at Allmusic]
- Interview (2001)