Association "LIV AN NOZ" ( Couleurs de la Nuit )
L'Association LIV AN NOZ a pour but l'animation, la création et la diffusion d'activités culturelles à partir d'un lieu existant: le Café-Concert TOUCOULEUR
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EPIPHANY PROJECT: World Music, Folk
Bet WILLIAMS et John HODIAN , ce duo Américano-Arménien joue ensemble depuis 1992, et forme le « EPIPHANY PROJECT ». Pas facile d’étiqueter leur musique ; world music, folk avant - gardiste. Bet WILLIAMS, chanteuse à la voix exceptionnelle, souvent comparée à celles de Lorena Mc Kennit ou Tori Amos, joue aussi du violoncelle et des percussions. John HODRAN, chanteur, compositeur joue du piano. Ayant passé la plus grande part de ces trois dernières années en parcourant l’Arménie, leur musique est emprunte de rythmes anciens et de mélodies obsédantes du Caucase. De nombreux chants sont basés sur des textes anciens et des langues anciennes. Chacun de leur concert est différent, surprenant, mais l’énergie de ce duo est toujours présente. Soyons curieux !
Epiphany Project's music has been called "some of the most evocative and intelligent music to come down the pike" — NPR. Their unique hybrid of world music, modern classical art song, Americana and folk has also been referred to as "utterly uncategorizable but always transcendently beautiful" by the Washington Post. Composer/pianist John Hodian and singer/ songwriter, Bet Williams began collaborating in 1992. At the time John was composing music for theater, film and television while Bet was performing her original folk-rock songs in clubs and at festivals while experimenting with her one woman performance-art pieces. Both artists had been writing material outside of their normal mode of expression and were looking for a way to bring the new material to fruition. Bet was searching for a more rigorous approach to her expressionistic performance style while John was looking for a voice to fit his new found striped down compositional style. After hearing each others work in a chance meeting at a performance salon in Philadelphia it seemed natural to begin working together. Their first release, DOCUMENT, in 1994, was a collection of songs that didn't seem to fit any standard genre. Not quite art songs and not quite pop songs, they managed to find their way into the hearts of a small but dedicated following in their hometown of Philadelphia. These songs were the beginning of a long, though often sporadic, collaboration. The next CD, EPIPHANY PROJECT, released in 2000, took the art song aspect of their music and turned it upside down with the introduction of exotic hand percussion, electric cello, atmospheric guitars, vocal overdubs, dozens of unusual instruments and sounds from around the world. Relocating to New York, Hodian and Williams continued to expand their fan base and push the barriers of standard song forms. Since 2003, John and Bet have traveled through Europe and the Middle East discovering new influences on their music and in their lives. Hodian's piano playing, while always adventurous and improvisational, has now taken an even more spiritual approach . In his latest compositions, instruments such as the Saz and the Dhol from Armenia can be heard as well as the harmonium and surprisingly the banjo. Williams, with her ever-expanding 4-octave range, continues experimenting with new vocal sounds. "I've been exploring Tuvan throat singing," says Williams, "as well as the performance nuances of women I've found singing folk songs from places like Armenia and India. They're using the voice in ways that are wild and haunting and sound as old as the earth. They're amazing." Epiphany Project's commitment to beauty and the complexities of the human condition has always been at the forefront of their work. Constantly evolving and changing, the "Project" is more an ongoing musical reflection of their lives and continues to be "An intriguing, and intensely moving collaboration. The music while profound and powerful is consistently listenable and accessible." — The Philadelphia Inquirer
Bet WILLIAMS: Chant & Guitare
As anyone who has seen her live can attest, Bet Williams is a fearless vocalist and performer. Her four-octave-range voice has mesmerized audiences across America and Europe astounding them with what SING OUT! Magazine calls "the sheer beauty of her instrument and the passion with which she sings.” Armed with raw emotion, an acoustic guitar and a startling honesty, Williams' music blends earthy folk, rock, pop and roots rhythms with smart lyrics and infectious hooks. With a gift for storytelling and spontaneous humor, her stage performances go from searching confessional to Chaplinesque pantomime at times bordering on performance art. As an army brat, Bet was born in Virginia and raised in Germany and throughout the United States. She grew up with a heady brew of music, theater, travel and academia. Her mother was a piano teacher and organist while her father was a military judge advocate and university professor who directed musicals on the side! As a child Bet was frequently enlisted for roles in her father's staged musicals playing everything from the balloon girl in “Gypsy” to the young Kurt in “The Sound of Music”. After high school Bet studied classical music, voice and theater at college before settling on an English Literature major. She grabbed a poetry degree at Penn State, and began performing in a series of wildly original bands such as “Ticapoo Brain”, “The Shaggy Dogs” and “Righteous Ethel”. After various band incarnations fell apart, Bet went off to live and work on an organic farm and began to re-invent herself and her music. What emerged was a more mature and introspective songwriter and performer who was still capable of tapping into the surreal theatrics of her early performance experiences. In the early 90's Bet hit the road with her first CD (a cassette actually) and a burning desire to communicate her new material. With a disdain for conventional music industry shenanigans, Bet shunned “the business” and focused on performing and writing while developing her passionately committed cult following. Along with John Hodian, Bet founded Epiphany Records as a vehicle to release recordings in a variety of musical genre. It wasn't until 2004 that Bet found a record label she felt comfortable with and is now releasing the self-titled Bet on Sliced Bread Records. Bet lives in New York City with her composer husband and toddler son. ”It's great to live in a city like New York because it puts you in close touch with people from everywhere,” she laughs. “You're constantly reminded that there are a lot of us on the planet so we'd better learn how to get along!”
John HODIAN: Claviers
“In one word? His music is astounding. Beautiful. Haunting. Intelligent. Complex. Sad. Wild. Exuberant.” — The Washington Post John Hodian is a composer, conductor and pianist who has worked in a wide variety of idioms -- from classical to jazz, rock to rap, and traditional to avant-garde theater. Hodian's music conveys emotions ranging from profound melancholy to bold exuberance. His hauntingly beautiful melodies, intricate rhythms and soulful intensity reflect both his Armenian roots and his formal classical training, as well as his years spent as a cutting edge jazz improvisor. Born in Philadelphia, John began formal studies in piano and composition at age 13. His voracious appetite for books, led to the discovery of a collection scores and recordings at his local library, which soon became his home away from home. “I spent a significant portion of my youth wearing a pair of headphones immersed in library recordings of Shostakovich, Stravinsky and Bach”. Hodian commandeered the family piano and began writing what would later become the distinct rhythmic and melodic style that has been heard in his Emmy award winning music around the world. “I’ve always been a composer, my very first experiences at the piano involved making things up as opposed to re-creating the music of others. And I’ve been really lucky in that I never had to do anything else but write music for a living”. He received his Bachelors and Masters degree in composition and conducting at The Philadelphia College for the Performing Arts where he studied with Max Rudolf, Theodore Antoniou, Robert Morris, Joseph Castaldo and Andrew Rudin. John also spent several summers at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado where he studied piano and improvisation with Art Lande, Ralph Towner as well as literature and poetry with Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. While teaching composition and music theory at the University of the Arts, John was conductor of the Philadelphia New Music Ensemble and associate conductor of The Philadelphia Youth Orchestra. In 1984, John went on to found the first fully digital music studio in Philadelphia where he began his career in film and television scoring. Over the past 15 years he has scored over 250 documentary films and in 1992 he won the New York Emmy Award for "Best Music For a Documentary". In 1990 John founded Epiphany Records to promote and release recordings of innovative composers and songwriters. John’s music has been heard in Emmy award-winning soundtracks for feature films and documentaries, commissioned scores for dance companies, and chamber music works, stage dramas and music-theater pieces. His music-theater piece, “Sweet Theresiendstadt”, produced by En Garde Arts and Theater Archa, played for a year in Prague before touring to Warsaw and Berlin. In addition to being selected as resident composer for the Sundance Theater Institute, John has collaborated with leading theater figures such as Anne Bogart and Israel Horowitz. John is currently working on a large scale music-theater piece entitled "Spirits" based on the life of the French playwright Antonin Artaud. "Spirits" was the winner of The New Dramatist Frederick Lowe award for music theater and is slated for a workshop in the near future. Along with Bet Williams he leads Epiphany Project and is also collaborating with her on the music theater piece "Postcards from Beulah".
http://www.epiphanyrecords.com/ et sur MYSPACE
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