WhoWhatWhy

Who

In the early sixties one of the TV networks ran a special called "The Way Out Men." One of the further out men featured was Lucas Foss. The moment of the show that marked me forever and ultimately led, 30 years later, to my becoming a self-taught composer of computer music, occurred when the camera focused on Mr. Foss's score. There, on the staves, was written, "trash can lid." And underneath: fff. Not only was I enthralled by the music I was hearing, but here was evidence of an adult perpetrating legitimate acts of noise upon other adults!

I was hooked.

One of the employees at the local classical music record store thought it mighty curious that a 14 year old would walk in and ask if they had any recordings of music by Lucas Foss. He asked me how I had heard of it and would I like to hear some other interesting music. He became a mentor of sorts and opened my ears to electronic and computer music, musique concrete, and contemporary composers of works for traditional instruments.

I was addicted.

Unfortunately, years of studying clarinet and bassoon in public schools convinced me I have absolutely no talent as a musician, so a career in music was not in the cards. In college, a friend and I fantasized about creating an electronic music studio. After arriving at a ball park figure of $100,000 to do basic tape manipulation and electronic processing of the types that interested us, we laughed and said, "Well, that was fun." Two college kids without enough money for our next pizza weren't going to compete with the Columbia Princeton Electronic Music Center. And that, I assumed, was that.

More than twenty years later, twenty years continuing to follow and listen to new music, I realized that software and hardware for desktop computers were beginning to approach, even surpass, the capabilities of the major electronic music studios of the sixties and early seventies. Maybe it's possible to do this stuff after all!

What: fixed music on disc

"People call it experimental music, but I don't. I know what I'm doing."
--Harry Partch

My work follows the tradition of "tape music," music created in a studio and fixed on tape. Not many people use tape any more, so I call it "fixed music on disc." "Fixed" means that the work is finished when it leaves the studio. "Performance" means "played back," sometimes as straight playback and sometimes diffused over multiple speakers, but essentially unchanged from its fixed form. There is no interpretive layer (performers) between the music and you.

Why

"You best let that boy boogie-woogie 'cause it's in him and it's got to come out."
--John Lee Hooker "Boogie Chillen"

In the world

Recordings

Perfomances

WorkPayObey: Music on the Edge: New Electroacoustic Music, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA USA, 1998

 

All the Way with LBJ: Concert of Kyma Music, Engine 27, New York, USA, 1999; International Computer Music Conference (ICMC99), Beijing China, 1999

 

Rhythmiconic Section 19: Screws in Their Shoes: Shy Anne Sound and Video Festival, Tacoma WA, USA, 2000

 

Rhythmiconic Section 23: Violation: Time Expired: Electronic Music at Lewis 2001 Festival, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL, USA, 2001

 

Rhythmiconic Section 15: The Sensitive Mule: Electro Acoustic Summer I, Logos Tetraeder (Logos Foundation), Gent Belgium, 2001

 

Rhythmiconic Section 24: The Moving Walk Is Nearing Its End: International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Listening Room, Havana, Cuba, 2001

 

Rhythmiconic Sections: Suite: Music on the Edge: New Electroacoustic Music, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA USA, 2001

 

Be Prepared to Stop: Electronic Music Midwest, Kanasas City Kansas Community College/University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2002

 

Rhythmiconic Section 14: The Llama Strut: EuCue 2002-2003 Concerts (Electroacoustique Universite Concordia University Electroacoustics), Concordia University, Montreal, November 8, 2002

 

Rhythmiconic Sections 8 & 13: The Garbanzo Poem & Poodles in Distress: Music Bytes Electroacoustic Mini-Concert, Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois, 2002

 

Perfect Grooming: SEAMUS Conference, University of Arizona, Tempe AZ, 2003

 

Birthday: 33rd Festival Synthese Bourges 2003, "La mere, le pere"

 

Spin Cycle: International Computer Music Conference, Singapore, 2003

 

The Influence of the Nickelodeons: Electronic Music Midwest, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2003

 

Ducks in Motion: 60X60 2003, sponsored by Vox Novus, Several venues in New York City; Bilgi University, Istanbul; Bucharest, Romania, 2003-2004

 

WMD: Naming Names: On Agreement and Conflict, Zèppelin festival 04, Barcelona, 2004; repeated at Zaragoza, September 2004

 

Pin Drop: 3rd Rencontres Musiques Nouvelles, Electrolune Day, Lunel, France, 2004

 

Why Do You Want to Come to Santa Barbara Graduate School?: International Computer Music Conference, University of Miami, 2004

 

Direction of Gravity: One, sponsored by the experimental Music Collective (eMC), Vancouver, Canada, 2004

 

Exotic Fruits: 60X60 2004, sponsored by Vox Novus, Several venues: Under St. Marks, New York; Birmingham-Southern College, Alabama; Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis; National University of Music, Bucharest; Sydney Conservatorium, Sydney Australia, 2004 - 2006

 

Why Do You Want to Come to Santa Barbara Graduate School?: SEAMUS Conference, Ball State University, 2005

 

Five Is Going to Do It (Pregame Show section of Jocks): International Computer Music Conference, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, September, 2005

 

Shoo Fly, There's That Fly Again (Commercials 1 and 3 of Jocks), Birthday: SoundLab Edition III, ConcertHall at le Musee di-visioniste and NewMediaArtProjectNetwork, Cologne, October, 2005

 

The Worm's Turn: EuCue Series XXV (Electroacoustique Universite Concordia University Electroacoustics), Concordia University, Montreal, November 10, 2006

 

The Worm's Turn: EuCue Series XXV (Electroacoustique Universite Concordia University Electroacoustics), Concordia University, Montreal, November 10, 2006

 

T. Watkins (Half time section of Jocks): International Computer Music Conference, Copenhagen, August, 2007

 

A Little Noise Goes a Long Way: Electronic Music Midwest, Kanasas City Kansas Community College, Kansas City, KS, 2007

 

The Influence of the Nickelodeons: 3rd Digital Art Festival in collaboration with NewMediaFest2007, Rosario, Argentina, 2007. Included in NewMediaFest's SoundLab Edition V; FILE 2008 Electronic Language International Festival, Fiesp Cultural Center, in collaboration with NewMediaFest's SoundLab V, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2008

 

Hairpin: 2008 Yeosu (South Korea) International Art Festival, "Garden of Delights"

Broadcasts (that I'm aware of)

Jump and Dance: Works From the Fringes of Sonic Expression, WMBC, Baltimore, MD, USA, 1999

 

Rhythmiconic Section 23: Violation: Time Expired: Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, October 21, 2000

 

Rhythmiconic Section 16: Pork with Ham: Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, November 11, 2000

 

Selection from Rhythmiconic Sections: BiP_HOp Generation on Radio Grenouille, Marseille France, January, 2001

 

American Lives and Property: Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, October 6, 2001

 

Rhythmiconic Sections 15: The Sensitive Mule, and 19: Screws in Their Shoes: Inner Space program, Radio Student, Zagreb, Croatia, May 12, 2002

 

Rhythmiconic Section 8: The Garbanzo Poem and Section 13: Poodles in Distress: Sonic Stratosphere, KSER, Seattle, WA, May 15 and 29, 2002

 

Selection from Rhythmiconic Sections and live on-air interview: Where's the Beat?, CKUT, Montreal, Canada, June 5, 2002

 

Rhythmiconic Sections 1-7: FOLDOVER, WOBC, Oberlin, OH, September 2, 2002

 

Selection from Rhythmiconic Sections: Charmed Sounds, Finnish Broadcasting Company, YLE Radio 1, May 14th, 2003

 

Rhythmiconic Sections 22: Dead Umbrellas: Other Voices, Other Sounds, KUNM, University of New Mexico, July 27, 2003

 

Drawing Frogs: Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, August 9, 2003

 

Studs Gone Bad: Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, September 13, 2003

 

Road Music: New Traffic Patterns, Expect Delays, Be Prepared to Stop: art@radio, University of Maryland Baltimore County, November 6, 2003

 

Studs Gone Bad: Acoustic Frontiers, CKCU-FM, November 10, 2003

 

Studs Gone Bad: Elektra Radioshow for Experimental Music, Webcast, December 2, 2004

 

Five Is Going to Do It: Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, January 1, 2005, the 500th show

 

Selection from Rhythmiconic Sections: Martian Gardens, WMUA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, several programs, 2005

 

Kalvos & Damian RadioArt Project: Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, March 12, 2005. Archived on the Kalvos & Damian web site. Scroll down to show 510.

 

Ducks in Motion: art@radio, WMBC, Baltimore, April 27, 2005

 

Ducks in Motion: Elektra Radioshow for Experimental Music, Webcast, May 5, 2005

 

Catacoustics: Martian Gardens, WMUA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, June 12, 2005

 

Rhythmiconic Sections 23: Violation: Time Expired: Fancy Irrigation Systems, WRCT, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, January 19, 2006

 

Jocks: First Quarter: They're All a Bunch of Jocks: Martian Gardens, WMUA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, September 24, 2006

 

Jocks: Post Game Analysis: Jump and Dance: FOLDOVER, WOBC, Oberlin, OH, September 25, 2006

 

Why Do You Want to Come to Santa Barbara Graduate School?: elektramusic RadioShow for Experimental Music, Bourges, France, January, 2007, and July - August, 2007

 

Jocks (entire work): art@radio, WMBC, Baltimore, February 28, 2007

 

Rhythmiconic Sections 20: Wave Motion Machine II: Electric Storm / Missing Sense, CKLN, Toronto, March 11, 2007

 

Exotic Fruits: Martian Gardens, WMUA, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, July 22, 2007

Collaborations

The Fowl Lizard. 2000. Story by John Hankey. Sounds/Music by David Mooney

 

Why Do You Want to Come to Santa Barbara Graduate School?. 2004. Text, reading, and consulation by Maxine Heller. Treatment by David Mooney

 

World Wide Music. 2004- . Ongoing collaboration with Cliff Leftwich and Art Spencer. Phase I: Cliff messed with music on Life after College. Phase II: I messed with Cliff's stuff, including material from about a dozen cassettes received over the last 25 years or so.

Other Stuff

Advisory Board, Music on the Edge, University of Pittsburgh: 2003 - 2004