The Gatherings: Benefit Concert for St. Mary's at Penn (9/15/24)

Chuck van Zyl at The Gatherings/St Mary's 200th Anniversary

The Gatherings is Philadelphia's premiere concert series of innovative music featuring artists from the Ambient, Electronic and Spacemusic worlds
Best known as host of STAR'S END (WXPN's renowned radio program of spacemusic dreamscapes) and as founder of The Gatherings (Philadelphia's premiere concert series of innovative music), Chuck van Zyl has also been making his own unique style of Electronic Music since 1983. Using a variety of modern analog synthesizers and sequencers, and operating at an emotional and enthusiastic pitch, Chuck van Zyl realizes music that possesses as much the buzz and crackle of electricity as it does the frigid depths of space.
From his instruments' storm force of sound comes delightful throbbing bass lines, echo-warping chimes and a mystery machine pulse, against which Chuck van Zyl sways and plays synth strings, Mellotron choir and full-blooded lead lines. Synthesizer blips interlock, and pound out mighty sequencer patterns, yet this mechanical rigidity is somehow softened - as lines of dancing arpeggios pump up against tuneful melodies and ethereal harmonic progressions. Further in, disarmingly calm passages reduce the level of density and energy with insinuating modulations and vaporous aural textures.
Throughout his live sets, Chuck van Zyl pushes and pulls, expands and contracts the music, and manages to establish an engaging contour through various scenarios and scenes... to attain a rare unity. Offering vivid synthesized sonorities his music's appeal lies in its minimalist values, and in this musician's ability to create an uncommonly intimate and absorbing listening experience. Anyone in love with Spacemusic and its very specific poetry will want to hear his work in concert.
This event will also present the work of video artist Ugly Bike (Neil Cippon), who will generate projections of original, ever-evolving images on the interior features of the St Mary's sanctuary space - all in time with the innovative live music of the Chuck van Zyl sets.
The Special 200th Anniversary Event with Chuck van Zyl at The Gatherings Concert Series on 15 September 2024 is presented in cooperation with St Mary's Hamilton Village by CIMA of PA (The Corporation for Innovative Music and Arts of Pennsylvania) - the all-volunteer, IRS recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization behind the organization and production of The Gatherings Concert Series. The basic mission of CIMA of PA is to bring innovative music concerts to the public and further the advancement of this form of art.