Nov 27

Performance: 15:00 – 23:00

Since the beginning of this year (2022) I’ve been experimenting with durational performances, in the spirit of the NYC minimalists and performance artists of the 70’s. The concerts have been called 8 Hours or 8 Minutes, a sort of joke referring to the perception of time, and also a critique of the standard 8-hour workday/40-hour work week.8 Hours brings us back into our experiential relationship with time – with the fabric of our very lives. To give to the listener a place to stop and explore what it means to be in time. To stop rushing thoughtlessly from one appointment to the next, to experience the unmeasured, unquantifiable, in short – the human side of time. By playing works which bring our awareness to the passing moment, the audience is reminded of how time actually moves, listening to these works which contain repetition, silence, subtle change – the listener is invited to experience a myriad of emotions, they must allow themselves to slow down, to step out of the comfort zone our daily structure provides.

To perform for such a long stretch of time on a single instrument is both physically and mentally demanding. It requires a shift in perspective and to get there I followed the advice of a good friend: To approach playing not as a mountain climb, but as a love affair. Leaping off the cliff from this foundational understanding, the performances are not tests of endurance, but deep inner journeys, explorations of love and awareness witnessed in a public setting. I liken it to riding a wave: a swelling of emotion which is palpable in the room, building gradually over the eight hours I perform both original music and pieces by other minimalist composers like Julius Eastman, Anne Southam, Hugh Shrapnel, and Eva Maria Houben.

– Eric Maltz

About the Artist:

I am a composer and multi-instrumentalist who combines acoustic sounds, field recordings, filmic improvisations, and electronic music to create improvised and experimental soundscapes and rhythms. My musical practice is rooted in dream study, the finding of connections between disparate objects, and is guided by the premise that sound is a vehicle for emotion.

Website: https://ericmaltz.com/