All the States Between by Ernesto Diaz-Infante & Matt Hannafin

His musical compositions span a broad perspective: transcendental piano, noise, avant-garde guitar, field recordings, lo-fi four-track manipulations, and experimental song. ED-I has performed throughout Europe and the United States, and his music has been broadcasted internationally. He has recorded more than 15 CDs of music and collaborated with numerous musicans. In 2000, his composition, I/O (for chamber ensemble), was performed by the California EAR Unit. He has been awarded residencies at the Centre International de Recherche Musicale (CIRM) in Nice, France, The Millay Colony for the Arts, Villa Montalvo, The Ucross Foundation, among others. In 1997, he began Pax Recordings record label which is dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and contagion of music from the margins of our culture and psyches. ED-I curated The Luggage Store Gallery's Creative Music Series (2000-2002) night of improvised and experimental music. He also co-founded the Big Sur Experimental Festival (1999-2004) and San Francisco Alternative Music Festival (2000-2003). He presently lives with his girlfriend, filmmaker Marjorie Sturm, and his baby, Ezra Octavio, in San Francisco. He and Marjorie recently formed the Neshama Alma Band, a four-track project recorded in their living room. They co-conspire and run Pax Recordings. Their most recent release is a compilation CD of twenty-six artists titled "Voices in the Wilderness: Dissenting Soundscapes and Songs of G.W.'s America." As well, ED-I is presently exploring and focusing on mantra-esque acoustic guitar strumming.

Matt Hannafin is a New Yorkbased percussionist active in both free improvisation and traditional Iranian music. He studied Iranian tombak (classical goblet drum) with master Kavous Shirzadian; frame drums with Jamey Haddad and Glen Velez; African and Afro-Caribbean percussion with John Amira, Magette Fall, and others; and voice with composer La Monte Young and master Pandit Pran Nath. For New Music performances he uses a percussion kit that blends the timbres of various Asian traditions with those of the orchestral percussion ensemble and the urban/industrial soundscape, allowing deeper exploration of sympathetic resonance, continuous layered sound, and organizational principles based on tonal decay, textural progression, and event sequencing.

Mr. Hannafin is a member of the improvisation groups Chainworks (with pianist Dan DeChellis and electronics player Brian Moran) and Two Moon Ensemble (with flautist Muriel Vergnaud, clarinetist Rich Gross, and bandurist Michael Andrec). He©ˆs performed solo and with tar/zarb player Kavous Shirzadian, bandurist Julian Kytasty, soprano Anita DeChellis, theremin player James Colemen, sax player Blaise Siwula, guitarists Chris Forsyth and Ed Littman, percussionists Hearn Gadbois, Glen Velez, and Jeff Arnal, and many others. In the 1980s he was a regular guest with NY/NJ dada-noise legends Children in Adult Jails and performed as half of the improv/industrial duo Alexis at Spala with electronics player C. J. Earner. In 199394 he was the first male drummer in Layne Redmond©ˆs previously all-female percussion ensemble The Mob of Angels, and from 1995 to 2003 was percussionist for the Iranian traditional/Sufi ensemble Soroosh, featuring singer/instrumentalist Amir Ali Vahabzadegan and ney/sorna player Omar Faruk Tekbilek. For the past several years he©ˆs been active as a teacher of Persian classical and traditional percussion.

Mr. Hannafin has appeared at the Miami Iranian Cultural Festival (1998 and 1999); the United Nations and the Iranian Mission to the UN, Symphony Space (NYC), the New England Conservatory (Boston), and scores of other venues, including performances for the World Music Institute and numerous cultural and arts groups. He's released two recordings with Chainworks (Red Rooms and Twenty Minutes in Brooklyn, 5-4-2003, both on Sachimay Records) and in early 2004 will release his first solo CD, Eight Pieces in Suspended Time, also on Sachimay. A duo recording with soprano Anita DeChellis titled Music for Dancer is planned for mid- to late 2004. Recent recordings include duets with San Francisco improviser/composer Ernesto Diaz-Infante.

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