Mark Mahoney Live Performance @ City Skies Festival

MarkM · May 28, 2009, 10:02:23 AM

http://www.cityskies.com/mp3s/May09/MarkMahoney090509mix.mp3

This is my unedited live performance 5/9/09 at the City Skies festival in Atlanta, GA. I hope you all enjoy the music. The last 10 minutes of this performance features Tony Gerber on Native American Flute and Bill Fox on electric guitar.

Photo by Jim Combs

Hypnagogue · May 29, 2009, 11:15:42 AM

That's a nice ride, Mark. Thank you for sharing it.

MarkM · May 30, 2009, 06:51:09 AM

Thanks Hypnagogue. That is a really great festival that Jim (Sensitive Chaos) Combs puts on. Beautifully organized and everything runs like clockwork.

cromag · May 30, 2009, 10:26:47 AM

Thanks, MarkM -- I'm listening now. It sounds great!

MarkM · June 01, 2009, 06:33:09 AM

Appreciate you listening Cromag.

Paul Vnuk (Ma Ja Le) · June 01, 2009, 01:13:34 PM

This was/is a great set Mark!

MarkM · June 02, 2009, 06:10:36 AM

Thank you Paul. It was great seeing you again in Atlanta.

Scott M2 · June 13, 2009, 04:26:48 PM

Hi Mark - I've been enjoying listening to your concert while writing a long response in a different thread. Thanks!

MarkM · June 14, 2009, 08:39:03 PM

Thanks, Scott. I listened to your links that you posted. Very, very nice. I agree with Modulator. I would love to play the Ping someday.

Hypnagogue · June 23, 2009, 01:52:48 PM

How do we get some of you lads to bring that stuff up north to New England? ::)

Scott M2 · June 24, 2009, 08:39:06 PM

Quote from: MarkM on June 14, 2009, 08:39:03 PM
Thanks, Scott. I listened to your links that you posted. Very, very nice. I agree with Modulator. I would love to play the Ping someday.

Hi Mark - We'd love to have you at the PiNG someday. Since we're monthly now, contacting us at bookings@theambientping.com
(or me at scott@dreamstate.to) as many months as you can in advance of your your window of opportunity will help ensure we
can fit you in. You can check this page to see what's already booked up. http://www.theambientping.com/eventsall.html#FUTURE
Unfortunately we can't provide border support with the paperwork and fees - but most US artists seem to manage to flow through. ;)

MarkM · June 25, 2009, 12:27:49 PM

Quote from: Hypnagogue on June 23, 2009, 01:52:48 PM
How do we get some of you lads to bring that stuff up north to New England? ::)

Cohasset, Mass is my home town, but it is 19 hours from where I live in Tenn. That's a long, long drive. I would love to play in New England some day. If there was some big event, I might consider it.

The Ping would be another great venue to play, but that is also a long, long drive. But who knows?

Hypnagogue · June 30, 2009, 07:36:43 AM

Mark, I'm from (and moved back to last year) Whitman. So you were just down 228 a ways!

I've always been amazed that there isn't more of a call for or venues for this stuff in, say, Cambridge...

MarkM · July 01, 2009, 07:46:23 PM

You would think Cambridge people would be into this genre of music. I just communicated with Howard Moscovitz of electro-music.com, and I asked him how the Baltimore Electronic Music Festival went last weekend (he and Bill Fox were performing there as Xeroid Entity.) Howard reported that there was just a handful of people there. You would think in the Baltimore-DC-Philly area, there would be some sort of support. Peck and I have had better turnouts in our little corner of the world for our local shows. It takes some very aggressive promotion to get people to come out and experience music that they know very little about.

This is such a fragile genre of music, and I think the best way to promote it is to perform live. I have noticed that most people really enjoy ambient/space music when exposed to it.

After a show I have often heard this from people; "Yeah, that's like the music they play on 'Hearts of Space.' I love that show." There's no doubt that the support of radio shows like HOS and Stars End help keep this music alive.

I think the internet helps keep the fire burning with sites like Hypnos and internet radio like stillstream.com. Review sites like http://hypnagogue.netfirms.com/, http://www.soniccuriosity.com, http://electroambientspace.com, and Binkleman's Wind and Wire are also instrumental in keeping ambient music alive, and they help spotlight new talent. There's a lot of fresh blood out there, but it's hard to get people to change their listening habits. That's why I think live performance along with web presence is the best way to promote this genre.

Boris Lelong · July 02, 2009, 03:28:22 PM

Thanks Mark for posting this live performance, I am listening to it while writing this.

The Native American flute is a nice contribution. It reminds me of a cineconcert I performed with two other musicians, which also featured a beautiful Native flute :
http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x2u1d8_dans-la-grande-nuit-into-the-deep-n_music&related=0

QuoteI have noticed that most people really enjoy ambient/space music when exposed to it.

That's a very interesting statement. I agree that many listeners who would not "understand" a recording of ambient music may appreciate it once they experience it in a live settings - especially if the performance is enhanced by lightings or image projection... The video I posted just above is an example of that : the music was performed while the audience was watching the film, and they really enjoyed it, though most of them were over 70 years old and had never been exposed to electronic music or anything approaching in their life (their music culture is more about Edith piaf or Nat King Cole...)

On the other hand, myself being a long-time ambient music listener and composer, I wonder if I would enjoy a concert of ambient music as much as listening to the same music at home...

Anyway, I live in France, and we don't have any venue around dedicated to this genre, such as what Scott and his team are doing in Toronto... On the other hand, I have opportunities to perform for various "unprepared" audiences, which is very very interesting...

Boris

MarkM · July 08, 2009, 10:52:08 PM

When I first started performing ambient music, it was with M. Peck and another fellow. There were no venues for ambient music. We were the only ambient act around. However, we were able to find a lot of places to perform. It was surprising, because this is not a very urban area. Unfortunately many venues just weren't satisfying to play at. Art galleries and wine tastings were horrible. We did a technology convention luncheon once, that was not enjoyable. However, we found several other venues that made our efforts worthwhile: a planetarium, a coptic conference, a Unitarian Church concert. Peck and I put two shows together that drew a decent crowd for this area. We had 90 at one show and over 60 at another. If we could find places here, then I think with some imagination, an ambient musician can find venues anywhere. Now we are a little more selective where we play. We have been very fortunate to play at some tremendous venues in the last few years.