Sander Roscoe Wolff

Sheesh! I try to play my electric guitar when I’ve got the house to myself, but our dog Django sometimes feels moved to protest my lack of instrumental prowess:

Photo by Lauren! (Great Job, Lauren!!!)

Here’s a shot of our dog, Kapu, looking out over the wilds of Flat Top Mountain near Julian.

Here are two shots taken at The Photon Ballet:

Here are two shots of people enjoying my piece, Transduction:

There were many amazing performances and, within those, many amazing moments. I took lots of photographs but these two really knocked me out:

I’ve loved photography since I was a wee sprout and, despite the inconvenience, find myself dragging my camera just about everywhere. My recent trip to Washington, on the occation of my father’s 80th birthday, was no exception. Here are a few shots I took while there.

Seattle has some rather steep hills.

Although I take skyline shots, I’m not often enamoured of them. This one, however, appeals to me for some reason.

Washington State is known for its natural beauty, and bountiful wildlife. It is surprising, though, to discover some in the heart of the City.

I’ve always loved trees, but this winter began photographing leafless ones.

And another.

by Sander R Wolff
The Long Beach Union
(This interview was published sometime in the early 1990’s)

Next Saturday, March 28, McCabe’s (3101 Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica) will be presenting Peter Blegvad and Peter Holsapple. I spoke with Blegvad by phone as he was wrapping up concert dates on the East Coast. Holsapple is recently departed from the pop band REM and previously of the db’s.

“He’s a multi-instrumentalist of rare talent,” Blegvad said. “He’ll be playing guitar, mandolin, piano and also accordion. He’s just a fantastic accompanist, not to mention he’s also a song writer of the highest caliber himself. We’re doing some of his songs too.”

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Published in the Union Newspaper on 9-11-92

by Sander R. Wolff

They are rebels with a cause. Their mission is to commission challenging new works from innovative composers and bring them to the world. Since 1973, when the Kronos Quartet began, the have been redefining the cutting edge and eliminating the restrictions placed on the traditional string quartet. They’ve worked with the big three modern classical minimalists: Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Philip Glass, but they are always on the prowl for exciting new works by relative unknowns as well.

“As a matter of fact,” said David Harrington, 1st violinist and spokesman for the group, “we’re opening out concert with just such a piece and its called ‘Yiddishbbuk’ by a composer I’d never heard of until August. His name is Osvaldo Golijov. Its a stunning work.”

Golijov was a Fellow in composition at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1990. Earlier this year, while Kronos was performing at Tanglewood, Harrington came upon some written material by Golijov.

“It struck me that here was someone that, the way he spoke about his own work and music, attracted me immediately,” said Harrington. “I got his address and he sent me some tapes and immediately this piece just leapt out.”

The Kronos Quartet changed the entire program for their European tour so that they could include the piece.

“We try to be ready for an unexpected discovery at any point, and I know we tend to drive people who print programs slightly crazy because we’re always changing them up to the last moment but, in this case, I think it was worth any ink that may have been spent.”

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by Sander R Wolff
The Long Beach Union
Published 9/8/92

Steve Hackett has a new band and, in addition to performing old favorites from his numerous solo releases, will be premiering new material. He’s at ease playing progressive rock, pop, classical solo acoustic, Japanese koto and the blues. He balks at classifying his music, although he says that ‘Guitar Noir’ may come closest to describing what he does. His newest album, Time Lapse, was recorded live and features many of his best pieces from the last 17 years.

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by Sander R Wolff
Published in the The Union sometime in the late 1980’s

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic stretches the boundaries of live performance. They work as a quartet, and almost all of the music they play is scored, but there’s this thing, this edge, this dangerous line they walk between classical structure and an auto accident.

Most of their pieces go through changes. Bits are calm, beautiful even, with their standard set-up of guitar, piano, keyboard and sax, but it never lasts for long. They switch back and forth, each playing drums, saxophonist Ken Field going between synthesizer and flute.

“So the fact that any one piece sounds like it has a lot of different styles in it is strictly due to the multiple personalities that the particular composer has,” Field said.

The second cut off their current Cuneiform C.D., Faultline, is “They Walk Among Us.” It has drumming that sounds a lot like “When the Levee Breaks,” and when asked, guitarist Martin Swope fessed up.

“Actually, all the things that Eric plays [on the piece] are sampled from the Beastie Boys, which are samples they stole from other people. The idea was if it was laundered through the Beastie Boys, it would be ok to do,” said Swope.

“Maybe I Will,” Rick Scott’s only composition on the record, jumped out at me when I first heard it. It’s complex, with a lot of interplay between the instruments. But again, there was this thing… just 4 notes in the whole piece.

“I work in the structure,” said Scott, “and also attempt to figure out how many melodic permutations that I can come up with to maintain peoples’ interest. I try to suggest some harmonic movement, even though it’s a little more dicey. I mean really, when you think about it, you’re dealing with a limited number of notes anyway, with 8 notes or 12 notes maybe. Probably not 12, maybe 11, so changing that to four is really just a matter of degree.”

Despite the debate on the number of notes, these guys really know what they’re doing. They’ve existed as a group for almost 10 years, and have been touring extensively on the East Coast. This tour is their first to the West Coast (having discovered that they could fly their equipment for free) and, after tomorrow’s concert at Bogart’s and Wednesday’s show at Club Lingerie in Hollywood, they’re gone.

So if you like challenging music, you’ll love these guys. This Great Religion will open the show, so get there early. And you know that you’ll see me there!

Hear A Brief Audio Clip From The Interview

Birdsongs’ Own Page