On Ensemble : Masato Baba, Kristofer Bergstrom, Shoji Kameda and Kelvin Underwood » shoji

Stereo Alchemy debut album ‘God of Love’

shoji — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:30:19 +0000

Here at On Ensemble each of us has several musical projects we are involved with. Kris and Maz both perform with Taikoproject, Kelvin performs with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and I perform with Hiroshima and have always been into producing electronic music. Two years ago I formed an electronic music duo with longtime friend and two time Grammy winning composer Christopher Tin called Stereo Alchemy. I’m excited to announce our debut album God of Love will be released this Valentine’s Day and is on pre-sale now! We are calling our sound ‘decadent electronica’ a seductive mix of trip-hop, post punk and synth pop that will appeal to fans of Massive Attack, Portishead, The Postal Service, M83 and Nine Inch Nails.

God of Love is a concept album that sets Renaissance and Romantic era poetry to beat driven tracks and epic soundscapes. It features vocals by singers Melissa R. Kaplan (of Universal Hall Pass and Splashdown), Mozez (of Zero 7), and Lia Rose (of Built for the Sea). The album was mixed by three-time Grammy-winning engineer Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck, and Paul McCartney) and mastered by Tom Baker (Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson).

For a preview of the album and a free download of the title track ‘God of Love’ visit: www.stereoalchemy.com.

Next Up: TAIKO 2.0 at Texas A&M

shoji — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:32:56 +0000

Our next performance is our TAIKO 2.0 collaboration with taiko pioneer Kenny Endo! The Department of Performance Studies at Texas A&M is bringing us to college station for a concert performance and educational activities. It’s always great to share the stage with Kenny and the amazing musicians in his ensemble.

TAIKO 2.0
On Ensemble and the Kenny Endo Taiko Ensemble
Wednesday Feb 8th, 7:30pm
Rudder Theater
Texas A&M
General Admission $10 Students $5
For more information call (979) 845-1515

Back in Los Angeles

shoji — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:19:33 +0000

Whew! We made it back to Los Angeles in one piece. Happy to report that the trip up to Wyoming was quite a success! After our two performances in Pinedale we drove through a snow storm to get to Gillette. On Monday we performed two lecture demos at Paintbrush Elementary School then on Tuesday we played a morning show for local 7th graders followed by a concert that evening. We had a great turnout for the evening performance and many of the students that we performed for earlier came to the concert with their parents in tow. Huge thank you to the great staff at the Cam-plex Heritage Theater for brining us out to Wyoming. This marks the second year in a row we’ve had mid January tour out to the Northwest. Hopefully we’ll make it three in a row next year!

Wyoming tour update

shoji — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:52:19 +0000

We’ve been having a good Wyoming tour thus far. On Wednesday we left Los Angeles early to make it to Salt Lake City for a workshop. Then on Thursday we drove from Salt Lake City into Pinedale Wyoming. Luckily for us the weather was beautiful. On Friday we started the day with a educational performance for the students of Pinedale Middle School. Later that evening we had a great concert performance at the Pinedale Auditorium. A huge thank you goes out to Patrick, Tim, Lars and Dana for bringing us out to Pinedale and for all their work in making our performances a success.

During our time in Pinedale we ended up eating at the Wind River Brewery three times in two days and even made friends with some of the regulars (shout out to Kenny!). Yesterday we drove from Pinedale to Gillette through terrible weather. It was slow going but we arrived in one piece. Tomorrow we’ll be going out to a local elementary school for a couple of lecture demos. Today we finish our tech early and are settling down to watch the Niners!

Happy New Year! Up next : Wyoming

shoji — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:33:29 +0000

Happy New Year On Ensemble fans! 2012 is going to be great year and we’re starting off the year with performances in Pinedale and Gillette Wyoming. We’ll be in Pinedale on Friday Jan 20th for educational outreach programs and concert performance in the evening. Then we’re headed to Gillette for educational outreach programs on Monday the 23rd followed by a concert on the 24th. Check out our calendar section for more details.

Friday Jan 20th
7:00pm
Pinedale Auditorium
147 E. Hennick St.
Pinedale, WY 82941

Tuesday Jan 24th
7:00pm
Heritage Center Theater
Gillette, Wyoming

Happy Holidays!

shoji — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 07:08:53 +0000

Happy Holidays all! Still a lot on the On Ensemble to do list before the year ends. Our year long residency at the Japanese American Community and Cultural Center is also coming to an end so we’ll be moving to a new location soon. If you have any leads on a rehearsal space suitable for a small group with a bunch of equipment let us know!

We’ll also be starting a new recording project soon. Right now I’m trying to finish up two other recording projects including a Kenny Endo and Kaoru Watanbe duet album I’m producing and a ‘decadent’ electronica album with Grammy Award winning composer Christopher Tin. Once these two are finished we’ll be starting the new On Ensemble album. Hopefully we’ll get the album started before the year ends!

Next Up: On Ensemble at Carlsbad Dove Library

shoji — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 04:56:08 +0000

Our next performance is in Carlsbad for the Museum of Making Music on Saturday November 19th at 7:00pm. As a part of this performance we will also be doing educational outreach programs for some of the schools in the Carlsbad area. Come check out our performance if you are in the area!

Saturday, November 19, 2011, 7:00 PM
Schulman Auditorium @ Carlsbad Dove Library
Ticket Price: $15 – Purchase Tickets Online
Member Price: $10 – Purchase Tickets Online
More Information: 760-438-5996

Next up: Juried Showcase at Arts Northwest

shoji — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:46:14 +0000

We’re headed to Eugene, OR for a juried showcase at the 31st Annual Northwest Booking Conference. Our showcase will be on Monday Oct 17th from 9:13-9:25pm. More information available at the Arts Northwest website.

Videos of On Ensemble performing:
Gamelgong:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF5R2U47gOQ
Turns: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlAsqTM-IjE
Yamasong:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGMfP81c_UA
After Rain:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiqBIuM-1DI

Video of Educational Programs for the Sun Valley Center for the Arts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ey1n__n6L3U

Video of Educational Outreach programs in Los Angeles area:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xekmfn_on-ensemble-educational-programs-pr_creation

Next up: Kenny Endo and On Ensemble TAIKO 2.0 Concert

shoji — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 09:49:58 +0000

Our next performance is a TAIKO 2.0 concert with Kenny Endo at the San Luis Obispo performing arts center. It’s always fun and inspiring to play with Kenny and his contemporary ensemble which features Eien Hunter-Ishikawa on vibraphone, Kaoru Watanabe on flutes and Charlene Huang on violin. It should be a great performance. Come check it out if you are in the area:

Kenny Endo and On Ensemble TAIKO 2.0
Friday, October 14th 8:00pm
Christopher Cohan Center
1 Grand Avenue
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407

Next Up: InventiOn 2011

shoji — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 04:53:48 +0000

Our next performance is a very special performance: ‘InventiOn 2011′ where will be debuting three new pieces made possible by our creative residency at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center. Our time at the JACCC has been great and has allowed us to focus more of our creative energy toward the creation of new work. We’ll also be featuring a special guest artist Bharata Natyam dancer Anusha Kedhar. If you are in the SoCal area come check it out this Saturday October 8th at the Armstrong Theater in Torrance, CA.

Armstrong Theatre
3330 Civic Center Drive, Torrance
(310) 781-7171
www.torrancearts.org