Will Northlich-Redmond (Edmonton, AB), guitar, and Gene V. Baker (Saranac Lake, NY), organ & piano. Started in 1999 in NYC, ‘FUN’ is a “tongue-twisting, tail-wagging, chops-blistering, ear-busting dance of psychic freeways and toe-tapping doomsday’s”. Think fast-paced speed jazz carnival ambient sing-along!
Gene V. Baker is a trumpeter, Hammond organist, composer, arranger and educator. He holds a M.F.A. in Electronic Music and Recording Media from Mills College (Oakland CA), and a B.M. in Composition from The Hartt School. Gene has performed at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, The Barbican Theater (London, UK), Walker Arts Center (MN), Disney Hall (LA), Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Vision Festival in NYC, and The Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, among others. Gene has worked with Cecil Taylor, William Parker, Alvin Curran, Ingram Marshall, Fred Frith, Jason Kao Hwang, and Tyondai Braxton, among others. Recent original works include “8:33” (for 4 Hammond organs, wind ensemble, brass ensemble, electrified strings, percussion and text), and “i am a gorgeous wife”, an album of compositions performed by a 17-piece big band in which Gene is the lead vocalist and organist. Together with his wife, Esther, Gene is co-curator of The Bakery, an upstate NY concert series devoted to showcasing contemporary music from the 20th and 21st century. Gene is also the founder of experimental record label and publishing company, UTILITY-POLE 689.
Will Northlich-Redmond (aka BlipVert) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, electronic musician, and educator. He has played concerts and appeared at festivals with Eyvind Kang, Graham Haynes, Ruins, Blaise Siwula, Ron Anderson’s PAK, Fennesz, Funckarma, Ceephax Acid Crew, Alec Empire, Richard Devine, Hans-Joachim Roedelius, and Robert Dick. Performance and studio collaborations include work with Elliott Sharp, Phillip Johnston and his Captain Beefheart tribute project Fast N’ Bulbous, Marilyn Crispell, Pauline Oliveros, Paula Matthusen, the Wesleyan Laptop Ensemble, and Troika Ranch.
Will’s compositions have been featured at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, University of Alberta, New York University, Wesleyan University, the NYC Fringe Festival, and numerous international venues. His work has been supported by the NYU Vilar Global Fellows, the Portland Flute Society, the STEIM research center, the Wesleyan Laptop Ensemble (Toneburst), the Wesleyan University Balinese gamelan ensemble, and the NYU New Music Ensemble. He has master’s degrees in teaching, music composition, and ethnomusicology.
Will’s recent compositions include a solo violin work for Yue Deng, Artist in Residence at the University of Alberta, and his first piano sonata to be premiered by renowned Canadian pianist Roger Admiral in 2019. Will’s composes electronic music under the pseudonym BlipVert, which showcases his most eclectic and personal creative work. He plays guitar in Blarvuster, a bagpipe-led rock and free-improv quartet led by bay-area based composer Matthew Welch. Will is currently a doctoral candidate in composition at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and looks forward to blowing people’s heads open with all kinds of sound for a long time to come.