This article appeared in the February 12, 2003 Cambridge Chronicle.

BopAnts and Steve Lantner Group

Provide post-Valentine’s audio/visual antidote

By Susie Davidson

CORRESPONDENT

Improvised, nontraditional sounds far removed from melodica, along with a video entitled “Songs for Jilted Lovers,” may be just the thing for some on Feb. 15, and once again, the Zeitgeist steps up to fill the unusual need.

Multimedia ensemble the Bop Ants, with William Buchanan on drums, Katt Hernandez on F# violin, John Voigt on electric upright bass and Walter Wright on video, will combine their highly-honed and notable talents in a cacophonous foray into the subterranean, providing perhaps just the cathartic escape needed for jarred emotions.

“We’ll be playing a motley assortment of traditional and home-made instruments, including an electrified washing machine lid, table top guitar, and a wind instrument made from a vacuum cleaner,” said Hernandez. “The music evokes everything from stockhaussen to melted banana, Sun Ra to swamp blues.” Videographer Walter Wright, further, operates his video shredder like an instrument itself, incorporating rapidly changing visual collages into the musical mayhem.

William Buchanan, a self-taught and self-styled musician, composer, artist, and philosopher from North Dakota, with a software background, has played percussion in symphonic orchestras, concert wind bands, marching bands, jazz big bands and other types of ensembles throughout Russia, Spain and Greece.

A Zeitgeist Gallery organizer, Ann Arbor native Katt Hernandez graduated from an improvisation program at the University of Michigan. Since moving to Boston in 1997, she has played with a wide range of artists at various venues, and has performed at the Autumn Uprising, High Zero, Boston CyberArts and Ear Whacks festivals. “I’ve also played music of the Mevelevi Sufis with the Eurasia ensemble, and twentieth century chamber music on the Travelers' At The Music's Edge series,” she added.

Boston jazz scene pogo bass fixture and Berklee College of Music, Boston Arts Academy and Massachusetts College of Art instructor John Voigt has recorded for Aum Fidelity, Eremite, Box Holder, and RRRecords, on a video with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore. By invitation, he has performed at the Bell Atlantic, Sound Unity, Fire In The Valley, and Vision Festivals, as well as at New York’s Knitting Factory. Musicians he has performed with include Billy Bang, Borah Bergman, Peter Brotzmann, Roy Campbell, Denis Charles, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Stu Dempster, Bill Dixon, Paul Flaherty, Bill Frisell, Malcolm Goldstein, Milford Graves, Joseph Jarman, Keith Jarrett, Oliver Lake, Jeanne Lee, Joe McPhee, Jemeel Moondoc, Thurston Moore, Joe Morris, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Paul Motian, Bern Nix, and Zenna Parkins.

Walter Wright, who created his own video shredder, aims to transfix. “His mission is to create a new music of sound and image,” said Hernandez. Formerly an associate director at the Kitchen in New York and artist-in-residence at the Experimental Television Center in Binghamton, he was at one time an amateur architect before eventually becoming a computer programmer, video artist and teacher. A co-founder of 911 Gallery, the premier all-digital web art gallery, he has performed at galleries, museums, schools, festivals and media centers throughout the East Coast of the US and Canada.

The sentimentally soothing sound and vision mix will be complemented by Mitchel Ahern on "Lid" which, according to Hernandez, is “a vintage 30s wringer washing machine lid mounted on a cello-like body on which are velcro-mounted various electronic effects boxes, played with bow, mallets, fingertips, and an array of objects.” (had to ask.)

Lastly, contributor Marc Bisson, whose “prepared guitar” entourage includes kitchen utensils, glass bottles and alligator clips, is a protégé of Mission of Burma guitarist Roger Miller.

Following the Bop Ants will be the Steve Lantner Group, featuring Lantner, a 20-year local music veteran who holds a bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music and a master’s degree in piano from the New England Conservatory, along with bassist John Turner and Shirim and Naftule’s Dream drummer Eric Rosenthal on drums, in their first collaboration.

The Bop Ants and the Steve Lantner Group will appear this Friday evening from 9:30-midnight at the Zeitgeist Gallery, located at 1353 Cambridge St. in Inman Square. Suggested donation is $10; for information, visit www.zeitgeist-gallery.org or call 617-876-6060. Performers’ CDs are sold at the shows. For information on the Bop Ants, visit http://www.911gallery.org/BopAnts/index.htm.