Refuge Trio is set to perform on Tuesday at Beall Concert Hall. The ensemble was formed in 2002, when it played at Symphony Space in New York. Over the years, Refuge Trio has been experimenting with different styles of music. To give you more information about the band, Liner Notes did a quick interview with Refuge Trio.
Liner Notes (LN): What are you planning to bring to the performance at the University of Oregon?
Theo Bleckman (TB): Old and new music performed in new ways.
John Hollenbeck (JH): Toys… Lots of toys.
LN: Can you tell us about the journey of Refuge Trio? How did you start as a band?
Gary Versace (GV): With instruments and microphones, then we plugged in. BAM.
TB: This trio was formed to play at the 2002 Wall-to-Wall Joni Mitchell Marathon Concert at Symphony Space in NYC. Since then, we have continued to explore music from all genres following a unique collaborative path. The repertoire includes our own originals as well as compositions by Joni Mitchell, Theolonius Monk, Dmitri Schostakovitsch, Sidsel Endresen and Allan Holdsworth among others.
LN: What are you biggest influences in music that shape your style today?
GV: Spandex.
TB: Pretty much everything influences me, either in a good way that makes me want to learn about it and have more of it in my life, or in a way that defines what I want to avoid.
JH: Yesterday I heard a great album from a band from Berlin called Schneeweiss and Rotenrot. The album is called Pool—check it out! Usually, I’m behind the current trends. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to Deerhoof and just to show how unhip I am, this is my first time listening to them. I get into everything about 5-10 years after everyone else. Next for me is probably The Dirty Projectors since I’ve been hearing about them for about 5 years. My eternal favorites are: Peter Garland, Brian Eno, and György Ligeti.
LN: Do you have any upcoming projects that you’d like to share with the readers?
GV: A large toothpick replica of St. Patrick’s cathedral that I’ve been working on for months. It’s pretty sweet.
TB: I am working on a new band with harpist Zeena Parkins (Björk) performing some of my new songs and some baroque music.
JH: That reminds me that what I should be doing right now is finishing music for the upcoming Claudia Quintet record, called September. That is coming out in, you guessed it—September! Also revising from new music for this great new music ensemble from Paris, France—Ensemble Cairn, that I will play with in a few weeks. Yikes, I got to get back to work.
The concert starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 14, 2013. Tickets are $10 for general admission and $8 for students and seniors.
