DESCRIPTION:
Ben Grossman is a busy musician: improviser, studio musician, composer, noisemaker and audio provocateur. He works in many fields, having played on over 80 CDs, soundtracks for film and television, sound design for theatre, installations, work designed for radio transmission, and live performances spanning early medieval music to experimental electronica. Ben's tools of choice are electronics, percussion, and, especially, the hurdy gurdy (vielle à roue), a contemporary electro-acoustic string instrument with roots in the European middle ages. He studied the instrument in Europe (with Valentin Clatrier, Matthias Loibner and Maxou Heintzen) and has also studied Turkish music in Istanbul. With an abiding interest in pushing the limits of his instruments and pushing the boundaries of whatever venue or medium in which he works, Ben's solo CD, Macrophone was released in 2007 and features a unique two disc form for simultaneous, aleatoric playback.

Recorded February 15, 2015 at The Boathouse in Kitchener, Ontario.

Thanks to partners The Boathouse, NUMUS, and Open Ears.

Audio Engineer Sue Cunha