In keeping with the 2013 visual arts exhibition Quiet Earth‘s ongoing examination of humanity and its place amid the changing volumes of planet Earth, Ballroom Marfa presented C. Spencer Yeh’s improvisations on violin, voice, and electronics. Yeh joined by Messages, the duo Taketo Shimada & Tres Warren, for a performance on November 21, 2013.

Spencer Yeh was born in Taipei, Taiwan and now lives in Brooklyn. Yeh’s work emerges initially from an improvisational practice, having developed a distinct musical vocabulary with violin, voice, and electronics. As a composer Yeh expands his approach, often employing video and other mediums to integrate visual and aural experience while investigating the role of the gesture. Yeh has performed and presented work in a variety of venues internationally, including the New Museum, New York; the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati; Issue Project Room, Brooklyn; Roulette, Brooklyn; ICA, Philadelphia; ICA, London; White Flag Projects, St. Louis; Performa; Lampo; Sónar; Frieze Music; and All Tomorrow’s Parties. He has collaborated with a variety of artists such as Nate Wooley, Okkyung Lee, Tony Conrad, and New Humans with Vito Acconci. Yeh is also a trailer editor and programmer at Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn.

Messages is the New York duo of Taketo Shimada & Tres Warren. Mirage is the third full-length release by Messages, recorded in 2008 before their first two albums and has remained unreleased until now. This record documents the duo’s earliest long-form drone explorations and intonations, most of which were recorded during long sessions in Tres’ basement bunker in the East Village. Mixing orbits of homemade acoustic instruments, electric drones & percussion, Mirage is a humid transmission sent straight from the womb.

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