Spin-17 is a duo experimental project which explores contrasts and connections between harmony and noise, electronics and acoustics, toddlers and tea-totallers, obscenity and poetry.  No genre is safe and the boundaries between art and doleful indulgence are blurred.

     Spin-17 mixes improvisation with experimental composition (with a good amount of caffeine blended in). The effect of diverse influences from Mauricio Kagel to Warner Brothers cartoon soundtracks to early Siouxie and the Banshees can be heard like a diamond in the eye.

     Spin-17 performs in NYC at the 226 Series/The Foundry, Tonic, ABC noRio, The Knitting Factory, CBGB's, The Brecht Forum, The Gathering of Tribes Gallery, Theater for the New City, Roulette Intermedium, The New Museum for Contemporary Art, and City College of New York.   They have performed at the Trenton Avant Garde Festival in NJ as well as the 1st & 2nd Annual "Fringe" Festivals in Philadelphia and the Chicago Asian American Jazz  Festival.  Past tours include a 9-city tour in Spring '98 of the Eastern US, an 8-city tour of the Northeastern US in Fall '98 and a 9-city tour of the West coast in 1999.

     In October of 2000 the "Spin-17 Small Ensemble" (with Rich Gross, Matthew Heyner, Michael Evans, and Samara Lubelski) performed the "Dracula Lugosi Suite", an imaginary soundtrack to Todd Browning's "Dracula" (and tribute to Bela Lugosi) at Roulette Intermedium in downtown NYC.  (A sound sample can be found on the Extras page.)

     Spin-17 has been working on a film version of their multimedia puppet show "The Chronicles of Momo" and is hoping to premiere that someday in NYC if it is ever completed.  Recently Spin-17 has been performing and recording with avant-guitarist Jeffrey Shurdut and an all-star revolving roster of saxophone legends including Joe McPhee, Daniel Carter, Marshall Allen, Sonny Simmons and Luthor Thomas.

    In 2005, Spin-17 started producing a monthly concert series at 226 East 2nd St #5D, the "226 Series/The Foundry".  Each month in an intimate setting sound artists presents new works designed for small spaces and concentrated listening. 

     SPIN-17's debut CD release (available from Quodlibet Recordings) features their take on John Cage's "Aria" (with a newly-generated "Plunderphonic" mix), fake "Drum & Bass" needle scratching, minimalist toys manipulation, a "guitar explosion" with an homage to Stockhausen's "Hymnen" embedded within, and an original J-Pop single, "Flying". 
 

NEW! - Check here for video of a recent  concert  (more of a "rock" thing than usual, but still falling over a cliff)

Motoko Shimizu has performed concerts in both her native Japan and the U.S., including 3 U.S. tours with Spin-17 and performances with various downtown New York improvisors, including Sabir Mateen, Daniel Carter, Donald Miller, Ed Chang, Matthew Heyner, Samara Lubelski, Blaise Siwula, Jeffrey H Shurdut, the Gold Sparkle Band, Matthew Sullivan, Toshi Makihara and Michael Evans as well as Marshall Allen (Sun Ra Arkestra) and the late European bassist Peter Kowald.   Her classically trained voice and broad knowledge of traditional and contemporary classical, jazz, and rock composition has contributed to Spin-17, which mixes improvisation with experimental composition.  Her unique storytelling techniques have added additional dynamics and structural textures to Spin-17's abstract approaches.    Motoko  Shimizu  graduated from City College in NYC with a degree in music and voice in 1999 and has been studying with Sheila Schonbrun since 1997.  In 1998 she sang at NY's Lincoln  Center for Bang on a Can's New York premiere of Brian Eno's "Music for Airports".  She has performed with Sabir Mateen's "Drums and Voices" choral jazz orchestra and with Ed Chang at his Roulette Intermedium premiere of "Dracula Lugosi."  An ongoing project is the "Chronicles of Momo" puppet series which features Motoko Shimizu's voice as well as her own original compositions.  In 2001,she was invited to the Music/OMI International Music Colony and composed & performed “Little Blue and Little Yellow”, a musical text piece for reader, toys and chamber orchestra, based on the children’s book of the same title. This piece received its New York premiere at The Brecht Forum.   Since 2003, Motoko Shimizu has been performing solo improvised shows featuring voice, toys, percussion, guitar and casiotone, as well as eclectic song collections.  On June 12th, 2005, she performed her new solo show at 226 East 2nd St. (226 Series@The Foundry), all improvised, featuring voice, toys AND percussion (released on CD as "Attack of the 5-Foot Woman" on Sachimay Interventions).  Her most recent projects include a turntable duo with Maria Chavez, a trio with saxophonist Heather Vergotis and the dancer Elizabeth Ward, and the trio "Lust Ionics" with guitarist Ed Chang and drummer Adam Kriney.

Ed Chang  has a bio and page here.

Checkout our CD Samples and The Backroom sections for sample tracks!
Or buy this CD at the Catalog page below.

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