Event Christian Marclay / djTRIO at Hammer Museum Armand Hammer Museum 10899 Wilshire Bl., Westwood Village Thursday, July 31, 2003 -- 7:30pm Free admission, $3 parking List of performers/composers: * Christian Marclay, leader/turntables/electronics * Tom Recchion, turntables/electronics * Toshio Kajiwara, turntables/electronics Summary:    Christian Marclay has an exhibit at the Hammer Museum running from June through August 2003. Because his visual work is so closely tied to his musical work, the museum is also presenting him in several music concerts in a variety of settings. The museum description of this concert reads: "Marclay has used his rotating trio of DJs known as djTRIO since 1997 to showcase the most creative talents of the improvising turntable scene, casting aside the notion of the DJ as soloist and instead emphasizing the collaborative group. Recchion is a leading member of the Los Angeles experimental music scene, and currently plays with his group Extended Organ alongside Paul McCarthy, Joe Potts, Fredrik Nilsen and Mike Kelley. Toshio Kajiwara is a well-known underground New York DJ."    This was a well-attended concert -- the house was packed to standing room and beyond, and tons of new-musicians were there to take in the event. These guys all had vinyl turntables and a variety of electronics to selectively grab and transform signals from them, along with other sound sources picked up directly with contact microphones, also using "scratch" technique on the vinyl itself.    The result was a constantly-evolving collage of sound snippets that may or may not retain their recognizability (more often not). A quintessential example of the abstract approach to improvisational remixing and looping. And, a real "happening" in purely social terms. One demerit: the sound system at Hammer, which is usually adequate for live music performances, was not as ideal for the task this evening, given the much wider frequency spectrum that is important for full expression of much electronic music. Still, there was enough for the audience to capture the innovation of the moment. -- Dan Krimm [New Music TBD] - Home