ZS - CORPS/XE - TRANS-PECOS - NYC - JULY 2014

ZULU P (RNYC) - IN MY LIFE - AD HOC FM - NYC - JUNE 2014

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - PSYCHO TROPICAL CANCER DUTTY ARTZ MIXTAPE - FADER - NYC - APRIL 2014

TROUBLE - APPARITION - INVISIBLE DOG GALLERY - NYC - FEBRUARY 2014

DIAMOND TERRIFIER/CO LA - THE SUBTLE BODY WEARS A SHADOW (STAINLESS REMIX) WIRE MAGAZINE - UK - JANUARY 2014

ZS - SCORE REMIXED - ADHOC FM - NYC - DECEMBER 2013

ADHOC INTERVIEW

(click above link to article)

AH: When you say greater awareness, who are you looking to make aware?

SH: I didn’t address the piece of your question about the social mission of the work and whatnot. I mean, in my own music process, and in the work that I do to support other people’s work, I am not a stickler about where awareness and attention come from. From my point of view, if you’re making music-- especially music that has within it some type of progressive social agenda or philosophical or aesthetic thing where you’re challenging the public’s perception of something-- as far as I’m concerned, the more audiences hear it, the more you’re doing your job. It’s about being in front of anybody who's down. It’s not about who [you are in front of] specifically...

REPRESENTING NYC - INTERVIEW - ADHOC FM - NYC - DECEMBER 2013

ZULU P (RNYC) - SIPPIN' ON THE JUICE - VICE/NOISEY - NYC - NOVEMBER 2013

AUDIENCE CULTIVATION IN AMERICAN NEW MUSIC: ARTICLE

(click above link to article)

Historically, new music has sought to confront general audiences with unexpected sounds and forms. The present, however, sees the milieu of new music splintered into factions, each with its own loyal but marginal audience. One is more likely to find these groups at odds with one another than in dialogue, and many groups congratulate themselves for being the most marginal or esoteric. These divisions within the new music community foreclose on its original mission of confronting traditional audiences, as the factionalized groups that most new music now attracts already support and expect the work in question. All of these groups believe that they have meaningful formulas for creating provocative work, but what good is that work if no one outside the communities where it is generated has access to it? In order for new music to remain a meaningful category of cultural production, it requires successful strategies for cultivating newer and bigger audiences.

SAM HILLMER - AUDIENCE CULTIVATION IN NEW MUSIC - NEW MUSIC BOX - NYC - NOVEMBER 2013

ZS - GRAIN (SIDE A) - FACT MAGAZINE - UK - MAY 2013

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - TRIPPLE GEM (VIDEO BY ROBERT GREENWOOD) - BROOKLYN VEGAN - NYC - MAY 2013

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - THE SUBTLE BODY WEARS A SHADOW - TERRIBLE RECORDS - NYC - MAY 2013

ZS - GRAIN (SIDE B - VIDEO BY GREG FOX) - NPR - NYC - MARCH 2013

ZS - CORPS - MUSEUM OF HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT / SXSW - AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 2013

ZS - SCORE REMIXED - FADER - NYC - MARCH 2013

ZS INTERVIEW

(click above link to article)

Is it possible for Zs to exist without you in the group? Can you imagine a future world where the work requires you to disappear?
I've actually been thinking, in a super long term kinda way, about scenarios where this could happen. I think it would be interesting for there to be an autonomous Zs ensemble that performs the works of Zs from the sextet era, and maybe create new work for that ensemble. I'd like it if there were other configurations that could function in that way as well, and I wouldn't feel like I'd need to be in those groups, maybe just in dialogue with them.

I am always trying to think of ways to "go away," in a sense. As artists, we are brought up to think of the creative act as something that's inherently generative, but I try to resist that impulse. There is a phrase from Buddhist teaching that I like, which is "the situation is the wisdom." This manifests in my practice in a band as a process of creating space for things to happen, rather than making things to fill up space. So there is a kind of intentional absenting of one's self more and more, leaving just the purest articulation of the idea behind, maybe in a way that involves other people doing things more than it does you doing things. Whether it is possible to take that principal so far that you actually disappear from the situation all together, well, I'm not sure, but if it is, that's something I'd like to explore...

ZS - INTERVIEW - VILLAGE VOICE - NYC - FEBRUARY 2013

ZS - CORPS - K.D. JAPON NUSRUMAI - NAGOYA, JAPAN - JANUARY 2013

(click above for more images)

ZS - SCORE: A LIVE REMIX INSTALLATION - VACANT GALLERY - TOKYO, JAPAN - JANUARY 2013

(click above for more images)

TROUBLE - YOU ARE HERE FESTIVAL - WEST GERMANY - BERLIN, DE - SEPTEMBER 2013

ZS - SCORE - THE COMPLETE SEXTET WORKS: 2002 - 2007 - NORTHERN SPY RECORDS - NYC - SEPTEMBER 2012

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - KILL THE SELF THAT WANTS TO KILL YOURSELF - NORTHERN SPY/TERROREYES TV (VIDEO BY LAWRENCE MESICH) - NYC - AUGUST 2012

CONVERSATION WITH PATRICK HIGGINGS

(click above link to article)

S - There's a deep connection... between the mechanics of realizing a score, and the mechanics of doing a live set off a backing track, in the sense of (there being) an original performance versus the constant possibility of variation... in Bach (this) exists because each new performance is a variation on a stated intention, but that intention isn't stated musically, it's stated semantically. The parallel between that and MC/DJ culture is a sense of an original performance, but the original performances function is an invitation to new creative work vis-a-vis remix. And I like that because I like thinking about sheet music as technology. That idea is lost. The idea that when you're working off of sheet music or working with an instrument, you're working with technology. That's so fundamental to the purist attitude which is like 'we're doing this song on period instruments and we're keeping it how's it supposed to be' but at the time, that was just some new fly shit to get (when it was first happening). Or even with a new tuning system, it's all technology.

P- At another level, Bach was a technician. He was literally an organ technician. he invented and modified instruments to handle his music. There's a fundamental connection between the style of writing and the apparatus...

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - CONVERSATION WITH PATRICK HIGGINS - FREE MUSIC ARCHIVES - JULY 2012

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - ONE POINT - CLOCKTOWER GALLERY - NYC - JULY 2012

TROUBLE INTERVIEW W/ LAURA PARIS AND PATRICK HIGGINS

(click above link to article)

So would you say that’s the BIG surprise for the event?

S: The whole thing is surprise from start to finish.

L: Especially for us.

S: I can’t stress enough: nobody is on the outside of this. Like, if you go to a summer concert or festival, there’s tech guys, engineers, musicians, managers, security, etc…

P: …as well as audience members, and ticket costs and seating, etc. You Are Here flattens all those relations. Everybody is simultaneously part of the same experience. Bugging out in a maze with great music and wild art.

S: Even the people doing tech work or art, music, engineering — the maze is not set up to help them. It’s everyone contesting to do their part in the maze for the maze.

L: To bring it back, the first maze was just for randoms within the arts community on 42nd St. And revolving around the idea of the audience witnessing this. But the second maze happened in Williamsburg, and bands came into play, so that is when we figured out this was something more than just us making a maze, but everyone experiencing the maze itself. And noticing the reaction of the audience helped us make things both more functional and community based.

S: And there was a lot more expectation, especially at Death by Audio, where people are usually coming in looking for straight music. So, people on 42nd were going in from the street to experience a [thing], but Death by Audio people were going in to see a show. Thus, in both experiences, the presence of the maze is what drove both audiences. And you’d expect 42nd St. to be more chaotic, but Death by Audio is where the audience got way more pissed. And the bigger the act, the more pissed people got...

TROUBLE - INTERVIEW - TINY MIXTAPES - NYC - JULY 2012

TOUBLE - YOU ARE HERE FESTIVAL - SECRET PROJECT ROBOT GALLERY - BROOKLYN, NY, JULY 2012

TROUBLE - YOU ARE HERE FESTIVAL MAZE DESIGN - SECRET PROJECT ROBOT GALLERY - BROOKLYN, NY, JULY 2012

(click above for more images)

TROUBLE - YOU ARE HERE FESTIVAL - SECRET PROJECT ROBOT GALLERY - BROOKLYN, NY, JULY 2012

DIAMOND TERRIFIER INTERVIEW

(click above link to article)

I venture to guess you do listen to jazz, though.

All the time, it's awesome. What a deep tradition of music making in America. It's just mind bogglingly deep. That said, there's a thing I realized a long time ago, when I was working more in jazz, which I did a lot of actually. I came up playing straight ahead jazz and I learned to do it fairly well. I was around a lot of people who were doing that, and a lot of my friends from that time went on to be quite successful, good jazz musicians who are really nailing it. But what I realized was that it has crystallized as a medium to the extent that when you push certain parameters beyond certain thresholds, the music sort of automatically becomes not jazz. Millions of people would disagree with me, but, if you do away with swing, do away with changes, and you do away with the quality of there being a head and some sort of variation on that, and at the same time the music you're making is not free, then, I mean, what makes it jazz? [Laughing]. Other than some sort of base association with the saxophone, it's like "Oh, saxophone sort of borrows from the sound world of Coltrane or whatever... therefore it's jazz." That seems really simplistic. I just had this feeling like all of these variables that I was interested in manipulating and pushing as far as I could, were just going to push me to the outskirts of the jazz community, while on the noise scene, messing around with those same variables is fine—nobody thinks twice about it. But on the jazz scene, then you become this thing that's like on the scene and in that community but sort of not that thing at the same time, and that just seems like a real painstaking existence to me. I'd rather be somewhere where it's just okay to do what I'm doing...

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - INTERVIEW - VILLAGE VOICE - NYC - MARCH 2012

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - SHRINE FLU - WORDS+DREAMS - NYC - MARCH 2012

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - SHRINE FLU: UUMANS FLU RIDDIM REMIX - WORDS+DREAMS - NYC - MARCH 2012

SAM HILLMER'S BROOKLYN: ARTICLE

(click above link to article)

Sam Hillmer - Wednesday - 10/05/11 - Bushwick - Brooklyn (Manhattan)

I wake up between 5 and 6. I am a Buddhist and a father, which means early mornings. Sometimes I walk down stairs and fall asleep on the couch. I try to start the water boiling before I lie down on the couch, so the kettle will start to whistle, forcing me up to turn it off, to prevent the pitch of the kettle from disturbing our tenant. When the water is done boiling, I individually brew a large cup of coffee. I use Cafe Bustello, an Espresso grind not meant to be drip brewed, which leaves coffee residue in the bottom of the cup, and for some reason I enjoy that. My wife bought me a subscription to the New York Times for father's day, so I walk outside in my bathrobe and pick it up from in front of the Brownstone. This feels suburban, and is kind of funny.

On this particular morning I have limited time to practice meditation. I begin with nine full prostrations: hands placed in anjali pressed to the forehead, face, and chest, combined with kneeling and touching the forehead to the floor. Three are done to the words 'I take refuge in the Buddha', three are done to the words 'I take refuge in the Dharma' and three are done to the words 'I take refuge in the Sangha. After prostrations I sit in full lotus. I ring the bell and open with concentration practice. In concentration practice I split my attention between my breath, my peripheral awareness, noticing thinking, and the idol of Avalokiteshvara that sits in my shrine. I close with the daily reminder:

'Let me respectfully remind you, life and death are of extreme importance, time passes quickly and opportunity is lost, you must strive to awaken, AWAKEN, do not squander your life!'

I establish the intention to notice fixation, ring the bell again, and my daughter Violet jumps on my back.

SAM HILLMER - SAM HILLMER'S BROOKLYN - SOUDN AND MUSIC - LONDON, UK - FEBRUARY 2012

ZS - 33 - NORTHERN SPY - NYC - NOVEMBER - 2011

ZS - THIS BODY WILL BE A CORPSE PLAYBUTTON - PARTE - SEPTEMBER 2011

ZS INTERVIEW

(click above link to article)

You’ve said before that you’d rather your music be hated than remain trapped in the experimental music ghetto. Can you talk about this?

That has more to do with the inner workings of the experimental music community and less to do with the public. What I don’t like about that community is that they self-ghettoize. With them, there’s a strange value placed on obscurity; if you’re obscure, then you’re good, because if you weren’t good, people would like your music. It’s a weird inverse logic that says “If we play The Stone on Tuesday and a few ‘cool,’ experimental music people are there, then obviously we’re doing something right.” I completely disagree with this. That’s not what ZS wants to cultivate. It’s not about being obscure or arcane. For us, it’s all about sharing what we’re doing with as many people as possible.

ZS - INTERVIEW - TINY MIXTAPES - NYC - SEPTEMBER 2011

ZS - RARE DUO IMPROV SET - PARTE - NYC - SEPTEMBER 2011

DIAMOND TERRIFIER - HIMALAYAN APPALACHIA - SOCKETS RECORDS - WASHINGTON DC - SEPTEMBER 2011

ZS - SKY BURIAL - WORDS+DREAMS - NYC - AUGUST 2011

ZS - LAST RECORDED PERFORMANCE OF NEW SLAVE ERA LINE UP - PUBLIC ASSEMBLY - NYC - AUGUST 2011

ZS - BLACK CROWN CEREMONY/CONCERT BLACK/NEW SLAVES - ŽILINA ZARIECIE, SLOVAKIA - APRIL 2011

ZS - INTERVIEW - ŽILINA ZARIECIE, SLOVAKIA - APRIL 2011

ZS - ESSENCE IMPLOSION - SOCIAL REGISTRY - NYC - JANUARY 2011

NINE 11 THESAURUS (RNYC) - FADER/SOCIAL REGISTRY - NYC - APRIL 2011

NINE 11 THESAURUS (RNYC) - ALL CITY (VIDEO BY CHARLIE AHEARN) - BAM CINEMAFEST - NYC - DECEMBER 2010

REPRESENTING NYC/NINE 11 THESAURUS INTERVIEW/ARTICLE

(click above link to article)

In the main auditorium, its walls plastered with hand-painted Obama portraits, the hip-hop cipher is particularly crowded. One girl gushes as Sam enters, busting out her latest rhyme for his approval. In another corner, two younger boys announce that they're changing their name from "BJ" to "B'n'J," much to their supervisors' relief. (So as not to be mistaken "for the corner deli," the kids explain.) Their style mirrors the current iteration of hip-hop and r&b—half-rapped, half-crooned—with hopes of soon performing live with Nine 11 Thesaurus, the six-strong crew of former students now scattered throughout the space, working with the kids as assistant teachers.

Today, Nine 11 members Shasty, P.Dot, God's Sun, RiDDic.C, and Hollywood (sixth member Tai' Chi was incarcerated at the time) are here. Ranging in age from 19 to 22, folks in this group exchange with Hillmer a more complicated handshake. Among themselves, the group have an even more byzantine greeting, denoting long friendships begun when they'd rap for one another on stoops and in the foyers of their buildings as Nine-11 G.Z.G., which stood for "Ground Zero Generals," as God's Sun explains. "That day opened our eyes to what is really going on in this corrupt nation, and 'Thesaurus' came as a way of explaining something's meaning in different ways. Which is what we do in hip-hop." In the past year, they've shared stages with the likes of underground rapper Mr. Lif and the Rocksteady Crew, carried a recent documentary shot by Wild Style director Charlie Ahearn, and appeared in venues as disparate as the New Museum and Death by Audio.

REPRESENTING NYC/NINE 11 THESAURUS - INTERVIEW/ARTICLE - VILLAGE VOICE - SEPTEMBER 2010

ZS - NEW SLAVES SET - WHITE CHAPEL GALLERY - LONDON, UK - JULY 2010

ZS - NEW SLAVES - SOCIAL REGISTRY - NYC - MAY 2010

ZS - ACRES OF SKING - SXSW/TERROREYES TV - AUSTIN, TX - MARCH 2010

(click above for more images)

TROUBLE - YOU ARE HERE FESTIVAL - DEATH BY AUDIO - NYC - OCTOBER 2009

ZS - NEW SLAVES - STUDIO AT WEBSTER HALL - NYC - JULY 2009

ZS - MMW I PT. II - EXCEPT WHEN YOU DON'T BECAUSE SOMETIMES YOU WON'T - SOCIAL REGISTRY/ISSUE PROJECT ROOM - NYC - JUNE 2009

THE FLY GIRLZ/NINE 11 THESAURUS (RNYC) - BORN 2 BE FLY (FADER DOCUMENTARY BY HANLY BANKS) - FADER - NYC - JUNE 2009

THE FLY GIRLZ (RNYC) - INTERVIEW - WNYC - NYC - MAY 2009

SAM HILLMER/JOHN DWYER DUO - DEATH BY AUDIO - NYC - JANUARY 2009

SAM HILLMER/JOHN DWYER DUO - ATA - SAN FRANCISCO - AUGUST 2008

ZS - BUMP/EXCEPT WHEN YOU DON'T BECAUSE SOMETIMES YOU WON'T; ZEBRABLOOD REMIX - SOCKETS RECORDS - WASHINGTON DC - MAY 2008

ZS - THE HARD EP (EXCERPT) - THE SILENT BARN - NYC - SEPTEMBER 2007

ZS - B IS FOR BURNING (LOOKER)/ARMS - PLANARIA RECORDINGS - WASHINGTON DC - SEPTEMBER 2007

ZS - NOBODY WANTS TO BE HAD (LOOKER)/ARMS - PLANARIA RECORDINGS - WASHINGTON DC - SEPTEMBER 2007

TROULBE - YOU ARE HERE - CHASHAMA - NYC MAY 2007

ZS - PENDULUM (MINCEK)BUCK - GILGONGO RECORDS - PHEONIX, AZ - JANUARY 2007

ZS - THE HARD EP - 21 GRAND - OAKLAND, CA - JULY 2006

REGATTAS (SAM HILLMER SOLO ACOUSTIC SAXOPHONE) - THE PLACE - NYC - MAY 2006

ZS - RETRACE A WALK - TROUBLEMAN - NYC - JUNE 2003