PRESS KIT AND BIOGRAPHY

Michael GENDREAU has composed and performed solo, as
well as in several group configurations, since 1979. His former group Crawling With
Tarts (1983 – 1998) used ideas revolving around elementalism and pre-language states.
Gendreau has elaborated on these ideas while adding concepts based on his studies in
physics, and philosophies attending to temporal and environmental persistence,
applications of parataxis, and experiments with small motors and turntable mechanisms.
His performances have involved sounds from one-off transcription discs cast by others in
the middle of the last century, and those cut in his studio using a decrepit lathe. More
recently, Gendreau has sought to extend these later studies, and to use buildings as
speakers. He records the infrasonic vibrations of the performance space and in the
concert, and he uses the structure’s resonances as an additional instrument in his site-
specific compositions. These practices are based in part on his current work as an
acoustician, working primarily on low-vibration and noise design for buildings.