Originally released as part of the AMPLIFY 2020: quarantine series.
"9/19/20, 239th piece.
Steve Flato is infuriating. His work is so good but can be frustratingly infrequent; his just-under-the-wire AMPLIFY entry, “Wisdom Teeth” (mostly recorded today!) is his first new release in three years. Steve and I became friends in 2007 via MySpace, shortly after the time I began recording music. We pretty quickly set about collaborating on the pieces that ended up becoming, three years later, our self-released album “hwaet.” Around that time, Steve also introduced me to the iconic music forum IHM, which was absolutely pivotal in the expansion of my tastes as well as my introduction to a worldwide community of musicians and listeners that I am very happy to still call my friends. I consider myself as owing Steve a great debt in terms of pointing me in the direction of finding those who would become “my people,” many of whom have contributed to this festival which is now sadly coming to a close.
Steve himself has experimented with a great variety of styles over the time I’ve known him, everything from noise to rockish structures to electroacoustic improvisation to composition for pipe organ, always bringing his own touch to the material in question. Steve also created the podcast Signifying Something, which focuses on in-depth interviews with a variety of musicians, including AMPLIFY contributors Keith Rowe, id m theft able, Sarah Hennies, David Kirby and our own Matthew Revert. The podcast took a break, but has recently kicked back off and I hope we get to enjoy more of Steve’s conversations with fascinating people soon, as well as more of his music. And more often, please! 😉
About his AMPLIFY piece, Steve had the following to say:
“I called this piece wisdom teeth because I lost my two bottom front teeth a year or two ago, and sometimes I mistakenly say that I lost my “wisdom teeth” instead of my two front teeth. At one point during the development of different autoimmune disorders, my whole body became so inflamed that my two front bottom teeth practically pushed themselves out of my mouth. I went to the dentist hoping to save one but, under the effects of anesthesia, I agreed to pulling them both.
It was a traumatic experience, and I’ve noticed a huge change in the way I interact with people, am perceived by them, and how I’m treated by them. Especially at this time in history, it’s important to think about how, despite these missing teeth, I still am treated with privilege due to the color of my skin. Losing my teeth also made me think about how things can change in an instant, and that change remains a constant for all the future we get to see.
Things do change in an instant, and we all interact differently now. Getting sick made me change physically, emotionally, mentally. I hope I learned something; I really do. Anyway, that’s why I call them my wisdom teeth.”
Steve is right, we do all interact differently now. Being able to help with AMPLIFY, though, has given me a renewed hope with regard to the potential of that interaction. I was going to end this introduction by thanking all the festival participants and listeners but realized that anyone who listened or commented or shared links or boosted the artists was just as much a participant as the people who made the pieces. Infinite thanks to you all. I’m the sort who gets teary when anything ends, but doubly so when it’s something so dear to my heart as this has been - a true inspiration and an enduring document of such a strange time in the life of humanity. I will leave you with the quote (referencing people in Italy singing and playing music from their open windows) that six months ago moved me to want to help bring this festival to life:
“People breaking out in song, lifting each other’s spirits during this tragedy, is an act of striking beauty,” said one person. “It’s a reminder that, especially during a tragedy, the human spirit keeps us all going in hope. We shine our best in the darkness.”
Steve Flato is a composer and guitarist that lives in Buffalo, NY. His music encompasses many styles and techniques
including microtonal electric guitar, generative process pieces, minimal text-based scores utilizing broken electronics, cut-up musique-concrete, and a piece written for the Spreckels Organ in San Diego, CA (the largest outdoor pipe organ in the world)....more
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