Mike Hovancsek - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mike Hovancsek is a multi-instrumentalist, visual artist, and writer from Kent

Kent, Ohio

Kent is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the largest city in Portage County. It is located along the Cuyahoga River in Northeastern Ohio on the western edge of the county. The population was 27,906 at the 2000 United States Census and 28,904 in the 2010 Census...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He collaborated with Egyptian composer Halim El-Dabh

Halim El-Dabh

Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh is an Egyptian-born American composer, performer, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who has had a career spanning six decades...

since the late 1980s (performing and recording with him, and restoring his early electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

), and is a former member of the multicultural experimental group, Pointless Orchestra. He plays the guzheng
Guzheng
The guzheng or "gu zheng", also called zheng is a Chinese plucked zither. It has 18-23 or more strings and movable bridges....

, koto

Koto (musical instrument)

The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...

, guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, waterphone

Waterphone

A waterphone is a type of atonal acoustic musical instrument constructed largely of a stainless steel resonator "bowl" with a cylindrical "neck", which may or may not contain a small amount of water, and with brass rods around the rim of the bowl. The waterphone produces a vibrant ethereal type of...

, and percussion, among other instruments.

In the late 1980s he founded the Pointless Music label, which was devoted to experimental music releases. In his solo work, and with Pointless Orchestra, he recorded and/or performed with such musicians as Jin Hi Kim

Jin Hi Kim

Kim Jin-Hi is a geomungo player and composer.She is known for introducing the geomungo to the wider world through her contemporary chamber and orchestral compositions and large-scale multimedia pieces, as well as her extensive work in avant-garde and cross-cultural free...

, Z'EV

Z'EV

Z'EV is an American poet, percussionist, and sound artist. After studying various world music traditions at CalArts, he began creating his own percussion sounds out of industrial materials for a variety of record labels...

, Amy Denio

Amy Denio

Amy Denio is a Seattle -based multi-instrumental composer of soundtracks for modern dance, film and theater, as well as a songwriter and music improviser. Often called an unclassifiable avant-garde jazz musician, she is also deeply inspired by world music. She is probably best known as a...

, Anna Homler, Illusion of Safety, Reed Ghazala

Reed Ghazala

Qubais Reed Ghazala, an American author, photographer, composer, musician and experimental instrument builder, is recognized as the "father of circuit bending," having discovered the technique in 1966, pioneered it, named it, and taught it ever since...

, John Hajeski, and Barry Chabala.

Mike Hovancsek's current output, which he describes as "multicultural chamber music," includes solo recordings, solo performances, and collaborations with many notable members of the world music community. His music often combines instruments from several different cultures in unique ways. For example, on "Hybrids" (from his Temporal Angels CD) he combines the Chinese guzheng, cello, violin, and Middle Eastern dumbek

Goblet drum

The goblet drum is a hand drum with a goblet shape used mostly in the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe....

. On "Somniloquy" (also from Temporal Angels) he combines koto, english horn, and choir. Reviewer Anastasia Pantsios of Cleveland Scene
Cleveland Scene
The Cleveland Scene is an alternative weekly newspaper based in Cleveland, Ohio. The newspaper includes highlights of Cleveland-area arts, music, dining, and films, as well as classified advertising...

describes his work as "elegant, textured music that sounds spare and understated yet is quite complex."

Mike Hovancsek is a graduate of Kent State University

Kent State University

Kent State University is a public research university located in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university has eight campuses around the northeast Ohio region with the main campus in Kent being the largest...

, where he majored in psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

and later earned a master's degree in counseling. While there he studied Chinese music with Chia-chun Chu and Japanese koto with Anne Prescott.

As leader

2003 - Temporal Angels (SRCA)
2010 - Turbulent Calm (Infinite Number of Sounds)
2011 - Ascend (Infinite Number of Sounds)

With Pointless Orchestra

1994 Endless 1 (Manifold)
1997 - Lives: A Pointless Night Out (Without Fear)
1998 - Approaching Totality (Without Fear)
1999 - Enhanced Gravity (CD-ROM, Yucca Tree Records)

Compilations

1991 - A Pointless Compilation (Pointless Music)
1991 - (Y)earbook, v. 2 (Rastascan Records)
1992 - Postal Sound Surgery (cassette, Pointless Music/audiofile Tapes)
1993 - Magnetic Conversations (cassette, Pointless Music)
1993 - Point of Yucca, v. 1 (Yucca Tree Records/Pointless Music)
c. 1994 - The Avant World Jazz Noise Project: An Experimental Music Compilation (cassette, Pointless Music)
c. 1994 - Electricity: An Electronic Music Compilation (cassette, Pointless Music)
1994 - Spheral Tone Theory (cassette, Pointless Music)
1997 - RēR Quarterly, v. 4, no. 2 (Recommended Records
Recommended Records
Recommended Records is a British independent record label and distribution network founded by Chris Cutler in March 1978. RēR features largely "Rock in Opposition" and related music, but it also distributes selected music released on other independent labels.In 1982 Cutler established November...

RēR 0402)
2002 - Paradoxes of Enlargement (CD accompanying Bananafish
Bananafish Magazine
Bananafish is a magazine begun in 1987 in San Francisco, California, published under the name Seymour Glass, focusing on various aspects of underground culture, particularly musical genres such as noise music...

16)

As engineer

1992 - Halim El-Dabh: Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic (cassette, Pointless Music)
2000 - Halim El-Dabh: Crossing Into the Electric Magnetic (Without Fear)

Articles about music, written by Mike Hovancsek

Swords into Plowshares

External links

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