a philadelphia ambient consortium (music and noise) event invite:
Friday, December 17th 1999/5760

Mission to the Ganymedean Leper Colony
  leaving from the Gate to Moon Base Aleph, 
           8PM EST 4012 Walnut Street, the Rotunda

SAUL STOKES
DAVID TALENTO'S MUSIC FOR ISOLATION TANKS
THE MINISTRY OF INSIDE THINGS (Peter Gulch, Art Cohen, and Chuck Van Zyl)
http://simpletone.com/leperous6.jpg

The next Gate to Moon Base Alpha will soon be opening for transport. This coming Friday  December 17th, we will attempt to transport via
Alpha on a merciful mission to the lonely Ganymedean leper colony. As at previous Moon Base Alpha transports, please bring homemade and/or
exotic acoustic instruments to the Gate. I am certain that the Colony's inhabitants will be very grateful to be stimulated by the mutual
effect of our cacaphanous sound wave production. Also performing, will be THREE GREAT MASTERS OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC: the powerful space trio
called the Ministry of Inside Things (Chuck Van Zyl, Art Cohen, Peter Gulch), Music for Isolation Tanks (David Talento, Help Wanted
Records) and Saul Stokes. We may even have delicious vegetarian catering. The Gate is always FREE thanks to support from the University of
Pennsylvania and the Foundation. Mad props to Andrew Zitcer for making this all possible.

>From Chuck Van Zyl:

Throughout the last quarter century, the city of Philadelphia has maintained an
interesting underground electronic music scene. For years, aspiring synthesists,
inspired by the numerous existing schools of EM, invested in synth gear and eventually brought their music before the area's brave and
curious. Members of the fractured community that supports the scene in Philadelphia have been exposed to an unprecedented amount of
diversity throughout the course of the last 25 years. Concerts have taken place everywhere and anywhere: an arts center, galleries,
museums, coffee shops, theaters, churchs, schools, a firehouse, a radio station, a community center, even a few clubs have tried to host
electronic music nights.

The most recent and possibly most diverse in Philadelphia's continuum of events is the "Gate To Moon Base Alpha" series. Sponsored by the
University of Pennsylvania, hosted by DJ Spaceling and held every third Friday of the month in the backroom of The Rotunda,  "the Gate"
features artists representing a multitude of styles, aesthetics and generations.

At 8pm on Friday, December 17th, 1999 "Gate To Moon Base Alpha" presents its third event at The Rotunda, 4012 Walnut Street in Philadelphia
and will feature Saul Stokes, David Talento's Music for Isolation Tanks, and The Ministry of Inside Things. 

Performing on custom designed, hand built synthesizers and modern sampling technology, Hypnos recording artist Saul Stokes will create a
sonic landscape spanning the floating textures of Vintage Spacemusic and the focused rhythms of Modern Ambient. With two albums to his
credit and represented on several compilations, Saul Stokes is already recognised as one of the leading voices in modern Electronic Music.
Described as ?fresh and inventive?, Saul Stokes brings together elements of Space, Ambient, Industrial and Intelligent-Techno, forging a
sound all his own.

His Mission performance will begin at a point of reference familiar to most and gradually lead the audience far out into the sonic
universe. Saul Stokes? appearance at the Gate will be his second ever on the east coast of the USA and will reflect his interest in sound
shaping, pulse rhythms, improvisation and sonic invention. Stokes takes an unconventional approach to music. Every sound at The Gathering
will come from electronic instruments built by Stokes himself. This unique palatte of sounds and Stokes? individual vision, results in
music that is refreshingly original.

DAVID TALENTO'S MUSIC FOR ISOLATION TANKS 

>From David Talento: http://www.voicenet.com/~legion/

Music For Isolation Tanks started as a quiet studio project back in 1991. The first
release was the flip side of a cassette single consisting of four brief songs recorded in one evening. The focus of the project has always
been electronic music and as the Help Wanted staff and studio has grown so has MFIT. Variety is the only constant in MFIT releases as each
album offers an entirely different perspective on what electronic music is all about. 

In 1994 the first full length album was released . Titled EXILE this tape consisted of
ambient and experimental excursions made up of minimal and hypnotic soundscapes. Coinciding with EXILE was the release of the ethereal
track "Untitled #3" which concluded the Art of Brutality cd compilation put out by Arts Industria. With this combination Music For
Isolation Tanks became a full fledged project. 

In the summer of 1995 MFIT started to play live shows. These would range from solo shows with a single instrument and some effects, to more
involved productions combining older analogue synthesizers and multiple eccentric drum machines. The Caffeine album was recorded at the
beginning of these live shows. It represents a more rhythmic side of the band than the previous studio work. It also foreshadowed the
heavily processed sound that was to become an instrument in itself during future shows. Eventually "instruments" turned into anything and
everything and the band has performed using synthesizers, tape recorders, guitars, a television set, children's toys, an Austrailian
didgeridoo, and an assortment of delays, distortions, and effects. These more involved shows drastically changed the sound of the project
once again. 

An example of this new approach can be heard on the Dark and Stormy Night live album (out of print). This recording was made "bootleg'
style by micing the room at the Khyber Pass, a local Philadelphia alternative music club, where MFIT was performing. It captures the band
raw as a three piece performing almost gothic and sinister electronic noise using guitars, tape loops, and various synthesizers and drum
machines. 

In late 1996 the second studio album Nature/Nurture was released featuring pure trance and acid flavored beat driven techno tunes. This
album is by far the most straight forward release by the band yet it has it's share of twists and turns as the spralling hypnotic tracks
mutate rhythm and pulse. Then in early 1997 the most ambitious recording The Feedback Machine was released and once again MFIT defied
itself in it's search for a sound. 

The next year the band changed again as various members went on to create their own projects (see the Links page). Finally founder and
Music For Isolation Tanks leader David Talento started creeping out and doing live shows solo again but by this time there was no turning
back. The Live at Electrolust CD documents how much chaos one performer can create. While it's completely digitally mastered off a
soundboard DAT, it's raw and tape loop oriented sound shows how the concept of MFIT has grown over the years. This album is also the first
Help Wanted Productions CDr release and features the complete 50+ minute set of analog weirdness, noise, loops, and humor. 

THE MINISTRY OF INSIDE THINGS

The Ministry of Inside Things, refocusing the efforts of spacemusic pioneers Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, realize contoured tone
poems that lead the listener through a terrain of changing moods and visions. The trio uses synthesizers, computer, guitar and processing
to create music that is at once mysterious and enigmatic yet evocative and deliberate. MoIT often make use of the polyphonic sequencer
patterns associated with the Berlin School, but clearly as a point of departure; MoIT's purpose is to recapture the mood of those early
recordings, not merely copy the sound and structure.

With few recorded works to their credit, MoIT exsists primarily as a live performance
ensemble. Including members from the now legendary synth-group The Nightcrawlers and Xisle, the accumulated knowledge of The Ministry of
Inside Things' membership spans decades. Experience is reflected in their music. Seasoned veterans of the live venue, they make each
concert unique. The group sets out to perform a given piece but often diverges into improvisation which leads the music into new areas.
Facilitating this is the concert audience who always are a significant part of the creation process. The immediacy of the environment, the
presence of others, the intimacy of an audience hearing the music as it is happening is a compelling experience for MoIT.

For more on The Web about The Ministry of Inside Things, please visit their home
page in the Artists area of this website:
http://web.p3.net/~chuckv/moit.html

The Foundation is a community gathering place for the promotion of arts and culture and provides an alternative to "binge drinking" on
Friday nights. The Foundation is supported by the Office of the Vice Provost for University Life at the University of Pennsylvania, and
partners include the Center for Community Partnerships, Civic House, Social Planning and Events Committee, The Gathering, TOUCHH Center for
the Study of Hip Hop, and the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance. The Foundation's 1999 season will be based at the Rotunda (4012 Walnut
Street) unless otherwise specified. All events are FREE of charge.

For more on The Web about the Gate To Moon Base Alpha series, please visit the
website at: http://simpletone.com