Thursday night was a unique one in the early life of the Big, Bent Ears kissa at CAM Raleigh. Grayson Haver Currin, a comrade in the endeavor of careful listening, filled the media lab and the lower level gallery with music at the highest decibels heard in the kissa to date, a set he called “Dope Tones.”
Earlier this year, Grayson and his wife, Tina Haver Currin, were also in discussions about opening a kissa in Raleigh, and an inspiration for their kissa, as with ours, came from the experimental musician Oren Ambarchi. Grayson has written about Ambarchi and interviewed him a number of times. In Chapter Three of Rock Fish Stew’s Big, Bent Ears online series for The Paris Review, which is a 50-minute documentary on the extreme improvisation trio, Nazoranai, in which Ambarchi is a member, you can hear Ambarchi talking lovingly about Japanese kissa’s midway through the piece (directed by Ivan Weiss).
All in all, lots of common vibes. Below is Grayson’s setlist and a few snapshots from the scene.
One thing you can do when the music is so loud you can’t converse…play cards.
Grayson (L), Tina (M), patron (R)
The gallery outside the kissa, a safe place for talking
Big, Bent Ears videos in the kissa’s entry room, the first ring
