The TANK’s partnership with U. Colorado Boulder continues to blossom.  On February 8, 2025 Alan Mackwell’s string trio composition, Rail Dynamics, recorded in The TANK in September, 2024, will be played through the ATLAS B2 Black Box Experimental Studio’s high-density speaker array, recreating an immersive three-dimensional TANK experience.  Free, but reservations required: here.

From Mackwell’s Soundcloud description of the recording:

Rail Dynamics is a multi-movement work for string trio and fixed media inspired by a defunct rail line in northern New Mexico's high desert. Structured as ten landscape-style movements, Rail Dynamics explores the soundscapes of the northern New Mexican landscape while navigating the cultural and environmental impact of the rail in the Galisteo Basin, ultimately meditating on the slow deterioration of the rail line and the surrounding landscape's gradual reclamation of its previously inhabited spaces.

Intertwined among these explorations are images surrounding a tragic car accident I was in as a child that involved a collision with a train. Being by the rail in the deep quiet that characterizes so much of northern New Mexico's landscapes, however, helped me to recontextualize my experience and facilitated my recovery; the slow dissolution of the rail into the high desert soil seemed to mirror the gradual vanishing of the scars on my face, and in a strange way I found a deep kinship with the basin, what remained of the rail, and their deeply nuanced relationship.

This piece is dedicated to my father, who, for weeks following the accident, would fall asleep at the foot of my hospital bed without mattress or pillow so I would not be there by myself.

(Rail Dynamics takes its name from a ground-breaking set of mid-century field recordings of locomotives in New York, championed today by the Smithsonian Folkways. The original Rail Dynamics can be found here: folkways.si.edu/rail-dynamics/sou…album/smithsonian as well as on Spotify and YouTube).

This work was premiered at The TANK Center for the Sonic Arts on September 22, 2024 by Jordan Grantonic (violin), Emma Reynolds (viola), and Peyton Magalhaes (cello). 

On Wednesday December 4, the B2 Black Box Experimental Studio will bring the TANK to Boulder, presenting John Gunther's new recording Tales from the TANK in an awesome spatial reproduction of the Tank's super-resonant sonic environment. The high-density speaker array in the ATLAS B2 consists of 44 custom-built speakers that encircle the walls and ceiling.

B2 Black Box Studio, Roser Atlas Center on the University of Colorado Campus, 1125 18th Street, 2B Level, Boulder, CO 80309

 This event is a FREE lights-out listening session, curated by members of the B2 community. Sounds will be spatialized on the 40.4 spatial audio array in the ATLAS B2 Black Box Experimental Studio.  Cushions and pillows on the floor and some chairs are available for seating. Participants are also encouraged to move around the space while listening to spatial audio music and sound art.

Moon Prince is the neo psyche/ post punk project of guitarist and singer Adam Buzan.

Layers of synth and baritone create a soundscape unlike another. Alternate tunings and surf guitar tone draw you in to a beautiful headspace and fill the room with sheer love and audio bliss. 

Listen to Moon Prince on Spotify here.

Sam King's improvisation-driven sound art project Untight returns to The Tank for a live performance on October 12. King combines a microtonal electric guitar with a digital effects array to create compelling, immersive listening experiences, often accompanied in live settings by projections or other visual elements. King first visited Rangely to record 'States,' a full length cassette + digital album released in 2021, harnessing The Tank's uniquely powerful resonance to produce sonic expanses of shimmering tension and poignant solitude. Of Untight's 2024 release, 'Fair,' Jeremy Royal writes, the listener experiences "'resonance matter,' warts and all. It's a mud. It's a sourdough mother. It's a cave of volcanic lava gurgling to life so deep down that our flashlights can't even shine all the way to the bottom."

In September, the Boulder based Ars Nova Singers will return to the Tank to record. They’ll be holding an open rehearsal, free for all to attend, on September 28, 2024 from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM. instagram @arsnovasingers.

Alan Mackwell will be visiting us again in September and presenting a two part concert: a string trio composition about a series of images of defunct rail lines around his childhood home outside of Santa Fe, NM;  followed by a solo set of Alan performing on the fujara, a Slovakian overtone flute,  and electronics

The trio: Jordan Grantonic (violin), Emma Reynolds (viola), Peyton Magalhaes (cello)

Instagram alanmackwell_2.  YouTube @alanmackwell3943.  

Website alanmackwellmusic.com.

Last spring, the adventurous vocal octet Roomful of Teeth won their second Grammy, cementing their place as one of the one of the most daring and accomplished new music groups of our time. Roomful of Teeth and The TANK have had a close association since 2017, when the group came to Rangely to give what is now a legendary performance in a thunderstorm, of which Alex Ross wrote in The New Yorker, "In my experience, music has never seemed closer to nature."

On August 31, Roomful of Teeth return to The TANK to present an extraordinary new work, literally attuned to the cosmos, Alev Lenz's The Planets, a suite of pieces sung in the planetary frequencies of Jupiter, Mars, Venus and the other planets of our solar system. An ethereal, overwhelming event, unique to its time and place, and a peak experience.

During Open Saturday on August 25 Christian Carrière will be demonstrating his direct-to-steel resonators.

Then, at 8 PM Christian will be performing a free concert.

Christian is a sound artist and musician based in Montreal, Canada. His work lives in the dreamy grey zone between sound design, soundscape and music. His interest lies in the juxtaposition of unusual sonic elements, hybrid creations of synthesizer music, polyphonic no-input music, field recordings and semantic mash-ups.

He has released several albums, scored independent films and created sound installations for gallery and museum projects shown in Canada, the UK, Denmark, and Turkey. His recorded works have been broadcast on CBC, BBC3, Radio-Canada and elsewhere. He has performed at major Montreal festivals, including Mutek, Pop Montreal and Suoni per il popolo, and in various venues across Canada.

@interceiver, http://www.christiancarriere.com/, https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063797121000

Matthew William Langford is a composer, trumpet player, and interdisciplinary sound artist living in Fountain Colorado. On July 27 he will create a sound and performance art installation while interacting with a pool of water placed in the center of the TANK and with recordings he will complete the day before.

Sparked by a sudden moment of loss and what has followed in his journey through grief, abstracted memory, the passage of time, growth and transformation, this will be the culmination of a two-year-long recording project that began at a piano in Lakewood Colorado before traveling with him to Fountain Colorado and eventually to the TANK. You may follow along with him on this journey on Instagram @matthewwilliamlangford.  matthewwilliamlangford.com.

2024 will mark our 8th annual Summer Solstice celebration. Join us for any or all of these activities. Bring an instrument, if you like. Be prepared to sing!

Friday, June 21--the Actual Solstice

Dawn Celebration (5:33am)

Solar Noon Group Hum in the Tank (1:02pm, when the sun reaches is northernmost point).

Sunset (8:32pm 'til late) Individual and Group Improv Performances, Tankster Gathering

Saturday, June 22

9am to 1pm Open Saturday, Free Public Demo by Tatsuya Nakatani

8pm ticketed concert by Tatsuya Nakatani. Tickets here.

Sunday, June 23

10am to 1pm Tank Open House

About Tatsuya Nakatani. Tatsuya has made more than 80 recordings. His music centers around his adapted bowed gong, supported by an array of drums, cymbals, and singing bowls. This is contemporary work with the dramatic pacing, formal elegance and space of traditional Japanese music.

Hailing from Seattle, Baroque-Pop/Alt-Rock music project, Zara is on their first national tour across Western U.S; South As The Crow Flies. The project is led by drummer, visual artist, and long-time Friend of the Tank, Max Bernstein (they/she). The 6-piece ensemble will be presenting some Tank-i-fied versions of their songs on the evening of June 10th. More information is available on their website at zaraband.com or via their social media @visible_zara.

May 25 is International Drone Day, and the Colorado Modular Synth Society will be at the Tank, experimenting and presenting a free concert at 8 PM. @ColoradoModularSynthSociety, https://droneday.org/

The Atlas Institute at the University of Colorado, Boulder has created a five-day Sonic Arts Residency at the TANK. The residency will culminate in a free concert on May 17, 2024 at 7:00 PM.

As one of the country’s youngest emerging multimedia artists, Gracie Fagan (she/her, b. 2000) experiments with human perception to comment on the intersectionality of identity and pop culture. Gracie combines audio, projection, performance art, theatre, and dance to create immersive performances and environments not typically found in the traditional concert hall setting.

Saxophonist and multidisciplinary artist Joel Ferst (he/him) enjoys a diverse career as a performer, improviser, composer, and arts administrator. Ferst is emerging as one of the top collaborators for the contemporary music genre. His recent performances have taken him to Brazil. He was a Corwin guest artist at the University of California Santa Barbara and a guest artist with the Electronic and Experimental Music Studio at UT Austin.

Phu Le is a practicing visual artist studying human-technology interachttps://www.colorado.edu/atlas/tion at CU Boulder. His area of expertise is in interaction design and visual programming. He’s performed at and works closely alongside the CU Boulder Black Box, having lots of experience in the performing arts and an eye for meaningful immersive experiences.

https://www.colorado.edu/atlas/, https://www.colorado.edu/atlas/b2

From May 4-9, 2024, nine Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music & Acoustics graduate composers and soprano Manuela Freua will rehearse and record new performances at The TANK. At the end of their residency, Manuela Freua will present a concert of their work.

The composers writing for Manuela Freua are: Tatiana Catanzaro, Mike Mulshine, Brian Brown, Barbara Nerness, Lemon Guo. Composers writing for The TANK space are: Seán O Dalaigh, Kimia Koochakza-deh-Yazdi, Celeste Betancur, and Anna Golubkova.

Manuela Frea specializes in Chamber and New/Modern Music, with free transit in Popular Music. The São Paulo-born soprano has sung in performances of Quartet no. 2, opus 10, Pierrot Lunaire, opus 21, (Schoenberg - OSESP), Le Marteau sans Maître (Boulez - OSESP), Folk Songs (Berio – Theatro São Pedro), Kafka-Fragmente (Kurtág - Sala do Conservatório, Theatro Municipal de São Paulo) among other works. Recently she has played Lucy in “The Threepenny Opera (Weill/Brecht) and Helena (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Britten), both at Theatro São Pedro. She has collaborated with Theatro São Pedro’s “Atelier de Composição Lírica”, a program that promotes new operas by new composers, since its first edition in 2021. She made her début in Dido and Aeneas (Purcell) and has, since then, performed in opera and concert productions in some of the most important concert and opera houses in Brazil. She was a soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony (OSPA), Mahler’s 8th Symphony (OSESP), Mahler’s 4th Symphony (Percorso Ensemble), Bach’s St. John’s Passion (OSM), among other works. Manuela recorded, in 2018, with the violinist Emmanuele Baldini, the CD entitled “A Canção e o Violino” (The Song and the Violin). Manuela obtained her Music Degree at UNESP, Popular Music Specialist at FASM and has studied under Isabel Maresca. She also perfected herself, as a Vitae Scholar, at Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest.

Come explore the Tank and its amazing acoustics. Sing, hum, relax, make some noise, and be amazed. Bring an instrument, bring family and friends. Take off your shoes and enjoy the wonders of the Tank. Staff are on hand to assist you.

Harpist electro-acoustic composer Zeena Parkins and drummer signal-treater Scott Amendola presented a work especially composed for The TANK.

New York based electro-acoustic composer/improviser Zeena Parkins is a pioneer of contemporary harp practices. Through the use of expanded playing techniques, object preparations, and electronic processing she has re-defined the instrument’s capacities. Concurrently, Parkins self-designed a series of one-of-a kind electric instruments. She leans into the harp’s physical limitations pushing into its boundaries and impossibilities. Parkins is a recent recipient of the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Composition.

Drummer signal-treater Scott Amendola is an ambitious composer, savvy bandleader, electronics explorer, first-call accompanist and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians. Amendola applies his wide-ranging rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates include guitarists Charlie Hunter, Nels Cline, and Jeff Parker, Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades, violinist Jenny Scheinman, saxophonist Phillip Greenlief, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, bassists Trevor Dunn, and Todd Sickafoose.

Beth Custer

Bay Area music scene giant Beth Custer brought her clarinets, along with her voice, percussion and toys. Beth is a founding member of the notorious silent film soundtrack purveyors the Club Foot Orchestra, the Fourth World ambient ensemble Trance Mission, the trip-hop duo Eighty Mile Beach, and the Latin-jazz-rock influenced Doña Luz 30 Besos. She also leads the quartet of esteemed jazz clarinetists called Clarinet Thing and The Beth Custer Ensemble.

Ben Neill

Composer/performer Ben Neill is the inventor of the Mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument. He has recorded eleven albums and performed at the BAM Next Wave Festival, Big Ears Festival, Lincoln Center, Whitney Museum of American Art, Bing Concert Hall at Stanford, Getty Museum, Cite de la Musique Paris, Moogfest, Spoleto Festival, Umbria Jazz, Bang On A Can Festival, ICA London, Istanbul Jazz Festival, Vienna Jazz Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival.

Sound Circle

Based in Boulder, Colorado, the women of Sound Circle, an 18-voice a cappella women’s vocal ensemble, have come together to experience the deep joy of making music and to share that joy with audiences. Sound Circle has commissioned many new works, performed original music by members of the ensemble, and created many new arrangements.

Andy Clausen is a founding member of the genre-bending brass quartet The Westerlies. He peformed a solo trombone concert in the Tank, and released an album of his Tank recordings in May of 2024, “FEW ILL WORDS: Solo Trombone at The TANK, Vol. 1”

About this album Andy wrote, “This release is the fruit of a years-long dream to make a pilgrimage to @tanksounds, a seven-story converted railroad water silo in Rangely, CO that has served as a sonic laboratory for exploratory artists of many stripes.

Soaked in the 30-second reverberation of the TANK, sweat from the 120-degree temperatures of a July heatwave, and captured with the exacting detail of a dozen microphones rigged around the space, I’m so excited to be able to share this music with you now.

Volume one of the set aims to pay homage to some of the artists and mentors who shaped my development - Bill Frisell, Ron Miles, Duke Ellington, Frank Kimbrough, Paul Motian, and Jon Hassell among others. The title track “Few Ill Words,” is itself a musical and textual anagram of Tom Petty’s Wildflowers. Volume two will be released in the fall and features music from Pauline Oliveros, Jeff Beal, Nico Muhly, and more.“