For the past three years, Evan Leed has been the Director of the Hudson Valley Experimental Arts Society (HVEXAS), an organization which he helped found. His work there has mainly been to present live performances lining local artists with international ones; HVEXAS has hosted performers from around the globe, including Japan, Switzerland, England, Australia, Norway, France and Germany. Evan also runs the HVEXAS record label, which has issued releases in both large and small formats by local artists as well as some from Japan and Australia.

Evan has also worked, in live performance, with local and state art groups like The Knitting Factory (NYC), SUNY Purchase, Lifelong Learning Center at Bard College, The Flywheel (Northampton, MA) Tonic (NYC), Galapagos (Brooklyn, NY), WVKR Vassar College Radio, Dutchess Community College Art Gallery, and the now defunct Third Floor Underground, a collective and venue that had operated out of Kingston, NY. For one year, Evan was a Producer at Learning in Progress, a student run television program based out of Dutchess Community College, where he worked on a number of documentaries and interviewed many figures of local and international import. He has collaborated with local artist, Thomas G. Henry, on the soundtrack and incidental music for the short video, “Nevermore,” and with Graymoor on a documentary.

Evan’s experimental video, “The Cathedral,” incorporated an interview with and live audio by Merzbow, one of the most influential composers of avant-garde music in the past two decades. At the 10th and 11th Annual Full Frame Film Festivals, Evan conducted interviews with many well-known filmmakers, including Michael Moore and Ken Burns. His 25 minute video, “Throat,” accompanied performances at the Childrens Media Project in Poughkeepsie, NY. Evan’s work has been exhibited locally at Barrett Art Center.  

artist's statement

My goal as an artist is to facilitate creative dialogue and unconventional thought processes in all of my activities - - whether they be performance, recording, booking, promoting or anything else. In my live performances, I attempt to approach sound in unconventional ways, using digitally generated/synthesized noises, natural recordings, voice and volume both and the lower and upper thresholds of hearing. I view all of this as engaging in a discussion with the viewer /listener, a challenge to them to enter an emotionally and psychologically vulnerable state where they will be able to analyze their feelings in a new light. The response I desire is, like the music, extremely personal and cannot be concretely specified. A piece is successful as long as there is some internal debate raised; profound or trivial, positive or negative. To facilitate this, I often choose to collaborate with other performers, and usually these sets are completely improvised. Video is also an extremely important element of my work, and wherever possible, my live performances contain visual as well as auditory components. The source for these videos is almost always natural settings (plants, water, etc.) which I digitally time stretch and quality degrade so that the footage loses all resemblance of the original objects and takes on digital, electronic qualities.

Just as important as the above is the work I do in the local experimental arts “scene.” Since my goal is always dialogue, some of my most significant art has been in the direction of developing a local fan base for experimental music and establishing a means of communicating between artists both local and international. I have worked with venues ranging from traditional clubs to art galleries, bars, basements, etc. to present experimental music shows and introduce artists to each other so they can exchange ideas and see their own work in a new light and new perspective. I have helped to bring performers from four continents to the Hudson Valley, to expose locally based artists to their work and vie versa, and provide them with an opportunity to meet firsthand and talk.

Technique in my field I find refers more to an approach than to the actual means used. The nature of the form provides the artist with absolute freedom in terms of materials. Anything that makes a sound can be recorded and manipulated digitally, and computers allow unlimited potential to arrange this material, in addition to the myriad of the synthesis software that has arisen in the past years. When approaching a new piece, I seek to use the software or source material in a new way; the outcome is always uncertain. Sometimes I feel it is successful, other times it isn’t, but the technique is the attitude with which one approaches the work.

Since I view my work with booking and producing as equally important to what I do artistically, the Internet itself is one of my most important tools. Given the nature of the music I work with, many artists existed for years in obscurity, unable to connect to similar musicians who may have been isolated in small pockets all over the world. The internet has changed this situation drastically, allowing contact between many remote artists. I have attempted to use the Internet, through websites, discussion boards, e-mail, etc. As a way to expose the work of local artists to those outside the region.