RED DESERT is the duo project of clarinetist Katie Porter and composer/percussionist Devin Maxwell. We have been performing, commissioning, creating and championing interesting music for almost 20 years. Based in Brooklyn, NY and a remote cabin in the mountains of Utah, our repertoire consists primarily of living composers, especially ones that strive to challenge and enrich our understanding of what music is and can be. We are working on several upcoming Red Desert shows and recordings, in addition to being Artists-in-Residence at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah. A fairly long bio/story about us can be found here: https://www.reddesertensemble.org/reddesertlongbio.html
Some things people are saying about Red Desert's debut album, CHOROCHRONOS, on the label Infrequent Seams (NY):
"Clarinet and electronics are completely intertwined here and together form one powerful drone" - Ben Taffin, Nieuwe Noten
"The strongly repetitive patterns of the vibraphone and the elongated sound clouds of the clarinet together form a particularly fascinating soundscape." - Ben Taffin, Nieuwe Noten
"Porter and Maxwell believe in close collaboration and long-lasting relationships" - Ben Taffin, Nieuwe Noten
"not superficial ambient music"- Roger Heaton TEMPO
"the importance of silence, space and sounds in space, seems on the evidence of this disc and [Red Desert's] extraordinarily devoted work in the performance and promotion of experimental music" - Roger Heaton TEMPO
Katie Porter's performance website: fromkp.wordpress.com
Devin Maxwell's composer website: devinmaxwell.net
Some things people are saying about Red Desert's debut album, CHOROCHRONOS, on the label Infrequent Seams (NY):
- Julian Cowley, The Wire, Issue 443, January 2021 https://www.thewire.co.uk/issues/443 Red Desert Ensemble, Chorochronos, Infrequent Seams, CD/DL/LP - Splitting their time between New York Brooklyn and a mountain cabin in Utah, percussionist Devin Maxwell and clarinettist Katie Porter have been honing their finely poised musical partnership for the best part of two decades. They came together as a duo when Michael Pisaro wrote Turning for them in 2002. It is revived here, sparse and tense, a prolonged, palpably gradual and finely balanced rotation around the threshold of audibility. Three other pieces fill out the picture. In Andre Cormier's Sommeil, trills and chimes are interspersed with muted tones and rumblings. Lucie Vitkova's Choral No. 13 is luminous and graceful. Maxwell's own Bonneville Park 3 is a spectral tour de force pitching acoustic instruments against textured electronics. Performances that testify to the deep affinity and meshed horizons that unite and energise Red Desert Ensemble.
"Clarinet and electronics are completely intertwined here and together form one powerful drone" - Ben Taffin, Nieuwe Noten
"The strongly repetitive patterns of the vibraphone and the elongated sound clouds of the clarinet together form a particularly fascinating soundscape." - Ben Taffin, Nieuwe Noten
"Porter and Maxwell believe in close collaboration and long-lasting relationships" - Ben Taffin, Nieuwe Noten
"not superficial ambient music"- Roger Heaton TEMPO
"the importance of silence, space and sounds in space, seems on the evidence of this disc and [Red Desert's] extraordinarily devoted work in the performance and promotion of experimental music" - Roger Heaton TEMPO
Katie Porter's performance website: fromkp.wordpress.com
Devin Maxwell's composer website: devinmaxwell.net
