Jack The Dog


Jack The Dog


Jack the Dog is an experimental music duo founded in 1994 in Chicago, Illinois by Carrie Biolo (percussion/composer) and Jeffrey Kowalkowski (piano/composer). Biolo and Kowalkowski have been creating music together for over 2 decades. The two met in college at DePaul University when Kowalkowski needed a percussionist for a premiere at the Green Mill. Becoming instant contemporaries, Kowalkowski started composing numerous percussion works specifically for Biolo to perform. Over time, Kowalkowski began performing, Biolo started composing and Jack the Dog was formed. Gradually, the traditional composer-performer relationship blurred and the process of composition and performance became collaborative.

The duo has performed its own collaboratively-composed music in a variety of venues including concert halls, festivals, galleries, and clubs. It has toured Germany twice (1996 and 1998) and has been featured at the Cleveland International Performance Art Festival, In the Eye of the Ear Festival in Chicago, Guest Artists Concert Series at Pittsburgh State University, Landmarks II Festival in Germany, Rhinoceros Theatre Festival and endless others. Jack the Dog has worked with artists from a number of disciplines, including composer/performer Pauline Oliveros, Australian suspension artist Stelarc, and the Chicago-based theater company Curious Theater Branch.


http://www.carriebiolo.com/jackthedog.html

Discography

Missa Canibus (mass of the dogs)


July 18, 1999 - In Stock
"Much of it features spaced out operations of vibraphone, piano, and organ. There is also a series of short recitations and the use of what sounds like taped material. A remarkable track such as "Responsorial," a duet for vibraphone and acoustic piano, creates a really wonderful mood." - All Music Guide Avant liturgical music for the metadenominational church of the mind. Evokes Tom Waits and... [read more]

Scan 12


April 28, 1999 - In Stock
SCAN TWELVE is the second release by Jack the Dog. Twelve short studio sculptures from a collection of piano and vibraphone duets in which both players also speak/sing, recorded in Chicago between Januray and April 1998. The overall idea here is to replicate the effect of the SCAN function on typical CD players or radios. In this case the only material is JACK compositions. "Intentionally or not... [read more]

ah. it's like you're talking and you just can't


November 22, 1997 - In Stock
Contains three major compositions: -- Excuses (15:11) -- Eric's Flip (30:18) -- Spacesuit Annie (20:32) These are long and dense testaments, in a concept album spirit. "The twosome composes collaboratively, often using performance art tactics, sometimes incorporating taped audio-verite soundscapes, additional tracks of music, or brash sound collages, and performing brisk unison lines that hark... [read more]