{"id":24860,"date":"2023-03-29T05:30:43","date_gmt":"2023-03-29T09:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=24860"},"modified":"2023-03-22T10:23:32","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T14:23:32","slug":"avant-garde-in-wnc-tashi-dorji","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/03\/29\/avant-garde-in-wnc-tashi-dorji\/","title":{"rendered":"Avant Garde in WNC: Tashi Dorji"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experimental guitarist-composer Tashi Dorji<\/a> is initially nonplussed when asked how receptive Asheville audiences have been to his brand of avant garde music. \u201cI don\u2019t consider what I do \u2018entertainment\u2019 music,\u201d he explains. \u201cMost of my solo work is a practice of collaboration, the pursuit of ideas.\u201d He characterizes a recent local engagement as \u201ca drone series\/installment\u201d rather than a concert.<\/p>\n

And while Dorji is happy living in Asheville, he doesn\u2019t connect it directly to what he does musically. \u201cWith the music that I pursue, geographical restrictions or cultural boundaries really don\u2019t matter,\u201d he says. \u201cMusic is completely free from those things; I could be here, or I could be in Algiers or Bhutan or wherever. It\u2019s about sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Dorji\u2019s collaborators are indeed located across the globe. A January gig found him in New York City, collaboraitng with Alex Zhang Hungtai, a Taiwanese-Canadian improviser whose work \u2013 like Dorji\u2019s \u2013 bridges rock and avant garde. Dorji also plays in a duo called MANAS with fellow Asheville musician Thom Nguyen; the pair recently embarked on another collaboration, this time with Efrim Menuck from Canadian avant garde ensemble Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Other artists with whom Dorji teams up include NYC-based Susie Ibarra, saxophonist Mette Rasmussen (based in Norway), and SUMAC\u2019s Nick Yacyshyn. \u201cNick and I recently collaborated at a festival in Porto, Portugal,\u201d Dorji says. A recording of that is tentatively planned for release.<\/p>\n

Yet even though his attention is globally (rather than primarily locally) focused, Dorji emphasizes that the Asheville arts and music community is very supportive. \u201cThe Catalytic Sound Festival was the first curatorial thing I\u2019ve done in this town,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I felt very supported. It was great to fly all those artists to Asheville, plus having some local artists play and collaborate.\u201d He notes that the event required direct financial assistance from local businesses including synthesizer company Make Noise. \u201cThey were like, \u2018We support you; what do you need?\u2019\u201d Dorji says.<\/p>\n

And that kind of encouragement for his decidedly non-commercial musical endeavors has inspired Dorji. \u201cThere\u2019s support [in Asheville] for experimental music in general. New venues are asking me to curate events. It\u2019s really encouraging, and I\u2019m really looking forward to doing Catalytic again next year, maybe even bringing more interesting musicians.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Experimental guitarist-composer Tashi Dorji is initially nonplussed when asked how receptive Asheville audiences have been to his brand of avant garde music. \u201cI don\u2019t consider what I do \u2018entertainment\u2019 music,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,41],"tags":[3464],"class_list":["post-24860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avant-garde","category-interview","tag-tashi-dorji","cat-7-id","cat-41-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24860"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25063,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24860\/revisions\/25063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}