Santo Subito's XAVIER

The idea for Xavier was simple: acoustic improvisational sounds by any and all means necessary. The result is a careful balance of control and chaos, of raw sound and delicate nuance. Each CD comes packaged in a limited edition hand-painted cover.

The foundation of Santo Subito consists of Steven Dye's bass clarinet and Milton Cross' violin, and it is upon this foundation that they have built acommanding framework of sounds both traditional and non-traditional, encompassing homemade horns, drones, piano, electronics and percussion.

While firmly rooted in neo-classical influences, the band relies heavily on the two members' extensive experience with the use of multiphonics and ontheir unpredictable manipulations of vibrating air and string.

Part minimalist, part wall of sound, part pre-dawn dream, Santo Subito assembles a unique sonic palate from which they shape their powerful performances, which can only be classified as "unclassifiable".

Steven Dye is a musician, filmmaker and artist whose work actively explores the formal and social qualities of the materials he is using, as well as theboundaries between sound, image and live performance. His works include installation, compositions for self-made instruments, solo and collaborativemusical composition, field recording, short animated films, and performative cinema.

Though firmly rooted in the clarinet as an expressive instrument, Steven is a multi-instrumentalist who builds many of his own instruments. One such instrument is the Flubaphone, which is featured on Xavier alongwith some of its variants, the Bass Flubaphone and the Double Flub. Flubaphonics is the use of a membrane to excite or vibrate an air column. Steven also works collaboratively with the performing arts groups Epic [Abridged] and Wet Gate.

He has received commissions to compose and perform new music for silent films: in 1999 for the Unsilent Film Series at the Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, and in 2003 for The Mad Cat Film Festival. With Wet Gate he has performed original compositions at numerous festivals including Taos Talking Pictures in 1999, the Olympia International Film Festival in 2004, the Liquid Architecture Sound Festival in Melbourne, Australia in 2005, and the Rotterdam International Film Festival in 2006. (http://www.dyemark.net/)

Milton Cross has been playing the violin since the age of 4. He studied at the Oberlin Conservatory, the Curtis Institute and the Aspen Music School.

He has performed, recorded and/or toured with Tarentel, Santo Subito, NoName Trio, Laughingstock, Dielectric Drone All-Stars, John Vanderslice, Alfred and many others.

His first solo EP, Light in the West, was releasedin late 2005. He also released a field recording compilation in 2003e ntitled In The Hands of God. Other recent releases include We Move ThroughWeather (Temporary Residence Limited), Home Ruckus (Root Strata), and Neurot Recordings Volume 1 (Neurot Records), all as a part of Tarentel.

Milton has composed and performed soundtracks for several films, including Frozen Angels (Sundance 2005, with co-composer Zoë Keating), Oregon (SXSW,Seattle International, Odense, Berlin, Taos Talking Pictures and Sci-FiChannel), Uncovering Glen Canyon (Taos Mountain, Flagstaff, Durango and Santa Fe Film Festivals) and Alfred (Cannes, 1999 and ResFest, 1998). (www.miltoncross.com)

http://www.accretions.com