Comets, Meteors and Things that Fly by Us: An Electronic Music Event
Join us for this live multi-media performance outdoors below a dark North Fork sky at the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower!
By Custer Institute and Observatory
The Axolotl Ensemble will bring their extraordinary talents to Custer Observatory, creating an event filled with sonic richness and visual surprises. Artists, Cliff Baldwin and Rob Shepperson will perform works composed and designed specifically for this event, that reveal the unique sound of the Perseid meteors, icy asteroids and other such celestial visitors past and present using live electronics, amplified satellite dishes, percussion, live celestial video and other treats. The Perseids will be in full view during the show, weather permitting, and will be visible to the naked eye.
Following the concert, guests will have a chance to view the Perseid Meteor shower, visible to the naked eye. Observatory staff will also provide guided tours of the night sky (weather permitting) through the many telescopes on site, including the apochromatic Zerochromat telescope in our historic observation dome.
$30 Adult, $20 Observatory Member, Children Under 16 FREE. Attendance will be limited so advanced registration is strongly encouraged. A rain date for this program is scheduled for August 19 at 8:00pm.
Please bring a blanket or chair to enjoy this outdoor presentation.
About the Artists
Cliff Baldwin is a resident artist, composer, designer, and filmmaker on the North Fork and has been creating electronic music for over 45 years. He is the founder of the Aquebogue Contemporary Music Ensemble [ACME], a group devoted to contemporary electronic music, that was featured in the Rites of Spring Music Festival from 2016-2019 on the North Fork of Long Island.
Some of Cliff's compositions include "The Kepler Music" performed at Custer Observatory in 2016, "ASTRI" and "LIGO-A-GOGO", outdoor sound and video mixes that debuted at the Observatory in 2020, and "Voicing the Caldwells", live 4-channel electroacoustic video piece which debuted at the Observatory in 2021. Cliff's "Damn Epic Pandemic" live mixes streamed throughout 2020 from his studio garden. And he recently composed and debuted "BLACK LOCUST: Solo for Locust Tree and Electronics" at Guild Hall in East Hampton.
As an artist, Cliff founded the large format artist publication AQUI! in the early nineteen eighties working with artists like Barbara Kruger, Gilbert & George, Les Levine and General Idea. For 17 years he orchestrated large scale installations and created multiples with Fluxus artist Davi Det Hompson as the artist duo Baldwin+Hompson. His latest architectural project, SHAVILION was built in 2022 in Aquebogue.
Cliff's work has been exhibited in Tokyo, Cologne, Berlin, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and New York, and is in several major museum collections around the world including collections at the The Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Art Center, The Museum of The Art Institute of Chicago, The National Gallery of Canada and The Museum of Rhode Island School of Design.
Drummer Rob Shepperson is a founding member, along with Mikel Rouse and Jeff Burk, of the pop group Tirez Tirez, which was active in the 1970s and 80s. When Rouse formed the new music ensemble Broken Consort, Rob contributed percussion and drum set parts. Currently, he is a member of the improv music group Strange Pools, based in Croton on Hudson, N.Y. Rob and Cliff Baldwin have been collaborating musically and visually ever since they met at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1978.