Goggle

Goggle consists of four accomplished composer/performers who have worked for years together, inspiring and challenging one another deeply in terms of innovation of compositional structure and instrumentalism. The resulting music is unique, heartfelt, quirky and complex, drawing from a wide array of musical styles and ideas.

Goggle is the latest incarnation of a revolving group of players. The nucleus formed at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 1987 when graduate students Randy McKean and Dan Plonsey, inspired by a mutual love of the work of AACM stalwarts Anthony Braxton and Roscoe Mitchell, the World Saxophone and ROVA quartets, lured unsuspecting saxophonists into playing their original compositions, featuring quirky rhythmic schemes and extended techniques. Chris Jonas joined them in 1989, bringing a love of active, overlapping structure and melody. McKean and Jonas moved to NYC in 1992, but the group continued with Plonsey and Bostonian Steve Norton, performing and recording as the Great Circle Saxophone Quartet in the mid-1990’s. By the 00’s, Jonas’ former Oberlin schoolmate and instrumental hot-shot Cory Wright was pulled into the orbit as part of a touring saxophone sextet Plonsey formed to perform his music. Though subsequent relocations sent Jonas to Santa Fe and McKean, Plonsey and Wright to the San Francisco Bay Area, they have continued to collaborate and work together in various combinations, including the groups Daniel Popsicle and Bristle.

Video

New Ark

09-07-2014 at Berkeley Arts

08-08-2013 at Bows & Arrows