This group performs with instruments designed by Oliver DiCicco, known for his lovely struck and plucked creations such as the Trylon, the Oove, and the Carollina.

The great American maverick Harry Partch once said he was “seduced into musical carpentry” by his desire to bring forth unconventional tunings and tonalities. His fantastical instruments-the Surrogate Kithara, Marimba Eroica, Chromolodeon, and Cloud-Chamber Bowls, among others-were not odd by design, but by “philosophic purpose.” Add to this the integration of dance, stagecraft, and ritual, and you have a Partchian “total theater” driven by his compelling microtonal music. Delusion of the Fury: A Ritual of Dream and Delusion is Partch's masterwork, recorded live by Madeline Tourtelot at UCLA in 1969. Conjoined fables are told, one Japanese, the other African, a ghost story colliding with farcical folklore. Enveloping the production are the intricate, aural rhythms and harmonies the composer employs to coax nimble and dramatic nuance from the parable. With twenty-five of Partch's instruments onstage, Delusion of the Fury is at once ethereal, primal, and resounding in its stirring musical departures. (71 mins, Color, 16mm, From The Harry Partch Foundation and Archive)

Tonight's program includes Suspended Music (Ellen Fullman, U.S., 2004), a collaborative performance with Pauline Oliveros's Deep Listening Band and Ellen Fullman's Long String Instrument. Fullman, a recent Bay Area resident, has edited a special version of this concert with its “marvelously labyrinthine harmonies.” (20 mins, Color, Mini-DV, From the artist)