Pittsburgh Cultural Trust to Host SPACE Summer Series at SPACE Gallery

The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust announces live performances for the Music SPACE series summer concerts at SPACE gallery the last Friday of each month. These all-ages performances showcase a variety of unique sounds from musical talent in the Pittsburgh area. Tickets are $5 at the door. Doors open at 8 p.m., and shows begin at 8:30 p.m.

Live performances by "ambient dream-pop" group Sleep Experiments and "melting pop" group The Van Allen Belt kick-off the summer Music SPACE series Friday, July 25.

"I developed this series, together with Andy Mulkerin, music editor of Pittsburgh City Paper, with the goal of extending SPACE's programming in a way that would not only feature stellar, interesting local music, but also complement the curated visual exhibitions," says Amy Staggs, curatorial assistant at Wood Street Galleries and co-curator of Music SPACE. "Our hope is that these exciting, energetic bands will attract downtown residents and people throughout the Pittsburgh region to the Cultural District to experience everything this vibrant neighborhood has to offer."

FRIDAY, JULY 25
Sleep Experiments is comprised of musicians Phil Jacoby, Phil Johnson, and Morgan Stewart. The Pittsburgh-based band creates an intimate and dreamlike space for the listener to reflect and absorb the band's ethereal sounds, using two guitars, keyboard, vocal loops and harmonies, and a bit of beatbox.

B.K. Ferris (keyboard), Tamar Kamin (vocals), Tom Altes (bass/guitar), and Scott Taylor (drums) make up Pittsburgh-based The Van Allen Belt. Originally created to emulate and re-contextualize the sounds of 1960s pop, the group has developed a performance that includes a multimedia installation, incorporating video with a juxtaposing sonic identity composed of heavy beats and angelic vocals, mixed and effected on stage. Currently working on its sixth album, the group still escapes categorization.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29
Jasmine Tate is a Pittsburgh-based singer-songwriter with roots in gospel music and a goal to connect one-on-one with each audience member. Her music has taken her across the country to perform at colleges, coffee shops, and on national television. The Jasmine Tate EP-soulful, acoustic renditions of five songs from Tate's notebook-debuted at number nine on the iTunes singer/songwriter list.

CATALOGUING PATTERN
During each performance, guests experience the visual art exhibition Cataloguing Pattern, a collaborative meditation on the role of pattern in artistic practice. The exhibition, guest organized by Kristen Letts Kovak, investigates the links between visual, perceptual, and cognitive patterning, and it features more than 50 artworks by nine artists. Each artist chose one aspect of patterning to investigate: seriality, rhythm, rehearsal, behavior, permutation, morphology, expectation, and repetition. The exhibition in on view at SPACE through August 31, 2014.