Ken Critchfield

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City Art Video

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Ken Critchfield is a psychologist (Ph.D. from University of Utah in 2002), bassist, and composer. His musical work involves experimental forms developed to explore aspects of dialogue, personality, and meaning. The CD "Foundation," produced in 1997 with the help of a Utah Arts Council/NEA grant involved use of extreme structure (e.g., rigid and minimalist compositional forms) to explore how organic, human elements impose themselves as "errors" relative to expectation with just the two "voices" of drums and bass. More recent work with the group "Seraphim," has involved use of free improvisation among a group of musicians and poets, allowing structure, pattern, and meaning to emerge in a very different musical context. Some of this work has been captured on the CD titled "Hearing Voices". The focus on patterns that emerge through dialogue parallels Dr. Critchfield's specialty area in psychology which involves focus on how personality and identity emerge from relatedness with others. This will be his third time performing for City Arts across the past decade or so, itself representing an interesting meditation on possible convergences between pattern and meaning found in literary forms, and those found in human "sound-making" more generally. This particular performance will involve new material involving solo improvisation on upright bass, followed by opportunities for audience discussion about the experience.