The Freight Elevator Quartet
The Freight Elevator Quartet in 1999.
Country	New York, New York, USA
Years active	1997 – 2003
Genres	Electronica Drum and Bass Downtempo Experimental Music Computer Music
Labels	Caipirinha/ Sire Cycling'74 Music
Members	R. Luke DuBois Paul Feuer Rachael Finn Stephen Krieger

The Freight Elevator Quartet (FEQ) were a music performance group specializing in improvised electronic music active in and around New York City. They performed and recorded continuously from 1996 to 2003, and collaborated extensively with experimental music artists such as DJ Spooky and Elliott Sharp, and avant-garde videographer Mark McNamara. Image File history File links Feq. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the state of New York and the entire United States. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A music genre is a category (or genre) of pieces of music that share a certain style or basic musical language (van der Merwe 1989, p. ... Electronica is a term that covers a wide range of electronic or electronic-influenced music. ... Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated to DnB or drum n bass) is a type of electronic dance music also known as jungle. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... Computer music is music generated with, or composed with the aid of, computers. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Caipirinha is Brazil’s national cocktail made with fresh fruit, ice, some sugar and Cachaça, pronounced IPA: . Cachaça is Brazils most common spirit, a distilled alcohol product made from sugar cane similar to rum. ... Sire Records Company is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Brothers Records The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer. ... Roger Luke DuBois (born September 10, 1975 in Morristown, New Jersey) is an American composer, video artist, programmer, record producer and pedagogue based in New York City. ... Philosophically, improvisation often focuses on bringing ones personal awareness into the moment, and on developing a profound understanding for the action one is doing. ... Electronic music is a term for music created using electronic devices. ... Nickname: Big Apple; City that never Sleeps; Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... DJ Spooky, That Subliminal Kid (born Paul Miller, 1970), is a Washington DC-born illbient and trip hop musician, turntablist and producer. ... Elliott Sharp (born 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer who has personified the avant-garde experimental music scene in New York City for over thirty years. ... Mark McNamara (born June 8, 1959 in San Jose, California), is an American former professional basketball player who was selected by the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1st round (22nd overall) of the 1982 NBA Draft. ...

In addition to using electronic instruments (originally analog synthesizers and drum machines, later laptops and samplers), they also sported fairly unusual acoustic instrumentation, having a cellist and a didjeridoo player in their regular line-up. FEQ began as a house band for a series of warehouse parties on 125th Street in New York City, famously playing their first gig in a freight elevator. Their eponymous first record, released in 1997, was completely made of live recordings from shows played in their first year of performing, featuring the lineup of Stephen Krieger on drum machine, Rachael Finn on amplified cello, Paul Feuer on didjeridoo, and R. Luke DuBois on a Buchla analog synthesizer. Their second and subsequent records saw the gradual expansion of their instrumentation (starting with Feuer doubling on keyboards and DuBois playing guitars) until by the time of their break-up in 2003 the entire band was effectively made of multi-instrumentalists. The field of electronics comprises the study and use of systems that operate by controlling the flow of electrons (or other charge carriers) in devices such as thermionic valves (vacuum tubes) and semiconductors. ... An analog or analogue signal is any continuously variable signal. ... A synthesizer (or synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument designed to produce electronically generated sound, using techniques such as additive, subtractive, FM, physical modelling synthesis, or phase distortion. ... A Boss DR-202 Drum Machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. ... A laptop computer or simply laptop (also notebook computer or notebook) is a small mobile personal computer, which usually weights 4-12 pounds (2-6 kilograms), depending on size, materials and other factors. ... A sampler can be any of the following things: In general, a sampler is any broadly representative cross-section of some collection; for instance, food products are sometimes packaged in samplers containing a variety of chocolates or beers. ... The violoncello, almost always abbreviated to cello, or cello (the c is pronounced as the ch in cheese), is a stringed instrument and a member of the violin family. ... The didgeridoo (or didjeridu) is a unique wind instrument of the Australian Aborigines of northern Australia. ... 125th Street is a two-way east-west street in Manhattan, considered the Main street of Harlem. ... A set of elevators or lifts, in the lower level of a London Underground station. ... An eponym is a person (real or fictitious) whose name has become identified with a particular object or activity. ... Roger Luke DuBois (born September 10, 1975 in Morristown, New Jersey) is an American composer, video artist, programmer, record producer and pedagogue based in New York City. ... Buchla & Associates is a manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, notably synthesizers. ...

As a conceptual project the Freight Elevator Quartet combined influences from experimental music and conceptual art as well as a strong interest in musical Futurism (played out in their joint recording with DJ Spooky, File Under Futurism). In their liner notes, they referred to themselves as a group of musicians in the present imagining the past imaging the future, a concept akin to the literary conceit of Steampunk; by combining cutting-edge (digital samplers and computers), obsolescent solid state (analog synthesizers), classical 18th Century (cello), and aboriginal (didjeridoo) instrumentation, the group deliberately confused the temporal reference point of their music. Stylistically FEQ was known to appropriate whatever genres they felt like, working to fuse different styles of breakbeat, drum and bass, downtempo, digital hardcore, rock, hip hop, classical, and, most conspicuously, academic computer music. Most of their recordings are culled from composite takes of live performances, though they have released two studio albums as well, both of which feature songs with guest vocalists, including Lorraine Lelis of the band Mahogany and Spezialmaterial recording artist Josh Druckman (as JMD). Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... Joseph Kosuth, One and Three Chairs (1965) Conceptual art, sometimes called idea art, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. ... Umberto Boccioni - Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. ... A rocket lands on the moon in Le Voyage dans la Lune, the film adaptation of Jules Vernes From the Earth to the Moon. ... A sampler can be any of the following things: In general, a sampler is any broadly representative cross-section of some collection; for instance, food products are sometimes packaged in samplers containing a variety of chocolates or beers. ... In physics, the solid state is one of the three phases of matter (solid, liquid, and gas). ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... Indigenous Australian music includes the music of Australian Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, who are collectively called Indigenous Australians, it incorporates a wide variety of distinctive traditional music styles practised by Indigenous Australian peoples, as well as a range of contemporary musical styles both derivative of and fusion with European... Look up genre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Breakbeat (sometimes breakbeats or breaks) is a term used to describe a collection of sub-genres of electronic music, usually characterized by the use of a non-straighted 4/4 drum pattern (as opposed to the steady beat of house or trance). ... Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated to DnB or drum n bass) is a type of electronic dance music also known as jungle. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Digital hardcore is a music genre or style that was first defined by Alec Empire. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Hip hop music is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. ... Classical music is the sweeping term applied to the musical tradition that is undethered and almost diametrically opposed to the popular music of contemporary culture. ... Computer music is music generated with, or composed with the aid of, computers. ...

The Freight Elevator Quartet were for many years the unofficial ensemble-in-residence of the Computer Music Center, Columbia University. An artist residency is a program where artists are given space to live or work for some time at reduced or no cost. ... The Computer Music Center (CMC) at Columbia University is the oldest center for electronic and computer music research in the United States. ... Columbia University is a private university whose main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of the Borough of Manhattan in New York City. ...

Members

• R. Luke DuBois - analog synthesizers, Max/MSP programming, laptop performance, guitars, bass, keyboards
• Paul Feuer - didjeridoo, digital synthesizers, banjo, percussion
• Rachael Finn - cello, effects processing, drum programming
• Stephen Krieger - drum programming, sampler performance, synthesizers, music production

also Roger Luke DuBois (born September 10, 1975 in Morristown, New Jersey) is an American composer, video artist, programmer, record producer and pedagogue based in New York City. ... Sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waveforms The modular synthesizer is a type of synthesizer consisting of separate modules which must be connected by wires to create a so-called patch. ... Alternate meanings: MAX Max is a graphical development environment for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling74. ... The didgeridoo (or didjeridu) is a unique wind instrument of the Australian Aborigines of northern Australia. ... The violoncello, almost always abbreviated to cello, or cello (the c is pronounced as the ch in cheese), is a stringed instrument and a member of the violin family. ... A Boss DR-202 Drum Machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument designed to imitate the sound of drums and/or other percussion instruments. ...

• Johnathan Lee - bass guitar, drum programming
• Ken Thomson - saxophone
• Mark McNamara - video artist

Discography

• The Freight Elevator Quartet (Electronic Music Foundation, 1997)
• The Freight Elevator Quartet's Jungle Album (Electronic Music Foundation, 1998)
• DJ Spooky vs. the Freight Elevator Quartet: File Under Futurism (Caipirinha/Sire, 1999)
• File Under Futurism EP (with DJ Spooky and A Guy Called Gerald) (Caipirinha/Sire, 1999)
• The Freight Elevator Quartet Becoming Transparent (Caipirinha/Sire, 2000)
• Exasperation EP (with JMD, Kit Clayton, Datach'i) (Caipirinha/Sire, 2000)
• The Freight Elevator Quartet Fix it in Post (Cycling'74 Music, 2001)

A Guy Called Gerald is the stage name for musician, record producer and DJ Gerald Simpson. ... Kit Clayton is the recording name of Joshua Kit Clayton, a San Francisco-based musician and programmer. ... Datachi is an electronic music band based in New York City. ...

External links

• The Freight Elevator Quartet Home Page
• Biography at the All Music Guide
• Interview (2001)