BIMA presents Amra/Arma in tribute to composer/founder Stanley Lunetta

Amra Arma, the renowned Hyborean performance group, will be arriving in our century from the mists of eons past to perform at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26.

A spectacle of sound including percussion and vintage electronic instruments, the concert it a tribute to the late composer, and Amra Arma’s founder, Stanley Lunetta, who passed away in 2016.

It marks the performance groups first performance in more than 40 years.

Tickets are $15 each and available at www.amra-arma.brownpapertickets.com.

Amra/Arma combines the high technology of digital sound that Lunetta pioneered with the brute energy of primeval percussion and the aesthetics of Hyborian culture (derived from the mythos developed by pulp fiction authors Robert E. Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian), Michael Moorcock (author of “The Eternal Champion”) and H.P. Lovecraft (creator of the original Cthulhu canon).

The group premiered their unique sound at The International Carnival of Experimental Sound in London, England in 1972.

Lunetta was a well-known avant garde composer/performer/instructor who taught at the University of California, Davis and collaborated with the likes of John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Robert Ashley, Terry Riley, Allen Strange and Steve Reich. He was a self-taught digital electronic synthesizer inventor and builder, constructing machines that thought for themselves and, with the prodding of human beings, could compose and perform music spontaneously.

As a Tribute to him, the surviving members of Amra/Arma (Ken Horton, Kurt Bischoff and Karl Bischoff) have joined with brothers Jherek and Korum Bischoff (the sons of Kurt) to perform what promises to be a very special event.

Jherek Bischoff is a noted composer and performer in his own right, having collaborated with David Byrne, the Kronos Quartet, Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman. He recently acted as music director for the debut of Sandman, Robert Wilson’s latest production, and has had his album Cistern performed (and the video displayed in Times Square).

Korum Bischoff is a well-known local percussionist, instructor and is a member of the Grammy-nominated kindie rock band Recess Monkey.

This concert will feature some of Lunetta’s own musical sculptures and many different types of percussion instruments and sub-sonic and altered bass instruments.

Visit www.biartmuseum.org for more information.