Using cut-out bin vinyl samples and audio field recordings, Paul Amitai takes the familiar and transforms it into something unexpected and sublime. With the typical tools of DJ performance (laptop, turntables, CDJs, effects) and live instrumentation (vocals, guitar, bass), Amitai melds composition and improvisation to construct dub-inspired soundscapes that shift through a variety of moods – from sparse, sun-dappled textures to thick sheets of distortion and deep, watery rhythmic pulses. Amitai has performed in collaboration with New York-based live video artists and VJs such as Benton-C Bainbridge, Giles Hendrix, and Zarah Cabañas.
Selected live performances (2005-8):
The Upgrade International, Skopje, Macedonia
Eyebeam, New York, NY
Issue Project Room, Brooklyn, NY
LEMURplex, Brooklyn, NY
Monkeytown, Brooklyn, NY
Hotel Pupik, Scheifling, Austria
Galapagos Art Space – Brooklyn, NY
Mercury Lounge – New York, NY
Milwaukee Art Museum – Milwaukee, WI
Knitting Factory – New York, NY
Links:
View video clip of live performance with Zarah Cabañas
Paul Amitai MySpace page
