(b.1975)
Originating from New Mexico, j.frede works as a composer, sound designer and installation artist. Frede has been residing in Los Angeles since 2002, previously living and working out of Colorado from 1996-2001. Traveling abroad consistently since 1998, his work has been presented throughout Europe as well as here in the United States.

The work of j.frede is primarily based in conceptual outlines that vary from project to project and have included such subjects as the acoustics of glass, piano tunings, freedom fighters, repetitive motion, and natural soundscapes to name a few.

Since 1996 Frede has been creating Sound Installations and has presented his conceptual based installations and sound sculptures throughout the United States. Working with lowercase sounds, j.frede arranges multi-channel compositions that are played through small speakers.

j.frede also does freelance work as a sound designer. Recently working with Tecktonic Shift studios on projects for Leapfrog and Sensorium. In 2003 “Blip: the glitch electronica standard reference” loops for acid CDROM was released by Sonic Foundry / SONY. Blip contains over 700 copyright free sounds for composers to use in their music, and was part of the extensive “loops for acid” series. Frede created this library along with C. Archuleta and is scheduled to release a second volume in 2004.

The Curatorial work of j.frede includes several events at The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art as well as The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Frede also founded the Denver Atonal Festival that ran for 5 consecutive years and presented over 50 artists. He also owned and operated the Chernobyl Tone Gallery in Denver, Colorado from 1999-2000 showcasing countless touring acts from the United States, Europe and Japan. Chernobyl was dedicated to sound art and a direct relation between visual art and music. A number of infamous performance art pieces were presented during its existence including the “bomb” performance and “vegetarianism” which was reminiscent of the 1960’s actionist movement. In 2000 he curated the audio portion of the Telluride International Experimental Cinema Exposition, which provided a continuous flow of sound and music throughout the festival.

j.frede as been invited as a guest lecturer at The University of Denver, (September 3rd, 2001) and at the Los Angeles Art Institute (May 10th 2004) to speak on various compositional techniques and the use of natural sounds in film scores.

| artistic overview

As a composer j.frede collects sonic atmospheres of both organic and manmade origin that are natural occurring in regards to the sounds source. Seeking out sounds that could be mistaken for synthetic or electronically created, frede arranges them into composition form and presents the work in both live perform and in the form of sound installations.

In the past frede has created computer or synthesizer based works, but primarily works with field recordings. Live j.frede utilizes a variety of software to create sound banks with real-time control to create soundscapes that range from quiet and minimal to dense surround sound performances.

Frede also works with acoustics from both instruments and objects to create subtle compositions. Two examples would be the quiet series performance in which a Indian banjo was used in a non traditional manner to create near silent sounds using the keys of the instrument and the resonating strings, the sound was slowly brought into the laptop and mixed subtlety into the sound system. Another other example is the "glass music" performance j.frede presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, using various sizes and shapes of water filled wine glasses j.frede and marleah tobin performed a drone based work using the resonating sounds of the glasses to create a think sonic environment, the duo was followed by a surround sound piece created by 6 performers and 27 wine glasses.

The installation work of j.frede is designed to create subtle listening environments in galleries and performance spaces. Each installation follows a conceptual basis and is achieved using multiple cd players, multiple small speakers, and compositions specific to the installation.

In 2003 the Selected Phonographies installation, was featured at the Soundvision Gallery in Portland Oregon in May 2003. The installation consisted of 24; 1 inch speakers divided into 3 stereo channels. The speakers where hanging from the ceiling of the gallery space in various lengths. The sound for the installation consisted of binaural field recordings from the United States and Europe. The recordings were arranged to enhance the binaural properties and to create new spatial properties for the visitors to experience. This piece was sold and is now installed in a private residence in Corvallis, Oregon.