momentov at The Gateway

Among the various artists who participated in the Infringement Festival this year was Buffalo based band momentov, who played their second show at The Gateway on Saturday, 31 July. momentov consists of just two members: Liz Holland, a native of Buffalo, and Veronica Alvarez, who was born in Seville, Spain, but was raised closer to home in Albany. Starting off with Veronica on guitar and Liz on drums, their music formed an electronic rock suite as they weaved in and out of each song, creating an artistic "whole" over the course of a 45-minute set. While there are only two people in the group, they are a complete band with guitar, bass, drums, keys, and the skilled use of Ableton. Ableton allows each of them to be, in a sense, a one-man band. Humorous images aside, each musician starts by playing an instrument. Ableton then allows that musician to loop their sounds as they are playing, and to then move on to additional instruments. Abelton is a loop based software, designed for live performance by Ableton AG.  Based in Berlin, Germany, Ableton AG has been a pioneer in the music software industry since 1999  (http://www.ableton.com). Although capable of pre-recording parts of their set, momentov prefers to play, and then loop, each of the sounds during the show. This helps foster a more immediate sense of artistic creation with the audience, as they watch each performance played first, before being looped. The pair was enthusiastically received, and has already begun to build a following in the community. The duo formed their group in March of this year, but has been playing together in various bands for approximately five years. They had previously played for Infringement at the Vault earlier in the week, and especially enjoy playing to the musically open-minded. They are currently working on their first album, which will be released 1 November 2010. The band’s website can be viewed at: Http://www.momentov.com"