From Vietnam, a music mix
Perhaps you are lucky enough to have heard a master of the khene mouth organ perform. Or maybe you know the coconut fiddle and the T'rung xylophone well. But Allen Barker of Wayland wants to be sure you have a chance to discover the music of Vietnam either way.
It took Barker months to book the busy Phong Nguyen Ensemble, which performs worldwide and often in esteemed halls. The quartet will perform a concert of Vietnamese music and dance tomorrow to open the Wayland Little Theatre's 42 d season.
"This is really a rare opportunity to hear this kind of music. It's so full of color.... It's really a whole new musical vista," said Barker, a concert pianist who lives in Wayland and organizes the free concert series.
The quartet is led by Phong Nguyen, who plays more than 20 traditional instruments. Raised in the Mekong Delta, Nguyen began studying music with a village master at age 5. From there his training grew more and more interesting.
"My family couldn't afford tuition to send me to school so they sent me to a Buddhist temple instead," said Nguyen. "And while I was there I learned an extensive repertoire of Buddhist music."
By 13, he had taken up formal music and performing. Eventually he would write pop songs, immerse himself in the folk music of the lowlands, and learn to play the instruments of the highlands from tribal elders. Then, after fleeing Vietnam in 1974, Nguyen, now 59, studied ethnomusicology at the Sorbonne. Today he divides his weeks between teaching at Kent State University and touring in concert.
"I've made it my mission to make this music more and more available," he said. "Music is culture, and unless we know the music, we can't understand the culture."
The Phong Nguyen Ensemble performs at 8 p.m. tomorrow at Wayland High School, 264 Old Connecticut Path . Donations accepted. Call 508-358-4304 or visit wayland.americantowns.com.
OTHERWORLDLY WORKS -- Were it not for a pile of sand, a wandering deer, and a lucky discovery about digital cameras, ArtSpace Maynard's current exhibit would be quite different -- as would the lives of photographers Erik Hansen and Andrew Child.
Hansen and Child each have a studio at ArtSpace. By day, they are commercial photographers. They take crisp, clean, orderly pictures aimed to help corporate products sell, and they do it well. Their clients include Apple, Gillette, General Electric, and Bose.
But four years ago, unbeknownst to each other, each turned his camera toward the surreal -- leaving the earthbound product shots of their day jobs far behind.
Now, in their spare time, each creates otherworldly images, works that ArtSpace director Jero Nesson describes as "striking and alien, but very accessible at the same time." Each can trace the shift back to a specific event.
For Hansen, who builds and photographs stark "imaginary landscapes" that hover between the eerie and the ethereal, it began with decorating.
"I needed to fix up my studio for ArtSpace's open house, and I decided to get a bunch of rocks and sand and put them on a table," said Hansen, who lives in Maynard. "And before I knew it, I was pushing them around and creating a sort of 'set,' and I decided to photograph it."
To his surprise, the images attracted interest. "I got really good feedback and sensed I should keep going with it, and over time I realized I was photographing landscapes, imaginary landscapes," said Hansen, 60. "It just kind of stumbled out into the studio and there it was."
Now, after 30 years of corporate work, Hansen spends his free time like a kid with an elaborate sandbox -- and a lot of professional lights. Working mainly with sand, rocks, foil, and, lately, spray foam insulation (to make "blobby images"), he creates miniature worlds and shoots them in black and white.
"They represent the past and the future, places you can imagine but can never go to," he said. "And it's all by hand. I don't do anything digitally. They're like private installations that are not seen, but rather photographed."
His influences include old sci-fi movies and pictures of World War II. So, with both war and the idea of a dangerous future making their way into his work, his images, though abstract, can be sobering.
"I like to tease a little bit," he said. "I like people to be drawn in but then wonder if they want to go any farther."
Child, meanwhile, said he found his way to fine art mainly because he's "a nerd." He's part of a new wave of photographers working in near-infrared digital color, a process that creates intense and unnatural hues. He developed his own approach by fiddling with his camera.
"I've always been drawn to technical challenges, and I've always loved infrared photography. So, when I figured out how to do it on a digital camera, I got really excited about it," said Child, who lives in Acton. But his corporate clients were less enthused, so he began shooting on his own and found his artistic voice.
"I really loved the way that it looked, and the surreal sense of tone that you get. And as I started shooting more and more of it, I realized I was drawn to things that were falling apart," said Child, 41.
So he's into entropy, as in the second law of thermodynamics, which states that all things tend toward chaos.
"I'm fascinated with the notion of things slipping into disorder and realizing that it's not necessarily bad," he explained.
Though his photographs focus on objects in decay -- perhaps a rusting car or a stone ruin -- they pulse with vivid, energetic, hallucinatory hues. The infrared is not just a gimmick, it's an attitude about acceptance of change that's actually rather Zen -- Technicolor Zen.
But getting back to that marauding deer, Child would not even be a photographer had it not been for a camping trip he took with his roommate during his freshman year in college.
"It's one of those weird happening stories," he said. "A deer ran through our campsite, and we both ripped out our cameras, and I had this tiny instamatic
"Afterward, when we got our pictures back, mine were all terrible, and his were pretty good. So because I liked his pictures, I got a 35mm camera. I kind of caught the bug from there. It became a passion."
So does he owe his life path to a wandering quadruped? "Actually, more to my roommate," he said. "He also introduced me to my wife. But that's another story."
"Remembrance & Conjecture: Photographers Explore the Arrow of Time" runs through Nov. 17 at ArtSpace Maynard, 63 Summer St. in Maynard. Open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. Admission is free. Call 978-897-9828 or visit artspacemaynard.com, andrewchild.com , and erikhansenphotography.com.
A TASTY WHODUNIT -- The Full Circle Theatre of Milford is back in mystery mode with its second annual dinner theater, "Noir Suspicions."
Guests will be treated to live music and a four-course meal that just might be interrupted by a few bodies. As the action starts, one person is no longer alive, a shipment of handcuffs has disappeared down at the docks, and there's a nasty case of blackmail afoot.
"We serve up the plot between courses," said director Gloria Dewar of Milford. "And it's audience-interactive. The action is done to, near, and at the audience."
"Noir Suspicions" runs Nov. 3-17 at Mickey Cassidy's, 116 Main St. in Medway, and at Pinz Bowling Alley, 110 South Main St. in Milford. Tickets $38 (includes dinner and show). Reservations required. Call 508-473-1684.
PICKIN' PARTY -- It's official. The Boston Bluegrass Union knows how to throw a thigh-slappin', foot-stompin', hootenanny of a party. In September, this Newton-based group's Joe Val Bluegrass Festival was awarded the prestigious Event of the Year Award for 2006 by the International Bluegrass Music Association, beating out 500 festivals worldwide for the prize.
On Sunday, the Union's Regional Showcase, a smaller cousin of the Val Fest, takes place in Newton. The event will feature pickin' parties (improv bluegrass jams), performances by regional bluegrass favorites, and a concert by the Kids Academy band, comprising 7- to 13-year-olds who take part in the Union's free monthly music lessons for children. Featured bands will be Monadnock and Frank Drake's Short Life of Trouble.
"It's just a great evening of family fun," said Union director Gerry Katz. "You can just mosey from room to room and have a good time."
The Showcase will start Sunday at 5 p.m. at Second Church, 50 Highland St. in West Newton. Tickets are $6; younger than 12 admitted free. Call 617-782-2251 or visit bbu.org for full schedule. Have an arts event? E-mail westarts@globe.com. 
