Alex Meltzer playing bass during Music at 12 Event. Photo by Trey Copeland

By Quinton Prudhomme
Co-Editor-in-Chief

“You buy one sampler, and then you buy the second one, and then you start putting them together, and then you buy another one,” said Alex Meltzer, an electronic beat maker and bass player during the music department’s Tuesday at 12 music series on Jan. 28.

The events takes place every term to provide free live music on campus to Clackamas Community College’s students and community. The service also allows students in the music department to talk with professional musicians and gain valuable perspective on the industry.

“We want to give students a chance to experience live music on campus from professional performers.” said Lars Campbell, department chair for the music department. “Every term we put on at least two concerts and provide that to the students at no cost.”

Alex Meltzer holding up a piece of his drum equipment. Photo by Trey Copeland

The group performing was Left of Center, composed of Meltzer and Machado Mijiga. Left of Center utilizes live mixing and looping and sequencing of prerecorded samples using drum machines done by Meltzer, who also plays electric bass, while Mijiga plays live drums. The performances are all improvised with one improvising off the others sound and rhythm.

Listening to Meltzer and Mijiga play was almost like watching a tennis match. You could tell one was responding to the other, like a volley after a serve. This unique format lended to unique sounds and a feeling that you were watching the duo’s creative process live in person.

The duo has known each other for six years, but didn’t start  working together frequently until this year.

Machado Mijiga playing drums at the Music at 12 event. Photo by Trey Copeland

“We collaborated a couple times, really briefly, but until, really this last year, I kind of hit Alex up and was like, ‘We should do something,’” said Mijiga.

“Essentially, when you work with electronics, a lot of times you have a set you figured out with your songs, and you know a certain way to do them, you work out music that way, but it’s cool to approach it this way,” continued Mijiga “And I was kind of, I was trying to nudge Alex to really figure this out, because he has both the knowledge and the gear to essentially do what we’re doing now, which is like taking things that should theoretically be used to make super framework based music and doing it in a totally free way.”

Left of Center released a self-titled album on New Year’s Eve which can be found on Bandcamp. The group will be playing a show in March at the Lollipop Shoppe, a music bar in SE Portland’s industrial district. You can also find Meltzer and Mijiga on Instagram for updates regarding their music.