SWARMIUS: Edgy San Diego trio plays first concert Saturday, by George Varga, San Diego Tribune (1/31/2008)

"Swarmius," the debut album by the San Diego trio of the same name, should delight listeners with an appetite for edgy aural adventure. But it may also puzzle anyone who tries to describe the dizzying, multi-genre-leaping work produced by this freewheeling group, whose members' stage names (such as "Fiddlus El Gato") seem inspired by those of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band.

Swarmius' members gamely summarize their music as "an unlikely sonic fusion of hip-hop and lounge-techno meets modern-classical." It's a catchy monicker, even if it makes for a clumsy acronym - USFHPLTMMC? - more suggestive of an exclamation by Superman's impish nemesis, Mister Mxyzptlk.

But it doesn't really do justice to SWARMIUS' shape-shifting synthesis, which also draws from jazz, the Yoruba music of Nigeria, Eastern European klezmer, Indonesian gamelan, electronica, hip-hop, vaudeville, avant garde, and more.

If this sounds like the ultimate mash-up for hipsters, it probably is. But the members of SWARMIUS appear capable of more than crafting a meticulous studio creation that can't be reproduced live. This should be demonstrated at their Saturday album-release concert at the Neurosciences Institute Auditorium in La Jolla.

One of the most appealing qualities of SWARMIUS' music is how well it mixes acoustic instruments (specifically, violin, saxophone and vibraphone), with laptop computers. What results is simultaneously exotic and familiar, intricate and inviting. (You can order the CD online from swarmius.com.)

All three of the group's core members are music professors at SDSU. However, at just age 32 each, saxophonist Todd "Saximus" Rewoldt and violinist Felix "Fiddlus El Gato" Olschofka are young enough to be grad students, not faculty members.

The third member, Joe "Jozefius Rattus" Waters, 55, is the director of SDSU's electro-acoustic and media composition. Swarmius' album also features Oregon percussionist Joel "Crotalius Redfoot" Bluestone. He'll be featured at Saturday's concert, along with dancers Leslie Seiters, Ron Estes and Justin Morrison.

Swarmius' goal is to make classical music relevant and appealing to younger audiences. It's a daunting task, but the group seems up to the challenge and its album features some of the most enjoyable cutting-edge music I've heard in quite a while.