Avant Music News

The AvantFairfax Festival takes place on April 25 in Fairfax Virginia, and features a number of experimental acts.

From LA’s Monday Evening Concerts:

Upcoming Monday March 16
8 PM @ First Congregational Church:
Charlemagne Palestine’s Return

Charlemagne Palestine performs Schlingen-Blängen

Maverick American composer/performer Charlemagne Palestine has gained worldwide notoriety for his transcendental performances. Born in New York, Palestine emerged as a key figure in the “downtown” music and performance art scene there in the 1970s, and spent time in Los Angeles as a member of the CalArts community. Often compared to composers such as Philip Glass and LaMonte Young, Palestine’s music is perhaps more uncompromising and pure than that of his colleagues. Animated by an elemental spirituality, which is informed by his upbringing surrounded by the Jewish cantorial tradition, Palestine’s music is improvisatory in nature as the composer responds to the sonic phenomena generated by his playing. No two performances of his works are ever quite alike, and recordings only provide a rough facsimile of the richness of sound he is able to produce in live performance. Particularly noted for his organ composition Schlingen-Blängen, Palestine will perform this epic masterpiece in Los Angeles at the First Congregational Church, home to the world’s largest church pipe organ with over 20,000 pipes.

First Congregational Church of Los Angeles
540 S. Commonwealth Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90012