Avant Music News

From NY’s Kitchen performance space.

On Thursday and Friday, September 17 and 18, The Kitchen opens its fall performance season with a concert of live music featuring Matthew Welch’s Blarvuster and Electric Kulintang with Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez. This double-bill of composer-driven “band-sembles” reveals two approaches to the fusion of experimental and folk formulas, drawing heavily upon Eastern traditions and the sensibilities of storytelling to weave magical musical textures. Curated by Nick Hallett, the performances will take place at 8:00 P.M. at The Kitchen (512 West 19th Street). Tickets are $12.

Blarvuster is the “border-busting” sextet convened by composer Matthew Welch to play his original compositions, which connect the driving pulse of post-minimalism and rock to dynamic Balinese vocal melodies and rhythms. The ensemble features Leah Paul (flutes), Max Mandel (viola), Mary Halvorson (guitar), Ian Riggs (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums), while Welch helms with virtuosity, alternating between the Highland Bagpipe and full-throated vocalism. For more information, http://www.myspace.com/blarvuster.

Electric Kulintang is the collaboration between celebrated percussionist-composers Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez. The duo draws upon Filipino musical and folklore traditions to create new kinds of trance music, played on electronics, kulintang gong, and western drum kit. Electric Kulintang’s compositions also incorporate recordings of indigenous culture the pair has taken on recent voyages to the Philippines. For more information, http://www.electrickulintang.com

BLARVUSTER + ELECTRIC KULINTANG with Susie Ibarra and Roberto Rodriguez
Thursday and Friday, September 17 and 18, 2009 at 8pm
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
A, C, E, L trains to 14th Street
Tickets: $12
www.thekitchen.org