From the ISSUE Project Room:
Thursday, October 10th – 8:00pm
Yasunao Tone
Talibam!Well known as an active member of the Fluxus movement since 1962, Yasunao Tone’s expansive practice eschews standard notions of media and embraces contradiction. His most recent sets, harsh and scrupulous digital noise generated by his own modifications to the MP3 encoding system, have been called, “chaotic and highly charged, cerebral in its conceptual intent but with a bracing sense of urgency” (Wall Street Journal). Tone performs solo, sharing the bill with his recent collaborators Talibam!, a duo of 2010 Artist-In-Residence Matt Mottel (keys) and Kevin Shea (drums), who also celebrate their 10th anniversary this year.
Friday, October 11th – 8:00pm
Francesco Tristano
Byron WestbrookBarcelona-based pianist Francesco Tristano had already established a formidable reputation as a classical performer when he broke new ground with the release Not for piano, containing his compositions as well as acclaimed piano versions of Detroit techno classics. Known for exploring new shapes of the piano recital– including programs interpreted as a continuous playlist, or amplified through real-time processing– tonight his program includes his own works as well as Luciano Berio’s virtuosic Sequenza IV, and compositions by Dietrich Buxtehude and JS Bach.
Brooklyn-based electronic composer Byron Westbrook presents a new work exploring drones in the form of high speed playback and fast interlocking pulses. Informed by the harmonic series, Westbrook uses multi-channel dispersion techniques that dynamically respond to the space in performance.
Saturday, October 12th – 8:00pm
Barbara Sukowa & The X-Patsys
Rhys Chatham
at The Kitchen: 512 West 19th St. NYCThe X-Patsys is a musical project started in 1998 by three close friends: actress Barbara Sukowa and artists Robert Longo and Jon Kessler. Kessler had a dream in which he saw Sukowa dressed as a country- western singer belting out legendary Patsy Cline songs. He told his vision to Sukowa and Longo, and together they used it as inspiration to form The X-Patsys, initially performing Patsy Cline songs, transforming them into a new sound that was dark, moody, and dramatic. Tonight ISSUE collaborates with the Kitchen to present the X-Patsys founding members joined by extraordinary musicians Anthony Coleman, Knox Chandler, Jonathan Kane, and Ernie Brooks.
Rhys Chatham opens with a performance of his legendary Guitar Trio (1977), joined by David Grubbs, Karen Haglof and the X-Patsys players. With a single, repeated chord, gritty, overtone-drenched minimalism crosses with the elemental fury of punk. The amalgamation energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, and made Chatham a founding father of the No Wave movement.
Coming Up:
Thursday, October 17th – 8:00pm
Ben Vida: Damaged ParticulatesFriday, October 18th – 8:00pm
Tony Conrad / Amen Dunes & Tom Thayer / Lee NobleSaturday, October 19th – 8:00pm
William Basinski / Aki Onda & Raha Raissnia
Avant Music News 