mwalker (Curator)

Back in February, Prince Rama emerged from a haze of smoke and mylar mirrors to assume the guise of The Now Age, a pseudo-utopian cult eager to lead their followers through a transformative series of rituals and initiations. Having reincarnated ISSUE's loft space as a cosmic aerobic center, glittering and psychedelic, the Larson sisters woke the sleeping audience with generous sprinkles of perfume and chakra water to lead them through an 8-hour marathon of body- and mind-altering exorcise/exercise routines -- part Jane Fonda, part Jodorowsky. Below, view some highlights from the exhausting rituals that left me cleansed of demons and self-identity (and unable to walk the next day).

This Thursday (September 8), Prince Rama will return as The Now Age to guide us through the next cycle of transformation, taking the form of a free-for-all, 4-hour jam session. With the aid of roughly 400 pounds of soil, ISSUE will again metamorphose into a sacred space -- removed from time and space and yet inextricably connected to the present moment -- for housing advanced rituals in which the audience and their shamanic leaders engage in utopian musical creation as "a poetic reenactment and microcosmic creation of an ideal democratic society." All participants are encouraged to please bring along their instrument of choice. Read more about the free event and RSVP here.

To ready your mind and body for the next stage of the journey, Prince Rama have shared their new single "Rest In Peace," off their forthcoming LP Trust Now (dropping on Paw Tracks on October 4). If you find yourself in need of more preparation, you can revisit their fantastic in-studio from Brian Turner's show here.

Tomorrow evening (11.6.10) ISSUE Project Room will host the third and final evening of our Minor Musics: Finland series - which has thus far presented Lau Nau, Kuupuu, Kiila and Tomutonttu -- with a special performance from Kemialliset Ystävät in collaboration with a staggeringly-long list of some of NYC’s most fascinating & stalwart psych/noise improvisers: Marcia Bassett, Michael Bernstein, Taylor Richardson, Tom Carter, Raphael Lyon, Samara Lubelski, Pete Nolan and Dave Nuss.

As a central aim, the Minor Musics program seeks to present to NY audiences a multi-faceted glimpse into a localized international community borne, at least in part, out of a set of geographical, cultural, and aesthetic affinities. As a finale to the series, it seems only logical to deepen this attempt at cultural exchange through a true cross-pollination – fostering a collaborative performance between Jan and one of New York’s own vibrant localized communities, as represented by a pretty hefty cross-section of major players.

As preparation for what will be an undoubtedly rich evening of blissed-out synthesis, I’ve put together a little mix highlighting a number of Mr. Anderzén’s forthcoming conspirators, not a few of whom are amply represented by the vast storehouse of the FMA. As a perfect link between the previous and final concerts of the series, the mix opens with a two-part set from K-Y’s 2008 appearance on Brian Turner’s WFMU show, in which we hear Jan supported by two of the Kiila men (Jaako Tolvi & Niko-Matti Ahti), as well as Dave Nuss, who will reprise his role on Saturday. From there, we move to the New York sect with tracks from Raphael Lyon’s solo project Mudboy, a song from Samara Lubelski’s Spectacular of Passages album, a track from Nuss’ No-Neck Blues Band (live at ISSUE, no less), another ISSUE archival recording in the form of Pete Nolan’s Spectre Folk project, and concluding with a 20-min jam from Marcia Bassett & Tom Carter’s Zaika duo project.

These types of coalescences don’t pop up too often….I would recommend taking advantage.

Minor Musics: Finland is made possible through the generous support of the American-Scandinavian Foundation; the Consulate General of Finland; and ESEK, the Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre; and Luses, the Popular Music Committee of the Foundation for the Promotion of Finnish Music, and the Arts Council of Finland.

Beginning tonight (11.3), ISSUE will host “Theoretical Music: No Wave, New Music, and the New York Art Scene, 1978-1983” a three-day event organized by art historian Branden W. Joseph and musician David Grubbs (Gastr del Sol, Bastro, Squirrel Bait, Red Krayola, etc) to take place at ISSUE Project Room.  Its purpose is to examine the intersections as well as the failed encounters of art, music, and cinema in downtown Manhattan from 1978-1983.  The festival commences this evening with a rare screening of James Nares' epic Rome '78 (starring Lydia Lunch, James Chance, John Lurie, amongst a host of other no wave luminaries). Tomorrow evening will feature an evening of panel discussions among some of the most notable figures to emerge from the art, music, and film scenes of the time (Dan Graham, Thurston Moore, Byron Coley, Kim Gordon, Nina Canal, John Miller & many more). The series concludes with a performance from crucial downtown band, Ut (playing their first U.S. show since '91) + an opening set from contemporary torch-bearers Talk Normal. Grab the three-day package set here.

In honor of Theoretical Music, Ut has offered a couple of tracks off their final studio album Griller (1989) produced by label-mate Steve Albini.  We've also included in the mix some Teenage Jesus & the Jerks (Lydia Lunch stars in James Nares' Rome '78, screened tonight), a track from Northampton Wools (Thurston Moore will speak on a panel discussion as part of the series), and an excellent jam from Talk Normal (live at WFMU on Marty McSorely's show!).

Formed in 1978, after Peter Gordon (speaking on Nov. 4th) introduced Sally Young and Jacqui Ham to ex-Gynecologists and ex-Dark Day member Nina Canal, Ut developed a distinctly dark sound based on free improvisation and spontaneous song writing. As with many No Wave bands Ut lacked a strong grounding in musical training, which they intentionally accentuated by changing instrumentation on each song. These methodological approaches channeled the raw energy of Ut’s song writing process into their live performances and finished songs.  Ut left the LES in 1981 to tour with The Fall and eventually settled in London releasing a number of albums, playing and recording until they disbanded in 1990.

After much lead-up and anticipation, ISSUE Project Room’s Minor Musics: Finland series commences this evening (10.29) with rare U.S. performances from Tomutonttu and Kiila (revisit/remix their music here). A two-part event, the program concludes with a second concert on 11.6 from Kemialliset Ystävät in collaboration with an excellent cast of NYC improvisers: Raphael Lyon, Samara Lubelski, Marcia Bassett, Tom Carter, Michael Bernstein, Pete Nolan, Taylor Richardson and Dave Nuss.

In honor of tonight’s concert, the lovely and enchanting Lau Nau & Kuupuu have shared a recording from their July performance at ISSUE, which served to first inaugurate the Minor Musics: Finland series. As a finale to their respective solo sets, the two women joined forces for a darkly gorgeous, loop-based improvisation – masterfully paced and seamlessly woven into a hauntingly evocative sound environment. Working in tiny bits of self-contained sound – quivering hand percussion, floating wisps of vocal melody, quiet swarms of synth drone – the ladies sent spinning upwards a continual stream of hypnotizing fragments ever-drifting towards the top of the sound mix. The effect was that of a slow but perpetual ascending motion without end – the feeling of swimming from the depths of an enveloping water towards a surface that somehow remains forever just out of reach. And yet, amidst the beautifully swirling and seductive textures, escape seems hardly the desired end.

Minor Musics: Finland is made possible through the generous support of the American-Scandinavian Foundation; the Consulate General of Finland; and ESEK, the Finnish Performing Music Promotion Centre; and Luses, the Popular Music Committee of the Foundation for the Promotion of Finnish Music, and the Arts Council of Finland.

As a farewell to this long hot summer, ISSUE Project Room is hosting a massive 8-hour concert in the courtyard of the Old American Can Factory, showcasing some of the inimitable Important Records labels' finest artists. The show will be capped off by the MASTER MUSICIANS OF BUKKAKE, who will materialize out of a murky cloud of smoke to make their first-ever appearance on the East Coast.

The list of luminaries extends into the ether: the return of noise/improv supertrio THE NEW MONUMENTS (C. Spencer Yeh, Graveyards percussionist Ben Hall, & Borbetomagus founder Don Dietrich), experimental Dutch lutist JOZEF VAN WISSEM, former ISSUE Artist-in-Residence DUANE PITRE,  krautrock minimalists CAVE, Japanese electronic artist KOUHEI MATSUNAGA, ultra-minimal single-harmony-performing CHORD, a collaboration between HELENA ESPVALL (of Espers) and FURSAXA (acid folk crooner Tara Burke), alt-folk duo ARBOREA, and therapeutic healer DIANE CLUCK.

To whet your appetites for the marathon, I've culled together an Important Records sampler mix from the FMA's vast wealth of riches. Mark your calendars.

Based on name alone, Backbreakerneckbrace already seem a worthy candidate for the effective execution of a grand finale. Based on their refined tendencies towards sensorial- liquefaction, Backbreakerneckbrace confirm their more than capable ability to bring ISSUE’s 5th annual Floating Points Festival to a dizzying, heaving-sigh-of-exhausted-satisfaction-inducing close. Utilizing the festival’s signature Stephan Moore-designed 15-channel Hemisphere speaker system, the group will present a number of new video animations and premiere a grid-based improvisation: Forcefields, Masks, Walls, Flow Patterns.

Comprised of the wife/husband duo of Dawn & Mike Haleta, Backbreakerneckbrace works in shades of throbbing static and electrical storm chaos. Spasmic shards of white noise erupt from pressure-cracks that line the walls of tunnels containing and channeling the seductive throb of beautifully sculpted drones and the crackling flames of tamed digital bonfires. Dawn constructs mesmerizing visual counterpoints to the aural overload, developing organically patterned images that alternately mirror, foreshadow, and comment on the movements of the sound – creating a symbiotic feedback-loop of influence and yielding a cohesive fusion of the optical and auditory senses.

Check the videos and audio below for a small-screen taste of the full-body experience that awaits on Friday. Also, for those unable to attend this week, Backbreakerneckbrace will appear at ISSUE in 2011 for a new world premiere as part of our Emerging Artists Commission series.

508Wall from backbreakerneckbrace on Vimeo.

Cycle412 from backbreakerneckbrace on Vimeo.

Dipping a few months back into our archive, I’m thrilled to be able to share the complete recording of the wonderful Nat Baldwin's solo set from May 22nd set at ISSUE (a bill he shared with the also-great Woody Sullender). Beyond being one my favorite songwriters to come around in the last decade (ignoring the somewhat strange arbitrariness of cataloguing albums based on calendar years, his Most Valuable Player album would have almost certainly taken the spot as my favorite album of 08, if I made such lists…which I do), Baldwin also wields his contrabass like an inextricable extension of his own body. At times, the connection between self and instrument feels so intimate and natural that concepts like ‘virtuoso’ feel irrelevant and platitudinous – like saying someone has a virtuosic ability to see with their eyes or walk down the street. As a result, evocations of Arthur Russell are rather difficult to avoid – indeed, Baldwin closed the set with a gorgeous take on Russell’s classic “A Little Lost” – but it’s more of a kindred spirit-type connection; Baldwin has certainly developed a wholly unique voice of his own.

Also like Russell, Baldwin manages to instill his haunting and effortlessly approachable tunes with an inseparable and organic layer of continuous experimentation that, rather than call attention to itself, pushes and propels the songs forward with a subtle but unmistakable tension – injecting the compositions with an alluring honesty and grounded vulnerability. The brief but viscerally emotional sections of free improvisation that commence and bifurcate the set (obligatory mention of his tenure as a pupil of Anthony Braxton) coalesce seamlessly into his structured songs, which in turn flow, one into the next, over a gentle cascade of perpetual motion eighth notes. Conventional demarcations of regular time are not so much evaded as made unnoticeable, and the elastic vocal melodies stream over the tops of the imperceptible bar-lines with an elegant freedom of movement. Time maintains a steady and immediate presence in the music yet the annoying but often difficult-to-avoid human tendency to insert artificial divisions remains refreshingly absent. Lovely stuff, for sure.

If you're looking for him around town, check his August 21 show at the Silent Barn with Dead Western, Skeletons, Little Women, and Nine 11 Thesaurus.

The term supergroup should not be bandied about lightly…or perhaps, used at all, considering possible connotations of ego-clashing wankery and undeserved hyperbole. Nonetheless, considering the ridiculously high caliber of musicianship/resumés/chemistry exhibited by the subjects at hand, I’m having a tough time resisting the urge to drop said nomenclature in reference to Volume(II) -- the new improv project of composer/electronic artist Stephan Moore, composer/flautist/electronic artist Suzanne Thorpe, composer/harpist/laptop-ist Shelley Burgon, and composer/avant-turntablist Maria Chavez …undeniable heavy-hitters in the Brooklyn/NYC experimental community that rack up a cumulative curriculum vitae about 100 times longer than I can provide in this forum. But to go ahead and rattle off a few: Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Mercury Rev, Stars Like Fleas, Ne(x)tworks, Thurston Moore, Pauline Oliveros, Lydia Lunch, etc, etc, etc.

This Friday (July 23) at ISSUE Project Room, the group will present their second-ever performance: a certain highlight of the fifth annual, Stephan Moore-curated Floating Points Festival – a month of new works utilizing ISSUE’s 15-channel Hemisphere speaker system (designed and constructed by Mr. Moore himself). Definitely not a performance to sleep on.

As a preview, the impeccable quartet has shared with us the full, 26-minute recording of their debut set - Volume(I) -  from last month at the White Box gallery, showcasing a pitch-perfect balance between the fluid, performer-blurring integration of naturally intuitive communicants and the compelling, narrative-driving friction of dynamic interaction between wholly individualistic personalities.

On the evening of Friday June 11th, William Basinski graced the beautiful future home of ISSUE Project Room with two absolutely transcendent performances of his work Vivian and Ondine, marking only the second pre-renovation concert held in the space. We were overwhelmed by the incredible audience turnout and support, and are thrilled that Mr. Basinski has generously offered to share the recording from the entire first set. Please enjoy this enchanting glimpse into what was a truly resplendent experience.

Basinski’s stunningly gorgeous loops emerge as uncontainable, gauzy strains of primeval elegance -- arrestingly affecting in a manner entirely separate from classifiable feeling, beyond quantifiable emotion, and wholly independent of the graspable thought-world. Left to disperse, expand, and dissipate around the marble columns and up into the canopy of the vaulted ceilings, the sounds and reverberations filled the space as if inextricably embedded into the fabric of their natural environment.

The performance connected me deeply to past memories, evoking kindred forms of indescribable emotion. I was reminded of what I found as a child to be the most profound experience possible – watching the sunset in isolation on the beach.  Waiting in the decaying light to be the only body left on the long stretch of sand, I would revel in the cascading shivers that would crawl down my back as water evaporated from my skin and I wrapped myself more tightly in a towel. Facing the sublime extension of the sea, I remember becoming enveloped in a comforting and serene form of abstract loneliness, an empowering type of isolation devoid of any tinge of yearning or melancholy.

ISSUE’s visionary founder Suzanne Fiol found immense peace in Vivian and Ondine, the work serving as her constant soundscape during the last few months of her life. After experiencing the work on Friday, I cannot imagine a more natural, more powerful form of solace and preparation.

This Wednesday, the one and only Matthew Mottel will wrap up his Artist-In-Residency at ISSUE Project Room with a FREE performance from the formidable powerhouse of insanity that is TALIBAM! Fresh off a jaunt to Bucharest and Italy, the dangerous duo will unveil a set of new material in "peak zone mode" (Mottel's words -- you best believe 'em!).

In honor of this closing of ceremonies, the boys have shot me over another droplet of dopeness to toss into the good ocean that is the FMA. Probably my fav track off their fantastic ESP-Disk'-released album Boogie in the Breeze Blocks, "Slap Yr Boots On! Oysters Await" is a whirlwind schizophrenic sprint that packs in some primetime Talibam! signifiers in top form...all in under 3 mintues. The never-gets-old hilarity of Matt and Kevin Shea's manic free association stage banter (sourced from a concert recording) serves as the basic germ for the song, appearing in the raw before being detonated and sent spinning in every which way. Check it below, in the company of a couple more choice Boogie gems.

Also, as a little bonus, hit the jump to peep a longish excerpt from a convo Mr. Mottel and I had about Talibam! back in late April. See ya Wednesday!