|
Event
Sonic Arts Union: David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley (in memoriam)
Friday, July 20th, ISSUE presents the first evening of a two day series observing the legacy of late 60s-early 70s experimental music collective the Sonic Arts Union and its founding members: David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, and the late Robert Ashley (1930-2014). The series intersects the groups extensive individual performative histories with ISSUE and celebrates Sonic Arts Unions role in pioneering many practices that have since become essential to experimental performance in the United States, including the use of live electronics, homemade instruments, and multimedia presentations.
The July 20th program features newer works penned by the collective, performed by friends and collaborators including Oren Ambarchi, Steven OMalley, Bernhard Rietbrock, Jan Thoben, Joseph Kubera, Gelsey Bell, Aliza Simons, Dave Ruder, Trevor Saint, John King and Cleek Schrey.
The evening features the world premiere of Alvin Luciers Double Helix for four guitars, his second ever piece written exclusively for the instrument. The piece is performed by composer and multi-instrumentalist Oren Ambarchi and doom-metal legend of Sunn O)))) Stephen OMalley, who together gave the NY premiere of Luciers Criss-Cross at ISSUE in 2014, and additionally features Ever Present Orchestra director Bernhard Rietbrock and sound studies lecturer Jan Thoben to complete the quartet. Later in the program, glockenspiel performer Trevor Saint follows his exceptional performance of Luciers Richochet Lady at ISSUE in 2017 with the premiere of Tilted Arc, a new piece written by Lucier this year featuring bowed glockenspeil and pure wave oscillators.
Additionally, Gordon Mumma and leading interpreter of contemporary music Joseph Kubera stage Mummas 2006 composition From the Rendition Series, which combines piano and electronics with newly evolving construction-set procedures. Mumma, who rarely stages his work live, accompanies Kubera with electronics -- an incredibly rare opportunity to witness Mumma performatively engaging his compositions.
Vocalist Gelsey Bell then stages a recent 3-person arrangement of the late Robert Ashleys 1993 work Love Is A Good Example featuring Aliza Simons and Dave Ruder. Wide-ranging in its subject matter, from physics to schizophrenia, the piece features a title phrase interrupted by varying, often humorous intonations of the word sure.
The evening concludes with David Behrmans Long Throw performed by Joseph Kubera, John King, Cleek Schrey and Behrman himself. The piece was one of three works by three composers commissioned by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company as music for the 2007 dance, eyeSpace. Long Throw makes use of 21st Century digital technology -- music software and sound sensors -- and has performance roles for the core musicians of the Company in 2007: Christian Wolff, Takehisa Kosugi, John King and Stephan Moore. In Behrmans signature style of composing music that is partially-notated and partially based on interactive relationships between performers and laptop software, the piece has continued to change and develop from its 2007 inception, with this staging featuring newly notated components.
The program observes the Sonic Arts Unions multifaceted recontextualization of technical objects and their role in the formation of a new musical genre, live electronic music, as a specific achievement in the development of American experimental music. SAU formed in 1966 when Ashley, Behrman, Lucier, and Mumma, all of whom had worked together in the instrumental performances of the ONCE festivals, decided to pool their resources and help one another with the performance and staging of their music. The distinct democratic orientation of the union, and the composers individual contributions to non-hierarchical approaches to sound, technique, method, and technology developed a crucial context for the production of experimental music and culture in the United States into the 21st century.
PROGRAM:
Alvin Lucier: Double Helix (2018) - Oren Ambarchi, Stephen O'Malley, Bernhard Rietbrock, Jan Thoben
Gordon Mumma: From the Rendition Series (2006) - Joseph Kubera & Gordon Mumma
Intermission
Robert Ashley: Love is a Good Example (1993) - Gelsey Bell, Aliza Simons Dave Ruder
Alvin Lucier: Tilted Arc (2018) - Trevor Saint
David Behrman: Long Throw (2007/2018) - David Behrman, John King, Joseph Kubera, Cleek Schrey
|
|
 |
LocationISSUE Project Room (View)
22 Boerum Place
Brooklyn, NY 11201
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
|
Contact
|
