Entries tagged with: ACME

18 result(s) displayed (1 - 18 of 18):

Steve Reich

Modern composer Steve Reich, who celebrated his 75th birthday earlier this year, will be in attendance when his "WTC 9/11" piece gets its "all live" premiere at Le Poisson Rouge on Tuesday (9/11).

While the piece had its world premiere at Carnegie Hall back in April (and other places since), the Kronos Quartet played along with two other pre-recorded "string quartets," so this will be the first time it will be performed entirely by onstage musicians, in this case the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). Tickets for the show are available and the performance will stream live on NPR starting at 7:30 PM EDT. Additionally, Reich will join New York Public Radio host John Schaefer for a discussion of his work before the concert begins.

Other pieces being performed at the LPR show are "Different Trains" and "Triple Quartet." Reich's work continues to be performed around the world. On September 27 you can see his "Daniel Variations" at Trinity Wall Street church as part of their "Concerts at One" series. A full list of Steve Reich pieces being performed in concert worldwide is at his website.

Liturgy at Webster Hall in February (more by Amanda Hatfield)
Liturgy

If you've noticed a handful of interesting shows at The Stone happening next week, like the acoustic Vaura show (4/20) or the Amen Dunes and Guardian Alien show (4/17), they're part of Chippy Fest, which goes down at John Zorn's non-profit venue from April 17-22, and was curated by John Zorn's exclusive designer Heung-Heung Chin (aka Chippy)

On April 21, the night after Vaura plays, Toby Driver (who is a member of Vaura and also fronts Kayo Dot/maudlin of the Well) will present the world premiere of his new trio, Ichneumonidae, which includes violinist Timba Harris (of Secret Cheifs 3) and Michelle Morinaga. That same night, Toby also plays as a member of Stern with Chuck Stern, Keith Abrams, and Tim Byrnes.

As mentioned, Kayo Dot, Vaura, and Dysrhythmia share a bill at DBA on 4/28.

Other 'Chippy Fest' shows include Mick Barr (of Krallice), Hunter Hunt-Hendrix (of Liturgy), and Nymph on Wednesday (4/18) and Miho Hatori (with Ahmed Gallab of Yeasayer), Timo Ellis, and Unstoppable Death Machines on Thursday (4/19). The Stone's full calendar is here.

Speaking of Mick Barr, his music and William Brittelle's music will be performed by ACME: American Contemporary Music Ensemble on May 11 at 12 at The Kitchen. ACME players for this concert are Caleb Burhans (violin, banjo, and voice), Clarice Jensen (cello), Eric Lamb (flute), Megan Levin (harp), Caroline Shaw (violin), Nadia Sirota (viola) and Chris Thompson (percussion). Tickets are on sale now.

Speaking of Hunter Hunt-Hendrix, he kicks off a residency at Issue Project Room on Saturday (4/14) with Liturgy bandmate Bernhard Gann. The show is free but "sold out". Other dates in the "3-month residency" have not been announced yet but presumably will be soon.

Meanwhile, Hunter's ex-bandmate Greg Fox's Guardian Alien project (who also plays The Stone next week) plays Death by Audio TONIGHT (4/13) with Black Pus (of Lightning Bolt), Mounds, Buck Gooter, and Alien Whale. Guardian Alein will return to DBA on 5/11 with DJ Dog Dick and 2 Ton Bug.

photos by David Andrako

Mikael Karlsson & Mariam Wallentin

ACME is Nadia Sirota (viola), Clarice Jensen (cello), Chihiro Shibayama (percussion), Andrew Rehrig (flutes), and Alicia Lee (clarinets). On March 1st, ACME performed with Mariam Wallentin and Mikael Karlsson at Merkin Concert Hall as part of the ongoing Ecstatic Music Festival (which continues on March 17th with Oneida and Rhys Chatham). The show was described like this:

Mariam Wallentin, hailed for her "beyond gorgeous" voice in the band Wildbirds & Peacedrums, teams up with acclaimed composer Mikael Karlsson to create a new song cycle, The Spirit & the Cloud, performed with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble ("some of New York's brightest, busiest players." The evening will also include a selection of Karlsson's instrumental compositions and arrangements of Wildbirds & Peacedrums songs for Wallentin and ACME.
Check out more pictures from the event, and the full setlist, below...

Continue reading "Mariam Wallentin of Wildbirds & Peacedrums played w/ Mikael Karlsson & ACME @ the Ecstatic Music Festival (pics)"

Robert Sirota
Robert Sirota

As BroadwayWorld.com writes (which may or may not be a press release):

"The world premiere performances of composer Robert Sirota's opera, ISCARIOT, which were previously announced as being presented at Trinity Wall Street's St. Paul's Chapel as part of the Festival of New Music this spring, have been canceled as part of the institution's cutbacks to its arts programming which were announced earlier this month. The opera had been scheduled for three performances on May 25, 26, and 27, 2012. The performers were to have included members of the Trinity Choir with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). ISCARIOT was to have been produced by Beth Morrison Projects."
That is horrible news and "no further performances of ISCARIOT have been scheduled at this time." BUT:
Robert Sirota's chamber opera The Clever Mistress, based upon a story from The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio, will have its New York premiere performances on April 23 and 30, 2012 as part of The Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival at Symphony Space. On May 2, Victoria Sirota will give the world premiere of his new organ work, holy ghosts, commissioned to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the installation of the historic Appleton Organ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Upcoming performances for ACME include the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall in New York, NY (March 1), Stanford Lively Arts in Palo Alto, CA (March 4), the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts in Burlington, VT (March 23), and at The Kitchen in New York in May.
The Ecstatic Music Festival begins on February 4th. The schedule includes performances by Jherek Bischoff (with many special guests including Mirah), yMusic, Zammuto, tUnE-yArDs, The Mountain Goats, and many more. Check out their site for the most up to date information.

photos by Richard Termine, words by Andrew Frisicano

Tell The Way

At Friday's performance, Nico Muhly warned early on that Tell the Way--a loosely tied together collection of 11 songs--would be a "casual sort of thing." He was right, for the most part; its compositions skirted around the unifying theme of travel in a range of styles: Sam Amidon's traditional folk songs; Bishi's eclectic, musical-theater-inspired chansons; the ever-busy Bryce Dessner's slow-building "Tour Eiffel," with dramatic vocal swoops that mimicked its subject; and Nico's unifying arrangements and short compositions. The voices of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus brought the works together in a brief 65-minute program, which moved quickly and offered small treats along the way (the three-night run at St. Ann's Warehouse finishes tonight, and a few tickets are still on sale).

More than any thematic thread, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus gave the evening consistency, as did ACME, who performed as a string quartet with a trombonist and a percussionist attached. The two groups had fun with the material, especially Muhly's pieces, which he composed with inspiration from historical texts (The Book of Common Prayer, and the travel writings of Sir John Mandeville) and commissioned texts (like the humorous, bite-sized "A Korean Girl," by writer Mary HK Choi, which inspired giggles at the appropriate moments).

Each composer brought what was basically their signature dish, with the wild card being Bishi, a British singer who I knew nothing about before the show, other than that she played the sitar. The sitar was the least of her contributions, the foremost of which was sheer stage presence. Her compositions--and her entrances, first in a coat of white fur (fake we hope) with hair done up like a Cinnabon, then in a black-and-white corset and skin-tight pants--added some danger and surprise to the program.

Bishi's singing was similarly attention-grabbing: a cabaret-style coo that blended with and added depth to the chorus (where someone like Sam Amidon sounded distinct and other). The theatricality of a musical pulsed through the songs, with Bishi as the preening lead. "Look the Other Way," her second number, progressed with a martial beat before delivering a string of awesomely WTF moments: a synthesized disco beat, then a man in white-tie formal-wear adding Vincent Price-esque narration, and finally a heavy metal breakdown with crushing drums and Bryce Dessner shredding away. Of course, it was also delivered with a wink. "That's probably the most metal guitar Bryce has played since high school," said Nico, of the best part of the evening.

A few more pictures from the show are below...

Continue reading "Nico Muhly's 'Tell the Way' in review & pics (Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Sam Amidon, ACME, Bishi & Bryce Dessner included) "

Ecstatic

As previously announced, the 2011 Ecstatic Music Festival, presented by New York City's Merkin Concert Hall in association with New Amsterdam Records, is a showcase of imaginative collaborations between more than 150 genre-pushing composers, songwriters and performers who represent a new generation of artists combining diverse influences and techniques to explore the intersection of classical and pop music. All concerts will include premieres. The festival opens with a free seven-hour marathon on January 17, 2011, and continues with 13 additional concerts until March 28, 2011. All concerts will take place at Merkin Concert Hall.
The Ecstatic Music Festival 2011 is almost here. Subscriptions and single show tickets are on sale. The full updated schedule (tUnE-yArDs, So Percussion, Dan Deacon, Craig Wedren, ACME, Nadia Sirota, Buke & Gass, Doveman, Owen Pallett, Bang On A Can All-Stars, and more included), and a trailer, below...

Continue reading "Ecstatic Music Festival kicks off on 1/16, runs through 3/28 (updated schedule w/ tUnE-yArDs, Dan Deacon, Owen Pallett)"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: William Brittelle - Sheena Easton (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: William Brittelle - Dunes of Vermillion (MP3)

William Brittelle

Composer William Brittelle will be hosting an album release show on Tuesday, August 3rd at LPR for his new record, Television Landscape, which came out July 27th on New Amsterdam Records (a label he co-founded).

The ACME Quartet will open the night with a premiere from Brittelle's new electroacoustic project Future Shock, first the multi-movement string quartet Future Shock II (for string quartet), followed by a performance of his Future Shock I (for viola) with celebrated violist Nadia Sirota, which debuted in September as part of New Amsterdam Records' Archipelago Series. ACME will end the first set with new Shock piece Soft Animal, a work for harp trio featuring multi-instrumentalist Caleb Burhans on banjo and vocals.

For the second set, Brittelle will perform with an 8-person ensemble of esteemed musicians from groups such as the NOW Ensemble, The Long Count, Jerseyband, and the Respect Sextet to present his genre-bending Television Landscape album (released July 27th on New Amsterdam Records) in full, including a never-heard-before extended version of song "Pegasus in Alcatraz." This will also be his first live vocal performance in years.

The story behind William's vocal ailments (aka why he hasn't sung publicly 6 years) and a brief history of his work is up at the NY Times.

Two songs from the album are above: the anthemic, lushly-scored soft-rock ballad "Sheena Easton," which features a guitar solo by new music shredder Mark Dancigers and vocal support from Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and "Dunes of Vermillion," a tune that falls between breathy pop serenade and post-rock soundscape, with an earful of cooing, robot-tinged vocals. The whole record is streaming at New Amsterdam.

Tickets for the concert are on sale, and we have two pairs to give away. A flyer for the show and details on the contest are below...

Continue reading "William Brittelle released a record, playing a show (win tix) "

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Corey Dargel - Fingers (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Corey Dargel - Touch Me Where It Counts (MP3)

Corey Dargel & Co.
Corey Dargel

The final show of the monthly Archipelago music series at Galapagos will take place Friday, May 21st (tonight). Singer/composer Corey Dargel is using the show as a release party for his new record, Someone Will Take Care of Me, out May 25th on New Amesterdam. That double album includes two song cycles, Thirteen Near-Death Experiences and Removable Parts, which he'll be performing songs from at the show with the help of International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), pianist Kathleen Supove and drummer David T Little. The two songs are from the record (one from each work).

Also performing at the concert will be American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) and singer Craig Wedren (from Shudder to Think), who will be debuting songs by composer Jefferson Friedman. The three have worked together in the past - videos from their performance of Friedman's song cycle On in Love at Miller Theatre in 2009 are posted below.

Friends-
please join me on Fri, May 21 for a rare and awesome evening of new music that will blow minds.
For the last year or so, composer Jefferson Friedman and I have been collaborating on a song cycle which fuses/abuses classical and vocal music, essentially smashing both traditions wide open and shooting the whole thing on an orchestral rocket to the moon. I'll be singing with ACME (the American Contemporary Music Ensemble), and we'll be premiering 3 new pieces in addition to the 3 we debuted last year.
Hope to see you listening.
Thanks,
Craig
Tickets are on sale ($5 off with code "NEWAM"). BrooklynVegan also has a pair of tickets to give away. Details on the give-away, videos and more info on the show are below...

Continue reading "Corey Dargel releasing a new album (MP3s), playing w/ Craig Wedren, ICE, ACME & others (tonight) (win tix)"

by BBG

Carl Craig, one of the many artists at Unsound 2010
Carl Craig
Unsound

Since 2003, Unsound Festival, Poland's most adventurous music festival, has brought a bold and uniquely modern program of music to Kraków. Now, with seven festivals in their native city under their belt (and outpost events further east in cities like Minsk),
Unsound is coming west to New York for their first ever North American edition. Unsound Festival New York's mission is to forge new links between music genres, between generations and even between artistic practices.

The driving force in the assembling of the New York program has been Unsound Festival's commitment to forms of music and sound art that involve experimentation and risk. Unsound Festival has made a worldwide reputation by breaking new ground while dealing with vibrant electronic, experimental, independent, post-classical and club music scenes from around the world.

The festival will kick off on Thursday, February 4th, with the first ever US performance from Vladislav Delay + Lillevan as well as Sebastian Meissner + Kwartludium as Solid State Transmitter. The former will perform their "ongoing series of electronic music and video improvisations", while the latter will reimagine SST Records (yes, that SST) through the eyes of a classical composer (wow, awesome). The FREE show will take place at David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center.

Feb 5th begins the start of Warhol Program, a series of pieces designed for and in tribute to Andy Warhol. The great Carl Craig will join nsi. for live soundtracks to "Blow Job" and "Kiss" respectively during a pair of screenings that night at The Film Society of Lincoln Center, Walter Reade Theater> Tickets are currently on sale for both the first showing at 7:30 (tix), and the second going down at 9:30 PM (tix). The show will be the US debut of the pieces, with nsi.'s piece being it's world debut. For the night owls, the party continues at Public Assembly, who will house Bunker parties on that night, 2/12, and 2/13. More details about the Bunker parties are at their site.

The Warhol Program continues the next day (2/6), when Groupshow (Jan Jelinek, Andrew Pekler, Hanno Leichtmann) will lead a free eight-hour (!) improvisation to Andy Warhol's film "Empire" at LPR. Maybe hook up a sack lunch?

After eight hours of improv, LPR will make way for A Century of Dance Music featuring the US debut of Moritz Von Oswald Trio:

Berliner Moritz Von Oswald is well known for his work as part of the duos Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound as well as for his own "M" series of recordings. He could be labeled the inventor of "dub techno," if that weren't too narrow a tag to define the scope of his music and accomplishments. Moritz Von Oswald is highly ranked by many critics and fans alike as one of the most original electronic music producers of the last two decades. [On 2/6] Von Oswald unveils his new trio featuring Vladislav Delay on drums and Max Loderbauer on electronics in their first ever North American performance. Last year their debut album was released by London's Honest Jons.

In tribute to Von Oswald, the evening opens with New York City's Ensemble LPR - the flexible house band of the venue (Le) Poisson Rouge which is led by LPR's two young founders - David Handler (violinist / composer) and Justin Kantor (cellist) along with fellow Manhattan School of Music graduate Orlando Alonso (conductor / pianist). The Ensemble will perform new renditions of Ravel's "Bolero" and selections from Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" based on remixes Moritz Von Oswald and Carl Craig assembled in 2008 for the Deutsche Grammophon album "Recomposed" (released only in Europe).

Doors are at 10PM, and tickets are on sale.

We'll post more details on this festival, but for now, dig on the full lineup (below) and a few videos. In addition, you can download a copy of the Unsound digital compilation for FREE for a limited time. Get on it!

Continue reading "Unsound Fest - Feb 4-14 in NYC"

by Andrew Frisicano

ACME...outdoors in warmer times
ACME

Tonight (12/17) at the Tank, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) perform music from Phil Kline and John Cage (two earlier works, String Quartet in Four Parts and Credo In Us). Kline's annual Unsilent Night event just happened in NYC on December 12th (and is still to come in other cities). His piece Exquisite Corpses, on the program for ACME, also prominently features boomboxes. He's also put together a new acoustic arrangement of his string quartet The Blue Room and Other Stories (originally written for Ethel whose version is below), which ACME will be debuting. Tickets are on sale.

Kicking off tonight and running through this weekend, the Tank heads to Brooklyn to present the Blip Festival at the Bell House. If you can't be there, you can listen on WFMU.

Across town and also tonight (12/17), the New York Philharmonic will be launching its Contact! new music series at Symphony Space (95th and Broadway). Four composers - Arlene Sierra, Lei Liang, Marc-André Dalbavie & Arthur Kampela - will be debuting very different compositions with the group. Video and audio previews of those are below. Tickets are on sale. An encore performance (to borrow a phrase) takes place Saturday, December 19th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The second Contact! program - with new music from Sean Shepherd, Nico Muhly and Matthias Pintscher - comes April 16th at Symphony Space and April 17th at Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Videos and more info are below...

Continue reading "NY Philharmonic launches Contact! series tonight & ACME performs @ The Tank ++ other dates & videos"

by Andrew Frisicano

Nadia Sirota
Nadia Sirota

There were (more) strings at September 25th's inaugural show for the Archipelago music series, which happens at Galapagos one Friday a month through next May. Like the Undiscovered Islands fest in May, the shows will be featuring music that crosses boundaries between classical, indie, etc. (and like that fest, it's also being set up by the New Amsterdam label.)

The full schedule is below. It's full of treats (like a way-off show with music by Shara Worden aka My Brightest Diamond in April). The first show featured violist Nadia Sirota and percussion quartet Line C3. Coincidentally, Worden and Nadia will both be playing with the Dessner Bros.' BAM Next Wave show, The Long Count, at the end of October.

Both acts on the first night performed works by Nico Muhly (Line C3 did "Ta and Clap," written by Nico for them in 2004, and he joined Nadia for his piece "Keep in Touch," which features a vocal sample from Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons). Nadia & Nico actually discuss their collaborations in an episode of New Amsterdam's Podcast series.

Speaking of New Amsterdam, they also have a CMJ showcase coming up with Cantaloupe Records at (Le) Poisson Rouge on October 21st. Tickets are on sale. That will feature the music of David Lang and Julia Wolfe (Bang on a Can co-founders) and performances by NOW Ensemble, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society and more. Clips of the Lang-scored film (Untitled) will be screened between performances (the soundtrack of which will be out October 13th).

Full details on the Archipelago series below...

Continue reading "Archipelago music series to feature Shara Worden, Craig Wedren & more ++ New Amsterdam & Cantaloupe do CMJ"

DOWNLOAD: The xx - Basic Space (Micachu Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Speech Debelle - Better Days (Revox) ft. Micachu and Wiley (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Micachu & The Shapes - Lips (MP3)

Micachu & The Shapes @ Siren Fest 09 (more by Chris La Putt)
Micachu

Icelandic singer Bjork chats with All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen about some of her favorite artists and spins an eclectic mix of music. Hear selections from Syrian musician Omar Souleyman, the post punk duo Eyeless in Gaza, fellow Icelandic singer Olof Arnalds, The Pokrovsky Ensemble and the wildly eccentric, London-based rock group Micachu and the Shapes.
[NPR, June 2009]
The Micachu song Bjork picked for that session was "Golden Phone," the video for which is posted below.

Now, Micachu & The Shapes are back in North America for a set of dates including two NYC shows coming up very soon. At the first gig on Friday, October 2nd, they'll be playing at Brooklyn's Littlefield with Julianna Barwick and Mon Khmer. Tickets are on sale.

The second gig, an October 3rd Wordless Music show at (Le) Poisson Rouge, will feature ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) who will be "performing string quartets written by Micachu (aka Mica Levi) and Jefferson Friedman. Tickets are on sale.

ACME plays another show the next week at Galapagos Art Space where they tackle the music of John Cage, Andrew Hamilton, Frederic Rzewski and Louis Andriessen. Tickets are on sale..

Before Micachu & The Shapes get to NY, they stop in Montreal where they will play a Pop Montreal showcase co-presented by BrooklynVegan (me/us). Also on that October 1st bill is Clues and Slim Twig. Check out the poster below.

All Micachu & The Shapes tour dates are below, with their "Golden Phone" video, a "special acoustic session in front of Tempelhof Airport in Berlin in August 2009" and a clip of Jefferson Friedman's "String Quartet No. 3," which ACME will be playing on the 3rd. Check them out...

Continue reading "Micachu & The Shapes - on tour now, playing BV Pop Montreal & two NYC shows (Littlefield & Wordless w/ ACME)"

photos by Justina Villanueva

Shudder to Think

Shudder to Think had many different lineups while they were active from 1986-1998. Staying consistent with that, they've had varying lineups during this 2007-2009 reunion period as well. Frontman Craig Wedren has also has had many different musical projects since 1998, projects that maybe better represent where he is now than the one he just got back together. One of those solo-like projects, which he has performed with at Le Poisson Rouge and Joe's Pub in recent times, is a collaboration with the mini orchestra ACME.

With that background in mind, maybe last night's show wasn't actually too peculiar. First, Shudder to Think guitarist Nathan Larson wasn't at the show. The official reason was that he was busy with his other band (and wife in) A Camp. Oddly, A Camp doesn't/didn't have any shows scheduled, and Nathan has been a part of the reunion since the start. Second, after a first set of Shudder to Think songs, Craig switched the format of last night's show and actually did bring out, and perform with, ACME. Craig explained that he actually wrote the songs with Jefferson Friedman while STT was still together, so it still counted. None of this made it a bad, possibly final, show... just sayin'.

Shudder's last drummer Kevin March was the drummer last night (as he has been for the whole part of the reunion), and Shudder bassist Stuart Hill was nowhere to be found (same for the whole reunion). The show opened with old songs like A Vampire's Proposal, Lies About the Sky, and About Three Dreams and then seemed to segue into Pony Express material (still no Nathan).

But then came a surprise. Chris Matthews who was the original Shudder guitar player even before Nathan joined the band, came on stage for two songs, one being Red House, the other being Day Ditty (both songs he originally played in). The other guitarist in last night's band is the new guy who has been there since 2007. After the ACME bit they came back to rock again.... Overall they played for around two hours. Other songs included Gang of $, Lies About the Sky, Nine Fingers, She's A Skull, No Rm. 9 Kentucky, Love Catastrophe, X-French T-Shirt, and Hit Liquor... full setlist in the comments.

Hit Liquor is one of many songs that appears on the new Shudder To Think live album being released by Team Love soon. You can grab that track for free HERE.

Pattern is Movement and Blame the Patient opened the Bowery show. More pictures below...

Continue reading "Shudder to Think (sort of), Pattern is Movement & Blame the Patient @ Bowery Ballroom in NYC - pics & setlist "

Shudder To Think @ Webster Hall, Oct 2008 (more by Tim Griffin)
Shudder To Think

In the fall of 2008, ten years after the band's breakup, ...Shudder To Think embarked on a limited number of tour dates during which the band delivered some of the most compelling and potent shows of their career... The best of the band's live shows can be found on Shudder To Think's new album Live From Home to be released via Team Love on September 15.
And with that live album comes ANOTHER live date for NYC (yay!), Sept 2nd at Bowery Ballroom. Amex Presale kicks off at noon TODAY (7/15), with gen pop getting a crack at 'em at noon 7/17. No more Shudder dates to report at the moment, though STT front-man Craig Wedren has a show scheduled at Joe's Pub on August 4th. At that one he'll be playing with The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME). Not only does that sound like a bill straight out of the Worldless Music Series, it is a bill straight out of the Wordless Music Series.

Team Love, the NYC-based label that was co-founded by Conor Oberst (and who are releasing the new Shudder album) are also the people that released Craig's 2005 solo album.

Live From Home cover art and full track-listing, along with a message from Craig about the album, is below..

Continue reading "Shudder to Think releasing live album, playing Bowery Ballroom ++ Craig Wedren playing Joe's Pub w/ ACME"

words by Martin Longley

Jóhann Jóhannsson @ LPR in NYC - June 25, 2009 (Lucas Cometto)
Jóhann Jóhannsson

The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson makes his US touring debut with a pair of sets at (le) Poisson Rouge (6/25), a club that seems to achieve a feeling of fully-seatedness no matter who's performing. Potential audiences appear to have faith in its diverse and adventurous bookings. The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) open the proceedings with a performance of "String Quartet No. 1", by Gavin Bryars. This is an appropriate move, as there are parts of the last year's Fordlandia album where Jóhannsson evokes certain sonic flourishes that are reminiscent of the English composer's work. The piece establishes a suitably brooding tone for the evening, relishing the very essence of the string formation, but never emerging from this exploratory stasis. The lighting is low, and will remain this way when New Yorkers ACME take to the stage again, to form Jóhannsson's string extension during his own set.

continued below...

Continue reading "Jóhann Jóhannsson played Le Poisson Rouge w/ ACME"

Jóhann Jóhannsson...
Jóhann Jóhannsson

Iceland's Jóhann Jóhannsson was scheduled to play a free River to River show at the World Financial Center last summer, but he had to cancel.

Instead, Jóhannsson is making his US debut this year, on Thursday, June 25th at (Le) Poisson Rouge. The Wordless Music show will also feature the ACME String Quartet. Tickets for the show's early set (6:30pm) and late set(9pm) are on sale.

All tour dates and a video of his song "Sun's Gone Dim," below...

Continue reading "Jóhann Jóhannsson - 2009 tour dates (2 NYC shows) "

Shudder to Think (Craign Wedren) @ Webster Hall (more by Tim Griffin)
Craig Wedren

"I'm so excited to break out of a traditional band scenario for the Wordless show. For the last few years it's felt like strings in the daytime (composing film scores), and RAWK at night (performing in bands). I've been looking forward to blurring, bending, and ultimately burning those boundaries and just smooshing it all together live for some time now, and the Wordless show -along with an orchestral song cycle Jefferson Friedman (TFG-Total Fuggin Genius) and I have been writing (which is being performed the night before at Columbia University's Miller Hall) is the first chance

I've had to do it.

For the Wordless show, I'll be singing with The American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), as well as members of my band. We'll be performing some amazing muzix by Jefferson Friedman, Louis Andriessen, me, Shudder To Think, and John Cage.

Time to crack it open. Do come."
- Craig

Times New Viking @ Cafe Bourbon St., 3/22/08 (Joel.Oliphint)
Times New viking

Four free shows in June at the Whitney in NYC....

Continue reading "'Wordless Music' at the Whitney (Times New Viking, Prefuse 73, A Sunny Day in Glasgow & more)"