DOWNLOAD: William Basinski - Vivian & Ondine (excerpt) (MP3)

photos by Lori Baily, words by Andrew Frisicano

William Basinski @ 110 Livingston

Issue Project Room hosted reel-to-reel tape composer William Basinski at their new, currently being remodeled theater at 110 Livingston on June 11th. Basinski played two hypnotic sets in the former Elks Lodge, in what was only the second time they'd previewed the space.

The piece he played, Vivian & Ondine, was written, he explained, to coax his baby neice out of the womb. It's excerpted above and available on CD from Basinski's site. Joshua Light Show worked the visuals and bounced patterns around the ornate arches and ceiling. Clearly, the theater is an awesome space to hear vision-inducing loops, and will be a fun permanent home for Issue once they complete its renovation (which they're still in need of funds to finish) and move in permanently. More pictures from the night are below.

Issue has been putting on shows this summer in the courtyard of the Old American Can Factory (like Omar Souleyman for instance). The next of those is Bobb Trimble's Flying Spiders (in just his second NYC peformance), guitarist-led Loren Connors' Haunted House, Gary War and Samara Lubelski on July 11th. Tickets are still on sale.

They did an outdoor show in honor of Walt Whitman under the Brooklyn Bridge the other day, and on July 10th they'll go under the Queensboro Bridge for the first-annual Albert Ayler Festival, co-presented by jazz label ESP Live on Roosevelt Island's RiverWalk Commons. The show (and record fair) starts at 2pm and features The New Atlantis Sextet with Marshall Allen, William Hooker, Charles Gayle, Gunter Hampel, Giuseppi Logan and more. It's free, and the full schedule and poster is below...

Continue reading "Albert Ayler Festival coming to Roosevelt Island, William Basinski pics & other Issue Project Room news"