DOWNLOAD: Lower Dens - "Brains" (MP3)

The National have announced that they're headlining and curating at ATP in Minehead UK, which is happening from December 7-9, 2012. So far, in addition to The National, the lineup (not very surprisingly) includes Sharon Van Etten (who plays the sold out Mercury Lounge tonight), My Brightest Diamond, Wye Oak, Megafaun, The Antlers, Buke and Gase (FKA Buke and Gass), Lower Dens, Owen Pallett, Boris, Tim Hecker, Kronos Quartet, Suuns< and Dark Dark Dark. More artists TBA. Tickets go on sale Friday (1/20) at 2 PM.

Maybe this lineup will shed some light on the bands Aaron and Bryce Dessner will be choosing when they curate BAM in May.

ATP's NJ festival happens in September and is being curated by Greg Dulli.

Speaking of Lower Dens, they've just revealed plans to release a followup to their 2010 debut LP, Twin-Hand Movement. The new album, titled Nootropics, will be out April 30 via the Domino affiliate label Ribbon Music. Grab the fast paced lead single, "Brains," at the top of this post and stream it below. Also below is the album artwork and tracklist.

Continue reading "The National curating an ATP; Lower Dens announce new LP"

In celebration of Philip Glass's 75th birthday, the American Composers Orchestra is presenting the US premiere of Glass's Ninth Symphony plus the NYC premiere of Arvo Part's Lamentate, with pianist Maki Namekawa at Carnegie Hall on Glass's birthday, January 31. The orchestra will be led by ACO co-founder Dennis Russell Davies. According to a press release:

The program notes describe Glass's Symphony No. 9 as "a large scale, three movement work for orchestra, and while direct in form, it will be formidable in performance with piccolos doubled, horn section fortified, and with bass brass, and timpani doubled. The Ninth promises to be, in the composer's words 'big and unrelenting,' with an avoidance of solo passagework, this piece will be a real team effort throughout. Each movement follows a similar plan: an opening theme broadly stated a contrasting highly energized middle section, and a slower ending with a newer version of the opening theme. Throughout the work becomes increasingly dense and contrapuntal thereby giving the whole work its overall dramatic shape."

Glass's birthday will also be celebrated two days earlier (1/29) at Le Poisson Rouge with Orange Mountain Music and special guests Kronos Quartet, Dennis Russell Davies, Maki Namekawa, Ira Glass, Michael Riesman, Ensemble Signal, Bruce Brubaker, Tim Fain and more. Tickets for this show are on sale now.

It will again be celebrated at the Tune-In Music Festival at Park Avenue Armory which takes place from February 23-26. "Highlights Include: A World Premiere by Hal Wilner, Bill Frisell and Ralph Steadman, Glass's Music in Twelve Parts, An Evening of Music and Poetry with Patti Smith and Philip Glass, and Glass's Another Look At Harmony." Tickets for the Tune-In festival's events are on sale now.

The Metropolitan Museum is also hosting a celebration for Philip Glass this April (it appears to have been rescheduled from 1/21). The event is taking place on April 21 at The Temple of Dendur and will feature Glass performing his chamber music with violinist Tim Fain. Unreserved seating is on sale now.

Program information on the Carnegie Hall show below...

Continue reading "Philip Glass birthday parties -- Tune-In Music Festival & more"

"This fall, the Next Wave Festival returns for its 29th season, presenting an array of contemporary performance, artist talks, storytelling, visual art, and film that showcases work by emerging artists and innovative modern masters."

Steve Reich will celebrate his 75th birthday with a weekend of events in his honor. The festivities start on April 30th at Carnegie Hall, as Steve Reich will host NYC premieres of three new works, WTC 9/11, Mallet Quartet, and 2 x 5, as well as his Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet. Bang On A Can All-Stars, eighth blackbird, Kronos Quartet, and So Percussion will do the performing. Tickets are still available.

The party continues the next night at Le Poisson Rouge (on 5/1), as the avant-composer will be in the house for a screening of a new film about him called "Phase to Face". He'll also take part in a Q+A following the showing alongside director Eric Darmon.

In this profile he looks back on the key stages of his 40-years lasting career, from the formation of his own group, Steve Reich and Musicians, to the American avant-garde he helped to create, from new video performances to his quasi-religious music. Despite his success and wide recognition Steve Reich has never renounced his independent spirit.

This film is about the artist and his music. From the analogue tapes of his first recorded pieces to current technology of sampling and video. We see him at work and clips from his performances and concerts in Le Havre, Tokyo, Rome, New York and Manchester.

A week after the birthday festivities, on May 8th, chamber ensemble AXIOM will perform Steve Reich's "Drumming" (complete) at Le Poisson Rouge. Tickets are on sale.

On June 2nd, Either/Or will perform the music of Steve Reich, and Robert Ashley, Philip Glass, and Andrew Byrne, at the Kitchen. Tickets are on sale.

On January 17th (2012), Reich fans should plan to be in LA where Reich himself will perform Clapping Music with Steven Schick during an "evening devoted to one of America's greatest living composers, including several of his early, seminal works." It all goes down, with the help of Bang on a Can All Stars, at Walt Disney Concert Hall (Single tickets go on sale August 21).

Some videos below...

Continue reading "Steve Reich turning 75, making appearances, having his work performed, is the subject of a documentary"

by Andrew Frisicano

Jonsi @ Terminal 5 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

The previously-mentioned Wordless Music show featuring Jonsi and Kjartan Sigur Ros, along with Alex Somers Of Riceboy Sleeps, The Hilliard Ensemble, Latvian National Choir and Wordless Music Orchestra, is happening at The Church of St. Paul the Apostle on November 15th. Tickets are on sale through the Lincoln Center, who are putting on the show as part of their White Light Music Festival.

Jonsi kicks off his own solo tour of North America on October 15th. Tickets for the Hammerstein Ballroom show are still on sale (Mountain Man open).

White Light Fest runs from October 28th-November 18th, and its other shows include Antony and the Johnsons at Alice Tully Hall on October 30th (that's their only North American show this year). That's now sold out. Listen to Antony's new LP, Swanlights, at NPR.

Also part of the White Light Festival is an October 28th show featuring the Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble at David Rubenstein Atrium. That crosses over with another new music series, Target Free Thursday at Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium. The full schedule for those shows, which run through December, is below. There's also free DJ nights at the Atrium on Saturday night; that schedule is below too.

To bring it back to Wordless Music, Kronos Quartet will be at (Le) Poisson Rouge for two nights this weekend (Oct. 8 and 9), each with different sets of mostly-new music. The first night includes pieces by Terry Riley and Michael Gordon (both with assists by Young People's Chorus of New York City) and young composers Bryce Dessner (of the National) and Missy Mazzoli (of chamber group Victoire). The second has another new work by Gordon, music by JG Thirwell, and new Schubert arrangements, reworked by vocalist Judith Berkson, who'll also be on hand. Unfortunately, both nights are sold out.

And since we mentioned Brooklyn composer Missy Mazzoli above, it should be noted that her band Victoire plays a free show at Dumbo gallery Smack Mellon on November 4th. Victoire's new album, Cathedral City, just came out on New Amsterstam. Their schedule is below too.

The full Free Thursdays schedule and more info is below...

Continue reading "Wordless & White Light Music, Josni, Kronos Quartet, free Thursdays, Meredith Monk, Victoire & more"

Jonsi @ Terminal 5 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Along with that Godspeed You! Black Emperor announcement, two Wordless Music Series-presented shows included, came this:

"Look for a full 2010-11 Wordless Music season announcement in the coming days, including world and U.S. premieres of new music for orchestra by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, Jónsi and Kjartan of Sigur Rós with Alex Somers of Riceboy Sleeps, Kronos Quartet, The Hilliard Ensemble, Latvian National Choir, Tyondai Braxton, the Wordless Music Orchestra, Joshua Rifkin, Deerhoof, and the U.S. debut of the Carl Craig/Moritz von Oswald/Francesco Tristano Schlimé Trio, as well as collaborations with Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, Walker Arts Center, and Emerson College for concerts in New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, and Minneapolis."

by Andrew Frisicano

Matmos and So Percussion at the Whitney, 2006 (via Matador)

New music quartet So Percussion and electronic duo Matmos (Drew Daniel and Martin Schmidt) are collaborating on a new record, Treasure State, set to come out July 13th (July 8th digitally) on Cantaloupe. They recorded the record at the SnowGhost Studios in Whitefish, Montana, where "San Francisco plunderphonicist Wobbly then chopped and edited the results on several tracks, and finally, with frequent interventions from Matmos' M. C. Schmidt, 'fifth' So Percussion member and produced by Lawson White overdubbed extra elements, processed, and mixed the results." The instruments used include ceramic planters, pails of water, aluminum beer cans and cactus needles - not totally surprising if you've seen their live show.

Matmos and So Percussion will be playing at (Le) Poisson Rouge on Wednesday, June 9th. Tickets are on sale now. A full tour tour for the groups will be announced soon.

Before then, So Percussion's schedule includes an appearance at the Look & Listen Festival (which they play annually) on May 8th at Gary Snyder/Project Space (250 West 26th St). The other events for the three-day fest, details here, happen at Chelsea Art Museum. Tickets are on sale.

This summer, So Percussion will play on one night of Lincoln Center's two-night "Complete Works of Edgard Varèse" program. They'll join International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) to perform music by the highly influential composer (though Poème électronique will play itself). The second night features NY Philharmonic. Details on the program are below and tickets are on sale.

If that seems far off, in 2011 So Percussion will join Bang on a Can All-Stars, eighth blackbird and Kronos Quartet for a "Music of Steve Reich" concert at Carnegie Hall on April 30th. They'll perform new works and2009 Pulitzer Prize winning Double Sextet.

As for Matmos, they perform at Mutek Music Fest in Montreal on June 2nd.

Album tracklist, all tour dates, and more info on the Look & Listen and Lincoln Center shows are below...

Continue reading "So Percussion & Matmos collaborate - albums, shows, the Look & Listen Festival, music of Steve Reich, more"

by Andrew Frisicano

The Kronos Quartet and composer Terry Riley mark 30 years of prolific collaboration, a strong artistic relationship that has resulted in 26 new works. Transylvanian Horn Courtship, which draws inspiration from his legendary Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band performances in the 1960s, features a set of string instruments with metal horns created especially for Kronos by MacArthur Fellow Walter Kitundu. The program will feature other recent works and commissions for Kronos, including the premiere performance of Another Secret eQuation, for Kronos and the Young People's Chorus of New York City.

Friday's show is titled "Playing with Toys and Techonology" and features new work by J.G. Thirlwell, collaborations with "toy piano virtuoso Margaret Leng Tan and Portuguese instrument builder Victor Gama," and electronic duo Matmos, who will be performing new piece For Terry Riley with the Quartet.

Saurday night (3/13) Kronos will focus on music from around the Arctic Circle with Inuit throat singing of Tanya Tagaq (who has worked with Bjork and Mike Patton). A video of Kronos founder David Harrington discussing the group's past work with Tanya is below. Also joining will be "the plucked strings of Finnish kantele player Ritva Koistinen, the primitive sounds of the ancient Swedish hurdy gurdy electronically processed by Brisland-Ferner and Mattsson, and the muscular and rhythmic music of Finnish accordion-sampler duo Pohjonen and Kosminen."

The last show on Sunday centers on music from around the Asian continent: "With this program, Kronos travels from the shamanistic performance of Korean artist Dohee Lee, to the varied landscapes and textures created by Afghan rubâb master Homayoun Sakhi, to Alim and Fargana Qasimov's ecstatic spiritual expression of mugam from Azerbaijan." The later two are both featured on Kronos' newest CD, Rainbow: Music Of Central Asia Vol. 8, which comes out on Smithsonian Folkways March 30th.

Terry Riley is the featured artist Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN, on March 26-28, and he'll be performing several times at that fest.

More info on Kronos, videos of teh quartet at work and their upcoming schedule are below...

Continue reading "Kronos Quartet touring (dates), at Carnegie Hall for 4 nights (w/ Terry Riley, Matmos, Tanya Tagaq, more)"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Aaron Dessner - We Were Born (from the Long Count) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Long Count - Bull Run (feat. Kelley Deal) (MP3)

Twins! (the Dessners & the Deals)

The Long Count kicks off its three show engagement at BAM's Gilman Opera House tonight (10/28). Tickets are still available for the show, as well as for the Friday (10/30) and Saturday (10/31) performances.

The 70-minute music and multimedia piece, commissioned by BAM Next Wave Festival, is the work of Bryce and Aaron Dessner of the National and visual artist Matthew Ritchie. But they haven't been working alone. At every step of composing and arranging the Long Count over the past year, the brothers have tapped into their crew of skilled collaborators. The 12-piece orchestra that will be joining them on stage counts talents like NYC violist Nadia Sirota (who played last month's Archipelago series show), sax/bass clarinet player Colin Stetson, and Antony & the Johnsons' guitarist/violinist/conductor Rob Moose (who in particular assisted with some of the arranging duties).

As previously mentioned, the Breeders' Kim and Kelley Deal (twins) collaborated with the Dessners (also twins) on much of the music - they sing for nearly half of the show. Other vocal turns will be taken by the Nationals' Matt Berninger and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden.

All four singers play roles in the narrative of the Long Count, which takes its story from the Mayan creation myth of Popol Vuh. In that, multiple sets of twins (in the story and on stage) experience repeated cycles of life and death until giving birth to the world as we know it. The original tale ties in strongly with a ballgame played by its main characters - an element which the Dessners have woven in with their love of baseball, particularly Cincinnati Reds and the Big Red Machine.

Musically, the Long Count sections posted above, both from the show's work-in-progress performance at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on September 11th, showcase the piece's diversity. The first, "We Were Born," highlights the minimalist pedigree of the show, while "Bull Run" layers those elements with fearsome orchestral lines and extremely creepy vocals by Kelley Deal.

Paired with the spooky nature of Mathew Ritchie's animation (which you can preview here) the show looks to be a good Halloween night warm-up as any. In fact, the early Saturday night show has the most tickets available, and it follows a pre-show Q&A (ticketed separately) led by Brandon Stosuy (who's curating the Mount Eerie + metal show at Market Hotel later in the night).

Bryce generously answered some of our questions over the phone while in the last week of rehearsal (and in the hectic center of CMJ week). More photos from the production, and that interview, where he reveals the existence of an unreleased Christmas album he made with Sufjan, details on the new National record and more, below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Bryce Dessner of The National whose show, The Long Count, opens @ BAM tonight ++ 2 MP3's"

Award winning performer Tanya Tagaq will embark on her first U.S. solo tour in August to showcase her unique style of Inuit throat singing....The Nunavut-born singer has gained notoriety through partnering with the world's most groundbreaking artists, including a successful 2008 tour that she co-wrote and performed with the Kronos Quartet, aptly titled "Nunavut." She also worked with the multi-talented Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle) and her latest record Auk/Blood was released through his label Ipecac Recordings (Sept. 2008). Icelandic visionary Björk took an interest early on to Tanya and brought her on her Vespertine tour in 2005. [On her solo dates] Tanya will be performing alongside SF-based drummer Scott Amendola and Vancouver violinist Jesse Zubot.

Lincoln Center's Out of Doors Festival kicked off last night (8/5). Full schedule at their site. All events are free.

Check out a bunch of videos of Tanya, and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq (has worked w/ Bjork, Mike Patton, Kronos Quartet...) touring US (dates), playing NYC "

photos by Ryan Muir

"I think that Brooklyn has maybe become the music capital of the world," the violinist David Harrington said from the stage of the Prospect Park Bandshell on Thursday night.

The occasion was a concert by the Kronos Quartet, the groundbreaking ensemble he founded in 1973. Mr. Harrington went on to suggest that to find a similar concentration of artistic vitality you had to look to late-17th-century Vienna.

The claim was hyperbolic, maybe, but certainly understandable: after all, the Kronos Quartet was performing as part of the annual summer series Celebrate Brooklyn! Its program, presented before a large, diverse and boisterously appreciative audience, included new pieces by three Brooklyn composers -- Bryce Dessner, Missy Mazzoli and J. G. Thirlwell -- with further selections prepared by a Brooklyn arranger, Jacob Garchik." [NY Times]

Continue reading "Kronos Quartet Celebrated Brooklyn (and played music by Bryce Dessner) @ the Prospect Park Bandshell in NYC - pics"

"BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn is pleased to announce that Kronos Quartet will perform a free concert at Celebrate Brooklyn! on Thursday, July 16. The groundbreaking ensemble¹s performance will include material from their new album, Floodplain, as well as the New York premiere of The National¹s Bryce Dessner¹s ³Aheym,² the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli¹s ³Harp and Altar,² pieces by Sigur Rós, Café Tacuba (arr. Osvaldo Golijov), Michael Gordon and [JG Thirlwell's piece "Nomatophobis" and a pice by Michael Gordon and more]. Kronos will be joined on the bill by Gypsy punk string ensemble Luminescent Orchestrii. The concert will begin at 7:30 P.M.; gates will open at 6:30 P.M."

A performing arts program of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, Celebrate Brooklyn! is one of New York City's longest running, free, outdoor performing arts festivals. Launched in 1979, as a catalyst for a Brooklyn performing arts scene and to bring people back into Prospect Park after years of neglect, Celebrate Brooklyn has been an anchor in the park's revitalization and has become one of the city's foremost summer cultural attractions. Over the course of its history Celebrate Brooklyn has presented over 1,700 artists and ensembles reflective of the borough's diversity, ranging from internationally acclaimed performers to emerging, cutting-edge artists. All Celebrate Brooklyn performances are free. The festival attracts upwards of 250,000 attendees from across New York City to the Prospect Park Bandshell each summer.

Continue reading "Celebrate Brooklyn! 2009 Prospect Park concert schedule "

by Andrew Frisicano

Terry Riley's In C is being performed tonight (April 24th) at Carnegie Hall in NYC...

Experience the work that changed the course of musical history and influenced countless artists from John Adams to The Who. Specially curated by the Kronos Quartet for the 45th anniversary of the premiere of In C, a one-time-only gathering of musicians will perform the work in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage for the first time.

Featuring Kronos, Terry Riley, and original In C performers Stuart Dempster, Jon Gibson, Katrina Krimsky, and Morton Subotnick.

Plus Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan, Sidney Chen, Dennis Russell Davies, Loren Kiyoshi Dempster, Bryce Dessner, Dave Douglas, Trevor Dunn, Jacob Garchik, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Michael Harrison, Michael Hearst, Scott Johnson, Joan La Barbara, Saskia Lane, Alfred Shabda Owens, Elena Moon Park, Lenny Pickett, Gyan Riley, Aaron Shaw, Judith Sherman, Mark Stewart, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Leng Tan, Jeanne Velonis, Wu Man, Yang Yi, Dan Zanes, and Evan Ziporyn.

Also with Koto Vortex, Quartet New Generation, So Percussion, members of the GVSU New Music Ensemble, and members of the Young People's Chorus of New York City.

The group composition incorporates elements of improvisation and has no definite end point.

In C (1964) is probably Riley's best-known work and one that brought the minimalist music movement to prominence. Its first performance was given by Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Pauline Oliveros, and Morton Subotnick, among others, and it has influenced their work and that of many others, including John Adams, Roberto Carnevale, and Philip Glass. Its form was an innovation: the piece consists of 53 separate modules of roughly one measure apiece, each containing a different musical pattern but each, as the title implies, in C. One performer beats a steady pulse of Cs on the piano to keep tempo. The others, in any number and on any instrument, perform these musical modules following a few loose guidelines, with the different musical modules interlocking in various ways as time goes on. The Keyboard Studies are similarly structured - a single-performer version of the same concept. [Wikipedia]

Videos of In C, the Riley's at Terry's 70th birthday concert, and an interview with the composer, below...

Continue reading "Terry Riley shows @ Carnegie Hall tonight & LPR on Sunday"

"What a fitting day to announce the complete list of artists involved with our upcoming album DARK WAS THE NIGHT - the February 17th 4AD release that will benefit the Red Hot Organization. It's World AIDS Day, and in honor of that, we bring you the exciting news."

Continue reading "Dark Was the Night - full 4AD comp artist list, cover art, etc"