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"

by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Aaron Dessner - We Were Born (from the Long Count) (MP3)

The Long Count
Oct 28, 30 & 31 at 8pm

Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, and Matthew Ritchie

In an inspired collision of creative worlds, three inexhaustibly original artists--brothers Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner of indie rock royalty The National and omnivorous visual art phenomenon Matthew Ritchie--combine talents to create a song-filled myth about the beginning of time. A feast of images, instrumentals, and songs thick with primordial mystery, The Long Count pairs Ritchie's protean forms with a twelve-piece orchestra and the Dessners' gothic mix of electric and orchestral sounds.

Guest vocalists Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders [who are at the Bowery August 18th & 19th]), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), and Matt Berninger (The National) round out the line-up in this visionary collaboration between music and art.

The MP3 above is the first musical glimpse at the above-described (and previously mentioned) Long Count project. The heavy minimalist influence on the track makes the role of those guest vocalists even more curious. Single tickets for the Long Count, and all the BAM Next Wave concerts, go on sale September 8th. A video trailer for the show, which falls on and around Halloween, is below. More Brooklyn Halloween show options HERE.

Shara Worden has been keeping super busy and impressing Decemberists audiences across the country when she sings her part in the Hazards of Love production (and when she's doing Bob Dylan). Upcoming Decemberists dates include September 21st in Montclair, NJ.

Kim Deal, in addition to the above-mentioned BAM and Bowery shows, will be in NYC (and around the country) with the Pixies in November. The shows at Hammerstein Ballroom are now on sale.

The National recently played a set at All Points West in Jersey City.

Worden/National collaborator Sufjan Stevens premiered his show "The BQE" as part of BAM's Next Wave Festival in 2007. That show is being released as a DVD and going on tour, as is Sufjan himself.

Also below is a video from "a 20-minute animated and musical collaboration developed by Bryce Dessner and Matthew Ritchie" that premiered at the Kitchen in March (Sufjan Stevens played the harmonium), and trailers and music (!) for the other BAM Next Wave commissions including Imaginary City (the So Percussion show), Terra Nova (the DJ Spooky/ICE collaboration) and Meredith Monk's Songs of Ascension...

Continue reading "an MP3 from the upcoming National-Breeders-Worden show @ BAM, Long Count ticket info, Next Wave video previews"

BAM has announced the schedule for the Next Wave Festival 2009, a series of fourteen new music, theater and dance pieces that'll run from September 15th to December 19th.

The lineup includes a number of awesome-looking BAM commissions and premieres.

Bryce Dessner & Aaron Dessner of The National (and Dark Was the Night fame) and Matthew Ritchie have put together a piece called The Long Count, to feature Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond, Decemberists) and Matt Berninger (The National) on vocals (Oct 28th-31st).

Imaginary City, a new 70-minute work by So Percussion, will be accompanied by video and take inspiration from the Italo Calvino novel of the same name (Oct 14th--17th). Meredith Monk will compose and perform in Songs of Ascension alongside her vocal ensemble and the Todd Reynolds String Quartet (Oct 21st--25th). (As a side note -- Reynolds and Monk both appeared, separately, at the Bang on a Can benefits at LPR on June 3rd.)

The program features a concert staging of the Philip Glass opera Kepler (Nov 18th, 20th, 21st). And, maybe in time for the first snow (...) a performance by DJ Spooky and the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) of Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica, a piece "based around DJ Spooky's sound recordings in the Antarctic that explore the acoustic qualities of ice" (Dec 2, 4 & 5).

Most of the programs above will have an "Artist Talk" companion program, free to those with tickets to the event.

There's a couple ways to get tickets to the series. Friends of BAM will get the first stab at subscription packages, which let you pick a combo of shows to attend, on Monday, June 15th. Subscriptions for the general public go on sale Monday, June 22nd. Single ticket sales for Next Wave Festival starts Tuesday, September 8th (Aug 31st for Friends of BAM).

Full music lineup below...

Continue reading "BAM Next Wave Festival 2009 - members of The National, The Breeders, Shara Worden, So Percussion, DJ Spooky..."

by Andrew Frisicano

Steve Reich clapping

Tonight (5/22) the Undiscovered Islands/New Amsterdam Records series at Galapagos continues with two sets: Sarah Kirkland Snider's Penelope performed by Signal, guitarist Steven Mackey and singer Rachel Calloway (conducted by Brad Lubman), and an opening performance by So Percussion. Tickets are still on sale.

So Percussion, who played with Dan Deacon at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple in December, was to premiere a new Deacon piece, but that debut has been postponed. Instead, Jason Treuting from So Percussion, writes...

we are playing some new music that we've been working on as meditations on the concept of city. the music has been focusing on the task oriented nature of a city and the parallel task-oriented nature of playing music. loops are made out of tasks and we have taken to transforming mundane objects into musical instruments like we haven't before. turning on lamps, writing on paper, pouring gravel, putting down ordinary objects in rhythm, etc. a few new videos by my sister jenise treuting will be busted out as well.

The other ensemble on that bill, Signal, has several other gigs coming up. They're performing Michael Gordon's Trance, for a second time, at the Bang on a Can Marathon on May 31st.

Signal just did the music of Philip Glass at (Le) Poisson Rouge on May 17th. They'll return to the venue on Friday, June 22nd for a concert and party to celebrate Steve Reich's 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Music for Double Sextet. Reich's original Sextet (1984) will be performed at that show, presented by Wordless Music, as well. Tickets are on sale.

That gig is your only way to check out the piece (except for streaming excerpts), as there's currently no way to buy a recording of it. Reich discussed this in a recent interview...

Newsweek: I missed the premiere of "Double Sextet" last year, and when I heard it had won, I found myself upset that there was no way to buy the piece yet.

Reich: Yeah, that's just part of the recording business. When you have a 24-minute piece, the official recording hinges on finishing and recording two other pieces to go with it [on a CD]. I'm working on two other pieces right now, and have to finish writing the second one, actually. I've got a piece for all rock-and-roll people already completed, and it's going to premiere later this year. [Nico Muhly's blog]

Commenters on Nico Muhly's post about the situation rightly point out that Double Sextet should be released ASAP to capitalize on the Pulitzer publicity. The 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music, won by Bang on a Can cofounder David Lang for his the little match girl passion (streaming here), is just seeing a CD release, with four other Lang works, on June 9th via Harmonia Mundi.

Speaking of Reich and Bang on a Can, the composer will perform his own "Clapping Music" at the Bang on a Can Big Benefit Bash taking place Wednesday, June 3rd at (Le) Poisson Rouge. Other special guests include Meredith Monk, David Cossin, Wu Man, Maya Beiser, Talujon and Doug Aitken. Tickets will run you a $400 donation to the non-profit...

...which is why the regular-people-friendly festival is hosting a "Bang on a Can't Afford the Other Benefit" show at LPR later that same night (6/3) with So Percussion, Gutbucket, Newspeak and NOW Ensemble. Tickets for that are a more reasonable $20.

Speaking of new ensembles, Bang on a Can is forming a new street band called Asphalt Orchestra. That group will make its debut later this summer at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival.

Full info on BoaC's Asphalt Orchestra, and its Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival plans, below...

Continue reading "So Percussion (but not Dan Deacon) tonight, Steve Reich's Double Sextet, Bang on a Can benefits, street band & more"