The White Light Festival is an annual exploration of music's power to illuminate our interior lives. From the powerful opening chords of Beethoven's Missa solemnis to an exploration of light itself by Jennifer Tipton, to a meditation by Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars, and Rokia Traoré on the darkness of the soul that leads to the transcendence of love, the White Light Festival offers experiences of passionate beauty and occasions of profound insight into the many dimensions of our individual selves and the collective shared forces of the human condition. The Festival closes in a fitting fashion with the bonding power of spiritual ecstasy as Ensemble Sarband, joined by whirling dervishes from the Muslim Mevlevi tradition, draws startling connections between J.S. Bach's Passions and the Sufi mystics...

The White Light Festival hopes to provide moments to pause and explore the spaciousness and breath within.

Entering into its second year, the White Light Festival takes place from 10/20 - 11/19 care of Lincoln Center at ten venues around the city (including Lincoln Center). The events take place almost daily and feature everything from art installations to Toni Morrison to the London Symphony Orchestra to scores for silent film. Malian artist Bassekou Kouyate kicks off the festival on 10/20 at David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center with a FREE event.

One of the events is a live score to Carl Theodor Dreyer's 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc, which will be given a live score by Adrian Utley (Portishead) and Will Gregory (Goldfrapp) at Alice Tully Hall in the Starr Theater on 10/29. Tickets are on sale.

Check out the fest's site for the full schedule.

Adrian Utley of Portishead, in NYC to play Hammerstein Ballroom, Fallon & ATP, stopped by Criterion this week to discuss some of his favorite films and ended up discussing Joan of Arc and the genesis of his film scoring project with Gregory. Video of that below....

Continue reading "Lincoln Center's White Light Festival returns -- 2011 schedule includes live movie score by Adrian Utley & Will Gregory"

HEALTH @ Knitting Factory (more by Ryan Muir)

HEALTH returns to NYC on Saturday, June 20th for a New York Night Train show in Brooklyn - possibly at Danbro Studios, and possibly somewhere else (stay tuned). Other bands on the bill are Awesome Color and Kid Congo Powers. Go go artist Anna Copacabanna, drum and trapeze act Wolf and Cub, projection artist Spencer Bewley and projection artists Mighty Robot AV Squad will all also be there along with DJ Josh Styles and DJ Jonathan Toubin.

HEALTH last visited NYC on November 7th, 2008 at the Knitting Factory - a one-off date connected to their tour with Nine Inch Nails.. This summer, the band is also scheduled to play Sled Island Fest in Calgary, as well as a pair of European festivals.

HEALTH's new disc, GET COLOR, comes out September 8th on Lovepump United. A single for the song "DIE SLOW" came out in April. It's now streaming with its b-side/remix on the band's site.

Awesome Color, who are on the bill of the June 20th Danbro show, will be touring this June/July with with Black Dice (June 14th Bowery Ballroom show included), and then with Sonic Youth (but not in NYC).

Sonic Youth have announced all the opening bands for their The Eternal tour kicking off at the end of June. Besides Awesome Color, other openers on the tour will be White/Light, Endless Boogie and The Entrance Band, the last of which opens Sonic Youth's NYC show at the United Palace on July 3rd. Tickets for that show are still on sale. SY's most recent NYC show took place at the Music Hall of Williamsburg as part of the No Fun Fest.

HEALTH CD art and track list, and all upcoming HEALTH, Awesome Color and Sonic Youth tour dates, below...

Continue reading "HEALTH - new CD, tour dates, and a NYC show w/ Awesome Color who is touring w/ Black Dice & Sonic Youth "