Serena Maneesh playing only US date of 2014 at first-ever NYC installment of Oslo's Ultima Festival (lineup & tickets)

Serena Maneesh at Knitting Factory in 2010 (more by Greg Cristman)

Oslo shoegazers Serena Maneesh haven’t played these parts since 2010, the same year their most recent album was released, but that will finally change this year. They’ll play their sole US date of 2014 at the first-ever US edition of Oslo’s Ultima Festival, which happens from April 23 to April 26 at Issue Project Room.

S-M are playing closing night (4/26), after a solo accordion opening set from Frode Haltli. They’ll be joined by a vocal ensemble to perform their new piece, Somnambulism, which they premiered at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo in December 2013, and performed again earlier this month at Oslo’s by:Larm Festival. The piece is a tribute to composer Arne Nordheim, “a pioneer of electronics who stands beside Edvard Grieg as Norway’s most celebrated composer.” (Frode Haltli will also be performing one of Nordheim’s works.) Tickets are on sale now.

The rest of the festival includes Catherine Christer Hennix & Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage on 4/23, Yarn/Wire and Jacob Kirkegaard on 4/24, Ne(x)tworks Chamber Ensemble and Anton Lukoszevieze on 4/25, and Antti Tolvi and Lubomyr Melnyk at the 3 PM show at First Unitarian Church on 4/26. Tickets for each show are available.

Full Ultima schedule and a video from the Somnambulism premiere, below…

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Serena Maneesh: Somnambulism

Ultima Festival New York 2014 Schedule

WEDNESDAY APRIL 23 – 7PM – FREE / $10 SUGGESTED
* Catherine Christer Hennix & Chora(s)san Time-Court Mirage

Catherine Christer Hennix: Blues Alif Lam Mim in the mode of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis (1434 A.H.). New York Premiere featuring Imam Ahmed Tüzer, Amir Elsaffan, Amirtha Kidambi and others.

THURSDAY APRIL 24 – 8PM – $15 / $12 ISSUE MEMBERS & STUDENTS
* Yarn/Wire

Øyvind Torvund: The Stacks
Simon Steen-Andersen: Rerendered
Anna Thorvaldsdottir/Sigurdur Gudjonsson: Trajectories

* Jacob Kirkegaard

Else Marie Pade: Faust & other electronic pieces

FRIDAY APRIL 25 – 8PM – $15 / $12 ISSUE MEMBERS & STUDENTS
* Ne(x)tworks Chamber Ensemble

Arne Nordheim: Vevnad
Shelley Burgon: Conchoidal
Kristin Norderval: Re-Play #4: Name Piece

* Anton Lukoszevieze with Ne(x)tworks

Henning Christiansen: Requiem of Art (NYC) Fluxorum Organum – New York Premiere

SATURDAY APRIL 26 – 3PM – $15 / $12 ISSUE MEMBERS & STUDENTS
AT THE FIRST UNITARIAN CHURCH, 116 PIERREPONT ST, BROOKLYN HEIGHTS
* Antti Tolvi, solo piano

* Lubomyr Melnyk, solo piano

SATURDAY APRIL 26 – 8PM – $15 / $12 ISSUE MEMBERS & STUDENTS
* Frode Haltli, solo accordion

Magnar Åm: On the Banks of the Eternal Second
Aldo Clementi: Ein kleines…
Hans Abrahamsen: Air
Arne Nordheim: Flashing

* Serena-Maneesh & Vocal Ensemble: Somnambulism