ISSUE Project Room is delighted to honor renowned artist and ISSUE Board member Robert Longo and ISSUE’s beloved late founder Suzanne Fiol . This year’s event celebrates two artists who envisioned ISSUE from its earliest years, bringing a unique perspective to New York’s avant-garde performance landscape.
Rhys Chatham performs the North American premiere of his solo work Le Possédé for bass flute. The piece continues Chatham's explorations of the possibilities offered by the early minimalist period of downtown Manhattan. During the early 1970s, Chatham played in La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music, with Tony Conrad in an early version of The Dream Syndicate, and in trio formation with Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Conrad. Chatham draws on these experiences to arrive at a musical vocabulary which is reminiscent of this exciting period in New York, transforming the sound in a way that could only happen in the present decade.
ISSUE presents the world premiere of The Sun Too Close to the Earth, an expansive new ensemble work by iconoclast composer Rhys Chatham. The performance is presented as a part of the French Institute Alliance Française’s Crossing The Line Festival and also features work from Zeena Parkins & Jonathan Kane.
Active since the 1970s, composer and multi-instrumentalist Rhys Chatham altered the DNA of rock and created a new type of urban music by fusing overtone-drenched minimalism with relentless, elemental fury. He returns to ISSUE’s 22 Boerum theater for a rare solo performance on Thursday, November 3rd.
ISSUE collaborates with the Kitchen to present the X-Patsy's founding members: actress Barbara Sukowa and artists Robert Longo and Jon Kessler, joined by the extraordinary musicians Anthony Coleman, Knox Chandler, Jonathan Kane, and Ernie Brooks. Rhys Chatham opens with a performance of his legendary "Guitar Trio".
Composer Rhys Chatham performs his now-classic Guitar Trio (1977), presented at ISSUE Project Room in partnership with Northern Spy Records as part of the second annual SPY MUSIC FESTIVAL. This performance will feature Rhys Chatham with nine guitarists, one bassist, and one drummer.
Since 1993 the record label Table of the Elements has staked its claim on a massive enterprise, intending nothing less than to rewrite the history of American music in the second half of the 20th century, and beyond. Its projects have focused on musicians whose light shimmers outside the frames of convention.
The 2008 Table of the Elements release Guitar Trio is My Life! is celebrated here with a much larger ensemble, the Lords of Tinnitus, anchored by drummer Jonathan Kane and accompanied by images by artist Robert Longo. Text of Light (William Hooker, Alan Licht, and Nels Cline), Jon Mueller, and Peg Simone join.