ISSUE presents the NY premiere of Always Already a new commissioned work by Ben Vida performed by renowned quartet Yarn/Wire, vocalist Nina Dante, and Vida himself. The evening also features the ISSUE debut of composer Aaron David Ross (ADR), presenting new compositions from his unreleased Filter Failure.
Ensemble Pamplemousse presents "Absurd Limitations," the emergent product of reducing, restricting, narrowing, squelching, slicing, and otherwise removing all unnecessary fodder. Contemporary chamber quartet, Yarn/Wire, perform "alphabeta" by Eric Wubbels and "Wolf" by Kate Soper.
Following the start of construction on our Downtown Brooklyn theater in February, ISSUE took its programs on the road, presenting hundreds of artists in more than 20 venues across the city. We celebrate the close of the season with a look back at video some of our favorite performances.
Yarn/Wire are a New York ensemble of a seldom-seen stripe – two pianists, two percussionists. Eliminated Artist pairs them with Pete Swanson, formerly half of the improvising American noise duo Yellow Swans. The first fruits of this collaboration, and indeed the title track, are to be found on the B side – a live recording from Brooklyn’s Issue Project Room in March 2012. Here, the collaboration is subtle and complex. Pianos circle one another in wary contemplation, flurries of percussion shake the piece into a manic vigour; but what’s live and what’s recorded is unclear, as Swanson, on electronics and tape, is flowing in fragments of the ensemble’s improvised rehearsals. Neat, but the heavy firepower is deployed on side one’s “Corrections”, which finds the ensemble hammering gongs around fragments of Swanson giving one of Peter Zinovieff’s unruly old Putney VCS3 analogue synths a good going over.
Yarn/Wire/Currents is an ongoing collaboration with piano and percussion ensemble Yarn/Wire, inaugurated in 2013. The series serves as an incubator for new experimental music, programs explore the intersections of composition, technology, installation, live performance, music theater, and more.
The fourth installment of Yarn/Wire/Currents celebrates the ensemble's 10th anniversary season and their recent release on ISSUE’s Distributed Objects imprint. The concert program features world premieres by David Bird, Sam Pluta, and electronics visionary Mark Fell; doors open with DJ & reception at 7pm.
Tectonics Festival opens at the First Unitarian church, utilizing their pipe organ in works by Klaus Lang, as well as Feldman performed by James Rushford. Yarn/Wire play works of Lang and Annea Lockwood. Nate Young of Wolf Eyes and Mario Diaz de Leon premiere a newly commissioned collaboration for large ensemble.
Yarn/Wire premieres "core, self, oscillation" by Mark Fell at Artists Space Books & Talks on September 29th, 2015 as part of ISSUE's ongoing Yarn/Wire/Currents series.
Yarn/Wire/Currents returns with a newly commissioned experimental work by composer Ann Cleare. Performed by the celebrated percussion and keyboard quartet Yarn/Wire with an assemblage of acoustic, modified, electronic, and handmade instruments.
Piano/percussion quartet Yarn/Wire premiere a new piece by German experimentalist Marcus Schmickler, a microtonal score for keyboards and mallets, juxtaposing fixed pitch with pitch continua. Schmickler also presents a new eight-channel electronics work, tracing parallels between linguistics and sound.