FEBRUARY 5
DANGEROUS GROUND PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS
MICHAEL ATTIAS’ MUSIC OF BATTLE
Music of Battle is a new self-contained revisiting of the score to the acclaimed play Battle of Black and Dogs as it was performed at the Ohio Theatre in May 2003 as part of the Koltes NY 2003 Festival. This very special concert will feature the original musicians and actors in an uninterrupted flow of music and text that recreates the darkness, humor, and poetry of Koltes’ landscapes. Battle of Black and Dogs is set on a post-colonial construction site in West Africa. It is a violent, metaphysical operatic western that intertwines themes of sex, race, money, and power in an incantatory language that can rise to arias of hallucinatory beauty only to descend to obsessive rants of trivial and equally hallucinatory obscenity.
The music combines samples, notation, live electronics and various improvisational strategies to create a world of longing visited by Burundi girls, Schubert, Nepalese fruit bats, and Johnny Guitar. It attempts to describe both the outer landscape of the play and the inner psyches of the four characters. The actors, under Doris Mirescu’s masterful direction, will integrate pieces from the original production into the musical texture.
more information
FEBRUARY 6
The SYNESTHTETES present Easter in New York!
A re-interpretation of French poet Blaise Cendrars’ Les Paques a New York
The Synesthetes, modern as they are, will lead their musical quest on the undulating path of mysticism and cynical despair. The poem will be translated in sounds and motion using dance, music and moving images.
The Synesthetes: Stephanie Larriere – Tap Dance; Yo Shina – Dance; Michael Attias – Alto Sax; Olivier Conan – Voice, Laptop & Video; Shelley Burgon – Harp; Trevor Dunn – Bass; Raz Mesinai – Percussions
“Easter in New York” is the creation of a modernist legend which echoes the Golden Legend of medieval christianity. It is filled with fear, violence, love and rebellion and uses an imagery that mixes the medieval along with the contemporary. It is the chaotic quest for an atheistic spirituality where the old dogmas have little place and where angels fly along the shiny fuselage of the brand new aeroplane.
FEBRUARY 13
RAZ MESINAI & SHELLEY HIRSCH
Sampler and vocals
This marks the first live performance from Mesinai’s cult classic recording on BSI “The Unspeakable”.
* Due to illness, Shelley Hirsch could not perform. Mark Feldman (violin) and Anthony Coleman (organ/piano) joined Raz Mesinai.
FEBRUARY 20
REBECCA MOORE WITH PREVENTION OF BLINDNESS
Featuring films by Joel Schlemowitz
The Project Room invites you to an intimate evening of music and film curated by composer/musician Rebecca Moore. Joined by her all-star ensemble Prevention of Blindness, the band will play a mixture of new songs and instrumentals while Joel Schlemowitz1s films cover the surrounding walls. Expect the band to be involved in some theatrical situations!
Prevention of Blindness includes: Ursula Wiskoski (elec. cello), Danny Tunick (bass, vibes, keyboards), Dan Coates (samples electronica), Dan Kaufman (elec. guitar), Christy Davis (percussion), Pinky (viola), Suzannah Scott- Moncrieff (viola) and Rebecca Moore (violin, vocals).
Filmmaker Joel Schlemowitz will project films and visual images on the surrounding walls. Schlemowitz’s films are poetic and thoughtful, accessibly abstract yet convey an awareness of the texture of film as a medium.
FEBRUARY 22
TREVOR DUNN’S SCHEMES OF OMISSION
Debut performance
Trevor Dunn, bassist for Mr. Bungle, Fantomas and John Zorn’s Electric Masada, leads Schemes of Omission, a new quartet including Shelley Burgon (harp), Curtis Hasselbring (trombone) and Bay-area drummer Ches Smith.
Schemes of Omission fuses improvisation with chamber ensemble effect. The unusual instrumentation resembles something like Feldmanesque orchestration with the possibilities of limitless color…