Media 2019

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.

Jerusalem In My Heart collects sounds and melodies, both archaic and futuristic, to create a transcending musical manifestation. JIMH performances are enthralling multimedia experiences, forging modern experimental Arabic music and electronic compositions with a punk rock impulsiveness.

ISSUE is pleased to present a conversation and performance from renowned musician and author David Toop alongside free improviser and composer Tania Caroline Chen -- both artists’ debut appearance at ISSUE. The evening celebrates the publication of Toop’s autobiography Flutter Echo: Living Within Sound.

Magician of an incredible variety of analog keyboards, J D Emmanuel conceives of sound as an organic, expanding flow of energy and dynamic translation of forces. Emmanuel’s cyclicity of patterns and phrases refers to minimalist traditions, but his music has little in common with something purely mathematical. Using an approach to improvisation influenced by his interests in jazz and the temporal expansion of rock jams, he charges harmony with an intimate spontaneity and freedom without boundaries.

Eve Essex returns to ISSUE in her first solo presentation, performing new and unrecorded works that extend the sonic landscape established in her recent debut LP Here Appear.

Charmaine Lee premieres “Laminals II,” the second of three movements for a new long-form piece for solo voice. With particular attention given to amplification, feedback, and physical technique, this movement further examines the possibilities of augmentation, distortion, and transformation of the human voice. The solo piece is followed by a duo with noise and visual artist Victoria Shen in a collaboration highlighting their individual practices of physicality (of voice, body, and technology) in relation to performance and sound.

Susie Ibarra’s “Rhythm Cycles” is a set of pieces that examine rhythm through shifting melody, texture, tempo, polyrhythms, while maintaining cycles. It is both a study and a meditation in rhythm. A virtuosic composer, percussionist and improviser, Ibarra is known for her innovative style and exquisitely global essence, coupling a profound respect for indigenous musics with a unique sense of the avant-garde

ISSUE & Harvestworks present acclaimed musician Michael Morley presenting Music for The Never Quartet, a new piece exploring the sonic possibilities of the acoustic guitar as a pure resonant amplifier of sound.

ISSUE presents the debut NYC collaborative performance from vocalist and composer Jennifer Walshe and San Francisco-based musician Wobbly (Jon Leidecker). The artists perform works ranging across their shared interest in the idiosyncrasies of digital sound and the outer reaches of online culture.

DeForrest Brown Jr. (2017 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow) returns to curate “Okonkwo Weeps In Exile,” a new rhythmic opera featuring producer Nicholas Dawson (Bookworms), drummer Donald Sturge Anthony Mckenzie II, poet and "enlightened educator" Rafael Sanchez, with text from Guerilla essayist and Pan-African Black separatist His Triumphant Blackness: The Negro Subversive.

The Daxophone Consort presents a new collaboration with NYC experimental vocalist and composer Judith Berkson.

ISSUE presents the New York City debut of Japanese quartet SAICOBAB, consisting of avant vocalist YoshimiO of Boredoms/OOIOO (celebrated as a battler of Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips) and instrumentalists Yoshida Daikiti (sitar), and Motoyuki “Hama” Hamamoto (percussion, gamelan).