As part of a series of celebratory events at ISSUE’s 22 Boerum theater, Tuesday, March 24th, ISSUE presents sound artist Jacob Kirkegaard performing work from his Opus Mors series. The evening also features musician Lyra Pramuk, performing the North American debut of material from her album Fountain, set to be released on March 20th via Iceland’s Bedroom Community label. Entrance is free for ISSUE Members.
Known for presenting complex, unnoticed or unapproachable conditions and environments, Jacob Kirkegaard returns to ISSUE to perform a piece from his recent Opus Mors project, a powerfully detailed sonic meditation into four significant death processes rendered as listening spaces. The series portrays four sound environments that the human body commonly will be surrounded by or exposed to in the immediate post mortem: a morgue, an autopsy, a cremation and the decomposition -- events that no one can physically experience because of the very fact of death. At ISSUE, Kirkegaard presents one piece from the series, Opus Autopsia, featuring detailed and precise near-field sound recordings of a full autopsy starting with opening the corpse, following the removal and slicing and cutting open all the organs and brain, to finally returning all the organs, closing and washing the corpse. Released as a part of a 4 LP set of the full cycle of work, Opus Autopsia is presented alongside an expansive “track list” that provides insight into the timbre of the unique human organs. Limited copies of this rare edition will be available at the performance.
Lyra Pramuk presents the North American debut of material from her upcoming album Fountain, a song cycle created entirely from her own voice, although often shaped and structured by electronics. The title is derived from her family name, Pramuk, which translates from Czech as “well spring” or “fountain.” Often wordless, these songs evoke the ritual force of drowning, immersion, cleansing, and bathing -- also referred to in the album artwork by acclaimed visual artist Donna Huanca. Fountain approaches rhythms, speech, body, and the relation between technology and humanity, thematically exploring a post-human, non-binary understanding of life and the fragile ecosystems it depends on. As a vocal activist and member of the queer community, Fountain’s creation also coincided with a personal rejuvenation for its author. Its completion culminated in the live premiere of the album material at Unsound Festival in Krakow in 2019, where she performed through a multi-channel array designed by Ben Frost, opening for Sunn O))) and Roly Porter.
Before the long-awaited renovation of our 22 Boerum theater begins in April, ISSUE presents a special series of events that reflect on the organization’s trajectory as a home for experimental performance. Featuring artists from across our history as well as new projects, these events mark a milestone moment to celebrate in the theater and support ISSUE as we embark on a period of off-site programming. Join us in bringing commissions, premieres, and rare performances to new contexts and spaces throughout New York City.
The sound art of Jacob Kirkegaard explores ways to reflect on complex, unnoticed or unapproachable conditions and environments. His works have treated themes such as radioactivity in Chernobyl and Fukushima, melting ice in the Arctic, and border walls in Palestine. His two recent works are immersive acoustic explorations into global waste management and of processes generally unfolding when a human being dies. Since 2006 Kirkegaard been extensively researching, recording and creating works using otoacoustic emissions; tones generated from the actual human ear. The core element and method of his work derives from the use of sound recordings of the tangible aspects from its intangible themes. Kirkegaard has presented his works at galleries, museums, biennales and concert spaces throughout the world, including MoMA in New York, LOUISIANA - Museum of Modern Art and ARoS in Denmark, The Menil Collection and at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, The Sydney Biennale in Australia, Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan. Jacob Kirkegaard has gallery representation through Fridman Gallery (New York, USA) and Galleri Tom Christoffersen (Copenhagen, DK). His work is represented in the permanent collection of LOUISIANA - Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. Kirkegaard's sound works have been released on labels such as Important Records (USA), Touch (UK), mAtter (JAP) and Posh Isolation (DK). He is a founding member of the sound art collective freq_out as well as the not-for-profit arts organisation TOPOS. In 2016 Kirkegaard was the sound-artist-in-residency at St. John's College, University of Oxford, U.K. www.fonik.dk
Lyra Pramuk fuses classical training, pop sensibilities, performance practices and contemporary club culture in what may best be described as futurist folk music. While the American operatically-trained vocalist and electronic musician is perhaps previously best known for her work with musical collaborators such as Holly Herndon and Colin Self, she is set to release her debut album, Fountain, via Iceland’s Bedroom Community label in March 2020. Collaborations with the visual artist Donna Huanca, freelance writing projects, and an ongoing international performance schedule, are part of a variety of creative nodes that feedback into Lyra’s practice. Lyra moved to Berlin in 2013 as a DAAD postgraduate study scholarship recipient, following her degree at the Eastman School of Music in New York. Since then, she has also been awarded residencies at Elektronmusikstudion EMS Stockholm, Open Port Club Residency in Tokyo and Sapporo, and Future Music Lab of the Atlantic Music Festival in Maine. Her interests also encompass writing, poetry, and fashion, where she is sometimes called upon as a model. As a performance artist, she has collaborated extensively with Donna Huanca and at events such as Glasgow International and the Rochester Fringe Festival.
