On Saturday, March 22nd at 8pm, ISSUE Project Room presents new projects by sound artists and composers crys cole and Maayan Tsadka. Between March 20-22, the organization will present new, live performance scores at its 22 Boerum Pl. theater as part of ongoing activations of the With Womens Work Series.
Canadian sound artist crys cole, who has maintained a longstanding relationship with ISSUE since 2014, returns this March to present an expanded version of her 2021 piece, “Valid ForeverrRrrRRrrr… (pt.1).” Originally created for the With Women's Work series, the piece draws inspiration from Beth Anderson’s VALID FOR LIFE, a complex arrangement of the letter "R" in various typefaces. On this occasion, she will also include an acoustic performance of her piece “keeping the ball rolling,” activating the unique acoustic and material identity of the 22 Boerum Pl. theater.
Composer Beth Anderson suggests a realization on a trio of acoustic instruments (playing rolls with velvet beaters), and cole translates the piece into her characteristic sound and object language as a trio of rolling sounds on ‘two large similar paper things and one 5-pin bowling ball’. Rolling from one side of the stereo field to the other, the bowling ball’s uneven movement is the heart of this immersive textural array, created with the simplest materials, which generates phantom sensations of pitch and phasing effects solely through amplified friction. Her most recent solo album, Making Conversation, released by Black Truffle in 2024, includes both parts of Valid ForeverrRrrRRrrr…, and the title track is a composition inspired by the natural patterns and movement of the nocturnal soundscape of Ubud Bali, constructed through objects and sounds created by the artist.
Equally interested in environmental sound is Maayan Tsadka. Using botanical and other organic findings, tuning forks and electronics, “Sonic Botany” is an intimate exploration: of the botany surrounding us, of altered time scales, and of multi-layered listening possibilities. Perhaps it's a crypto-botanical sound-travel through imaginary soundscapes, in which tuning forks are used as a tool to explore different sonic properties of various organic artifacts (leaves, branches, shells, bones), which become resonating membranes, or means of natural amplification. The piece moves between a close listening to the complexities of a single sound, to incorporating those sounds into a larger ecosystem—where imaginary soundscapes emerge, alternate and collapse.
Continuing the work of her first online project with ISSUE for With Womens Work, RA'ASH ADAMA (earthnoise), she is responding to Annea Lockwood's iconic Piano Transplants series. She writes: “for me, those brilliant works and scores are not only an invitation to recreate the pieces as described, but also a broader invitation for sonic explorations and for different ways of listening, thinking, and making music. Through a very intentional setting and process, Lockwood leads the performer to eventually release, or set in motion, something from the inherent sonic potential of the object, which then is no longer in one's control.” The Piano Transplants series puts our temporal human existence in proportion, as well as in relation, to our surroundings, and alludes to the possibility of experiencing reality under different time scales, often beyond our human perception.
The archive is not neutral. At ISSUE, we strive to help artists expose and redress the historical record and structures of power relating to sex and gender. The ongoing With Womens Work Series aims to continuously activate and grow the accounts of women’s experiences and practices in the avant-garde canon, while honoring the legacy of artists who have built and contributed to it over the years.
crys cole is a Canadian sound artist based in Berlin (DE) whose work includes composition, performance, sound sculpture and installation. Taking a conceptual approach, she generates subtle and imperfect sounds through haptic gestures and seemingly mundane materials to create texturally nuanced electro-acoustic works that continuously retune the ear. cole has performed extensively worldwide as a solo artist and with various collaborators including Oren Ambarchi (AU) James Rushford (AU, as Ora Clementi), Tetuzi Akiyama (JP), David Rosenboom (US), Annea Lockwood (US/NZ), Keith Rowe (UK) and many more. She has presented her work at festivals, events and institutions including; Presence Electronique (FR), the Walker Art Center (US), Editions Festival (SW + JP), Tectonics Festival (US + AU), Vancouver New Music (CA), Akademie der Kunste (DE), Art Gallery of New South Wales (AU), Archipel Festival (CH), BACC (TH), café Oto (UK) and many more. Cole’s sound installations and sculptures often investigate ideas around impermanence, temporality, memory and illusion, with a particular interest in simple everyday materials and site specificity. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, the UK, Spain, Switzerland and Thailand.
Maayan Tsadka is a composer, sound artist, educator and music organizer. Her musical works take various forms such as instrumental compositions, sound installations, field recording, sound pieces, performances and environmental communal projects. One main source of inspiration is rooted in the notion of uncovering and amplifying layers and musical patterns—hidden or inherent structures— which occur acoustically, and exploring ways in which the sonic phenomena meets the physiology of the ear and the psychology of listening. Her works often incorporate a dimension of imaginary and speculative sonic worlds, between crypto-zoology, crypto-botany and futuristic folklore. Current fields of research and creative work include prehistoric harmony, sonic taxonomy, augmented hearing/listening practices, sonic resistance, sound and environment, and ideas of echo/resonance in musical, natural, political, and social context. Completed a DMA in music composition from UC Santa Cruz and currently resides in Haifa. Teaches in Haifa University, Musrara school of art and society and The Technion Institute of technology. Co-artistic director/composer/performer at Musica Nova ensemble.
