Tonight, Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain closes with work from three former Artists-In-Residence: Yarn/Wire, Tristan Perich, and Ashley Paul. Yarn/Wire perform Perich’s Chalk– a relentless and hypnotic chamber piece for 2 pianos, 2 xylophones, and four-channel 1-bit electronics, that premiered at ISSUE in Spring 2012. Performer and composer Ashley Paul’s song-based solo albums have gained renown for their psychologically intense combinations of melody and raw texture.
Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plain– a two-month festival celebrating ISSUE Project Room's 10th anniversary– revisits seminal past projects and initiates new relationships with over 60 artists working across disciplines of sound, dance, performance, and literature. Presented as a series of 24 evenings of provocative double billings, Ten Years Alive blurs the boundaries between divergent disciplines and practices and celebrating the vibrancy of the Brooklyn experimental arts community.
Tristan Perich's Chalk (2012) is scored for 2 grand pianos, 2 xylophones, and four-channel 1-bit electronics. Clocking in at 50 minutes, the piece hypnotically fuses acoustic and electronic sound. The acoustic material is relentless and non-stop, requiring exacting ensemble precision. Expressive application of Perich's 1-bit tone generating microchips provide sonic support while pacing the performers and pushing physical capabilities to the limit. Limiting the pianos and xylophones to only the top octave-and-a-half of their ranges, Chalk quickly reveals striking combinations, connections, and outcomes. Tristan Perich’s work is inspired by the aesthetic simplicity of math, physics and code. His award-winning work coupling 1-bit electronics with traditional forms in both music and visual art has been presented around the world, from Sonár and Ars Electronica to the Whitney Museum, MoMA and bitforms gallery. Perich was an ISSUE Artist-in-Residence during 2009.
Yarn/Wire is a chamber quartet specializing in the performance of 21st century music. A unique instrumental combination of two percussionists (Ian Antonio & Russell Greenberg) and two pianists (Laura Barger & Ning Yu) allows Yarn/Wire to interface with both traditional performance practice and emergent stylistic trends with ease. Founded in 2005 at Stony Brook University, Yarn/Wire is admired for its "spellbinding virtuosity" (Time Out NY) and the energy and precision it brings to performances of today's most exciting music. Yarn/Wire were ISSUE Project Room Artist-In-Residence in 2012.
Ashley Paul is a performer and composer based in Brooklyn, New York. She uses an array of instruments including saxophone, clarinet, voice, guitar, bells and percussion, mixing disparate elements to create a colorful palette of sound that works its way into her intuitive songs; free forming, introverted melodies. This blend manifests beautiful and simple musical forms against acoustic experimentation. Her solo albums have received high praise being chosen “Album of the Column" in The Wire, number one on Byron Coley and Thurston Moore’s “Tongue Top Ten” in Arthur Magazine and included on NPR’s All Songs Considered “Best of 2010”. Paul has performed or recorded with Phill Niblock, Rashad Becker, Loren Connors, Aki Onda, C. Spencer Yeh, Anthony Coleman, Joe Maneri, Joe Morris, Seijiro Murayama, Greg Kelley, Bill Nace and Eli Keszler appearing on such labels as PAN, ESP-DISK’ and Tzadik. She received a Masters of Music from New England Conservatory in 2007. Paul was an ISSUE Project Room Artist-In-Residence with Eli Keszler in 2008.
