ISSUE presents the premiere of three audiovisual compositions by Matt Mottel (2010 AIR). These works bring Mottel’s distinct artistic sensibility into dialogue with formative figures in his life and in New York’s avant-garde, tracing a lineage that is both deeply personal and central to ISSUE’s history.
Monarch Butterfly by rocío sánchez (2026 AIR) features Melissa Almaguer (tap dance and percussion) and Kenneth Jiménez (double bass). Together, the trio explores the elusive monarch’s migratory journey through sound and movement, with each instrument articulating distinct states of motion.
Isabella Thorpe-Woods presents "Envelop/e," her second program as ISSUE’s 2026 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow. Bringing together choreographers Jade Manns and Ella Dawn W-S for site-specific duets, they navigate presence and absence, repetition and rupture, and the tension between inherited geometries and shifting landscapes.
"Spiriting Off" is a new solo work by luthier Webb Crawford (2026 AIR) for electric guitar, tenor banjo, and five-string banjo.
ISSUE closes the summer season with the return of Matana Roberts (2009 AIR). Opening the evening, Ben Vida (2013 AIR) will perform music from his 2026 release, "Oblivion Seekers" with vocalist Sara Magenheimer.
Legend of the Japanese underground Keiji Haino returns to Brooklyn, taking the stage in a special duo with Tony Conrad. These master improvisers of experimental music first joined forces in 2006, this is their first NY duo appearance since 2009. The dynamic and raw improvising cellist Okkyung Lee opens the evening.
A lovechild of the home recording era, Kubin is among electronic music's most versatile performers, with activities spanning pop, radio plays, electroacoustic music, and works for chamber orchestra. Kubin's music is saturated with enthusiasm for disharmonic pop, industrial noise, and the 20th-century avant-garde.
The artistic alter ego of Tori Kudo, Maher Shalal Hash Baz are a fluid large ensemble of untrained musicians that create arresting indie-pop embracing error, structure, and structurelessness. Accordionist and vocalist à qui avec Gabriel creates stark, ethereal and whispering melodies evoking European folk.
Chie Mukai leads an improvisation workshop, sharing experiences from thirty years of site-specific performance and improvisation. This workshop continues a teaching practice begun in 2001, it is free and open to 25 practitioners of sound and movement (RSVP required), and also to an audience of observers.
Minor Musics Japan opens with Ché-Shizu, an improv-folk group led by Chie Mukai. Since 1981 they have recontextualized folk instruments and electronics in spontaneous actions that are lyrical, compelling, and endearingly unpolished. Mukai also plays duo with LLILW GRAY, alias of No-Neck Blues Band's Keith Connolly.
David Georgi, James Hoff, Jason Napoli-Brooks, Luc Sante and Donald Nicholson-Smith read from recent translations of important historic crime novels, poetry, and political writing, as well as contemporary pulp genre experiments that celebrate all forms of deviation, criminality and antisocial sentiments.
Esteemed composer and Fluxus artist Yoshi Wada makes a rare NYC appearance accompanied by his son, composer Tashi Wada. Together, they present an expansive duo performance using a unique mixture of acoustic and electronic instruments including: sirens, alarm bells, audio generators, bagpipes and reed organ.
Acclaimed cellists Charles Curtis and Judith Hamann perform Los Angeles-based composer Tashi Wada's Duets for cello, a NY premiere in anticipation of their forthcoming recorded release. The program also includes Curtis performing works for solo cello by Alvin Lucier, JS Bach, and Luigi Dallapiccola.