Formed in NYC in 1993, the improvising collective No-Neck Blues Band (NNCK) favors anonymity, autonomy, and obfuscation. Alongside founding member Keith Connolly (2016 AIR), they return to open ISSUE’s Fall season at First Unitarian Congregational Society in Brooklyn.
ISSUE presents the first commission from Eden Girma (2026 AIR). Part dreamscape and part summoning circle, an intimate diasporic familial archive is pieced together through the eyes of a five-year-old child.
In partnership with Franklin Furnace as part of their 50th anniversary commemoration and November release of "Back to the Present: 50 Years of Free Expression with Franklin Furnace" ISSUE presents an evening of performance and conversation.
Incorporating elements of noise, trance and minimalism, Sergei Tcherepnin (2012 AIR) presents new work for Serge Modular synthesizer.
For her first Artist-in-Residence performance, Okkyung Lee collaborates with Tom Rainey (percussion), Liberty Ellman (guitar) and Skuli Sverrisson (bass). An independent voice in a contemporary cello performance, improvisation and composition, Lee her solid classical training as a springboard for new combinations.
Gordon Monahan's works for piano, loudspeakers, video, kinetic sculpture, and computer-controlled sound environments span genres from avant-garde concert music to multi-media installation and sound art.
Sagittarius A-Star is the new incarnation of the legendary Italian label Qbico, who specialized in limited edition, hand-painted vinyls releases, ranging from free jazz to Japanese psychedelia, free-folk, and electronic improvisation. Second Family Band, Trulofa Trio, Matt Valentine and The Aquarian Foundation perform.
In Scuttling around in the shallows, Winderen continues her investigation of the sound of shrimp, exploring how the smallest creatures of the ocean use sound for communication, orientation, and feeding. Hydrophones—originally a military development—are repurposed, inadvertently producing unexpected qualities.
As part of "The Sonic Unconscious" festival, ISSUE presents Yolande Harris's Scorescapes, a program including the pieces Tuning In / Spacing Out, a collaboration with Edward Shanken, Fishing for Sound, and S.W.A.M.P., with Kato Hideki, Jim Pugliese, and William Lang.
As part of The Sonic Unconscious, ISSUE presents two installations by Yolande Harris. Pink Noise uses sound recorded underwater. In Tropical Storm, sound and video recordings of a tropical storm evoke the multisensory experience of being immersed in a torrential downpour in a rainforest.
Chased around by the ghosts of a paved-over salt marsh and equipped with perverted botanists’ tools, voices of divination and herbal elixirs, explore the neighborhood of Gowanus on foot and onscreen. Gina Badger leads a field botany tour exploring the place of edible and medicinal weeds in ecologies of decolonization.
Irish composer Enda Bates' hexaphonic guitar is simply a standard electric guitar with a special pickup providing access to each individual string signal. This allows each string to be processed differently, and be routed to a different place in the room. This new work transforms his instrument sonically and spatially.