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.
Mia Zabelka's new solo project, focuses on the development of experimental improvisational techniques with the voice and violin, a process she calls "automatic playing." She explores the relationships among the body, gesture, sound, machines and space using live electronics to expand the electroacoustic sonic spectrum.
Michelle Nagai presents new work for the MARtLET, a handsome, wearable hunk of tree bark that's been fitted with light-sensing circuitry, machine learning software, and sound synthesis algorithms.
The Rat Bastard Experience is led by free jazz drummer Marc Edwards (Cecil Taylor Unit), who appears here with a motley crew of free jazz “anti-fame nihilists.” NO MOR MUSIK’s punk jazz fuses the highest and lowest brows with no intermediary.
Trombonist Steve Swell brings together a new trio with pedal steel guitarist Susan Alcorn and electronic improviser Tom Hamilton. Drummer John Truscinski and guitarist Steve Gunn have played together over a span of years in various projects, influenced by the blues, raga, and the New York underground scene.
Alexander Hacke & Danielle de Picciotto combine experimental film with music drawn from gypsy rolls, Italo-Western piano tunes, loops and Autoharp picking. They have worked in Berlin since the eighties, and tour the world regularly. This album, Hitman’s Heel, celebrates the restless life of a nomad.
A roundtable discussion of the new French writing will include John O'Brien (founder of Dalkey Archive Press), and Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens (founder of Editions P.O.L), as well as writers Mark Polizzotti and Brian Evenson and Brooklyn Academy of Music Humanities Manager Violaine Huisman.
In drummer Jim Pugliese’s current project, “Jimmy’s Music Club,” the musical structure stays the same but the musicians change all the time. Informed by everything from free impovisation to deep groove to Ghanaian drumming, his ensemble seeks to find the spiritual secrets of drumming.
The final night of composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter’s two-night residency features two sets: the first including Carter with Indigo Street, John Bonhannon, Pete Drungle, Gary Heidt, and Justin Veloso, and the second with Atiba N. Weabena, Aquah Tcherbu, Motoki Mihara, Nkosi Nkululeko, and Federico Ughi.