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.
Friday, June 2nd, ISSUE presents two generations of artists working between the boundaries of improvisation and composition: saxophonist, composer and improviser Chris Pitsiokos and celebrated musician, composer and installation artist Miya Masaoka. The two artists present new work in solo and duo performance.
Thursday, May 25th, Antenes opens her 2017 residency with new work incorporating research on the unique audio terrain of early, analog telephone pioneers and hackers. The performance features found field recordings threaded into the electro-acoustic qualities and electronic signals from her handmade switchboard synths.
Jazz leaders Ken Vandermark & Nate Wooley perform in duo, returning to 22 Boerum for the first time since ISSUE’s 10 Years Alive On The Infinite Plane. Their music combines composition and improvisation, and explores the potential of modern melody and rhythm posited against abstract sound and texture.
For her ISSUE debut, vocalist Ka Baird presents Espylacopa (A Reversal In Three Acts), an interdisciplinary collaborative work with Camilla Padgitt-Coles (light design/synthesizer), Muyassar Kurdi (movement), Chris Penalosa (modular synthesis), Roshni Samlal (tabla) and Sandy Gordon (vibraphone).
Artists-In-Residence 2017
Artist, designer and composer Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste opens his ISSUE residency with a collaboration with LaMont Hamilton on Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6, 2017. The performance is the collaborative duo’s fourth performance around Julius Eastman’s 1979 composition, “Evil Nigger."
ISSUE co-presents the opening performance of Ende Tymes VII on Thursday, April 27th featuring performances from Joe Colley, Jenny Gräf, TRNSGNDR/VHS, and a duo between Denis Rollet and Francisco Meirino. The festival is well-known for balancing cutting-edge avant-garde music traditions and DIY gear manipulations.
Artists-In-Residence 2017
Byron Westbrook opens his 2017 residency with an iteration of Interval/Habitat -- a technique for site-specific intervention within a social environment. The piece plays a looping sequence of light and sound “scenes” that impose a time-based narrative over all activity within the space.
Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellowship 2017
For his first project as 2017 Suzanne Fiol Curatorial Fellow, DeForrest Brown Jr. organizes the US premiere of Quantum Natives’ expansive sonic universe. Established in 2013 as an online world-building platform, the international collective focuses on digital music and visual art.