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.
Tectonics Festival New York 2015
David Behrman presents his classic "Wave Train" and the ensemble work "Long Throw." James Rushford & Klaus Lang play a first-time duo. A solo program by Joseph Kubera includes works by Julius Eastman, Chiyoko Szlavnics, and Barbara Monk Feldman. Beth Griffith sings work by “postminimalist” John McGuire.
Tectonics Festival New York 2015
Tectonics Festival opens at the First Unitarian church, utilizing their pipe organ in works by Klaus Lang, as well as Feldman performed by James Rushford. Yarn/Wire play works of Lang and Annea Lockwood. Nate Young of Wolf Eyes and Mario Diaz de Leon premiere a newly commissioned collaboration for large ensemble.
James Rushford performs "Fluxorum Organum", an overlooked and mesmerizing durational work for solo organ by late Danish artist Henning Christiansen. Originally composed to accompany Joseph Beuys's 1967 action "Eurasienstab", Rushford interprets the mammoth score in its purest form, as an unaccompanied solo piece.
A non-traditional ensemble directed by master percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, Nakatani Gong Orchestra create intensely visceral, non-linear improvisations. This performance brings together a locally selected collection of players, specially trained in Nakatani's unique bowed gong techniques and sign conducting.
On view beginning March 8, Georgia Sagri’s Daily Bread is a streaming online exhibition and series of public and private performances conveying states of loss, mourning and offering. Sagri performs throughout the installation, in live readings and voice-over, with musical accompaniment by Hunter Hunt-Hendrix.
Greene Naftali hosts ISSUE Project Room's spring benefit, honoring the 75th birthday of pioneering multidisciplinary artist Tony Conrad. The night includes a dinner by Fitzcarraldo, and performances by Mr. Conrad & Jennifer Walshe, David Grubbs & Eli Keszler, MV Carbon & Dan Conrad, and The Cornichons.
Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine, masters of improvisation and drone, come together for a special duo concert at Brooklyn's First Unitarian church. Pairing Conrad on violin with Palestine on pipe organ, grand piano, and voice, the evening-length performance renews a nearly 5 decades-long association.
