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.
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.
Best known as a member of the Sun City Girls, Sir Richard Bishop is master guitarist whose improvisations effortlessly absorb sounds of India, the Middle East, North Africa and others into a highly original body of work. A Bhutanese guitarist based in Asheville, Tashi Dorji's revelatory style is unbound by tradition.
This all-day indoor/outdoor show crosses metal, noise and experimental electronics, headlined by Liturgy— their first reunited show as a quartet— alongside Californian post-metal duo Wreck and Reference, extreme-noise group White Suns, and noise/electronic artist Kyle Eyre Clyd, alias Penny Royale.
A verified legend of African music, Ahmed led the wave of Ethiopian music’s 'golden age' of the 60s-70s with a notoriously energetic combination of traditional Amharic music with soul, jazz & funk. His stunning multi-octave voice has made him an international star for 40 years, despite relative obscurity in the US.