ISSUE presents pioneering French composer Christine Groult's debut U.S. performance.
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Sarah Hennies: Monologue
Her first-ever piece for trumpet, Sarah Hennies’s Monologue is a celebration of the trumpet as frustrating machinery, taking the tubing and valves as instruments in themselves activated, or not, by the player’s breath. In this sense, the work is a deconstruction of what it is to be a trumpet player, blowing into a machine in hopes of something meaningful coming out the other end.
Sarah Hennies: Fleas
The series closes with Sarah Hennies taking center stage herself to perform her piece Fleas (2017). The music here is made entirely from objects found at thrift stores and flea markets and will feature Greenberg, Roberts, Schoenbeck, and Wooley in a supporting role. In Hennies’s words, Fleas is “Not exactly music made from trash, but music made from objects of little monetary value that someone decided they didn’t want anymore. Objects usually tell you how to play them if you’ll allow it."
Katherine Young: Puddles and Crumbs
Katherine Young’s work for trombone and electronics, Puddles and Crumbs, is performed by Weston Olencki, who collaborated closely with Young in the composition and electro-acoustic setting of the work.
Ryoko Akama
The first evening of FOR/WITH concludes with the world premiere of a new work by Ryoko Akama. One of the younger generation of composers influenced by the wandelweiser group (of which Houben is a major figure), Akama’s work deals with the relationships between performer and space, sound and time, and how the visual becomes the aural.
The New York Review of Cocksucking
The New York Review of Cocksucking was formed by Richard Kamerman & Michael Foster via Tinder and by way of Luxury Lounge, where after finally meeting at a noise show in someone's house they promptly decided to forgo all formalities associated with online dating and start a noise duo together instead. Writing for Jazz Right Now, critic Clifford Allen describes the duo as belonging “in a tradition somewhere between John Duncan and Alfred 23 Harth, a path that will continue to fascinate and upend and which is absolutely necessary in this darkly draconian age.”
Leila Bordreuil & Lee Ranaldo With Stephan Moore
Cellist/composer Leila Bordreuil and guitarist/composer Lee Ranaldo debut an improvised duet, and are then joined by sound artist Stephan Moore, presenting a new collaboration that embarks from their previous trio performance at ISSUE in 2016.
Asha Sheshadri
Asha Sheshadri presents work that involves the unpredictable observation of and response to a personal and political network of relays -- archival fields coexisting in entropy -- that operate within our collective worlds and imperfect memories.
OVER WATER: Elliott Sharp / Janene Higgins / Rena Anakwe
Performed at ISSUE's 2019 Gala, OVER WATER is the debut performance between 2019 Artist-In-Residence Rena Anakwe alongside ISSUE Art Advisory Council member Elliott Sharp and media artist Janene Higgins.
Rhys Chatham: Le Possédé
Rhys Chatham performs the North American premiere of his solo work Le Possédé for bass flute. The piece continues Chatham's explorations of the possibilities offered by the early minimalist period of downtown Manhattan. During the early 1970s, Chatham played in La Monte Young's Theater of Eternal Music, with Tony Conrad in an early version of The Dream Syndicate, and in trio formation with Charlemagne Palestine and Tony Conrad. Chatham draws on these experiences to arrive at a musical vocabulary which is reminiscent of this exciting period in New York, transforming the sound in a way that could only happen in the present decade.
Jerusalem In My Heart
Jerusalem In My Heart collects sounds and melodies, both archaic and futuristic, to create a transcending musical manifestation. JIMH performances are enthralling multimedia experiences, forging modern experimental Arabic music and electronic compositions with a punk rock impulsiveness.
David Toop & Tania Caroline Chen
ISSUE is pleased to present a conversation and performance from renowned musician and author David Toop alongside free improviser and composer Tania Caroline Chen -- both artists’ debut appearance at ISSUE. The evening celebrates the publication of Toop’s autobiography Flutter Echo: Living Within Sound.
J D Emmanuel: The Genesis of My Music
Magician of an incredible variety of analog keyboards, J D Emmanuel conceives of sound as an organic, expanding flow of energy and dynamic translation of forces. Emmanuel’s cyclicity of patterns and phrases refers to minimalist traditions, but his music has little in common with something purely mathematical. Using an approach to improvisation influenced by his interests in jazz and the temporal expansion of rock jams, he charges harmony with an intimate spontaneity and freedom without boundaries.