Ben Vida: Always Already with Yarn/Wire & Nina Dante

As part of a series of celebratory events at ISSUE’s 22 Boerum theater, Thursday, March 12th, ISSUE presents the New York premiere of Always Already, a new commissioned work by Ben Vida performed by renowned quartet Yarn/Wire, vocalist Nina Dante, and Vida himself. Previously both ISSUE Artists-In-Residence, this is the first ever collaborative project between Vida and Yarn/Wire. The evening also features the ISSUE debut of New York based composer Aaron David Ross (ADR), presenting new compositions from his unreleased Filter Failure song cycle, accompanied by self-made animations.

Always Already is a text based composition for electronics, voice and ensemble. It is a hypnotic examination of the materiality of language that emphasizes the rhythm of speech through repetition and variation. Composed and performed by Ben Vida with Nina Dante and Yarn/Wire, this new work expands on the compositions for small vocal ensembles which Vida has presented at such venues as the Kitchen and BAM.

Always Already is the first of these pieces to include live instrumentalists. Keyboards, marimbas, electronics and voices are braided together to produce a mesmerizing ramble of language and notes. The works abstract narrative was developed out of a dense cyclical text which was inspired by the rhythmical essays of Gertrude Stein, the Gysin/Burroughs cut-up method and the parsing systems of the Conceptual Writers.

Following acclaimed releases Deceptionista and Throat on PAN, ADR’s new solo work Filter Failure takes the form of a cinematic song cycle, featuring ten animated tone-poems which showcase ADR not only as a cybernetic singer-songwriter, but also as a 3D-hobbyist animator. The first project to ever feature ADR’s voice and lyrics, each song serves as the basis for a surrealist visual rendering that showcase avatar-driven lip-synced adventure-scenarios guided by ADR’s affect-driven compositional approach. Often maneuvering between multiple genres and contexts, either through his duo project Gatekeeper, or his productions with Ryan Trecartin, Lafawndah, Telfar, and others, ADR is known for a breadth of vision underpinned by a consistently beguiling, skillful production style. In the past, this exploration has existed between monikers; however, with his recent work, it’s between songs or even seconds of time -- all balancing precariously between embracing and rejecting the overwinding digital time-scales and narrative degeneration we endure as 21st century citizen-users.

Before the long-awaited renovation of our 22 Boerum theater begins in April, ISSUE presents a special series of events that reflect on the organization’s trajectory as a home for experimental performance. Featuring artists from across our history as well as new projects, these events mark a milestone moment to celebrate in the theater and support ISSUE as we embark on a period of off-site programming. Join us in bringing commissions, premieres, and rare performances to new contexts and spaces throughout New York City.

Ben Vida is a composer and artist. In the mid-1990s Vida co-founded the minimalist quartet Town & Country and released solo records under the moniker Bird Show. He has worked with numerous labels including Shelter Press, PAN, Root Strata and Kranky. His work has been featured in Artforum, Modern Painters, The Paris Review, The New York Times, Art Review, Wire Magazine, The Creators Project, WIRED Magazine among others. His pieces have been presented widely in venues such as the Guggenheim, NYC; GRM/INA, France; Centro Pecci in Prato, Italy; STUK in Leuven, Belgium; the MCA, Chicago; The ICA, London; The Kitchen, NYC; Performa Biennial, NYC; EMPAC, Troy, NY; Leap Gallery, Berlin; Lampo, Chicago; Cricoteka Museum, Kraków, Poland; the Sydney Opera House; Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna; Borderline Festival, Athens, Greece; the Royal Festival Hall, London and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY. Vida teaches in the MFA program in Sonic Arts at Brooklyn College.

Yarn/Wire is a New York-based percussion and piano quartet comprised of Ian Antonio, Laura Barger, Russell Greenberg, and Ning Yu. This instrumental combination allows the ensemble flexibility to slip effortlessly between classics of the repertoire and modern works that continue to forge new boundaries.Founded in 2005 while at Stony Brook University, Yarn/Wire is admired for the energy and precision they bring to performances of today's most adventurous music. The results of their collaborative initiatives with genre-bending artists such as Two-Headed Calf, Pete Swanson, and Tristan Perich point towards the emergence of a new and lasting repertoire that is "spare and strange and very, very new." (Time Out NY). Yarn/Wire is dedicated to expanding the repertoire written for its instrumentation, through commissions and collaborative initiatives that aim to build a new and lasting body of work. Influenced by its members’ experiences with classical music, avant-garde theatre, and rock music, the ensemble champions a varied and probing repertoire.

Soprano/vocalist Nina Dante is a soloist, chamber musician, improviser and composer based in New York City. Musical experimentation and the continual discovery of the voice’s technical ability and emotive power are the inspiring forces behind her work. Hailed for her “amazing performance of vocal versatility by a uniquely gifted young artist” (Chicago Classical Review), Dante has performed at Resonant Bodies Festival, BAM, Lampo, Issue Project Room, Roulette, the Kitchen, National Sawdust, the University of Chicago’s Contempo, Performa, Indexical, Visiones Sonoras, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, the Experimental Sound Studio, New Music Miami, the Latino Music Festival, the Frequency Festival, Festival Interfaz, the Poetry Foundation, and the Renaissance Society, among others.

Aaron David Ross (ADR) is a composer, producer and artist preoccupied with music’s affective potentiality. In addition to his work as one half of the critically acclaimed Gatekeeper duo and touring as a member of Oneothrix Point Never’s Myriad ensemble, ADR releases solo recordings, hosts an array of ongoing collaborations, composes for film, tv and advertising, and maintains a practice of live performance and sound installation. As a recording artist, Aaron has released music with renowned independent labels PAN (DE), Warp (UK), Hippos in Tanks (US), Kompakt (DE), Merok (UK), Public Information (UK), and Presto (IT). He has performed at many of the world’s premiere concert venues, clubs and festivals, and has been featured and reviewed in publications including The New York Times, NPR, Art Forum, The Guardian, Dazed & Confused, Pitchfork, Art In America, The Fader, Interview, FACT, and many others. His installed collaborative works have been exhibited at biennials, galleries and museums internationally, including at the Whitney Biennial (US), Venice Biennale (IT), Saatchi Gallery Paris (FR), The DeYoung San Fransisco (US), MoMA New York (US), MCA Chicago (US), and more. His original film scores have premiered in globally celebrated festivals and programs including Festival del film Locarno in Switzerland, Berlin Biennale in Germany, Migrating Forms at BAM in New York, Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement in Geneva, and Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. Originally from Tucson, AZ, Aaron received a BM in composition from Columbia before pursuing an MFA in Sound Art & Music Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He now lives and works in New York City.