James K

Friday, March 12th, ISSUE presents pioneering experimental composer Morton Subotnick premiering the final version of “As I Live & Breath” a duet of image and sound augmented with the live visual work of Berlin-based video artist, Lillevan. Subotnick has described the piece as “a fitting title as, at 88, it may be my last appearance on the road.” The performance opens with new work multidisciplinary artist and 2018 Artist-In-Residence James K and will take place at The Playhouse Theater at Abrons Arts Center in the Lower East Side, as part of the @Abrons Series.

Morton Subotnick & Lillevan’s light and sound duet combines analog recordings, electronic patches, and live performance on a hybrid Buchla 200e/Ableton “instrument” with live video animation. Morton Subotnick states, “'As I Live & Breathe' features live and sampled vocalizing along with some of my most advanced electronic performance techniques. At last, some Buchla modules are now digital plugins and Ableton Live has evolved into a form that will allow me to create a technological environment that I never expected, in my lifetime, to experience. It starts with my breath, moves through a vocalising cadenza of vocal gestures and ends with a tender and simple use of gentle rhythms and melodic fragments."

James K will perform a set consisting of mostly new music, weaving live vocals and productions from recent and upcoming releases within live modular experimentation. K has recently released a new EP 036 on the AD 93 label, written, directed, edited, and produced the film Ultra Facial!, and produced a commissioned piece for ISSUE's Isolated Field Recording Series.

Morton Subotnick is one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems. His landmark record Silver Apples of the Moon (1966-67), commissioned by Nonesuch Records, marked the first time an original large-scale composition had been created specifically for the disc medium—a conscious acknowledgment that the home stereo system constituted a present-day form of chamber music. It has become a modern classic and was recently entered into the National Register of Recorded Works at the Library of Congress. Only 300 recordings throughout the entire history of recorded music have been chosen.

In the early 60s, Subotnick taught at Mills College and with Ramon Sender, co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center. During this period he collaborated with Anna Halprin in two works (the 3 legged stool and Parades and Changes) and was music director of the Actors Workshop. It was also during this period that Subotnick worked with Don Buchla on what may have been the first analog synthesizer (now at the Library of Congress). In 1966 Subotnick was instrumental in getting a Rockefeller Grant to join the Tape Center with the Mills Chamber Players (at Mills College with performers Nate Rubin, violin; Bonnie Hampton, cello; Naomi Sparrow, piano and Subotnick, clarinet). The grant required that the Tape Center relocate to a host institution that became Mills College. Subotnick, however, did not stay with the move, but went to NY with the Actor’s Workshop to become the first music director of the Lincoln Center Rep Company in the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. He became an artist in residence at the newly formed Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. The School of the Arts provided him with a studio and a Buchla Synthesizer. During this period he helped develop and became artistic director of the Electric Circus and the Electric Ear. This was also the time of the creation of Silver Apples of the Moon, The Wild Bull and Touch. In 1969, Subotnick was invited to be part of a team of artists to move to Los Angeles to plan a new school of the arts. With Mel Powell as Dean, and Subotnick as Associate Dean, and a team of four other pairs of artists, he carved out a new path of music education and created the now famous California Institute of the Arts. Subotnick remained Associate Dean of the music school for four years and then, resigning as Associate Dean, became the head of the composition program where, a few years later, he created a new media program that introduced interactive technology and multimedia into the curriculum.

Subotnick has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as a lecturer and composer/performer. Among Subotnick’s awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, Rockefeller Grants (3), Meet the Composer (2), American Academy of Arts and Letters Composer Award, Brandies Award, Deutcher Akademisher Austauschdienst Kunsterprogramm (DAAD), Composer in Residence in Berlin, Lifetime Achievement Award (SEAMUS at Dartmouth), ASCAP: John Cage Award, ACO: Lifetime Achievement, Honorary Doctorate from the California Institute of the Arts.

Lillevan is an animation, video and media artist who is perhaps best known as a founding member of the visual/music group Rechenzentrum / Data Center (1997-2008). He has performed and collaborated with many artists from a wide array of genres, and has worked with Morton Subotnick since 2010.

James K is a New York native multi-disciplinary artist who has honed her peculiar aesthetic to include a fusion of visual and sonic elements. Deeply rooted in a conscious art practice and a mythology of her own, her sound, equally organic and electronic, is a combination of odd dreams, hybridizing enchanted samples, ripped, broken and morphed rhythms, and vocals, both incomprehensible and appealing—forming a multifaceted identity. She received her BFA in Printmaking from The Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Bard, where she developed a critical multidisciplinary art practice shaped by feminist theory and writing. She has released her music with labels AD 93, Psychic Liberation, PAN, Dial, 1080p, UNO NYC, and her own label, She Rocks!, and has released collaborations with artists such as Yves Tumor, Drew Mcdowall, Parris, and Gobby, as their band SETH. K was an ISSUE Project Room resident in 2018, and, most recently, produced a commissioned piece for ISSUE's Isolated Field Recording Series. She is the host of a monthly radio show, Trip Lick, on NTS, and released her latest EP with AD 93 in March of last year.