JG Thirlwell blabs about sound art while on the Kaliningrad morning TV show.
Last weekend the Ende Tymes Festival of a bevy of experimental and noise artists to NYC for short sets spread across several nights. On Saturday Sudden Infant dominated the stage at Secret Project Robot, followed by Japan’s Astro, late of the legendary CCCC. The following night at Outpost in Ridgewood, Sud was back in his guise as Joke Lanz, this time manning turntables in a duet with Shelley Hirsch. Also on Sunday’s bill, Katherine Liberovskaya’s haunting treated rain images accompanied by Leslie Ross’ graudually building bassoon drone. Jeff Carey’s engaging piece put me in mind of what Ryoji Ikeda might do if he worked on a Commodore 64. Jason Soliday and Jon Satrom hilariously imagined a computer desktop glitch nightmare.
Notorious Norwegian artist Bjarne Melgaard had two tigers at his opening at 389 Grand last night. Why? Because he can, I spose.
JG Thirlwell will be in Kaliningrad, Russia from May 24-26 2012 for the Sound Around Kaliningrad Festival, an International Festival of Experimental Music and Sound Art. JG will have a new six channel sound installation on display, entitled ”Otitis Interna”. In addition he will do a performance version of “Ecclesiophobia” and lecture.
Other participants in the Festival this year include Jacob Kirkegaard, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Jana Winderen, Mats Lindstrom, Maksims Shentelevs and many more.
The festival will take place in many sites around the city, including the Kaliningrad Zoo. There will be concerts, performances, installations, workshops, screenings, audio broadcasts, interventions in public spaces and an open record library.
The Austrian Cultural Forum commissioned a new work by Bernhard Lang which was premiered at that venerable institution this evening by the Argento Chamber Ensemble. The work was inspired by the unique architecture of the building that houses the ACF and to commemorate its ten year anniversary. It incorporated physical movements and gestures in the score which were carried out by the singer,soprano Daisy Press, the players and dancer Silke Grabinger. The 22 section piece, entitled “Monadologie XVIII” was wonderful. The video attached is one of Lang’s other Monadologies.
Chinese Contradicted Patriot Wine by Kenneth Tin-Kin Hung, on display at Open::Closed show at 601 Artspace in Chelsea NYC.
Chakaia Booker’s rubber sculptures smell and look delightful, at Marlborough gallery in Chelsea.
Anish Kapoor’s monolithic extruded concrete sculptures on show at Gladstone Gallery in Chelsea.
The other night at the Manhattan campus of Pratt on 14th street the Look and Listen New Music festival concluded with appearances by Brooklyn Rider and janus trio. The evening kicked off with a solo clarinet piece composed and performed by Derek Bermel. Timothy Andres’ piece “I found it by the sea” unfolded delightfully with increasing comlexity and fervor, played ably by ACME members Caleb Burhans (viola), Ben Russel (violin) and Clarice Jensen (cello). The flute / violin / harp ensemble Janus trio applied their delicate touch to pieces by Anna Clyne and Burhans. My favorite piece of the night was string quartet Brooklyn Rider tackling Gyorgy Kurtag’s “Microludes”, followed by Derek Bermel’s Cageian “Orbit Design”, with an instruction score that apparently instructed the cellist to laugh loudly.



