Seeds

Tamara Walcott (voice, poetry), Rasha Ragab (voice, text), Christoph Nicolaus (stone harp) & Lucio Capece (bass clarinet, composition)

Seeds performs a new work based on Tamara Walcott's Poem for Oryza. The poem is informed by the history of how a specific, all-but-forgotten African variety of rice made its way to the Americas in the braids of enslaved girls and women. 

Program:

Tamara Walcott, Mid Atlantic post traumatic blues 

Rasha Ragab, solo performance

Seeds, Poem for Oryza

Making Waves #10

Rabih Mroué performs his non-academic lecture Before Falling, followed by a discussion with Elisa Giuliano

Starting from an incident that occurred to him during his preparation for an art exhibition in the city of Salzburg, Rabih Mroué's solo performance raises a number of questions about the relationship of art to the public sphere. What are the boundaries between fiction and reality, when the artwork goes outside the art-institution and is in a public space? This issue is raised through the story of the warning leaflets that are usually dropped from warplanes: How might an art-object might lose its definition as art, and become a threat-object? These questions interweave with other questions and stories among them the warning leaflets dropped from warplanes, and the story of the crocodile who ate the sun.

Rabih Mroué's work exists at the crossroads of theater, performance and visual arts, blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction, using videos, photographs, and historical documents to challenge the hegemony of archives. Rabih Mroué is co-founder of the Beirut Art Center (BAC) and was a member of the International Research Center: Interweaving Performance Cultures, Freie Universitat in Berlin in 2013-2015.

Elisa Giuliano is a curator, researcher, and theater maker. Her curatorial and theater work focuses on the demythologization of modernity and capitalism, by reflecting on both sexuality and gender roles in religious histories, folklore, and myth-making, particularly in modern Italy.  

Mike Majkowski presents two recent releases: August (Gusstaff Records 2023) for solo double bass and November (Gusstaff Records 2023) for solo electronics.

Michael Thieke, solo clarinet set

Mike Majkowski's latest releases are paired records, one acoustic (August ) and the other electronic (November), both with their own distinctive atmosphere. Each album contains pieces that are closely linked in terms of approach and structure.

Clarinetist and composer Michael Thieke explores the minutiae of sound, timbre, and noise, with a particular interest in microtonality and related sound phenomena. The qualities of slowness are another field of his research. 

Yannick Guédon (baritone) performs Karl Naegelen's Chaconne (2024) and Éliane Radigue's OCCAM XXII.

Marianne Schuppe & Deborah Walker, Aus dem Zeltbuch (2022/23)

In Karl Naegelen's Chaconne, the obstinacy of the pitches serves as the pillar of a composite harmony. The bass melody is layered with breaths, whistles and harmonics. A polyphony for solo voice unfolds slowly. The word "chaconne" evokes both a three-beat dance and the idea of a piece of music derived from this dance, unfolding a repetitive bass that lends itself to variations. It is to these two imaginary worlds—dance and variations—that the title echoes.

Éliane Radigue's OCCAMs are instrumental pieces that she refers to as her “sound fantasies," in which bespoke compositions are created in collaboration with her performers. 

Schuppe & Walker's joint composition Aus dem Zeltbuch (2022/23) unfolds a surface of word-sound-textures in low dynamics on the edge of acoustic intelligibility. Aus dem Zeltbuch is questioning our perception of language in a musical context by creating bilingual areas of sound. As words and sounds are superimposed they may unclose a sounding path through narration, meaning, and understandibility. 

Exhaust  Camila Nebbia (tenor saxophone), Kit Downes (piano) & Andrew Lisle (drums) 

Saxophonist Camila Nebbia, pianist Kit Downes and drummer Andrew Lisle will release their first album Exhaust on NYC label Relative Pitch in early 2025, after touring throughout Europe at festivals and venues such as Berlin Jazz Festival, Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Cafe Oto in London, and Jazz Jantar in Gdansk. 

Salim(a) Javaid (saxophone) performs solo works by Billone, Bedrossian, and Netti.

Program:

Pierluigi Billone, Misura. Obliquo (2021; rev. 2023) for alto saxophone 

Franck Bedrossian, La Solitude du coureur de fond (2000; rev. 2023) for alto saxophone   

Giorgio Netti, Ultimo a lato (1998) for soprano saxophone 

Alberto Posadas, Serán Ceniza (2015) soprano saxophone  

Rebecca Lloyd-Jones performs Sarah Hennies' Thought Sectors for solo percussion.

One hour in length, Thought Sectors explores concepts of divided consciousness—the active and receptive brain—with the composition being based on these conditions and their manifestation through sound exploration. 

The virtuosic percussion solo consists not only of conventional instruments, such as the vibraphone and bass drum, but also items such as a flower sifter, stapler mixing bowl, and large pitcher of water. 

Adrian Myhr Trio

Adrian Myhr (double bass), Rasmus Kjorstad (violin, langeleik), Jan Martin Gismervik (drums, hanging vibraphone, harmonium)  

Adrian Myhr Trio present their debut release Kokong (Øra Fonogram 2024), together with solo sets by each of Gismervik, Kjorstad, and Myhr.  

Chris Corsano (drums), Tizia Zimmermann (accordion) and Chris Pitsiokos (alto sasx) 

Corsano, Pitsiokios & Zimmermann first played together in New York in the summer of 2023 during Tizia's six-month stay there. The trio quickly found a common language that feeds on their shared interests in free jazz, improvised music, drone, and noise.