UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK “LABS” OPENING, APRIL 1

Press Contact:
Gamall Awad ‐ 917‐627‐8868;
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EVENT INFO IN BRIEF
WHEN:
FRIDAY APRIL 1st 2011
WHAT:
UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK LABS:
COLLABORATIONS 1
PRESENTED BY:
Unsound Festival New York LABS
ISSUE Project Room
Unsound Festival New York is presented by Fundacja
Tone, the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the
Goethe‐Institut New York.
WHO:
* HATI (Poland) + Z’EV (UK)
* ANNA ZARADNY (Poland) + AKI ONDA (Japan/USA)
* DAWID SZCZESNY (Poland) + MERCE (USA)
WHERE:
ISSUE Project Room at the Old American Can Factory
232 3rd St, Brooklyn, NY 11215
TIME:
20:00
PRICE:
$12 / $10 ISSUE Project Room members.
LINKS:
http://www.issueprojectroom.org
http://www.unsound.pl/en
UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK LABS OPENING
NIGHT EVENT AT ISSUE PROJECT ROOM FRIDAY
APRIL 1st EXPLORES CONCEPT OF
COLLABORATION
UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK returns Friday April
1st to Sunday April 10th with the first event in this tenday
long festival of cutting edge music serving as the
launch of a sub‐series of exceptional events,
workshop and panels being presented under the
banner UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK LABS.
Running Friday April 1st until Tuesday April 5th, the
LABS events share one common goal – to explore the
notion of “festival as laboratory.” For this intimate
opening LABS event, Unsound is collaborating for a
second year with the much‐respected “Carnegie Hall
of experimental music” Brooklyn’s ISSUE PROJECT
ROOM, an organization created to explore the sonic
boundaries of music and sound. This evening is based
around a theme central to Unsound Festival both in
New York and their native Krakow – namely to expose
audiences to the wealth of talent in Eastern European
countries that lies overlooked or underexposed. Billed
as Collaborations 1, this evening will give us the
opportunity to experience first‐hand what happens
when artists from Eastern Europe collaborate with
artists from the West. This year, underexposed artists
from Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Croatia, Bulgaria,
Hungary and Finland will all feature during Unsound
Festival New York alongside artists from USA,
Germany, Austria, England, Spain, Switzerland and
Argentina. Unsound Festival New York is presented
by Fundacja Tone, the Polish Cultural Institute in
New York and the Goethe‐Institut New York.
Billed as the first of two nights under the name
“collaborations,” COLLABORATIONS 1 on Friday April
1st brings together seven experimental musicians
from Poland, England and USA. Opening the bill is
Warsaw‐based sound artist Dawid Szczesny who
works with samples from tapes and vinyl, switching
between turntables and his laptop to create sound.
Szczesny will be performing in collaboration with duo
Merce featuring Brooklyn‐based multi‐instrumentalist
Shelley Burgon and avant‐turntablist Maria Chavez.
They are followed by Poland’s most well‐known
female experimental music sound artist, Warsawbased
Anna Zaradny who is also the co‐founder of
the Polish experimental music festival and label
Musica Genera. Zaradny will be performing in
collaboration with Japan‐born, New York‐based Aki
Onda. Both of these duos will be performing together
for the very first time in this exclusive to Unsound
Festival New York Labs performance. Closing out the
bill is a percussion‐based collaboration between wellknown
sonic adventurer, UK‐based Z’EV and Polish
duo HATI aka Rafał Iwański & Dariusz Wojtaś from
Torun. Z’EV and HATI recorded an album simply titled
“#1” together in April 2006 for the underground
Italian label Ars Benevola Matter.
Dawid Szczesny works with samples from tapes and vinyl,
switching between turntables and his laptop to create
sound. His music is based on abstract ideas about the
interaction of loops and other bits of sonic material. He
released his first solo album “Unheard Treats” in 2005 on
the Mille Plateaux side label Supralinear. He continued
ambient‐electronica experiments on two other releases
“Snow Beetroot /Stapes I‐III” for Canadian label (1.8)sec.
records and “Drafts” for Polish label Monotype Records,
then in 2008, Madison‐based Porter Records released two
recordings of his work as it started to become more
experimental ‐ “Luxated Symmetry” and “The In Between
EP.” Porter also released his one‐off collaboration with the
rapper NonGenetic from LA group Shadowhuntaz. Szczesny’s
most recent projects are both duos – the 80’s Cold‐Wave /
90’s Hip‐Hop inspired project Niwea with controversial
visual artist, poet and vocalist Wojciech Bąkowski and a duo
with Berlin‐based multi‐instrumentalist Ignaz Schick. A new
album with Schick recorded “Live in Geneva” will be
released shortly. Niwea will release their second album
(following their 2010 debut “01) in April on the Polish label
Qulturap. Szczesny has not collaborated with Burgon before
this evening but clearly his experiences in duos have given
him much to draw on.
MERCE is the new duo project of Shelley Burgon and Maria
Chavez. Shelley Burgon holds an MFA in Electronic Music
from Mills College and is currently best known for her
improvisational work using both harp and laptop. She is an
active member of both the chamber group Ne(x)tworks and
the band Stars Like Fleas. For the past decade, Burgon has
performed consistently beguiling, volatile and genre‐defying
music at festivals like MATA, Issue Project Room’s Points in a
Circle, free103point9 Wave Farm, Summer Winds, as well as
venues like The Stone and Dia:Beacon, where she premiered
a piece for the Merce Cunningham Hudson Valley Project.
Burgon has performed alongside artists like Anthony
Braxton, Steve Beresford, Ellerey Eskelin and Trevor Dunn
and has been featured on recordings released by
Hometapes, Ipecac, Skirl and Tzadik. Inspired by the recently
deceased sound innovator Maryanne Amacher, Burgon is
currently producing her first solo electronic record. Maria
Chavez is an avant‐turntablist whose work focuses on solo
electric‐acoustic sound pieces using a collection of new and
broken needles, which she calls “pencils of sound.” Many of
her live sound installations explore the paradox of time and
the present moment, with many influences stemming from
improvisation in contemporary art. In 2008, the Jerome
foundation awarded Chavez an Emerging Artist Grant, and in
2009 she received a Van Lier Fellowship. She was an artist in
residence with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and
the DIA:Beacon Museum and recently performed for
Christian Marclay and the Whitney Museum of American Art
as part of Christian Marclay: FESTIVAL.
Anna Zaradny is one of Poland’s best‐known experimental
musicians. She also regularly extends her creative into the
art field creating installations, videos and objects. Anna
brings a much needed and appreciated sense of feminine
grace and patience with her complex, slow‐shifting laptop
work. Along with Robert Piotrowicz (also appearing at
Unsound Festival New York), Anna co‐founded and cocurated
Poland’s most important Festival of Improvised and
Experimental Music ‐ Musica Genera. On the label of the
same name she has released two collaborative albums with
trios ‐ one with Tony Buck & Cor Fuhler and one with Robert
Piotrowicz & Burkhard Stangl. Her debut solo album “Mauve
Cycles” was released in 2008 and was described by
Modisti.com as featuring a “sensitivity rooted in the
aesthetics of ’60 sonoristic avant‐garde (Pauline Oliveros,
David Tudor, Gordon Mumma).” She also appeared at the
No Fun House of Horror during Unsound Krakow 2010
alongside like‐minded artist Carlos Giffoni (No Fun). Anna
regularly participates in international festivals, performing in
last the last ten years at festivals like Whatismusic? ‐
Sydney/Melbourne, All Ears ‐ Oslo, Club Transmediale ‐
Berlin and taking parts in exhibitions of contemporary art at
venues such as KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Berlin, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and Silberkuppe,
Berlin. This year she will be releasing two new albums ‐ a
solo record for her own Musica Genera label and a split LP
with Burkhard Stangl for Bocianrecords. This evening is her
first time collaborating with Aki Onda.
Aki Onda is an electronic musician, composer, and
photographer. Born in Japan, Onda currently resides in New
York. He is particularly known for his “Cassette Memories”
project – works compiled from a “sound diary” of fieldrecordings
collected by Onda over a span of two decades.
Onda’s musical instrument of choice is the cassette
Walkman. Not only does he capture field recordings with the
Walkman, he also physically manipulates multiple Walkmans
with electronics in his performances. In another of his
projects, “Cinemage,” Onda produces slide projections of
still photo images set to live guitar improvisation. Onda has
collaborated with artists such as Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs,
Alan Licht, Loren Connors, Oren Ambarchi, Noël Akchoté, Jac
Berrocal, Linda Sharrock, and Shelley Hirsch.
HATI is the duo project of two mysterious musicians from
Torun, Poland ‐ Rafał Iwański and Dariusz Wojtaś obsessed
with building their own hand‐made percussion instruments
and sound / non‐sound objects. This duo is not merely
focused on their own instruments though – they do also
reach for electronic equipment to modulate their mainly
acoustic sound as well. They see their work as connecting
modern acoustic music with ritual and meditation music.
Despite releasing a number of albums little else is known
about this duo. They have appeared before with their
collaborator this evening, London‐Based Z’EV, in fact they
even released an album together in 2006.
Z’EV, born in California in 1951, is a conceptual media artist
now based in Peckham, England. He is both the oldest, and
perhaps, the most well known name on the bill this evening.
After studying world music at CalArts in the late 60’s and
early 70’s, Z’EV began developing his own percussion sounds
from raw industrial material. By the early 80’s, he had
mastered his own ensemble of self‐developed instruments
and took off to London where he opened for Bauhaus. In the
UK, his name was often mentioned alongside Throbbing
Gristle as one of the key founders of industrial music, and
bands like Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Department
clearly borrowed many of their ideas from him. Yet to label
his music “industrial” is to miss something. Since the mid‐
1970’s when he was featured in the exhibition “Second
Generation” at the Museum of Conceptual art in San
Francisco, his work has included sound poetry that has often
been influenced by Jewish mysticism (aka Kabbalah) as well
as African, Afro‐Caribbean and Indonesian music and
culture. He has also formerly studied Ewe music from
Ghana, Balinese gamelan music and Indian tabla. His work
also clearly involves ritual, and an exploration of physical
limits. He has released over forty‐eight albums since his
debut album in 1981. Tonight he will collaborate with the
duo HATI.
Unsound Festival New York is presented by Fundacja
Tone, the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and
the Goethe‐Institut New York
In Cooperation With The Trust For Mutual
Understanding, The Adam Mickiewicz Institute, City
of Krakow, Krakow Festival Office, 6 Senses, Austrian
Cultural Forum in New York, Instituto Cervantes de
New York, Consulate General of Finland in New York,
Royal Consulate of Norway New York, Pro Helvetia
BAMcinématek, Backspin Promotions, Bedroom
Community, The Blackened Music Series, Beyond
Booking, The Bunker, The David Rubenstein Atrium
at Lincoln Center, Electronic Music Foundation,
European Cities of Advanced Sound, International
Cities of Advanced Sound, Film Comment Selects,
ISSUE Project Room, Kiss&Tell, (le) Poisson Rouge,
Littlefield, No Fun Productions, RVNG Intl /FRKWYS,
Goethe‐Institut Wyoming Building.
Unsound Festival New York Labs is a unique series of events
taking at various venues around New York between Friday
April 1st and Tuesday April 5th 2011. These Labs events,
workshops and panels precede Unsound Festival New York
2011 which takes place Wednesday April 6th to Sunday April
10th 2011. Unsound Festival New York Labs explores the idea
of “Festival as Lab.” Or, to say it in other words, the concept
of a festival as a place where artists can explore creativity in
new ways. For some of the artists appearing during Labs
events this is their standard, day‐to‐day practice. For others
this will be a time to try something they never have. Some of
the artists performing together have met each other before,
some haven’t. Some will be doing new work, some won’t.
There’s no tried and tested rule for Labs events. Given how
adventurous Unsound Festival New York is overall, you may
also be forgiven for not always being able to distinguish
between a Labs event and those that follow on April 6th –
10th. After all, a general sense of adventure always applies to
all Unsound Festival events. Whatever happens, we hope
you’ll open your ears to something new during the ten days
of Labs and non‐Labs events taking place during Unsound
Festival’s second year in New York.
The theme “Festival as Lab” is inspired by the
FutureEverything festival, which was conceived and
designed as a “living lab” for prototyping the future. It was
developed by European Cities of Advanced Sound (ECAS)
and will also be presented this year at CTM – Club
Transmediale (Berlin, February 2011), FutureEverything
(Manchester, May 2011), Todays Art (The Hague, September
2011), CYNETART (Dresden, November 2011), as well as at
International Cities of Advanced Sound (ICAS) festivals
MUTEK (Montreal, June 2011) and New Forms (Vancouver,
September 2011).
ISSUE Project Room was founded in 2003. ISSUE Project
Room is a nonprofit arts organization providing hundreds of
artists each year with a dynamic environment in which to
create, exhibit, and perform innovative, site‐specific, and
interdisciplinary experimental work.
Fundacja Tone is a non‐profit, non‐governmental
organization established in 2008, to promote new forms of
art – sonic and visual, initiating intercultural dialogue by
fostering international collaborations. Based in Krakow,
Fundacja Tone organizes Unsound Festival in Krakow. Like
Unsound, Fundacja Tone is committed to promoting music
and artists from the eastern side of the EU and creating
bonds between the East and West of Europe. Fundacja Tone
has realized various cultural projects thanks to support of,
and in collaboration with, major Polish and international
public institutions and partners.
The Polish Cultural Institute in New York, established in
2000, is a diplomatic mission dedicated to nurturing and
promoting cultural ties between the United States and
Poland. The Institute initiates, organizes, promotes, and
produces a broad range of cultural events in theater, music,
film, literature, and the fine arts. It has collaborated with
such cultural institutions as Lincoln Center Festival, BAM,
Film Society of Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art,
Jewish Museum, PEN World Voices Festival, Yale University,
and many more. For more information visit
http://www.PolishCulture‐NYC.org
The Goethe‐Institut New York is a branch of the Federal
Republic of Germany’s global cultural institute, established
to promote the study of German and German culture
abroad, encourage international cultural exchange, and
provide information on Germany’s culture, society, and
politics. For more information visit
http://www.goethe.de/newyork