Documentary subjects don’t come much more shy than Pakistani humanitarian Abdul Sattar Edhi, though the same could hardly be said for the attention-starved Karachi street children his world-renown welfare org attempts to shelter and support. After giving “These Birds Walk” directors Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq permission to tell his story, Edhi demurs, saying, “If you want to find me, look to ordinary people.” So the helmers do exactly that, focusing on several camera-comfortable youngsters in a piece of verite portraiture sure to impress on the doc-fest circuit, but ultimately bound to earn better accolades than receipts.
In the beginning, was the silent film. Then came the talkie, then the classic, then the blockbuster thriller – full of technology and explosions and car crashes, complex twists and plot turns. But what if you could watch the director herself ‘play’ the film in front of you using only her hands and infrared cameras? And have the score created in front of you in surround sound, sung by one of Philip Glass’ famous lyric sopranos and a battery of lit up laptop devices? Now you don’t have to imagine…..
I hope you’ll join me this weekend for Toni Dove’s world premiere of Lucid Possession. Batten down your hatches for a wild ride with robotic screens, live mix video, my live score on digital violin, Hai-Ting Chinn on vocals and sampling, songs by Elliott Sharp, with Toni Dove using real time motion sensing to control characters and animate video in real time!
It’s a crazy three dimensional video pop-up book with performers playing the automated stage machine like an instrument. Technical directors Ed Bear and Matt Tennie improvise on robotics and control an 8-channel sound system that combines improvisation and pre-recorded sound. Software design by R. Luke DuBois. Robotics by Leif Krinkle and Ed Bear. Staging co-directed by Bob McGrath. Costume design by Karen Young.
More events coming soon, including concerts with Guy Klucevsek, China with Bang on a Can, a World Premiere with Cornelius Dufallo, the Unplay festival, tons!
First, however, I would love to see you this weekend. I can only promise you fun and provocation.
Nearing completion of my score for Bassam Tariq and Omar Mullick‘s “These Birds Walk, I’m already reflecting on all the wonderful things which have happened since Bassam first took me out to a delicious vegetarian indian lunch in Murray Hill.
The film will be unveiled in the next couple of months at South by South West. (SXSW)
This is a film by a well-known journalist/photographer and his partner filmmaker, both equals in the project, in its creativity and design, which is comprised entirely of footage shot in Pakistan, documentary style, but with no real talking heads, but rather palpable dramatic situations created by this trio of characters being watched over a series of months and created entirely by an old man, a teen and a young runaway boy.
These Birds Walk is at once a testament and revelation of runaway boys in Karachi, and the man who has given his life to giving refuge to them through his namesake creation, The Edhi Foundation. There’s his ambulance driver, and there is Omar, a child who I’ve found myself quite attached to through a multitude of repeated viewings. (I mean, that’s how we DO it.)
I am in love with this film, but moreso, I’m grateful for the gifts bestowed through successful and warm collaboration. Near the very beginning, Omar and Bassam approached with the idea of being very hands-on in the process. For me, this wasn’t a stretch. The fact is, for a great part of it, we sat there and made this music together. What was shocking, liberating, and ultimately the best creative catalyst, was their insistence on the music that THEY wanted, not my initial attempts to throw my ‘normal’ voice into it. It took me a few takes to get it, and then we were off and running. There are no spinning delays here, no motors, no intense dramatic sweeping overtures or finales. Thanks to the relationship which developed between the three of us, (as well as nearly 4 pounds of cashews and three gallons of mint tea), the score developed organically. It is nothing but violin, layered, slathered in reverb at times, but simple, with a microscope on the dirty sounds of harmonics and an overly rosined bow on strings.
Ferries are FREE as is the concert. This extraordinary series has featured Ljova’s Kontraband, JACK Quartet, and Monday I’ve put together a band of extraordinary colleagues to explore some music I rarely get to play. We’ve got old American tunes and Bluegrass originals and some simply beautiful songs for you.
Featuring the music of Jordan Tice and Jonny Rodgers, and the foundational percussion of Mathias Kunzli and the upright bass of Michael O’Brien. These people have never played together before and you don’t wanna miss it. Rehearsals have proven this to be a singular project on a maiden voyage. Click the Link above for more details!
So the summary goes like this: One of America’s most compelling bluegrass artists, a glass-harmonica songwriter who turns any composition into a sparkling event, and rhythm from the man who gives Regina Spektor her time foundation every night on tour, and, well, you and I get to see each other, all in one of New York’s most beautiful spots. What’s not to love? Come spend Labor Day with us!
Governor’s Island is easy to get to and a perfect place for a family outing, much to see, much history to explore, and transportation is clear and easy. Take any one of the lower manhattan subways, (R, 1, 6) to the ferry buildings and look for the beautiful building pictured up top… There’s also a ferry from Brooklyn!
Mixtapes Streams Wednesdays at 3 pm and Thursdays at 7 pm on Q2 Music
Those who follow me on Facebook, or my preferred place of lurking, Google +, will probably also know Q2 the gift of WQXR to all of us who appreciate and thrive on creative, new, fresh music, with great programs, DJs and more. (@q2music on Twitter)
This week I put together a playlist of some of our great composer/performers for Q2′s Mixtape program. Cheers to WQXR’s Hannis Brown for asking me to contribute and for executing stunningly, and thanks to the composers for welcoming the streaming of their work here, some of whom sent me unpublished tracks for posting. There’s tons of ways to skin this cat we think of as ‘classical music’. We do it here 13 ways to Sunday.
Enjoy, and check out all the great programming Q2 has to offer as well as the other Mixtapes on the series!
Joe’s Pub presents three of the most innovative musicians working in contemporary classical music, together on one bill, in a night that promises to explore the new common ground at the crossroads of classical and electronica. 9pm, February 10th at Joe’s Pub $18
New York’s “daredevil” digital-violinist Todd Reynolds, whose recent album Outerborough was named Amazon’s Best Classical release of 2011 continues to infect the New York and international music scene with a passion borne of rock n roll and a sensibility which any ‘new music afficionado’ can appreciate. The Bang on a Can and Steve Reich violinist will perform a work or two from Outerborough and interface in remixed conversations with his London counterparts.
Peter Gregson, described by The New Yorker as ‘at the forefront of the new music scene’, is a British cellist who has collaborated with Tod Machover and Max Richter, among many other luminaries. He will be marking the first US performance of Nonclassical’s latest release, Cello Multitracks (written by Gabriel Prokofiev), which he premiered in London in 2011.
Our second installment of the free streaming rollout of Outerborough, from the OutSide of the record, Ken Thomson’s Storm Drain.
This content is also being rolled out in a lovely Facebook Band Page which makes it super easy to share!
Ken Thomson has been a valued friend and colleague for many years and remains one of my very favorite musicians. One of the founders of Gutbucket and the leader and writer for Slow/Fast, many still remember Ken as the very first head of Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe Records. In fact it was Ken who brought Ethel into the fold, giving us our initial record deal back in the early years of the new century.
Known equally these days for his composition as for the great saxophonist, clarinetist and bass clarinetist that he is, we decided together that a piece for the both of us could be a great option, if only that it meant we’d see each other and play together more often. Ken knows me as a looper, so he made a piece which could be done in real-time with simple loop recorders. You can even do it with an iPhone these days.
Like Transamerica, I recorded the initial loops in Ableton Live and put it up in the cloud. Ken then used his own Pro-Tools rig in his Brooklyn living room to put down his part, sending it back to me through the cloud. We did a final mix together, which you hear in this stream and on the record. I’ll ask Ken where that title came from, cuz I’m not sure I know!
Ken says this:
When Todd asked me to write “Storm Drain,” I’d initially considered writing a straight-up duo for violin and bass clarinet; I don’t use a lot of electronics in my compositions, and I thought – based on what I imagined Todd would be doing for his double CD – that something more acoustic would be a good contrast. However, as I started work on the piece, I really liked the idea of him being able to create layers upon which we could soar together. My goal in using the looping is that you’re not super-aware of each new entrance but that it feels that it develops organically.
Working with Todd over years now, I wrote “Storm Drain” knowing that he would have no problem with the looping aspect of it, but also that we could quickly get “past” the tech and move onto creating a great performance arc. And, true to form, he “got” the piece right away and we quickly started talking about musical issues.
A side note for me is that I’ve been working on really using the full range of the bass clarinet in my compositions in a series of pieces. In some ways, this piece can be paired with two other pieces of mine — one called “perpetual” for bass clarinet and string quartet (which Todd also premiered); and a bass clarinet quartet that premiered this summer at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival — in addition to my 2008 piece “Undo” for the bass clarinet duo Sqwonk and my bass clarinet writing for Slow/Fast. As I continue to explore the bass clarinet, I’ve felt that much of the writing for the instrument short-changes its abilities. Here, both Todd and I take two roles: that of support (myself in the low/bass notes of the horn, and Todd in the looping) as well as in lead/melody roles, which we can truly do in unison.
The title Storm Drain basically just made sense to me — a rare event when the title just makes sense to me without a struggle… and I think it’s somewhat “programmatic” in that it references the cascading violin pizzicatos.
A little secret is I’ve written a followup duo piece, called “Pay to Play” for violin and alto saxophone — which has a very different character to it — which we premiered in September at the Noguchi Museum in Queens. Maybe we’ll release it as a download one of these days…
Making music from nothing with silicon enhanced electricity for 30 years
Todd Reynolds, violinist, composer, educator and technologist is known as one of the founding fathers of the hybrid-musician movement and one of the most active and versatile proponents of what he calls ‘present music’. The violinist of choice for Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Bang on a Can, and a founder of the string quartet known as Ethel, his compositional and performance style is a hybrid of old and new technology, multi-disciplinary aesthetic and pan-genre composition and improvisation. Reynolds’ music has been called “a charming, multi-mood extravaganza, playful like Milhaud, but hard-edged like Hendrix” (Strings Magazine), and his countless premieres and performances of everything from classical music to Jazz to Rock‘n’Roll seem to redefine the concert hall and underground club as undeniably and unavoidably intertwined. Amazon rated his 2011 release, Outerborough best of classical. It's an Innova Recordings double CD featuring InSide, a collection of his own music, paired with OutSide, music written by a veritable who’s who of contemporary composers.
On Monday, September 3rd, Rite of Summer at Governor’s Island, sets at 1pm and 3pm. 
Ken says this:
