Performa 09 Fires Up in NYC This Month

From November 1st through 22nd Performa organization is clobbering this town with it's third series of events. Over 110 of them in fact, spread out over 80 venues, all blurring lines between art, dance, music, film, graphic design and even some culinary action, magic, and Polish Futurism. It's an impressive calendar. A few events are especially exciting amongst WFMU staffers, one of which is a two night stand at the Gramercy Theater November 20-21 curated by renowned artist Mike Kelley (whose grown-man-baby-at Burning Man odyssey I just caught at SculptureCenter in Long Island City was a brainmelt), titled A Fantastic World Superimposed on Reality: A Select History of Experimental Music. Here, some historic works will be presented from John Cage, Fluxus, Fred Frith, Max Neuhaus and Bruce Nauman, with other contemporary performances by in-house heavies z'ev, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Jad Fair & Lumberbob, Thurston Moore w/Ryan Sawyer, Christian Marclay w/Shelley Hirsch, John Zorn, Tony Conrad, Arto Lindsay, John Duncan, and more. It's also a rare opportunity for New York to witness Destroy All Monsters, and I'm especially stoked to see a healthy showing of assorted players from the legendary Los Angeles Free Music Society. Co-founding member Tom Recchion appears as Extended Organ and also locks horns with Rick Potts, Joe Potts, Dennis Duck, and Frederick Nilsen for a set with Airway, who were total seed-planters for Japan's 1980's noise scene development. In fact, I'll be recording the whole Airway contingent during a WFMU studio visit, which will air on my show in conjunction with a whole 3-hour LAFMS retrospective on December 1st from 3-6PM (and you can hear/grab MP3s of Airway's 1978 Live at Lace recordings on our Free Music Archive). Kurt Gottschalk also just hosted enduring composer/vocal artist Joan La Barbara, who will also be part of the Gramercy proceedings (you can grab that special now as a podcast).

As if that wasn't enough in the realm of sonic delights, Joan also helps celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Italian Futurism at what's sure to be a jawdropping event at Town Hall this Thursday, November 12: it's a full-on noisefest featuring performances on the accurate replicas of the intonarumori, noise instruments originally built in 1913 by Luigi Russolo and perhaps accurately described as very primitive predecessors to the analog synthesizer. Luciano Chessa will direct (and play) in an orchestra consisting of Blixa Bargeld, John Butcher, Joan La Barbara, Nick Hallett, Pauline Oliveros, Mike Patton, Anat Pick, Elliott Sharp, Ulrich Krieger, Jennifer Walshe with Tony Conrad, Ghostigital with Skuli Sverrison, Finboggi Petursson, and Casper Electronics. It'll be an opportunity to witness the first ever performance of a segment of Russolo’s “Risveglio di una città”, “La pioggia nel pineto antidannunziana,” (a newly-discovered 1916 Futurist piece for intonarumori), and “Words in Freedom” by Futurist playwright and poet Paolo Buzzi. Again, this all is just a sliver of what Performa has on tap for November in New York, so give the full schedule a gander.

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[Jerz]

'Night People' just spoke to Emily Mast who has performances on Nov. 11th and 12th at X Initiative