Unsound New York returns November 14-17, 2024
Acts appearing include: 2k88 / 7038634357 / Atrice / bela / Chuquimamani-Condori / Chris Watson & Izabela Dłużyk present Białowieża / Kali Malone presents All Life Long (organs, choir and brass) / Mabe Fratti / Piotr Kurek presents Smartwoods / Raphael Roginski presents Plays John Coltrane & Langston Hughes feat. Jim White & Amirtha Kidambi / Shyboi b2b Bobby Beethoven / Sunn O))) / VTSS b2b Tygapaw

Thursday, November 14 at 9:00 PM — 04:00 AM
Club Night co-presented with Dripping at Nowadays
56-06 Cooper Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11385
Lineup:
7038634357 (Live)
Bela (Live)
2k88 (Live)
Atrice (Live)
VTSS b2b TYGAPAW (DJ)
HYBOI b2b Bobby Beethoven (DJ)
Tickets

Friday, November 15 at 7:30 PM
Join us for a pre-show installation at 7:00 PM
Piotr Kurek presents Smallwoods / Chuquimamani-Condori
David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center
1887 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
Free General Admission, first-come first-served. Just show up!
Fast Track, opening the Tuesday before the event at noon.

Saturday, November 16 at 12:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Sunday, November 17 at 12:00 PM — 4:00 PM
Saturday, November 23 at 12:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Sunday, November 24 at 12:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Saturday, November 30 at 12:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Sunday, December 01 at 12:00 PM — 6:00 PM
Izabela Dłużyk & Chris Watson: Białowieża
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Free admission

Saturday, November 16 at 7:30 PM
Kali Malone’s All Life Long with Stephen O’Malley & Anima Brass Quintet & Choir / Raphael Rogiński with Jim White & Amirtha Kidambi
Alice Tully Hall
1941 Broadway W 65th St, New York, NY 10023
Choose What You Pay
Member Pre-sale: September 5 at noon / General On-sale: September 10 at noon

Sunday, November 17 at 7:30 PM
SUNN O))) / Mabe Fratti
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023
Choose What You Pay
Member Pre-sale: September 5 at noon / General On-sale: September 10 at noon

Monday, November 18 at 7:00 PM, doors open at 6:30 PM
Kali Malone and Stephen O’Malley
Talk about time, space, and music
Giorno Poetry Systems
222 Bowery New York, NY 10012
Free admission

Unsound New York 2024

Taking place from November 14 to 17, the New York edition of Unsound includes three nights at Lincoln Center, partnerships with Pioneer Works and Dripping, and a program spanning experimental, electronic, avant-pop and club music. To make Unsound New York accessible, events are mostly Free or Choose What You Pay.

Shows at Lincoln Center include SUNN O))) who will perform at David Geffen Hall on November 17, returning to the live aspect in its core, original raw form. The opening act will be Guatemalan cellist and vocalist Mabe Fratti, who blends elements of folk, jazz, and avant rock.

On November 16, Stockholm-based American composer and organist Kali Malone will perform at Alice Tully Hall, presenting organ, choir, and brass compositions from her album All Life Long, featuring Stephen O’Malley. Opening is Polish guitarist Raphael Rogiński, presenting a live interpretation of his album, Plays Coltrane & Langston Hughes, joining him is drummer Jim White and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi.

On November 15, a night at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center features two free shows presenting Chuquimamani-Condori as well as Piotr Kurek presenting music from his Unsound-released album Smartwoods with a New York ensemble featuring harp, trumpet, clarinet, and bass. An opening prelude to the live concerts comes in the form of Êkhos, by Mariusz Szypura. Êkhos translates as “noise” in ancient Greek, and this 25-minute audio-video 3D installation and synesthetic experience strives to put the audience in a state where, as Szypura says, “we start to see the music and hear the visuals”.

On November 15 and 16, Unsound will collaborate with Pioneer Works to present Białowieża, an installation by renowned field recordists Chris Watson and Izabela Dłużyk. In New York, Białowieża will be presented in the form of an installation. This project was commissioned by Unsound, Atonal, Semibreve, and Sónar as part of the TIMES Platform

The festival will open November 14, with a night co-presented with Dripping at Nowadays veering from live experimental shows to club music, continuing into the early morning hours.

On November 18, Kali Malone and Stephen O’Malley will talk about time, space, and music, in a conversation moderated by Andy Battaglia. Part of Unsound New York 2024, this event is co-produced with Giorno Poetry Systems, an organization founded by John Giorno in 1965, and takes place in a building on the Bowery that served as his former home.

---

The history of the festival

Unsound New York first took place in 2010 with major acclaim from press and fans alike. The festivals broad remit to combine live events with club events, the known with the unknown, and to include a good number of under-exposed (at that time) Polish and Eastern European acts was a winner. The Sunday New York Times declared ‘Hello, New York: Avant Garde Eastern Europe’ with a full-page feature that included festival co-founder Mat Schulz noting “The fact that (Unsound is) coming from Krakow in a sense makes it more interesting. It’s not what you would expect, and it makes a comment about the way that culture now doesn’t necessarily come from these precise points you’d think it would come from. That’s what this festival is about as well: disrupting preconceived notions of a lot of different types, not only about what a country or a city is, or what cultural centers are, but also what music is and how different kinds of music can be connected. That’s really at the heart of the whole enterprise.” This fortunately remains true for this year’s edition of Unsound New York.

---

Piotr Kurek is a Warsaw-based musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He’s released music on Edições CN, Mondoj, Hands In The Dark, Black Sweat Records and created soundtracks for theatrical works. The Wire noted that he takes inspiration from “folk legends, tales of international adventure and the small serendipities of the studio.” Kurek also noted to them that his compositional process is “very linear. I want to have small coincidences and revelations, without any bombastic moments…I don’t subscribe to the idea of genre. Whatever I do has to have that element of adventure.”

Last year his album Smartwoods (perhaps his most adventurous album to date) was released on Unsound’s imprint and has been described as “a sprawling root system of tiny melodic phrases that loop and curl around subtly evolving instrumental thickets.” Additionally, Philip Sherburne noted in Pitchfork that Smartwoods “broad, slightly ragtag swatches of color are reminiscent of (painters) Richard Diebenkorn (and) Helen Frankenthaler” and that “Kurek’s arrangements frequently sound like he has taken a passage from Talk Talk’s (cult album) Laughing Stock. Piotr Kurek will make his New York debut performing material from Smartwoods (and more) live at Unsound New York 2024 with New York players on harp, trumpet, clarinet, and bass.

Izabela Dłużyk is a Polish nature sound recordist. Born blind, Dłużyk developed interest in birds and began to record bird noises at the age of 12. Her specific sensitivity to birdsong has since grown into a wide-ranging artistic practice. Last year BBC World broadcast a documentary about Dłużyk during which she noted “humans focus more on visual aspects. When observing birds, we mainly think about photography. We identify species based on their appearance rather than their sounds. When I listen not only to birds, but also to trees, I simply feel in the right place, with a sense of the deepest meaning of existence.”

At Unsound New York 2024 she will present a new installation work Białowieża in collaboration with noted British sound artist and field recordist Chris Watson. This newly commissioned installation premiered at Unsound’s sister festival Ephemera in Warsaw earlier this year. It is based on field recordings made in Puszcza Białowieska – Europe’s last remaining primaeval forest, on the border between Poland and Belarus. In recent times, the forest has become a contentious place, initially due to logging and since late 2021, scores of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have attempted to go through the forest and cross from Belarus into Poland and the European Union. Additionally, a metal wall has been constructed, dividing the forest, which has become a symbol of wider geopolitical tensions. The location provides the grounding for Białowieża. The natural and unnatural sounds of the forest have therefore taken on layers of meaning.

Chris Watson is one of the UK’s most celebrated sound recordists. Not only was he a founding member of Sheffield’s influential Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio, but he’s been developing his ear for field recording since the early ’80s, working extensively for the BBC on numerous nature shows. As a solo artist, he’s helped figure out a space between documentary and fantasy, collaborating with artists like BJ Nilsen, Z’EV, KK Null and Philip Jeck. One of his longest collaborations has been with David Attenborough.

In New York, Białowieża will be presented in the form of an installation. The project was commissioned by Unsound, Atonal, Semibreve and Sónar as part of the TIMES Platform.

Kali Malone, a Stockholm-based American composer and organist returns to New York City to present the organ, choir, and brass pieces from her highly acclaimed 2023 album All Life Long – a contemplative 78-minute suite for organ, brass quintet and chamber choir. Pitchfork gave the album an 8.3 rating and Best New Music tag noting the album is “a fount of beauty, reflection, and perhaps even revelation.” Interviewed in the New York Times about her work she noted “You can have knowledge about sound, you can have knowledge about structure, color, pitch, harmony, rhythm. But none of that means anything if you don’t have knowledge of how to use it emotionally.”  In her hands, experimental minimalist reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic compositional methods become portals to new ways of perceiving harmony, structure, and introspection. She will perform on Alice Tully Hall’s iconic pipe organ with additional 4-handed organ accompaniment by Stephen O’Malley, together with the Anima brass quintet and a local choir (members to be announced soon).

Raphael Rogiński with Jim White & Amirtha Kidambi. Rogiński returns to Unsound New York after presenting an intimate show last year at the David Rubenstein Atrium. This time around Rogiński will focus on material featured on Unsound imprint’s upcoming timely reissue of Rogiński’s out of print landmark 2016 album Plays Coltrane & Langston Hughes (for cult Polish label Bolt). Rogiński has also just released a new album Žaltys for Unsound’s imprint. Picking the album as their folk album of the month, The Guardian noted “This searching, soulful release conjures up the spirit of summers spent by the lake and in the forest,” going on to compare Rogiński to Factory records’ The Durutti Column, the early solo works of Ben Watt and the softer moments of Pat Metheny’s jazz. Joining in on the praise, The Quietus picked Žaltys as their album of the week noting ‘this is a landmark album that inhabits both ancient and unkempt, overgrown and unruly,” describing Roginski’s playing as “lithe, his touch light but powerful. The uncluttered compositions are elegant but not without a certain wildness – an old, untouchedness – slithering from brambled undergrowth to sun-dappled clearing, and often playing out like light dancing on inky green scales.”

At Unsound New York 2024, Roginski will present his distinct interpretations of Coltrane’s compositions, played in a way that brings out unexpected textural and rhythmic qualities, often veering far from jazz. He will also perform songs that he’s composed around the poetry of American poet and social activist Langston Hughes, including a few new compositions written for the Unsound reissue. Mostly performing solo, Rogiński will also be joined by drummer Jim White and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi. Kidambi is invested in the creation and performance of subversive, anti-hegemonic music, from free improvisation and avant-jazz, to Indian carnatic and devotional, experimental bands, electronic music, noise and new music. This year she’s been making waves worldwide with her band Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones following their album release New Monuments for We Jazz. Jim White is a drummer of note, having played with a who’s who of pop music including Cat Power, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, and many others, leading to the New York Times labelling him “your Favorite Songwriter’s Favorite Drummer” earlier this year. He released his album All Hits: Memories this past March. He also plays in the bands the Dirty Three and Beings.

Images: 1. Amirtha Kidambi, photo courtesy of the artist 2. Raphael Rogiński, photo by Lenka Sieczkowska 3. Jim White by SarahK

SUNN O))) returns to the live aspect in its core, original raw form for their only North American date of 2024. Founders and guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson will perform at David Geffen Hall as a duo immersed in profound valve amplification, spectral harmonics, distortion, and volume transcending boundaries with their unique sonic language. Their excursions into pure and primeval riffs of temporality and massively heavy structures of sound pressure have been challenging how we think about music for over twenty years. Witness a live experience of physical sound, fog, and glacial maximalism like no other. SUNN 0))) have also collaborated with artists such as Scott Walker, Boris, Pan Sonic, Ulver, and Merzbow.

Mabe Fratti this Guatemalan cellist is a rising star with a wide range of listeners. Her music blurs the borders between folk, jazz, and avant rock, in service of rich, multi-layered works that center around her striking voice. She performs in the wake of her most recent album which brings her sound even closer to pop, though always driven by an experimental urge. Talking to The Fader in July about the album Sentir que no sabes she noted “I never got to speak in tongues, but the cello would.” The Guardian gave her album 5 Stars calling it “rich, rewarding, spellbinding music from a true original.” Rolling Stone who’ve placed her albums on year-end lists for the past two years noted “Fratti’s emotional delivery is more resonant than ever.”

---

Unsound New York is part of Lincoln Center Presents and is co-organized by Fundacja Tone and co-presented by the Polish Cultural Institute New York. This project is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Culture Promotion Fund in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.

Curated by Mat Schulz, Unsound Artistic Director