Acts appearing include Aleksandra Słyż & Sinfonietta Cracovia / Cry (Kilbourne & Relaxer) / Evicshen & Adam Gołębiewski / Hania Rani presents Chilling Bambino / Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko present Гільдеґарда / John Cale presents Steam on Glass / Lucrecia Dalt / Mariusz Szypura feat. Lee Ranaldo, John Stanier & Zoh Amba: Chopin Residue / Mica Levi (DJ set) / Piotr Kurek presents Songs and Bodies / RP Boo & Gary Gwadera present Another Brain – The Birth of Footberk / Sinfonietta Cracovia plays Mica Levi / Włodzimierz Kotoński Reworked by Jim O’Rourke & Eiko Ishibashi (installation)

Monday, October 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM doors open at 7:00 PM
Hania Rani presents Chilling Bambino, Piotr Kurek
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, NY 11231TICKETS

Thursday, October 30, 2025 at 7:30 PM
RP Boo & Gary Gwadera/ Adam Gołębiewski & Evischen
David Rubenstein Atrium
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
1887 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
Free General Admission, first-come first-served. Just show up!
Fast Track, opening the Monday before the event at noon.

Saturday, November 01, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Sinfonietta Cracovia Plays Mica Levi / Lucrecia Dalt / Aleksandra Słyż
Alice Tully Hall
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
1941 Broadway at W 65th St, New York, NY 10023
Choose What You Pay

Sunday, November 02, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Album pre-release and live performance
Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth), John Stanier (Helmet, Battles, Tomahawk) and Zoh Amba.
Fridman Gallery
169 Bowery, New York, NY 10002

Sunday, November 02, 2025 at 7:30 PM
John Cale’s Steam on Glass / Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023
Choose What You Pay

Sunday, November 02—Sunday, November 09, 2025
Exhibition, audiovisual installation: Chopin Residue by Mariusz Szypura
Audio: Lee Ranaldo, John Stanier, Mariusz Szypura
Fridman Gallery
169 Bowery, New York, NY 10002

Thursday, November 06, 2025 at 8:00 PM—4:00 AM
Cry (Kilbourne & Relaxer) (live)
Keioui Keijaun Thomas
LCY
Leonce
Mica Levi (DJ set)
Włodzimierz Kotoński reworked by Jim O’Rourke & Eiko Ishibashi (installation)
Nowadays
56-06 Cooper Ave. Ridgewood, NY 11385
Tickets

Unsound New York 2025

This year, Unsound New York is part of the festival’s WEB theme, connecting events in New York, Kraków, and Osaka. Taking place from October 27 to November 6, Unsound New York will be held across several venues throughout the city.

The opening night of Unsound New York on October 27 will take place at Pioneer Works, featuring a double bill with two leading figures in contemporary Polish music, both following performances at Unsound Osaka. Pianist, composer, and singer Hania Rani has built a reputation for integrating ornate solo piano compositions with delicate synthesized elements. With Chilling Bambino, Rani explores electronic sounds more deeply, focusing on her Prophet synthesizer and combining fluttering melodies with psychedelic rhythms. Piotr Kurek will open the evening, performing new music from his upcoming Unsound-released album Songs & Bodies—an impressionistic blur of dissociated riffs, jazzy rhythms, and half-heard voices that forms a beguiling digital silhouette of ’90s indie music.

The free show at the David Rubenstein Atrium on October 30 brings together artists from the U.S. and Poland, featuring the new Unsound-commissioned collaboration between footwork pioneer RP Boo and Poland’s Gary Gwadera. Another new collaboration has been added to the program, connecting Polish percussionist and experimental musician Adam Gołębiewski with San Francisco sound artist and instrument-maker Evicshen (aka Victoria Shen), who performs using acrylic nails embedded with turntable styluses.

Alice Tully Hall on November 1 will feature musicians and composers from Poland, South America, and the UK. Pure Voices, by experimental Polish composer Aleksandra Słyż, connects electronics and strings, performed by one of Poland’s leading chamber ensembles, Sinfonietta Cracovia. The lineup also includes the official album launch of A Danger to Ourselves, the new release from Colombian musician Lucrecia Dalt, whose distinctive sound blends avant-pop, adventurous sound design, and Latin rhythm. Concluding the program, Sinfonietta Cracovia will perform new and older works by London-based composer Mica Levi, including MAKING LOVE – FLAG – THOUGHTS ARE BORN – SLASHER. Levi is known for scoring films by Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest, Under the Skin) and for their collaborations with Nan Goldin (Memory Lost, Sirens).

On November 2, John Cale will perform at David Geffen Hall. One of modern music’s most innovative voices and a founding member of The Velvet Underground, Cale will present Steam on Glass—evolving sound clouds that explore noise, improvisation, and experimentation while tracing his New York City lineage. His performance will showcase a wide repertoire, from the academic experimentation that led to The Velvet Underground’s formation to his multi-genre projects and current works. Opening the night is modular synth musician Heinali and vocalist Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko, whose 2025 Unsound-released album Гільдеґарда (Hildegard) offers a striking recontextualization of the music of pioneering 12th-century composer Hildegard von Bingen. Drawing on Ukrainian folk singing and distinctive modular synthesis techniques, Heinali and Saienko reflect and process contemporary wartime experiences. The shows on November 1 and November 2 at Lincoln Center are now sold out. Additional seats may be released closer to the performance date, so please check back for updates.

Unsound is also partnering on an audiovisual installation by Mariusz Szypura at Fridman Gallery on November 2, featuring a live performance by special guests Lee Ranaldo, John Stanier, and Zoh Amba. The show is part of the Chopin Residue project, which reinterprets the legacy of Fryderyk Chopin through sound and visual art, and coincides with the album’s pre-release, set to premiere on November 28. The exhibition will remain on view throughout November.

On November 6, Unsound will once again present an event at Nowadays, spanning experimental and leftfield club music. Following live shows at Unsound Osaka and Kraków, the night will open with an installation and listening experience created for the Nowadays soundsystem by Jim O’Rourke and Eiko Ishibashi, reworking compositions by Włodzimierz Kotoński, the 20th-century Polish composer and pioneer of electronic music. The program will also include a rare DJ set from London’s Mica Levi (whose compositions will also be performed by Sinfonietta Cracovia at Alice Tully Hall) and a blistering live set from new Brooklyn duo Cry, comprising Relaxer and Kilbourne, who combine grindcore, high-BPM industrial noise, and post-punk.

To complete the Unsound New York lineup, additional events at Nowadays and a discussion program within the festival framework.

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Piotr Kurek is a Warsaw-based musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer. Taking his cues from early and post-medieval composition, baroque and experimental jazz, Warsaw-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Piotr Kurek doesn’t shackle himself to the past, instead using experimental digital techniques to propose an uncanny possible future. His music is centered on the human voice – something best witnessed on the theatrical ‘Peach Blossom’, released last year on Mondoj – but Kurek has an innate ability to dance between the organic and the artificial, smearing his lush instrumentation into expressionistic electro-acoustic portraits on ‘World Speaks’ and propagating shapeshifting, hypnagogic root systems on the acclaimed ‘Smartwoods’.

Hania Rani presents Chilling Bambino 
London-based pianist, composer and singer Hania Rani was born and raised in Poland, where she went through classical training in Warsaw before relocating to Berlin. And it was there, at the heart of Europe’s club scene, that she fell in love with electronic music, eventually figuring out a way to integrate her placid, ornate solo piano compositions with delicate synthesized elements. Widely known for her film and television work – she even provided music for ITV’s coverage of the English football team – Rani is a quiet but imposing presence, and with her Chilling Bambino alter-ego explores electronic sounds even more rigorously. It’s this project that allows her to let loose, focusing on her beloved Prophet synthesizer and augmenting her fluttering melodies with psychedelic rhythms.

Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko present Гільдеґарда 
It’s tough to think of another 12th century writer whose work has been quite as enduringly influential as Hildegard von Bingen’s. Ukrainian duo Heinali & Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko are both long-time admirers of the abbess’s mystical poems and compositions, and employ her figure as a distant mirror to reflect, process and transcend wartime experiences. Oleh Shpudeiko, aka Heinali, is a composer and sound artist who has spent the last few years re-imagining early music using his bespoke modular systems, most notably on his 2020 album ‘MADRIGALS’, and vocalist, flautist and composer Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko augments Shpudeiko’s singular synth approached drawing on medieval monophony and polyphony with traditional Ukrainian vocal sound production bringing out the physicality of Hildegard’s music. Heinali and vocalist Andriana-Yaroslava Saienko’s 2025 album Гільдеґарда (Hildergard) is a striking recontextualization of the music of the pioneering 12th century composer Hildegard von Bingen. By drawing on Ukrainian folk singing, singular modular synthesis techniques, and ancient wisdom, Heinali and Saienko reflect and process contemporary wartime experiences. The headlining artist for the night is John Cale, one of modern music’s most innovative voices and a founding member of The Velvet Underground. Cale presents Steam on Glass – evolving sound clouds, exploring noise, improv, and experimentation while tracing his New York City lineage. He showcases his vast repertoire of songs, from the academic experimentation that led to the formation of The Velvet Underground to his multi-genre stepping stones and current works.

When Polish drummer Gary Gwadera (Piotr Gwadera) heard footwork for the first time, he noticed something that sent a chill down his spine. While the Chicago sound’s syncopated polyrhythms were new to most listeners outside the US Midwest, Gwadera heard something familiar: the triple metered sound of oberek, a beloved rural Polish folk dance. So he began to fantasize about a parallel history, where Polish immigrants to Chicago broke bread with the city’s African American community, feeding footwork’s evolution with their own ancestral pulse. This year at Unsound Osaka, Krakow and New York, Gwadera’s dream (as heard on last year’s brilliant ‘Far, far in Chicago. Footberk Suite’) is becoming a reality as he plays side-by-side with footwork pioneer RP Boo, one of Chicago’s most legendary figures. With Gwadera manning his minimalist “jaz” (not jazz) kit loaded with Roland drum machine samples and RP Boo on decks, it’s a speculative cross-cultural experiment that melts a hole in the bass continuum.

Sinfonietta Cracovia plays Mica Levi 
The Kraków-based Unsound Festival challenges presumptions of contemporary composition with unique staging, unlikely instrumentation, and passionate presentation. The November 1 Unsound concert is an international celebration of sound in three acts, featuring cutting-edge composers hailing from Central Europe, South America, and the United Kingdom. We begin with a work for strings and electronics called Pure Voices by experimental Polish composer Aleksandra Słyż, presented by one of Poland’s leading chamber ensembles, the Sinfonietta Cracovia. The evening continues with an official album launch of A Danger to Ourselves, the hotly anticipated new album from “gleefully cerebral” (Pitchfork) Colombian musician Lucrecia Dalt. Dalt’s distinctive sonic signature includes touches of avant-pop, adventurous sound design, and Latin rhythm, all couched within her vividly personal narrative. We conclude with Sinfonietta Cracovia performing new and old works by the London-based composer Mica Levi including MAKING LOVE – FLAG – THOUGHTS ARE BORN – SLASHER. Levi is known for scoring films by Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest, Under the Skin) and their work with Nan Goldin (Memory Lost, Sirens).

RP Boo – a.k.a. Kavain Space is a man who is revered and respected amongst the dance music cognoscenti. He’s cited as one of the originators of Footwork, the fast, repetitive, rhythmically syncopated music & dance style that’s a grandchild of Chicago house and which has been brought to the wider world via releases from Planet Mu and others, alongside internet archaeology from fans, experts and enthusiasts.

RP Boo & Gary Gwadera present Another Brain – The Birth of Footberk
When Polish drummer Piotr Gwadera heard footwork for the first time, he noticed something that sent a chill down his spine. While the Chicago sound’s syncopated polyrhythms were new to most listeners outside the US Midwest, Gwadera heard something familiar: the triple metered sound of oberek, a beloved rural Polish folk dance. So he began to fantasize about a parallel history, where Polish immigrants to Chicago broke bread with the city’s African American community, feeding footwork’s evolution with their own ancestral pulse. This year at Unsound Osaka, Krakow and New York, Gwadera’s dream (as heard on last year’s brilliant ‘Far, far in Chicago. Footberk Suite’) is becoming a reality as he plays side-by-side with footwork pioneer RP Boo, one of Chicago’s most legendary figures. With Gwadera manning his minimalist “jaz” (not jazz) kit loaded with Roland drum machine samples and RP Boo on decks, it’s a speculative cross-cultural experiment that melts a hole in the bass continuum.

Aleksandra Słyż & Sinfonietta Cracovia
Pure Voices by experimental Polish composer Aleksandra Słyż will connect electronics and strings, performed by one of Poland’s leading chamber ensembles, the Sinfonietta Cracovia. Aleksandra is a Polish composer, musician, and sound engineer. She holds degrees from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, the Poznań Academy of Music, and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. In her compositions, she explores connections between acoustic and synthetic sounds. This process is often rooted in rational tuning systems, through which she constructs rich, complex drone structures that highlight the power of microtonal and electroacoustic tensions. Interactive sonification systems are another major part of her artistic practice.

Mariusz Szypura is a multifaceted artist who has significantly influenced Polish culture for nearly three decades as a composer, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and designer. His artistic journey began in the early 1990s on the Polish alternative music scene with the band Happy Pills, with whom he released several highly acclaimed albums. His main music project is Silver Rocket, where he serves as a composer, performer, and producer. The debut album “Electronics For Dogs” (2003) and the EP “Astronaut’s Diary” (2004) caught the attention of reviewers and established his presence on the music scene. For the album “Unhappy Songs” (2006), he collaborated with renowned artists such as Nosowska, Rojek, Novika, Dąbrowska, and Masha Qrella from the Berlin band Contriva. In 2008, inspired by the life of inventor Nikola Tesla, Szypura released the concept album “Tesla,” which received several Fryderyk Award nominations, winning in the Best Graphic Design category.

Evicshen & Adam Gołębiewski
So notorious for her innovative “Needle Nails” technique of playing vinyl records with modified acrylic-mounted styli that Beyoncé ended up cribbing her notes for a Vogue shoot, Victoria Shen is a true original. A gifted performer, sound artist and veritable mad scientist, Shen brings a diva-punk attitude to her unpredictable hi-NRG shows, developing sound-making appendages and objects that augment her body, prompting questions about mass production, identity and physicality. She’s worked with clipping, Acid Mothers Temple, Matmos and Kronos Quartet, and is part of a turntablist trio with Maria Chavez and Mariam Rezaei. This time she will perform with Polish percussionist and experimental musician Adam Gołębiewski.

Lucrecia Dalt
Born in Pereira, Colombia, Lucrecia Dalt has carved out a distinctive space in contemporary music. Her trajectory from civil engineer to sound artist began while working at a geotechnical company in Medellín, where she discovered computer-based music production—a revelation that completely redirected her life and creative focus. With RVNG Intl., Dalt released a trilogy of works—Anticlines (2018), No era sólida (2020), and ¡Ay! (2022)—each expanding her sonic palette and conceptual depth. She has just released A Danger to Ourselves, her most personal and sonically ambitious work to date. While her previous albums have explored character-based narratives and outer world entanglements, this thirteen-track collection turns decisively inward. The album has already been critically acclaimed, including receiving Best New Music on Pitchfork, whilst the show at Unsound New York serves as its official launch.

LCY
At the start of 2020, the elusive multi-genre producer, artist and DJ L U C Y changed her name to LCY, the change in the alias reflecting a shift into the darker, more percussive side of electronic music. In 2021 she dropped the EP Pulling Teeth, a release that heavily references UK club music, yet pushes the sound forward. As well as being a former member of the 6 Figure Gang collective, LCY is the founder of the SZNS7N label, spanning all corners of electronic, bass and club music.

Włodzimierz Kotoński Reworked by Jim O’Rourke & Eiko Ishibashi (installation)
Last spotted editing and reworking tour material from 2023 on this year’s dynamic Drag City-released album ‘Pareidolia’, Jim O’Rourke and Eiko Ishibashi apply their bespoke processes to the work of Polish composer, teacher and music theorist Włodzimierz Kotoński for this special performance. One of Poland’s most radical 20th century musicians, Kotoński pioneered tape music, live electronic performance, synthesized music and computer music, lecturing in composition and electroacoustic techniques at home and across the world. He was responsible for Poland’s first piece of electronic music, 1959’s ‘Etiuda na jedno uderzenie w talerz’, and assembled a broad catalog of experimentations, penning the authoritative manual of electronic instrumentation ‘Muzyka elektroniczna’ in 1989.

Mica Levi (dj set)
As comfortable composing sprawling, hypnotic movie soundtracks as they are molding dusty beats or fabricating psychedelic, ambient epics, Mica Levi is one of the UK’s most bewildering and constantly surprising artists. Having collaborated with artists as diverse as Dean Blunt, Tirzah, Eliza McCarthy and Duval Timothy, Levi has left an indelible mark on London’s musical landscape, and their idiosyncratic DJ sets elaborate this narrative, blurring a lifetime of anomalous influences into ghosts and echoes.

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Unsound New York 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.  Concerts at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts are part of the Lincoln Center Presents Season. Curated by Mat Schulz, Unsound Artistic Director