I’m sticking closer to home in December, with all my shows in the NYC area. Tonight, thingNY gives a short performance at the MATA Festival Gala. Tomorrow World/Inferno plays in New Jersey and Sunday on Long Island. Later this month, thingNY presents a new program at Arete in Brooklyn of music by Jessie Marino, Robert Ashley, Sam Scranton, Jennifer Walshe, and Paul Pinto. Then on New Year’s Eve at The Kingsland in Brooklyn, World/Inferno releases our new album All Borders Are Porous to Cats! More info below…
| First, a quick recap since last newsletter: in mid-November, I played my first show in Philly since moving there; some of that solo set was captured on video here. (I also recently tracked down footage from my October solo set in Austria, which featured beautiful live visuals by Konverter; watch it here.) Next, World/Inferno traveled to California and played twice in LA and once each in Anaheim, San Diego, San Francisco, Berkeley, and Sacramento. You can watch one of our LA shows in full here. Finally, I flew to Houston and had a great time playing with Dykes & Young on the They, Who Sound series. Tonight, I’ll join thingNY for a performance of Paul Pinto’s mini_007 at the annual gala of the MATA Festival, who we’re very fortunate to have as presenters of our opera ADDDDDDDDD in its 10th anniversary run in April 2020! Fellow thingNYers Gelsey Bell and Erin Rogers will also perform an excerpt from their duo piece Skylighght. We’re glad to do our part to support this great NYC new music institution! Tomorrow and Sunday, World/Inferno travels to the ancestral homes of several of our members: New Jersey and Long Island. Tomorrow we’re at the Stanhope House in Stanhope, NJ, Sunday at the Amityville Music Hall in Amityville, NY. See you there! On December 18th at Arete, thingNY is very excited to present a new program of audio-visual chamber music and sonic theaters that explore the sounds of language. Rome Prize fellow Jessie Marino’s multimedia The Whale Is a Capital Fish is part video lecture and part ritualistic absurdity. Sam Scranton’s meditative Baleen utilizes the mouth as a filter for language and harmony. A quartet of desperate job interviewers struggles to get words in edgewise in Paul Pinto’s joyfully awkward mini_007, and Irish humorist Jennifer Walshe implores us to consider that Language Ruins Everything. Finally, the bilingual oracular statements of Hector Berlioz, as played by Alvin Lucier imitating Dr. Chicago, are “translated” into the creamy poetry and instrumental lilts ofRobert Ashley, in Tap Dancing in the Sand. It’ll be a great night, see you there! The month and year come to a close with the release of World/Inferno’s long-awaited album All Borders Are Porous to Cats, the band’s first full-length album in over five years, and the first featuring me on violin! We’ll release it in a raucous night at the modestly sized Kingsland in Brooklyn – be sure to get your tickets early, this show could easily sell out! Further ahead, a new record means lots of touring to promote it, with World/Inferno traveling from Texas to Florida and up the East Coast in January, and heading back to the West Coast in February. Later in February, I’m excited to be hitting the road with Marbleous, my new duo improv project with Austrian collaborator Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka on bass! In April, thingNY has our ADDDDDDDDD run, and next summer, World/Inferno hits the autobahn with our first tour in Europe since 2015! Woohoo! Great Bitter Lake Association, Jeff |