It has been a highly provocative and musically charged past week and a half. For those who have been following Artcards Review, I’ve been covering Unsound Festival 2011 here in NYC since its opening on April 1st. And yesterday was the final wrap up of an entire week and a half of experimental music and sonic arts events. The shows were aesthetically diverse and seemed to have opened up new pathways for a lot of local sound art enthusiasts. Besides igniting interest through cross-cultural collaborations, audiences also got a chance to get a closer look at the artists’ practices through “conversations” during Unsound Labs. In retrospect, Unsound 2011 seemed to have a much less focus on electronic music per se, with a more diverse palette on genres ranging from Iceland’s Ben Frost and Sinfonietta Cracovia, to Lustmord and Deaf Center, both deep, dark, and ambient in its own ways, to the Bunker nights of techno music to the finale disco party by local hosts Kiss & Tell. Even though I wanted to attend it all (trust me, I penciled it all in my calendar), I would not have been able to write this recap if I did. But apparently Stephen Cardinale, Unsound’s official photographer shot through the entire week of events, and here it is below.
Posts tagged Ben Frost
Unsound Festival NY 2011 Recap
by Helen Homan Wu on April 12th, 2011
Music for SOLARIS
by Helen Homan Wu on April 5th, 2011
WEDNESDAY APRIL 6th 2011 – UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK: OPENING NIGHT
Music for SOLARIS (North American Debut) a tribute to the novel “Solaris” by Stanislaw Lem. Composed for twenty‐nine string players, two percussionists, prepared piano, guitars and electronics. Performed by BEN FROST (Iceland/Australia), DANÍEL BJARNASON (Iceland), SINFONIETTA CRACOVIA (Poland) with film manipulations from BRIAN ENO / NICK ROBERTSON (UK)
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI (Poland) performed by SINFONIETTA CRACOVIA (Poland)
STEVE REICH (USA) performed by SINFONIETTA CRACOVIA (Poland)
Official Website:
http://unsound.pl/en
PRESENTED BY: Unsound Festival New York, Sacrum Profanum, The Adam Mickiewicz institute, Krakow Festival Office, the Polish Cultural Institute in New York and the Goethe-Institut New York @ Alice Tully Hall Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, 1941 Broadway, New York, NY
(All images courtesy of Unsound Festival New York)