Tag Archives: wprbpresents

Album Review: Memory Tapes' Player Piano

Album Review by Jake Sanders

Player Piano, the second release from home-based electronic recording artist Memory Tapes, is a very welcome continuation of the gentle pop-electronica that the sole musician Dayve Hawk crafted in 2009’s Seek Magic.  Like the last album, this one is rich with clear pop-melodies that jump playfully around, constructing a sound that’s both melancholy and charming, and both old and new.  Hawk himself describes the music on the album as ‘keyboard-based psychedelic girl group songs, a sort of motown suicide note’. If that sort of description eludes you, I doubt you’re alone in that.  There is something elusive about the sound on this album, partly because it does seem like a throwback, but one that still keeps the novelty of chill-wave.  What eludes me on this album is the conflict beneath the surface, like with the pleasant synth sounds and high-pitched vocals that pull in a sunnier direction, but with lyrics that explore much more stressful that don’t seem to fit with the airiness of the music, including painful relationships and the inability to mend them.  But I think its real success lies in Hawk’s ability to organize the different moods together flawlessly on each song, to make it all seem nonchalant and easy.

“Wait in the Dark” introduces the layers of synth-noise, clean bass and real percussion present on the rest of the album.  It’s hard to deny the sadness of this one, though it still has an upbeat rhythm and a mobile instrumentation that implies cheeriness.  “Today is Our Life” and “Yes I Know” sound like the music could delve into the sadness that‘s implied, but they end up sounding as pleasant and nonchalant as the others.  Hawk has said himself about his recording style that “the music is my better nature, and the lyrics are me shouting myself down with self-loathing and cynicism. You end up somewhere between a genuine smile you’re trying to hold back, and a false smile you put on for a show.”  That’s a really good description of the double-life of this record, or on a lot of chill-wave for that matter.  The music is so well packaged and planned that it doesn’t cross the boundary that separates “chill” from anything else, but often it does imply something heavier, like in the lyrics.  In a song like “Sun Hits,” there’s not even an attempt at getting at any other mood: it’s all candy.  But with the last five tracks, Hawk does pull forward at the darker stuff in the music, with “Fell Thru Ice” and “Trance Sisters.”  I was glad to hear the cataclysm and the desperation of the synths on these tracks, partly because it seemed like that’s what he was trying to get to the whole record, and partly because it shows that he’s capable of breaking those boundaries for himself.

All in all, this is a great second album in itself and for the interesting questions about recording that it inspires.  One of the interesting things about the music is that Hawk records it all himself with live instruments, without a sequencer to help him.  However, on this summer’s tour, he has been playing with two other musicians in a guitar-bass-drum set-up.  This Wednesday, he’ll be playing at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it’ll translate live.  I’ll be writing a review of the show later this week, so stay tuned!

Memory Tapes will be playing in Philadelphia at Johnny Brenda’s. Doors open at 8PM.

Pitchfork: (Or…Reading About It Online) (4/4)

by Jake Sanders

Ah yes. Like a national holiday for those who aren’t quite patriotic, The Pitchfork Music Festival comes around but once a year…however, I don’t have the money to attend. No, I’m not bitter or jealous. After all, there’s a ton of music blogs to choose from that give an group-by-group account of the festival, plus all the really juicy stuff that happens off stage. That should be almost as good as being there, right?

Trying to get to a concert of this size is the same story almost every year. The ads show up around the beginning of spring for the summer shows, there’s a lot of hype, there’s a lot of bands listed, and even the price is affordable. And I think, “Yes, this will be the year I’ll get to see at least one, get out there and really jive, y’know?” Yet I wonder.. “How will I make it there? I don’t think I know anyone who lives in East Sussex, and I’m not sure if there’s even a hamlet nearby where I could rent a room.”  So I become resigned to looking around for local shows, or if the money’s really tight, watching The Last Waltz at home.

Thankfully, the blogs are there for people who couldn’t go to Pitchfork. You can skip a rock on the internet and hit a music blog covering it. If you’re quick enough, you can catch the live streaming videos during the performances, but if not, there are the  write-ups that some blogs do. It’s not exactly the same as hearing the band live, but if you know them well enough it’s kind of interesting to read what they sounded like, and to check out some pictures too. And for bands that you’ve never heard, it’s good to read about what their performances were like, and to check them out some other time. To be fair though, sometimes they can leave something to be desired. I would like to know how Neko Case and Fleet Foxes played, but reading on Pitchforks’ blog that an out-fit looked like it was from a yard-sale and how there were five beards were on stage seems a bit like reading tips from Vogue or GQ.

One thing that I do love about reading the blogs is checking out the pictures. I’d like to think that I’m a purist and couldn‘t care less about what a band looks like. But, I know that I’m really not, and that I do like to see the funny faces that musicians make and the like. Like, scrolling down a list of pictures on onethirtybpm.com and Brooklynvegan, then seeing Robert Pollard performing a high-kick without any context or without actually having been there is hilarious to me. Or, seeing Ariel Pink putting three fingers in the air and grimacing. “He looks so angry here,” I think to myself, “and yet he makes such pleasant music”.

It is a stretch to think that a combination of pictures and a short description is any substitute for seeing a band live.  But I found out about a lot of new groups looking over all this stuff, so thanks to all those who went and wrote about it.  Then again, it could be that the bloggers are just flaunting how much fun they had, just callously rubbing it in our faces. Just giving us little tidbits of information to keep us mildly interested, but really laughing themselves silly thinking about all those who couldn’t go.

But no, I’m not bitter at all, really.

Get To Know WPRB's DJs: Lance Loud


Every week this summer, WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

DJ Name: Lance Loud

Show: “Peacock Dreams” Wednesdays from 10:00PM -12:00AM.

Type Of Music Played: “Far out stuff.”

Reasons for Being a DJ: “Seemed like a good idea at the time, and apparently it was.”

Day Job: Student (and Summer Station Manager for WPRB).

Hometown: New York.

Listening To Now: Sun Araw, Alice Coltrane, Dr. John, Incredible String Band.

Favorite Summer Food: Sushi.

Currently Reading: Myths, Dreams and Mysteries by Margaret Eliade

Favorite City Visited: Tokyo.

Anything else?: “Dreams sweet.”

Pitchfork: Day Three (3/4)

This is the third of WPRB’s four part review of the Pitchfork Music Festival held on July 15-17  in Chicago, Illinois.

Deerhunter

 Day Three

by Griffin Winton-LaVieri (WPRB Music Director)

Sunday was the hottest day of them all and I was the most worn out. We saw The Fresh and Onlys, Kurt Vile, and Ariel Pink at the Green Stage but I was too tired and hot to be able to judge them well. Kurt Vile seemed to be well liked by everyone in the crowd. Ariel Pink seemed out of it as he performed, falling down at one point, and left the stage for unexplained reasons half way into the set, thus cutting the set down significantly. Also, Ravi and I made it to the festival grounds first that day.

Sunday was also the day that OFWGKTA performed. We probably made the right decision in not joining the massive crowd but viewing the chaos from afar.  It looked like madness. Tyler, the Creator, the front man of Odd Future, despite having a cast on his foot which caused him to hobble, jumped in the crowd on multiple occasions.  One of the friendly security gaurds, Jeff, described working it as the hardest thing he’s ever done. Jeff was in Iraq 6 months ago.  The meaning of Odd Future and their controversial lyrics has been and will continue to be the theme of many think-pieces. You can make your own call about the whole thing.

 

Sunday improved as Deerhunter’s set at the Green stage approached.  Deerhunter are simply, a quality band. Hits such as “Helicopter”,  “Revival”, and “Nothing Ever Happened” were performed. “Nothing Ever Happened” was definitely the highlight as they jammed along – rhythmic and euphoric. No new songs were played but I was fine with that, having never seen them live. Bradford said that they had just returned from the UK and concluded ”It’s good to be back in the USA. Fuck anybody that tells you it isn’t the best country in the world.”

After Deerhunter we got dinner and walk around. Cut Copy was playing so we watched them from afar. It was impressive to see the huge crowd jump up and down as a mass.  Cut Copy put on a high energy show and ended with “Need You Now.” I like that song.  After Cut Copy was the final headliner, TV on The Radio.  I’m not a big fan of them so I persuaded Ravi that we should cut out early as we were going to another after-show.  The second song TV on The Radio played was “Dancing Choose” so I felt like we saw at least one important TV on The Radio song and could leave the festival knowing it was a weekend well spent.

We traveled on the “L” to Schubas. The venue struck me as almost equivalent to Maxwell’s, in New Jersey, as it was basically a bar with a room for concerts in back.  Unknown Mortal Orchestra opened the show. I haven’t really made up my mind about them but that is more a function of me not listening to them much than anything else. Yuck had played Pitchfork earlier that day but we had missed them so it was worth the trip, time and money. They are pretty heavily indebted to their nineties influences but nonetheless the music they make is enjoyable to listen to and I’m glad I got a chance to see them live.

Overall, the weekend met if not exceeded my expectations.  Ravi and I saw pretty much all the bands we wanted to and saw them up close. It was our own summer adventure. We left Chicago the next day separately–tired but happy.

Photo Credit: Ravi Prakriya

Pitchfork: Day Two (2/4)

Zola Jesus

This is the second of WPRB’s four part review of the Pitchfork Music Festival held on July 15-17  in Chicago, Illinois.

 Day Two

by Griffin Winton-LaVieri (WPRB Music Director)

Having realized it was worth it to be up front and thus arrive at the gates early; Ravi and I spent two hours waiting outside the festival grounds on Saturday.  However, that day, instead of going to the Green stage where Fleet Foxes would headline, we opted for the nearby Red Stage. Our fellow early arriving Pitchfork attendees were generally more interested in Fleet Foxes so we had no trouble making it to the barrier.

The first act on the Red Stage was Woods. Woods are a pretty solid freak folk band. I haven’t really gotten into their music so I didn’t really recognize their songs but nonetheless enjoyed my self. One of the members of Woods sang through a pair of headphones, which is a rather novel way of making music. The lead singer sang in a pleasing falsetto.

After Woods, on the Green stage was Cold Cave. Thanks to the positioning of the stages and a jumbotron, we could observe the band though either a video feed or as tiny guys on a relatively distant stage. They were dressed in black and performed with remarkably high energy considering it was not only incredibly hot out but it was likely earlier than they would be ever expected to leave their apartments. I really like Cold Cave’s first record so I enjoyed hearing tracks like “Youth and Lust”,  “Hello Rats”, and of course, the title track. As mentioned above, the members of Cold Cave danced wildly around the stage (in a cool way, though) and I was ultimately unsure how much of the sound they were actively producing themselves.

Up next on the Red Stage was No Age. I’m a big fan of No Age and so I was particularly excited to rock out to them. Dean and Randy ripped through songs off of all three of their records and the crowd ate it up; bodies were pressed against each other,  water was flung overhead to cool us down, and crowd surfers flowed regularly over the barrier. No Age covered a Black Flag and the Misfits but the highlight of the set was “Everybody’s Down” which featured Dean leaving the stage and joining the crowd.  No Age are a quality band who write good songs and put on fun shows. Fun Fact:  The picture that heads the Pitchfork article about the festival was taken during No Age’s set and I’m the kid wearing red in the front row.

Destroyer played next on the Red Stage.  Naturally, Bejar’s epic jazzy jams were a stark contrast to No Age’s punk songs but it was now late afternoon and chilling out was in order.  Destroyer make enjoyable music and they performed their tracks well so it was a good set, even Dan Bejar, who is notoriously moody, seemed like he was having fun. I had the part in “Bay of Pigs” where Bejar sings “Magnolia’s a girl/ her heart is made of wood/ as apocalypses go/ that’s pretty good/ sha-la-la/ wouldn’t you say?’ and the synths come stuck in my head all day in anticipation of hearing it live so I was quite pleased when that song concluded Destroyer’s set.

After that, Ravi and I grabbed dinner and headed to the Blue stage for Nika Roza Danilova, who is better known as Zola Jesus.  With barely any trouble we were able to make it to the front, which made me happy because Zola Jesus is actually one of my favorite musicians and I had never been able to make it to one of her shows before.  Although I had read about how small a stature she has, it was surprising to see her in real life and realize that, yes, she is 4’11”.   Her size didn’t inhibit her performance in the least as she danced and pranced across the stage as she sang tracks from her Stridulum and Valusia EPs. The standout song was probably “Manifest Destiny” which is an incredibly powerful track in terms of Danilova’s vocal performance.  Zola Jesus is an artist to watch out for and I am incredibly excited to hear her new record Conatus, which  will be released in October.

Fleet Foxes were headlining that night but neither Ravi nor I are particularly familiar with their music so we left after Zola Jesus. Instead of being satisfied with a day’s worth of live music, we ventured to Chicago’s Lincoln Hall for an unofficial after-show.  Shabazz Palaces opened the show. I’m not a big fan of rap or hip-hop so they weren’t exactly my thing but I definitely acknowledge that they could be a quality act.  It was entertaining to watch the two members perform as many of the songs featured synchronized dance routines. The headlining act was Moonface, which is Spencer Krug’s new project.  It was an interesting performance as Krug played keyboards and sang and another fellow played marimba and drum machines.  It was fun and worth going to but after two days of standing on metal barriers, I was tired and my feet were incredibly sore.

Photo Credit: Ravi Prakriya

Pitchfork: Day One (1/4)

This is the first of WPRB’s four part review of the Pitchfork Music Festival held on July 15-17  in Chicago, Illinois.

 Day One

by Griffin Winton-LaVieri (WPRB Music Director)

Every year the Pitchfork Music Festival seems to book the best bands.  Last year as I watched the artist announcements (Broken Social Scene!) come out (LCD Soundsystem!) through out the spring (Pavement!), I was all too aware that there was no way I could make it. But 2011 was different; with orientation for college in Wisconsin, a trip to Chicago would fit perfectly into my summer and thus the trip was meant to be. When Animal Collective was announced as a headliner, I ran through the halls of my high school to tell my best friend, Ravi, who would be going to the festival with me. It was going to be the high point of my summer.

Since we arrived the day before, Ravi and I had nothing in particular to do midday Friday. As I’m a big fan of being early to concerts (a result of my short stature and subsequent love of being in the front row), we arrived at the festival gates at noon- approximately 3 hours before they would open.  This was, in retrospect, one of the best decisions of the weekend because it allowed us to think about our priorities and prepare to realize our goals; namely, we decided to get through gates quickly and sprint to the Green Stage and stay there the whole day so we could see Animal Collective up close.

The first band on the Green Stage was Battles.  Despite the fact that Tyondai Braxton no longer numbers among their ranks, they rocked through “Atlas” and other songs with the help of prerecorded vocals and a screen on stage displayed the guesting vocalists.  Their set up was gear-intense as it featured such remarkable aspects as a cymbal elevated to the height of approximately 7 feet, effects pedals lining key board stands, keyboards angled at 45 degrees, and the machinery which built the loops that built the songs.

After Battles was Guided By Voices. If one band epitomized rock’n’roll that weekend, I’m pretty sure it is GBV; first off was Robert Pollard, the lead singer, who proudly took swigs of rum between songs and did multitudes of leg kicks as he performed. The guitarist took the prize, though, as he chain-smoked through the set; always needing a cigarette, he had a stagehand behind him whose sole role was to light new cigarettes and place them in his mouth. I have never gotten into GBV’s extensive catalogue so I recognized only a few songs that they play, but any set with “I am a Scientist” is a good set, right?

At 8:30, Animal Collective finally took the stage. In the break after GBV, an elaborate set was built featuring a giant head behind the band, huge glowing crystals in front of the band, and illuminated plastic bats hanging down from the rigging. The set consisted of almost entirely new tracks and the first song they performed was especially special as it was “Change”, one of the new tracks, which is the first Deakin sings on.  As for the new songs, they generally the rhythmic and aggressive, more like Water Curses than Meriwether Post Pavilion. Then again, it by the time they come out in the form of a new record they will probably not only have different names but new directions as well.  AnCo did play several old songs and each time they did, it seemed more euphoric; They worked their way through “Did You See the Words”, “Brothersport”, a slower, heavier version of “Taste”, and ended on an incredibly high note with the much loved “Summertime Clothes.” Despite the fact that they had 10 minutes before the Chicago curfew, they didn’t play an encore. Although the time they spent playing was magical, I’m sort of glad they didn’t. They couldn’t have topped “Summertime Clothes.”

Photo credit:  Ravi Prakriya

Get To Know WPRB's DJs: Dan Buskirk

Every week this summer, WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

Name: Dan Buskirk

Show: “Jazz with Dan Buskirk” Mondays 11:00AM -1PM.

Type Of Music Played: “Post-Coltrane era jazz.”

Reasons for Being a DJ: “I think I’m a frustrated musician and this is my way of getting that out.”

Day Job: Writer.

Hometown: Philadelphia.

Listening To Now: Roswell Rudd, “The Incredible Hunk.”

Favorite Summer Food: Oysters.

Currently Reading: Kingdom Under Glass by Jay Kirk (biography of Carl Akeley, an American taxidermist for the Museum of Natural History).

Favorite City Visited: Paris.

Anything else?: Dan  ”Enjoys taking advantage of the freedom at WPRB to play funky and free jazz that stretches beyond polite boundaries. Hail Sun Ra, hail William Parker, hail jazz’s past and future…”

Get To Know WPRB's DJs: Marvin Rosen

Every week this summer, WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

Name: Marvin Rosen

Show: “Classical Discoveries” (Wednesdays from 5:00AM to 11:00AM), “Classical Discoveries Goes Avant-Garde” (Wednesdays from 11:00AM to 1:PM).

Links: http://www.classicaldiscoveries.org/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Classical-Discoveries/132814286796248

Type of Music Played On Show: CD repertoires rarely heard–from all periods, with an emphasis on old and new songs from all over the world. For Avant-Garde it is more experimental, more progressive, more electronica music, music inspired by pop music sometimes.

Reason for Becoming a DJ: “There is a tremendous amount of repertoire omitted by other stations. WPRB allowed me to play out passions, I can focus on music from all around the world from South Africa to the Middle East. I also have the opportunity to give support to younger composers.”

Day Job: Full time faculty member at Westminster Conservatory. I teach piano, music history for the “Young Artists” program, and musical styles for the “Pedagogy Certification Program.”

Home town: Born in Englewood, New Jersey, now lives in Princeton!

Music You Can’t Stop Listening to Now: “Two Cellos” [played by Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser]– a CD of two cellists playing Rock music (will be played on next week’s show), everything from Coldplay to Michael Jackson to Guns N’ Roses.

Favorite Summer Food: ”Salsa and Chips, the hotter the better!”

Currently Reading: Couldn’t do the shows without the internet, always reading about new composers!

Favorite City Visited: In and around Warsaw, Poland.

Anything Else?: “When I get involved I have a big excitement and passion for what I do, I am thankful that a station like WPRB exists.”

Get To Know WPRB's DJs: Julia Factorial

Every week this summer WPRB will highlight one its DJs in “Get To Know WPRB’s DJS.”

DJ Name: Julia Factorial

Show: “Cleanr Yr Room” (with Art), Mondays from 7-9PM.

Type of music played on show: Teenage concerns–ie; songs about hating your parents. A lot of punk rock–”The Replacements, The Marked Men, So Cow, Lunachicks, Ted Leo, Karp, Lungfish, The Raincoats, Kurt Vile, Reigning Sound… Pretty much anything on the following labels: Richie, Hozac, Tic Tac Totally, Siltbreeze, Homestead, K, Hyped To Death. Art occasionally takes us on a trip through the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and beardo records, and I love scouring the stacks at WPRB for the forgotten, terribly amusing and occasionally profound records that live there.”

Reasons for being a DJ: “I began listening to WPRB when I was a lowly 8th grade loner nerd in Cherry Hill, NJ.  I spent a few years taping my favorite shows and trading those tapes with other folks.  Eventually, I became close with a few DJs.  Flash forward a couple years to 2002.  With the help of Mike Lupica (who hosted ‘Hey You Kids’ with Jen M. and ‘Hip Transistor’) I got a timeslot on the summer schedule, which I shared with Her Jazz host Maria T. I hosted ‘Mixtapemaker Heartbreaker’ from 2002-2007, and then teamed up with Art (who had a show called ‘Your Saxophone is My Guitar’ for a number of years). We’ve been hosting ”Clean Yr Room” since 2007 and love every dumb minute of it.”

Day Job: Student.

Home Town: Willingboro/Cherryville/All over New Jersey.

Listening to now: “Slutever, F*cked Up, ‘Allo Darling, The Ettes, Thin Lizzy. The Futureheads cover of Kate Bush’s ”Hounds of Love” makes me want to be in that band. So much fun!  Oh
yeah, and a friend bought me Paul & Linda McCartney’s “Ram” for my birthday and I can’t take it off my turntable. It is perpetually playing in my head. When you are talking to me, I am hearing the hook for “Eat At Home” in my head.”

Favorite summer food: Gin and Tonic.

Reading now: “Girls Like Us” by Sheila Weller. An interesting look at feminism in the 70s and the music industry as viewed through the experience of Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Carly Simon. Also, ”Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation” By Marc Fisher. (Written by a former WPRB DJ!) An in-depth look at the history of radio and the movers and shakers who defined each major development.

Favorite city visited: Chicago.

Anything else?: “Little known WPRB trivia about our show: Fellow DJ Wilbo (‘The Clothesline’) sings and performs the opening theme song to our show. The song that follows is by the band Screaming Urge and it’s called ‘Homework’.  We get a phone call about each of those songs every week.”

Celebrate Sun Ra!

Come join WPRB and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia as we celebrate jazz pioneer SUN RA with live performances, lectures, films, and a record fair! These events are part of the ICA’s current exhibition, “Pathways to Unknown Known Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-1968,” which runs until August 2nd.

Full information about Sun Ra and the exhibition after the jump!

WED 07-01 @ 7PM: The Sun Ra Arkestra
Tickets are $10 General Admission, $5 for Students with a Valid ID, FREE for ICA Members

ICA is very pleased to present The Sun Ra Arkestra under the direction of Marshall Allen. The Sun Ra Arkestra continues to deliver some of the most potent, soul-grabbing jazz music ever written. With lyrics and song titles filled with mysticism, mythology, space travel, and other similarly cosmic trains of thought, the Arkestra’s freewheeling stage shows, complete with colorful costumes and uninhibited adventurism, perfectly embody the otherworldly proclivities of true jazz innovator Sun Ra.

WED 07-08 @ 7PM: John Szwed Lecture
FREE!

Hear a lecture by John Szwed, the biographic expert on all things Ra. He is an anthropologist, musicologist and historian who teaches at Columbia University and is the author of Space is the Place: The Lives and Times of Sun Ra (Da Capo Press, 1998).

SAT 07-11 @ 9AM-5PM: Philadelphia Record Fair 2009
$10 from 9-11AM, FREE from 11AM-close

A day of vinyl nirvana! ICA hosts the annual benefit for Vox Populi, Philadelphia’s acclaimed artist-run collective and gallery. Flip through bins. Find your treasure.

WED 07-15 @ 7PM: Outdoor Double Feature, curated by Jesse Pires (WPRB’s DJ Hi-Res!!!!)
Rain or shine. FREE!

Sun Ra: Brother from Another Planet (Dir. Don Letts, UK, 2005, video, 59 mins)
Don Letts, the legendary London DJ who introduced reggae and ska to a generation of punk rockers, delves into the mysterious world of Sun Ra in this British, made-for-television documentary. Sun Ra biographer John Szwed, musician Archie Shepp and member’s of Sun Ra’s Arkestra discuss the life and work of one of jazz music’s pre-eminent pioneers. For the uninitiated, Brother from Another Planet is a great introduction to Sun Ra, and for Ra devotees, it’s required viewing.

Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise (Dir. Robert Mugge, USA, 1980, video, 61 mins)
Consisting of explosive live footage of the Sun Ra Arkestra and fascinating interviews with the man himself, A Joyful Noise is the complete Sun Ra experience. Filmed in and around Philadelphia and Washington D.C. when the Arkestra was living in Germantown, Robert Mugge’s documentary captures the group at the height of its creative powers. Each live performance featured in the film further illustrates the distinctive alchemy Sun Ra was able to create with his disciplined band. Ra makes his case for a better world through music, transcending banal, earthbound realities to produce a strange and fascinating aesthetic fusing ancient history with future visions.

WED 07-22 @ 7PM: King Britt & Rucyl, “Saturn Never Sleeps”
FREE!

“Saturn Never Sleeps” is a cosmic adventure in contemporary music. For this artist-curated event, Philadelphia DJ, composer and producer King Britt, in collaboration with multimedialist Rucyl, present a night of sonic and visual funk taking micro-edits of Sun-Ra source music and combining it with live experimentation together with video collage.

WED 07-29 @ 7PM: Sonic Liberation Front & Planet Y, curated by Ars Nova Workshop

Please join Ars Nova Workshop and ICA for two very special performances in conjunction with Pathways to Unknown Worlds. An expanded 12-member Sonic Liberation Front, the Philadelphia ensemble acclaimed for their iconoclastic combination of Free Jazz passion and Afro-Cuban percussion, will premiere “Jetway Confidential No.3 (for Sun Ra)”, a new composition dedicated to Sun Ra and commissioned specifically for this performance, and perform an arrangement of Sun Ra’s “Where Pathways Meet” from 1978’s Lanquidity recording, which featured saxophonist and SLF member Julian Pressley. This evening will also feature a very rare appearance from Planet Y – Buchla Music Easel master Charles Cohen and Stinking Lizaveta’s Yanni Papadopoulos, best described as “Subotnick meets Sun Ra meets Schnitzler.” (Aquarius Records) In addition, newly-unearthed archival films will be projected on the gallery walls.

Led by percussionist Kevin Diehl, a protégé of Free Jazz pioneer Sunny Murray, Sonic Liberation Front merges post-bop with traditional Afro-Cuban Yoruba roots music. While other ensembles have merged Bata drumming and jazz, none have done it with the vigor of SLF. The band members are true students of the Lukumi tradition under the guidance of percussionist/omo aña Chuckie Joseph, a lifelong Yoruba cultural scholar. It’s been said a million times that all music originates in West Africa ¬ and by returning the focus to its origins, SLF achieves a natural eclectism that serves as a fountain of ingenuity. Ancient to the future, indeed. For this special performance, an expanded 12-piece SLF performs featuring some of the most notable names in Philadelphia’s exploratory music scene including members of the Sun Ra Arkestra, Make A Rising, and Shot x Shot.

Planet Y: Yanni Papadopoulos (dg-20 Casio digital guitar), Charles Cohen, (Buchla Music Easel)

Sonic Liberation Front: Todd Margasak (cornet), Terry Lawson (tenor saxophone/flute), Dan Scofield (alto saxophone), Julian Pressley (alto saxophone), Brent White (trombone), dmHotep (guitar), Travis Woodson (guitar), Matt Engle (double-bass), Chuck Joseph (Bata drums/drumkit), Shawn “Dade” Beckett (Bata drums/percussion), Khari Clemmons (Bata drums), Kevin Diehl (Bata drums/drumkit)


ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

Jazz pioneer, bandleader, mystic, philosopher, and consummate Afro-Futurist, Sun Ra, (born Herman Poole Blount 1914, Birmingham, Alabama, died 1993) and his personal mythology have grown increasingly relevant to a broad range of artists and communities. “Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground, 1954-1968” presents a collection of paintings, drawings, prints, manuscripts, ephemera, and video produced by and about Ra and his associates–much of it previously unseen.

This exhibition, on view at the Institute of Contemporary Art April 24 – August 2, 2009 in the second floor gallery, examines how Ra and his dynamic, continually-evolving ensemble, the Philadelphia-based Arkestra, crafted both their otherworldly image and fiercely independent approach to self-production.

Highlights of the exhibition include original drawings for their 1960’s albums Art Forms of Dimensions Tomorrow and Other Planes of There, and five newly discovered typed and annotated broadsheets. Until recently, only one such broadsheet was known to exist – the one that Ra gave saxophonist John Coltrane in 1956. The show will also include the unpublished manuscript, The Magic Lie, a book of Ra’s poetry, which has become influential in the nascent Black Islamic movement. In addition to these documents, the film Spaceways, by Edward English, will be on view. The film documents Ra and his Arkestra (a deliberate re-spelling of “orchestra”), in 1968, as they prepare to perform at Carnegie Hall.

Early in his career, Sun Ra spent virtually all of his time and energy on Chicago’s south side, identifying with broader struggles for black power and identity, and saw his music as a key element in that struggle. As well as Sun Ra’s connection to the incipient grass-roots Afro-Futurist movement in Chicago, he also has a connection to Philadelphia. In 1968, Sun Ra brought the Arkestra to Philadelphia, where his band mate Marshall Allen inherited a house on Morton Street in Germantown. The house served as band headquarters until Sun Ra’s death in 1993. The Arkestra continues to perform under the leadership of Marshall Allen, who still resides at the Germantown house.

Long admired among fans of progressive jazz, Ra and his personal mythology have grown increasingly relevant and influential to a broad range of artists and communities. His music touched on the entire history of jazz, but he was also a pioneer of electronic and space music, and free improvisation.

Sun Ra developed a complicated persona of cosmic philosophies and lyrical poetry that made him a pioneer of Afro-futurism (a term coined by cultural critic Mark Dery in his 1994 essay “Black to the Future.”)

“Pathways to Unknown Worlds” is curated by John Corbett, Anthony Elms and Terri Kapsalis for the Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago and is coordinated at the ICA by Whitney Lauder Curatorial Fellow Stamatina Gregory. This exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue.