discussion program
introduction
In 2012, we are working to expand a special program called Unsound LABS, started during the 2011 Unsound Festival New York.
This will include special LABS collaborations between musicians of different kinds taking place in ISSUE Project Room, with a focus on artists from New York, Eastern Europe, and Scandinavia.
Likewise, LABS programming includes talks, presentations, screenings, and tours. These are presented with the UK's The Wire Magazine. These are described below.
Unsound LABS: Artist Talk - Monolake, presented with The Wire Magazine
19.04.12 // 18:00 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
German techno artist and co-developer of Ableton Live software Robert Henke discusses his many modes of work with sound. From his home base in Berlin, Henke has made iconic minimal-techno since the mid-90s and continues to refine the form in terms of conceptual approach and presentation, including a Live Surround performance to follow at Unsound on Friday. In conversation with Andy Battaglia.
Tickets: Free
Unsound LABS: Panel - East of Berlin, Music in External Contexts, presented with The Wire Magazine
20.04.12 // 18:00 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
In mind of Unsound's commitment to international exchange, a panel of visiting artists, festival organizers and label heads discuss the makeup of different kinds of music-culture infrastructure, past and present, in Poland, Ukraine and points beyond Western Europe. Featuring Unsound organizer Gosia Plysa and the performing musicians Kotra, Denis Kolokol and Macio Moretti. Moderated by Daphne Carr.
Tickets: Free
Unsound LABS: Screening of ICON EYE & Discussion, presented with The Wire Magazine
21.04.12 // 13:00 // Film Anthology Archives
ICON EYE documents the travels of Sun Araw to Jamaica to collaborate with legendary dub reggae group The Congos. The film serves as a dream-like companion piece to a new album of intergenerational communion and creation. A post-screening discussion will feature Sun Araw's Cameron Stallones, director Tony Lowe and project producer Matt Werth. Moderated by Andy Battaglia.
Tickets: $9
Unsound LABS: Presentation - Dave Tompkins on Sustained Decay: A Natural History of Bass Music in Miami, presented with The Wire Magazine
21.04.12 // 15:15 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
Author Dave Tompkins presents a cultural, geological and political history of 80s Miami, propagating from bass. A distortion of terms and technology to recording engineers, “sustained decay” speaks to properties of 808 bass as well as a sub-history of Miami’s foundation and development—from microscopic fossils to man-made beaches, riots and roller-rinks to cocaine and coral reefs.
Tickets: Free
Unsound LABS: Presentation - Stefan Betke on the Art of Mastering, presented with The Wire Magazine
21.04.12 // 16:30 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
Stefan Betke, fabled figure behind dub-techno act Pole and engineer at Scape Studios in Berlin, discusses his philosophy of mastering with theoretical excursions into the science of sound for analogue and digital formats. Betke will survey his own experience beginning at Dubplates & Mastering and up through his recent acquisition of a Neumann VMS 70 cutting lathe to offer vinyl mastering again.
Tickets: Free
Unsound LABS: Talk - Stuart Argabright, presented with The Wire Magazine
22.04.12 // 13:00 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
Stuart Argabright has been a Zelig-like figure in New York since the 80s, when he began work with prescient acts including Ike Yard, Death Comet Crew, Dominatrix and Black Rain. Subjects to be discussed include stalking the East Village of yore, performing with New Order in 81 at the Ukrainian National Home and working with sci-fi writer William Gibson. In conversation with Dave Tompkins.
Tickets: Free
Unsound LABS: Presentation - Jeremy Grimshaw on The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young, presented with The Wire Magazine
22.04.12 // 14:30 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
Jeremy Grimshaw gained rare access to reclusive minimalist composer La Monte Young while researching his new book Draw a Straight Line and Follow It. He worked in Young's Tribeca "Dream House" and pored over his archives, before the bond grew contentious and Young disavowed the book. Grimshaw will discuss Young in terms of Vedic mysticism and Mormon esoterica, psychedelia and psychoacoustics.
Tickets: Free
Unsound LABS: Talk - Biosphere & Lustmord on TRINITY, presented with The Wire Magazine
22.04.12 // 16:00 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building
For their Unsound-commissioned project "TRINITY," Norwegian electronic-musician Biosphere and LA-based dark-ambient overlord Lustmord traveled to the desert in New Mexico, where they surveyed sites of early nuclear testing around Los Alamos National Laboratory. Here they will talk about their journey—and how it informed the sites and sounds incorporated in their new piece to premiere in New York.
Tickets: Free
Selected events
22.04 // ISSUE Project Room // Brooklyn, New York
Unsound LABS Music Program 2
21.04 // Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building // New York
Unsound LABS: Presentation - Dave Tompkins on Sustained Decay: A Natural History of Bass Music in Miami, presented with The Wire Magazine