UNSOUND LABS: COLLABORATIONS 1, presented with ISSUE Project Room

Unsound Festival NY Labs kicks off at ISSUE Project Room with the first of 2 nights focusing on collaborations. HATI (PL) collaborates with Z’ev (US); Dawid Szczesny (PL) collaborates with duo MERCE made up of harpist Shelley Burgon & avant-turntablist Maria Chavez (US); Anna Zaradny (PL) collaborates with New York-based Walkman manipulator Aki Onda (US).

Tickets: $12 / $10 members IPR

Tour: Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center // Computer Music Center at Columbia / FREE

See the site where the room-sized RCA Mark II Synthesizer has stood since 1959, when it helped establish a fabled electronic-music center. Terry Pender, associate director of the current Columbia Computer Music Center, will talk about the Mark II (no longer operable) and some of the center's archives, including working Serge and Buchla synthesizers. LIMITED TO 50; RSVP TO [email protected]

Tickets: Free

Conversation: Aurality, Motion, Architecture

Sound-artists Kabir Carter and Ed Osborn talk together about what motivates their various explorations of sound-in-space, including accounts of flying speakers, selling a sound installation on Canal Street, fishing for feedback, using microphones to measure rooms, and where they see the role of sound in the arts heading in the future.

Tickets: Free

Screening: MisinforMation

A screening of the British Film Institute DVD project MisinforMation, for which the enigmatic enterprise Mordant Music re-scored old public-information films from the 1970s and '80s era of the UK's Central Office of Information. Subjects covered, to mesmerizing and strange effect, include interior design, rats in mazes, and solvent abuse.

Tickets: Free

UNSOUND LABS: COLLABORATIONS 2, presented with ISSUE Project Room

All Swiss-based, Günter Müller, Jason Kahn and Norbert Mosland have been performing together as MKM since 2006, fusing noise, electronics and improvised music. Especially for LABS, they present a series of collaborations with US artists Taylor Deupree, Lizzi Bougatsos and Richard Kamerman, followed by their MKM project.

Tickets: $12 / $10 IPR Members

Talk: Sound Installations

Celebrated sound-artist Stephen Vitiello presents a talk about the exchange between sound and public art, with a focus on A Bell For Every Minute, a long-term project currently active in New York's High Line park. Talk includes a survey of Vitiello's found bell sounds, as well as other of his public projects including The Sound of Red Earth in Sydney, Australia.

Tickets: Free

Talk: ((audience)): The Cinema as Concert Hall

The organizers of ((audience)) talk about the history and evolution of sound within the space of the movie house, starting with a survey of films like The Jazz Singer, Fantasia, and Star Wars and ending with the current Dolby-dominated digital age. Presentation will also trace the roots of their own project ((audience)): Cinema for the Ear, to take place Monday night at the Walter Reade Theater.

Tickets: Free

Conversation: Deaf Center

The Norwegian ambient duo Deaf Center discuss their haunting work, including two forthcoming performances at Unsound: a side-project-related live soundtrack for F.W. Murnau's 1922 film Nosferatu (by Svarte Greiner, with Paul Wirkus) and a Deaf Center set preceding music by composer Henryck Gorecki. In conversation with journalist Christopher R. Weingarten (Village Voice, Spin, Revolver).

Tickets: Free

UNSOUND LABS: GOSPEL OF THE SKULL, presented with ISSUE Project Room

Swedish band "Skull Defekts" explore experimental rock incorporating noise, drone and circular composition; SD's new album "Peer Amid" features Lungfish vocalist Daniel Higgs, performing live with them at Unsound. Supporting is fellow Thrill Jockey artist Zomes, solo project of Lungfish guitarist Ana Osborne, as well as the Polish/German electronic musician Paul Wirkus.

Tickets: $10

UNSOUND LABS: NOSFERATU, SYMPHONY OF FEAR

A screening of the silent horror film "Nosferatu", directed by F.W. Murnau, a classic of German expressionist cinema. A live score will be provided by Norwegian Svarte Greiner, creator of "acoustic doom", as well as the founder of the celebrated Miasmah label. He will perform with Polish/German percussionist Paul Wirkus.

Tickets: $15
, $10 
BAMcinématek 
members


UNSOUND LABS: (((audience))), CINEMA FOR THE EAR, presented with EMF

((audience)), Unsound Festival New York and EMF present “Cinema for the Ear” – a special five-channel surround-sound program with audio works composed around the theme of “Horror - the pleasure of fear and unease” by musicians including Clay Gold, Demdike Stare, Felix Kubin, Peter Kutin, Raime, and Rob Eggers.

Tickets: $12 / discount for society film members

UNSOUND FESTIVAL NEW YORK OPENING, presented with Sacrum Profanum Festival, co-organized with Krakow Festival Office and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute

Curated with Krakow festival Sacrum Profanum featuring Sinfonietta Cracovia, one of Poland’s leading orchestras. It performs Steve Reich and Krzysztof Penderecki, as well as “Music For Solaris”. Marking the 50th anniversary of the novel “Solaris” by Krakow’s Stanislaw Lem, this Unsound-commissoned work is by Ben Frost and Daniel Bjarnason, with film manipulations by Brian Eno and Nick Robertson.

Tickets: $20 - $25

MODULAR DREAMS, at Target® Free Thursdays

Modular Dreams showcases two of the most innovative musicians in electronic music. Morton Subotnick revisits his acclaimed 1967 debut recording "Silver Apples of the Moon", for a special concert with video artist Lillevan. Atom™ aka German Uwe Schmidt is also known for his Atom Heart and Señor Coconut projects, and has released more than 100 albums. This is his first ever New York appearance.

Visuals: Lillevan

Tickets: Free

BEYOND THE DARK, Presented with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute

The celebrated Polish composer Henryk Mikołaj Górecki died in 2010. Known for the hugely popular 3rd Symphony, his work ranges from radical modernism to the deeply romantic. This is a unique chance to hear Gorecki performed by Sinfonietta Cracovia, which had a close relationship to the composer. Norwegian duo Deaf Center opens, fusing electronics and acoustic instruments.

Tickets: $12 advance, $15 at the door

Lecture/Demo: Morton Subotnick and the Buchla Synthesizer

Morton Subotnick discusses the evolution of early electronic music and the Buchla voltage-controlled modular synthesizer, which he helped develop in the early ‘60s. Subjects include the conceptual basis and building of the synth, original modules with demonstrations, plus a focus on themes embedded in the title "The Transistor, the Tape Recorder, and the Credit Card: The Technological Big Bang."

Tickets: $15

FRKWYS Live: Unsound Edition

Presented with respected independent imprint RVNG INTL and (le) Poisson Rouge, pioneers of synthesizer music Alan Howarth and Harald Grosskopf are joined by Cleveland trio Emeralds showing parallels between synth music old and new. Grosskopf performs with A.R.P, Blondes, Laurel Halo, Pink Skull and James Ferraro, while Howarth and Emeralds also take the stage together for the first time ever.

Visuals: Jade Boyd

Tickets: $12 advance, $15 at door

BASS MUTATIONS, Presented with The Bunker and The Index

Our renowned exploration of bass in a club context. Influential artists Kode9, Appleblim, Dorian Concept and Badawi appear alongside rising names Lone, Sepalcure and Spatial. In Unsound style, our search for freshness also takes us to unexpected places with Eleven Tigers (Lithuania), The Phantom & Zeppy Zep (Poland) and Chancha Via Circuito (Argentina).

Tickets: $25 advance, $30 at door

Talk: Marcus Schmickler + CoH

Like-minded experimental musicians and labelmates on the Austrian imprint Editions Mego, Marcus Schmickler and CoH talk about their similarly refined approaches to extreme sounds. Dialogue to include talk of process, conceptual grounding, and how their work comes out of their respective home countries of Germany and Russia. In conversation with Andy Battaglia.

Tickets: Free

Talk: Lustmord

In advance of his first-ever performance in New York, dark-ambient pioneer Lustmord talks about his life and work, including exploratory and highly influential music dating back to the 1980s as well as his accomplished sound-design work for movies in Los Angeles.

Tickets: Free

Resynthesis: Synthetic Music Exploration Then and Now

A discussion starting with the recent reissue of Harald Grosskopf's classic kosmiche album Synthesist from 1980. Speakers include Grosskopf, his bandmate Axel Manrico and project coordinator Matt Werth. Younger musicians inspired by synth sounds from a future long ago include John Elliot (Emeralds), Laurel Halo and Alexis Georgopoulos (ARP). Moderator: Jordan Redaelli (Electric Independence).

Tickets: Free

OCEANS OF NOISE, Presented with No Fun Productions and ISSUE Project Room

Extreme sounds curated with Carlos Giffoni of No Fun. Russian COH and German Marcus Schmickler both have new releases on Vienna's Editions Mego label. Poland's Robert Piotrowicz teams up NY’s Spencer Yeh! (Burning Star Core), while Carlos performs a searing analogue synth set. Ending is Instant Coffee, a side project of Matmos member M.C.Schmidt with Lisle Ellis and Jason Willett.

Tickets: $10

UNSOUND EDITION OF BUNKER

A unique showcase of artists from Europe’s east with Bulgaria's KiNK,
Croatia's Petar Dundov, Poland's Jurek Przedziecki and Finland's
Samuli Kemppi playing techno and house. Add AtomTM & Pink Elln (Germany), the minimal dub of Pulshar (Spain), Glitterbug (Germany), Tin Man (USA/Finland) as well as the USA’s Octave One and this is a diverse array of artists in both musical and geographical terms.

Tickets: $25 advance, $30 at door

UNSOUND FESTIVAL CLOSING PARTY, PRESENTED BY KISS & TELL

Kiss & Tell presents the Unsound closing party with an exploration of
vintage dance music presented by some of the deepest vinyl collectors
in NYC. Runaway, aka Marcos Cabral & Jacques Renault, play classic
disco alongside their own re-edits and productions. Erika of Ectomorph
plays a set of disco, electro and new wave. Bethany Benzur, Kiss & Tell's beautiful disco encyclopedia resident DJ, opens.

Tickets: Free

Talk: Alan Howarth on Movie Music and Sound, presented with www.transitionearth.com

Composer and sound-designer Alan Howarth talks about his work on such notable films as Poltergeist, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek, The Thing, and many, many more. Presentation to cover how certain unforgettable sound-effects were forged and how they played into movies as big as any ever made.

Tickets: Free

IMMERSION, presented with The Blackened Music series - extra show

Lustmord, legendary creator of the dark ambient genre, performs his second USA show in 25 years. Expect rumbling sub frequencies and terrifying sound sculptures with stunning visuals by Lustmord himself. Void ov Voices is the solo project of Hungarian Atilla Csihar, known as vocalist for Mayhem and Sunn O))). Polish experimental musician Robert Piotrowicz opens with an intense, dramatic set.

Tickets: $20

Screening - Deconstructing Dad: The Music, Machines, and Mystery of Raymond Scott

A singular figure in the origins of electronic music starting in the 1950s, Raymond Scott developed prescient music-making machines, using them in work from TV ad jingles to the three-album set "Soothing Sounds for Baby". He also sired Stan Warnow, who made this documentary about searching for his father in the midst of old archival sounds and codes. Director Warnow will be present for Q&A.

Tickets: Free

IMMERSION, presented with The Blackened Music series

Lustmord, legendary creator of the dark ambient genre, performs his second USA show in 25 years. Expect rumbling sub frequencies and terrifying sound sculptures with stunning visuals by Lustmord himself. Void ov Voices is the solo project of Hungarian Atilla Csihar, known as vocalist for Mayhem and Sunn O))). Polish experimental musician Robert Piotrowicz opens with an intense, dramatic set.

Tickets: $20