Poland-based experimental/electronic music festival Unsound returns to NYC for its 2024 edition this fall. Unsound New York happens on November 14-17 at Lincoln Center, Pioneer Works, and other venues. They’ve announced the initial lineup, which features mostly free or choose what you pay events, including Piotr Kurek, Izabela Dłużyk & Chris Watson, Kali Malone, Anima Brass Quintet & Choir, Raphael Rogiński, Jim White, Amirtha Kidambi, Sunn O))) (whose Stephen O’Malley is also doing another collaborative set), and Mabe Fratti. More artists are still to be announced, and you can see the current lineup below.
Tickets to the choose what you pay events go on sale September 10 at 12 PM ET, with a member pre-sale starting September 5 at 12 PM ET.
UNSOUND NEW YORK: 2024 INITIAL LINEUP
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Unsound New York in collaboration with Dripping
Club Night
Full details TBA in early September
Unsound New York kicks off on Thursday November 14, with a night co-presented with Dripping at Nowadays veering from live experimental shows to club music and lasting until the early hours of the morning. Full-line up of artists will be released on September 5, when tickets will also go on sale.
Friday, November 15, 2024 / 7:30 pm
Unsound New York & Lincoln Center Presents
Piotr Kurek & second act TBA
@ David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center, 1887 Broadway, New York, NY 10023
FREE
Piotr Kurek is a Warsaw-based musician, multi-instrumentalist and composer. He’s released music on Edições CN, Mondoj, Hands In The Dark, Black Sweat Records and created soundtracks for theatrical works. The Wire noted that he takes inspiration from “folk legends, tales of international adventure and the small serendipities of the studio.” Kurek also noted to them that his compositional process is “very linear. I want to have small coincidences and revelations, without any bombastic moments…I don’t subscribe to the idea of genre. Whatever I do has to have that element of adventure.”
Last year his album Smartwoods (perhaps his most adventurous album to date) was released on Unsound’s imprint and has been described as “a sprawling root system of tiny melodic phrases that loop and curl around subtly evolving instrumental thickets.” Additionally, Philip Sherburne noted in Pitchfork that Smartwoods “broad, slightly ragtag swatches of color are reminiscent of (painters) Richard Diebenkorn (and) Helen Frankenthaler” and that “Kurek’s arrangements frequently sound like he has taken a passage from Talk Talk’s (cult album) Laughing Stock.” Piotr Kurek will make his New York debut performing material from Smartwoods (and more) live at Unsound New York 2024 with New York players on harp, trumpet and clarinet and bass. A opening act will be added to this lineup soon. This event is free of charge.
Saturday, November 16, 2024 & Sunday, November 17, 2024
Unsound New York & Pioneer Works Presents
Izabela Dłużyk & Chris Watson: Białowieża
@ Pioneer Works, 159 Pioneer St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Izabela Dłużyk is a Polish nature sound recordist. Born blind, Dłużyk developed interest in birds and began to record bird noises at the age of 12. Her specific sensitivity to birdsong has since grown into a wide-ranging artistic practice. Last year BBC World broadcast a documentary about Dłużyk during which she noted “humans focus more on visual aspects. When observing birds, we mainly think about photography. We identify species based on their appearance rather than their sounds. When I listen not only to birds, but also to trees, I simply feel in the right place, with a sense of the deepest meaning of existence.”
At Unsound New York 2024 she will present a new installation work Białowieża in collaboration with noted British sound artist and field recordist Chris Watson. This newly commissioned installation premiered at Unsound’s sister festival Ephemera in Warsaw earlier this year. It is based on field recordings made in Puszcza Białowieska – Europe’s last remaining primaeval forest, on the border between Poland and Belarus. In recent times, the forest has become a contentious place, initially due to logging and since late 2021, scores of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia have attempted to go through the forest and cross from Belarus into Poland and the European Union. Many have died within the forest attempting to make the crossing or they’ve been pushed back by Polish guards. This has resulted in migrants being trapped and dying within the forest. Additionally, a metal wall has been constructed, dividing the forest, which has become a symbol of wider geopolitical tensions. This intense location provides the grounding for Białowieża. The natural and unnatural sounds of the forest have therefore taken on newer more shadowy layers of meaning.
Chris Watson is one of the UK’s most celebrated sound recordists. Not only was he a founding member of Sheffield’s influential Cabaret Voltaire and The Hafler Trio, but he’s been developing his ear for field recording since the early ’80s, working extensively for the BBC on numerous nature shows. As a solo artist, he’s helped figure out a space between documentary and fantasy, collaborating with artists like BJ Nilsen, Z’EV, KK Null and Philip Jeck. One of his longest collaborations has been with David Attenborough.
In New York, Białowieża will be presented in the form of an installation. The project was commissioned by Unsound, Atonal, Semibreve and Sónar as part of the TIMES Platform. The installation will also be free of charge. Additional information on September 5.
Saturday, November 16, 2024 / 7.30 pm
Unsound New York & Lincoln Center Presents
Kali Malone‘s All Life Long with Stephen O’Malley & Anima Brass Quintet & Choir /
Raphael Rogiński with Jim White & Amirtha Kidambi
@ Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway at, W 65th St, New York, NY 10023
Choose What You Pay.
Member Pre-sale: September 5 at noon / General On-sale: September 10 at noon
Kali Malone, a Stockholm-based American composer and organist returns to New York City to present the organ, choir, and brass pieces from her highly acclaimed 2023 album “All Life Long” – a contemplative 78-minute suite for organ, brass quintet and chamber choir. Pitchfork gave the album an 8.3 rating and Best New Music tag noting the album is “a fount of beauty, reflection, and perhaps even revelation.” Interviewed in the New York Times about her work she noted “You can have knowledge about sound, you can have knowledge about structure, color, pitch, harmony, rhythm. But none of that means anything if you don’t have knowledge of how to use it emotionally.” In her hands, experimental minimalist reinterpretations of centuries-old polyphonic compositional methods become portals to new ways of perceiving harmony, structure, and introspection. She will perform on Alice Tully Hall’s iconic pipe organ with additional 4-handed organ accompaniment by Stephen O’Malley, together with the Anima brass quintet and a local choir (members to be announced soon).
Raphael Rogiński with Jim White & Amirtha Kidambi. Rogiński returns to Unsound New York after presenting an intimate show last year at the David Rubenstein Atrium. This time around Rogiński will focus on material featured on Unsound imprint’s upcoming timely reissue of Rogiński’s out of print landmark 2016 album Plays Coltrane & Langston Hughes (for cult Polish label Bolt). Rogiński has also just released a new album “Žaltys” for Unsound’s imprint. Picking the album as their folk album of the month, The Guardian noted “This searching, soulful release conjures up the spirit of summers spent by the lake and in the forest,” going on to compare Rogiński to Factory records’ The Durutti Column, the early solo works of Ben Watt and the softer moments of Pat Metheny’s jazz. Joining in on the praise, The Quietus picked “Žaltys” as their album of the week noting ‘this is a landmark album that inhabits both ancient and unkempt, overgrown and unruly,” describing Roginski’s playing as “lithe, his touch light but powerful. The uncluttered compositions are elegant but not without a certain wildness – an old, untouchedness – slithering from brambled undergrowth to sun-dappled clearing, and often playing out like light dancing on inky green scales.”
At Unsound New York 2024, Roginski will present his distinct interpretations of Coltrane’s compositions, played in a way that brings out unexpected textural and rhythmic qualities, often veering far from jazz. He will also perform songs that he’s composed around the poetry of American poet and social activist Langston Hughes, including a few new compositions written for the Unsound reissue. Mostly performing solo, Rogiński will also be joined by drummer Jim White and vocalist Amirtha Kidambi. Kidambi is invested in the creation and performance of subversive, anti-hegemonic music, from free improvisation and avant-jazz, to Indian carnatic and devotional, experimental bands, electronic music, noise and new music. This year she’s being making waves worldwide with her band Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones following their album release “New Monuments” for We Jazz. Jim White is a drummer of note, having played with a who’s who of pop music including Cat Power, Nick Cave, PJ Harvey, and many others, leading to the New York Times labelling him “your Favorite Songwriter’s Favorite Drummer” earlier this year. He released his album “All Hits: Memories” this past March. He also plays in the bands the Dirty Three and Beings.
Sunday, November 17, 2024 / 7.30 pm
Unsound New York & Lincoln Center Presents
SUNN O))) / Mabe Fratti
@ Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall, 10 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY 10023
Choose What You Pay.
Member Pre-sale: September 5 at noon / General On-sale: September 10 at noon
SUNN O))) returns to the live aspect in its core, original raw form for their only North American date of 2024. Founders and guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson will perform at David Geffen Hall as a duo immersed in profound valve amplification, spectral harmonics, distortion, and volume transcending boundaries with their unique sonic language. Their excursions into pure and primeval riffs of temporality and massively heavy structures of sound pressure have been challenging how we think about music for over twenty years. Witness a live experience of physical sound, fog, and glacial maximalism like no other. SUNN 0))) have also collaborated with artists such as Scott Walker, Boris, Pan Sonic, Ulver, and Merzbow.
Mabe Fratti will open proceedings. This Guatemalan cellist is a rising star with a wide range of listeners. Her music blurs the borders between folk, jazz, and avant rock, in service of rich, multi-layered works that center around her striking voice. She performs in the wake of her most recent album which brings her sound even closer to pop, though always driven by an experimental urge. Talking to The FADER in July about the album “Sentir que no sabes” she noted “I never got to speak in tongues, but the cello would.” The Guardian gave her album 5 Stars calling it “rich, rewarding, spellbinding music from a true original.” Rolling Stone who’ve placed her albums on year-end lists for the past two years noted “Fratti’s emotional delivery is more resonant than ever.”