Roulette Resident Artist Wendy Eisenberg will present the world premiere of a new suite for Eye Music, programmed with some selections from last year’s premiere of the band. The band very rarely gets together, so this is a one-night-only premiere that will also serve as a live taping of the final side of the Eye Music debut album.
Eye Music is a band and a song cycle, composed and aligned by Eisenberg. The band comprises Eisenberg on guitar and vocals, Chris Williams (trumpet/electronics), Zekkereya El-Magharbel (trombone/electronics), Andrew Links (piano/keyboards), Carmen Q. Rothwell (bass), Booker Stardrum (drums), and video projections by Richard Lenz. Eisenberg’s Eye Music project is about the changing relationship to perspective and perception following their eye surgery. The first installation of the Eye Music project was a seven-part, semi-improvised song cycle written for their Roulette commission. This night revisits some of the pieces from the first concert, and culminates in the premiere of a new work for this band. Eisenberg’s new work serves as a coda for the song-cycle, and finds its inspiration in Marie Menken’s “Eye Music in Red Major,” a structural film about “the persistence of vision and enhancement from eye fatigue.” (MM Serra).
Wendy Eisenberg guitar and vocals
Chris Williams trumpet and electronics
Zekkereya El-magharbel trombone and electronics
Andrew Links piano/keyboards
Carmen Q. Rothwell bass
Booker Stardrum drums
video projection by Richard Lenz
“When it comes to guitarists, Wendy Eisenberg stands on an island, a virtuosic talent who is not remotely similar to any other virtuosic talent.” –Something Else!
A livestream will be available free of charge at 8pm on the day of the performance and archived for future viewing. Watch below or on YouTube.
Wendy Eisenberg is an improviser and songwriter who uses guitar, pedals, the tenor banjo, the computer, the synthesizer, and the voice. Their work spans genres, from jazz to noise to avant-rock to delicate songs; their performances span venues, from international festivals to intimate basements. Though often working solo as both a songwriter and improviser, with acclaimed releases on Tzadik, VDSQ, Out of your Head, and Garden Portal, they also perform in the rock band Editrix, and in endless other combinations of their heroes and peers including Allison Miller, Carla Kihlstedt, John Zorn, Billy Martin, and Caroline Davis. They are also a writer on music and other things, with published essays on music in Sound American, Arcana, and the Contemporary Music Review.
