Author: ginger@roulette.org

Ikue Mori: Pomegranate Seed // World Premiere of OBELISK

What: Ikue Mori presents a live audio-visual piece based upon Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales followed by the world premiere of her new group OBELISK, featuring Sylvie Courvoisier, Okkyung Lee, and Jim Black.
When: Friday, September 16, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – Roulette welcomes back veteran performer Ikue Mori for a double feature including Pomegranate Seed, a live audio-visual performance inspired by the story of the same from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales, followed by the world premiere of her new group OBELISK, featuring Sylvie Courvoisier on piano, Okkyung Lee on cello and Jim Black on drums.

Published in 1853, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tanglewood Tales retells well-known Greek myths for children. Ikue’s rendition of the classic tale of Persephine’s kidnapping at the hands of King Pluto will include video clips and puppetry. The second performance of the night will call upon the talents of Sylvie Courvoisier, Okkyung Lee, and Jim Black to premiere new pieces developed from Ikue’s solo electronic compositions.

After moving to New York from her native Tokyo in 1977, Ikue Mori began playing drums in seminal No Wave band DNA with fellow noise pioneers Arto Lindsay and Tim Wright. In the mid 1980s, Ikue began to employ drum machines in the context of improvised music. While limited to the standard technology provided by the drum machine, she nonetheless forged her own signature style. Throughout in 1990s she collaborated with numerous improvisors throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, while continuing to produce and record her own music. After becoming involved with the city’s flourishing improvisational scene via John Zorn, she began experimenting with drum machines, and in recent years utilizes the laptop as her primary instrument. Last fall, Ikue performed her Twindrums project with Yoshimio at Roulette. Ikue has lead workshops and lectures at University of Gothenburg, Dartmouth College, New England Conservatory, Mills College, Stanford University, and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Elliott Sharp's Vivarium

What: Renowned composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp, joined by JACK Quartet, presents new and recent works.
When: Thursday, September 15, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – Elliott Sharp’s Vivarium is a program of new and recent works partially drawn from his new album, Tranzience, on New World Records. Drawing upon the talents of top new music ensembles JACK Quartet and New Thread Quartet, Vivarium places Sharpe’s works in new contexts.

The program features “Tranzience” performed by JACK Quartet, “Approaching The Arches of Corti” performed by New Thread saxophone quartet; “Homage Leroy Jenkins” performed by Jenny Lin, Rachel Golub, and Joshua Rubin; and “The Hidden Variable” for electro-acoustic guitar performed by Elliott Sharp. The evening will conclude with the the world premiere of “Vivarium,” a graphic score by Sharp that will be performed by all of the musicians taking part in the other pieces.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Elliott Sharp is the leader of such projects as SysOrk, Orchestra Carbon and Tectonics, and Terraplane. Recipient of the Berlin Prize for 2015 and a Guggenheim Fellowship winner for 2014, Sharp has composed for Ensemble Modern, RadioSinfonie Frankfurt, and Arditti Quartet. A contributor to Hilary Hahn’s Grammy-winning album In 27 Pieces, Sharp has been featured at New Music Stockholm, Donaueschingen, Darmstadt, Tomorrow Shenzhen, and Au Printemps festivals. His opera Port Bou premiered in the United States at Issue Project Room October 2014 and in Berlin at Konzerthaus in April 2015. In 2010, Sharp created About Us, a sci-fi opera for all-teenage performers at the Bayerische Staatsoper. His work is the subject of the documentary “Doing The Don't” and he has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered.

  • Elliott Sharp – Electro-acoustic guitar
  • JACK Quartet – Violin, viola, cello
  • New Thread Quartet (Geoffrey Landman, Kristen McKeon, Erin Rogers, Zach Herchen) – Saxophone
  • Jenny Lin – Piano
  • Rachel Golub – Violin
  • Joshua Rubin – Clarinet

ACFNY & Dame Electric Present: Suzanne Ciani, Antenes & E. Indigo

What: Buchla pioneer Suzanne Ciani performs her first solo concert in New York since 1975, preceded by a live collaboration between E. Indigo and Antenes.
When: Wednesday, September 14, 2016, 8pm
Where: Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave Brooklyn, 2/3/4/5/A/C/G/D/M/N/R/B/Q trains & the LIRR
Cost: $20/15 Online $25/20 Doors
Info: www.roulette.org / (917) 267-0368
Tickets: General Admission $20, Members/Students/Seniors $15, $25/20 Tickets at the door

Brooklyn, NY – The Austrian Cultural Forum and Dame Electric offer a rare opportunity to witness legendary analog synth pioneer Suzanne Ciani perform her first solo concert in New York in over 30 years. Ciani will play her Buchla synthesizer live, coupled with video projections that will enable the audience to follow her working process close up. Opening act E. Indigo and Antenes will premiere their first live collaboration. Founded and curated by thereminist Dorit Chrysler and supported by the Austrian Cultural Forum New York, Dame Electric focuses on pioneering women in electronic analog music.

Suzanne Ciani is a five-time Grammy award nominated composer, electronic music pioneer, and neo-classical recording artist whose work has been featured in countless commercials, video games, and feature films. Over the course of her 30+ year career, she has released 15 solo albums, including the live electronic album retrospective, Buchla Concerts 1975. Ciani’s forthcoming collaborative album with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Sunergy, will be released on September 16, 2016 via RVNG’s FRKWYS imprint.

New York based DJ, producer and electronics artist Antenes operates a laboratory of self-made sequencers and modular synthesizers. Tracing the lineage of synthesizer operation to vintage telephone equipment, her curious studio discipline of manipulating repurposed switchboards was fueled by the desire to breathe new life into long-silenced machines, transforming signal paths through which voices once travelled.

Vienna/Berlin-based artist E. Indigo reps an intelligent and distinguished interpretation of techno and electronic music. As a composer and musician, she creates music for concert spaces, clubs, and sound installations, emphasizing the spatial-temporal placement of subtly elaborated sounds and structures, often generated from speech recordings.

  • Suzanne Ciani – Buchla Synthesizer
  • Antenes – Handmade Synthesizer
  • E. Indigo – Granulator, Laptop