when the great fires were lit on the other side of the ocean is a performance project engaging with the legacies of early scientific modernity and their relationships to experimental sound practices and archival preservation. Borrowing its title from the psychogeographical excursions of W.G. Sebald, when the great fires… takes its own journey through real and imagined histories of electricity, using myriad perspectives and mythologies around electrical force to re-enchant its ubiquitous presence throughout American industrial, spiritual, and vernacular narratives. The work posits an “almost-could-have-happened” scenario set in North America around the turn of the 20th century: when electricity, the very force that undergirds our current digitized reality, remained mysteriously nascent in a space of imagination and experimentation as a new unwieldy, yet magical phenomenon.
Fantastical philosophies and prophecies around electricity were central to the belief systems of early sound recording luminaries, eschatological prophecies of the Spiritualists, and complex political players crucial to the founding of our current age. This particular era and its manifold perspectives about this new “endless” source of power allowed individuals from a wide array of social strata to explore their visions and fears of the immanent modernity – a time of intense introspection on the precipice of a fundamentally changing world. This performance integrates a live lecture presentation by independent musicologist and scholar Anthony Gilbert Williamson with a world premiere of a newly composed work by Weston Olencki, written for TAK Ensemble.
“…a trombone player with an exceptional feel for extended technique and torrential riffing” -NY Times
“…a wild, exhilarating, disturbing picture of our pixelated times…” -LA times
Weston Olencki is a musician, composer, and sound artist based in Berlin, Germany. They have presented work at the Borealis Festival, ISSUE Project Room, REDCAT, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ghent Jazz Festival, philharmonie luxembourg, Black Mountain College, Musica Nova Helsinki, the American Academy in Rome, Roulette Intermedium, and the OPTION series, and was awarded the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis from the 2016 Darmstadt Ferienkurse. Various recording projects have been released by HatHut, Out of Your Head, Tripticks Tapes, Sound American, New Amsterdam, Dinzu Artefacts, SUPERPANG, Notice Recordings, Astral Spirits, and Full Spectrum Recordings.
Regarded as “one of the most prominent ensembles in the United States practicing truly experimental music” (I Care If You Listen), TAK Ensemble delivers energetic performances “that combine crystalline clarity with the disorienting turbulence of a sonic vortex” (The WIRE), and “impresses with the organicity of their sound, their dynamism and virtuosity” (New Sounds, WQXR). Founded on the principles of curiosity, change, and caring communication, TAK is dedicated to the commissioning of new works and direct collaboration with composers and other artists and they have premiered hundreds of works to date. TAK is Laura Cocks, flute; Madison Greenstone, clarinet; Charlotte Mundy, voice; Marina Kifferstein, violin; Ellery Trafford, percussion.
