Yarn/Wire
Catherine Lamb: Curvo Totalitas (2016)
Anthony Vine: distance/absence (2016)
Alvin Lucier: Oases (2016)
Jace Clayton Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner
Kulturkirken Jakob
13/9, 8 pm
Tickets 300/200 NOK
The reputation of American composer/singer Julius Eastman (1940–90) is undergoing a rapid rediscovery. Eastman’s outsider status (as a black, gay, uncompromising avant gardist) was cemented by titles such as Gay Guerrilla and Evil Nigger, but his style of repetitive minimalism is being newly appreciated by fans of Steve Reich and Charlemagne Palestine, and his achievements as a vocalist included recording Maxwell Davies’s Eight Songs for a Mad King.
In The Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner, Eastman’s work is presented in a semi-lecture context. Playing with the notion of Eastman as a postmodern trickster, Julius Eastman Memorial Dinner is framed as a job application for the role of the composer in a celebration of his life, with spoken interludes and electronic treatments of the compositions played in real time by two pianists. Behind the project is DJ, electronic musician and author Jace Clayton, aka DJ/rupture, whose book Uproot: Travels in 21st Century Music and Digital Culture explores the sweeping changes digital music is undergoing in remote corners of the planet.
This concert also includes a rare appearance in Norway by the New York based percussion and piano based quartet Yarn/Wire. They will play three recent works of US minimalism: Catherin Lamb’s Curvo Totalitas, Anthony Vine’s distance/absence and Alvin Lucier’s Oases, all from 2016.
Yarn/Wire:
Laura Barger
Russell H. Greenberg
Ning Yu
Ian M. Antonio
Jace Clayton – concept, arrangement, electronics
Arooj Aftab – vocals (via Skype)
David Friend – piano
Emily Manzo – piano
There’s a second chance to hear Julius Eastman’s music on the following night, when one of the great enigmatic works of 20th century music will be reconstructed by the British group Apartment House.
