Ocean of sound.
Awash in Greinke, media in crisis, words about an Arvo Pärt masterpiece in an unorthodox presentation, and live-music picks for the next seven days.
Today is Wednesday, and I spent my entire morning with Oceanic, the new album by ambient-music composer-performer Jeff Greinke. It’s also the last thing I listened to last night. I’d been aware of Greinke for a long time, though I don’t know his previous work well. But something about the billowing folds and muzzy contours of this music is providing comfort at a time when little else does.
You can listen to Oceanic on the Projekt label Bandcamp page, where the album is available for name-your-own-price download. If you’re inclined to buy, consider waiting until Feb. 2: the first Bandcamp Friday of 2024, when the platform waives its fee, providing more income to artists and labels.
Various and sundry continue to share viewpoints on the current crisis in mass media, but I’ve not seen many offer the specific sort of encouragement Tim Herrera put forth in a chat with Parker Molloy, published yesterday on Long Lead Presents: Depth Perception. True, despair is no solution. But I can’t say I feel much better when Herrera, credited as a “freelancing guru,” offers this:
“Swing for the fences and pretend things are fine, because it’s either that or just give up entirely. At this point we really have nothing to lose by going after everything, so have at it, you never know.”
YMMV, of course. Worth reading. And the last bit of the newsletter, an exit interview with former Pitchfork executive editor Amy Phillips, is quite rewarding.
Elsewhere – literally while I was writing the newsletter you’re now scanning – The New York Times reported that The Messenger, the busy news website launched loudly by news entrepreneur Jimmy Finkelstein and media veteran Richard Beckman in May 2023, will shut down after less than a year in business. Horror stories surrounded the outlet virtually from the git-go; still, no one wants to see even more jobs lost. My sympathies to all writers, editors, and others involved.
Listening out loud.
Last Friday, I had the privilege of attending a performance of Arvo Pärt’s somber, darkly beautiful Passio in the extraordinary setting of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, produced by the church in collaboration with the Experiential Orchestra (or EXO, for short) and LPR Presents, the external booking arm of Le Poisson Rouge. As I mentioned afterward to violinist Pauline Kim Harris, the orchestra’s Director of Artistic Planning, the event had lived up to the organization’s name and mission: I felt as though I’d had a genuine experience.
It wasn’t just the music, though the tart astringency and minimal gestures of Pärt’s St. John Passion held me in its grip consistently from its assertive chorus and organ opening. It was also the setting – including Anne Patterson’s Divine Pathways, a rainbow-streamer installation suspended from the ceiling above the nave, where the Artefact Ensemble opened the evening with a mix of Greek Orthodox chant and original music by artistic director Benedict Sheehan.
The artists took advantage of that special setting in varying ways throughout the evening. The Artefact singers started out behind the audience, and then moved to one side of the seating area, then the other, ending their prelude performance in the cathedral’s apse before taking position behind the company involved in the Pärt work.
Two fine soloists, bass baritone Enrico Lagasca and tenor Haitham Haidar, sang the roles of Jesus and Pilate, respectively. A quartet of voices collectively played the role of Evangelist: male soprano Elijah McCormick, alto Kate Maroney, tenor Oliver Mercer, and bass Charles Wesley Evans. The Artefact singers served as the chorus; violinist Henry Wang, cellist Serafim Smigelskiy, oboist Christa Robinson, bassoonist Brad Balliett, and organist Raymond Nagem represented the orchestra, all under the direction of James Blachly.
Acoustics in this space can be tricky: memorable for Diamanda Galas, arguably less so for the New York Philharmonic. Here, the resonance served the vocalists and instrumentalists especially well, lending an uncanny sense of being awash and engulfed in Pärt’s austere sound world. (Position and architecture abetted the Artefact singers during their processional prelude, as well.) The soloists were amplified, sometimes a bit overemphatically; Lagasca’s sensitively sung Jesus sometimes took on an aspect of Mozart’s sepulchral Commendatore.
On the whole, through, audio was well managed—though I do wonder what it sounded like to those audience members who’d elected to make their experience even more unorthodox by stretching out on yoga mats behind the performers. It was gratifying to see a full house for the concert on Friday, particularly because I hadn’t seen any advance media coverage at all. (A spokesperson for the event mentioned a Time Out New York listing, in-kind promotion and marketing exchanges with major arts organizations, underwriting announcements on public radio, and mailing lists managed by the church and LPR.)
As for coverage after the fact, I found a thoughtful, detailed response by Jon Sobel on Blogcritics—as well as a barely disguised regurgitation of that same review, credited to Lajin Vartia and tagged under the category “Bunbury” – as in the Australian city – on a website called Etcapital. (I’m not linking to the latter, not least to spare you the pop-ups.)
Perhaps a lack of coverage doesn’t matter as much as I’d thought it did, since, again, the house was quite full. But it would have been a welcome way to advance news of the next big Experiential Orchestra project: a festival celebrating the centenary of composer Julia Perry coming up March 13–16 here in New York City. Before that, a terrific recording of Perry’s Violin Concerto, by Blachly and EXO with soloist Curtis Stewart, is due March 1 on the Bright Shiny Things label.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
31
Vijay Iyer Trio
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S., Greenwich Village
Through Sunday, Feb. 4 at 8 & 10pm; $40
villagevanguard.com
Pianist and composer Vijay Iyer reunites with bassist Linda May Han Oh and drummer Tyshawn Sorey, the supple, versatile trio heard on his 2021 album, Uneasy, ahead of their second collective release: Compassion arrives on Friday, Feb. 2, via ECM. (Here’s a gift link to Larry Blumenfeld’s WSJ review.)
Sandbox Percussion with Conor Hanick
92NY
1395 Lexington Ave.; Upper East Side
Wednesday, Jan. 31 at 7:30pm; $40, livestream $25
92ny.org
New-music quartet Sandbox Percussion teams up with the elegant, intelligent pianist Conor Hanick for a program featuring two substantial New York City premieres: Chris Cerrone’s Don’t Look Down, a clever, appealing piece introduced online from Caramoor, and Tyshawn Sorey’s For Arthur Jafa, a crepuscular rite commissioned by The Gilmore. The program also includes music by Vivian Fung, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Samuel Carl Adams, and Andy Akiho; if you can’t attend in person, the livestream ticket provides access for 72 hours.
2
Dark Circuits Orchestra
Black Box, Hunter College
695 Park Ave., Midtown East
Friday, Feb. 2 at 7pm; free admission, RSVP required
eventbrite.com
Han Tammen’s analogue-synthesizer ensemble, a heavyweight assemblage featuring creators and leaders like Lucie Vitkova, Marcia Bassett, Luke Dubois, Shoko Nagai, David First, and Miguel Frasconi, pays homage to the late Phill Niblock. Katherine Liberovskaya provides visuals for a program that includes Niblock’s Baobab and 2 Lips, along with select pages from Cornelius Cardew’s Treatise. Admission is free, but an RSVP via Eventbrite is required.
3
Peter Evans Being & Becoming with Craig Taborn
Public Records
233 Butler St., Brooklyn
Saturday, Feb. 3 at 7pm; $25.75
dice.fm
Trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Peter Evans issued a sensational album, Ars Memoria, by his working band Being & Becoming last November. Turns out vibraphonist Joel Ross couldn’t make this Brooklyn gig, but Evans found a mighty stand-in: Craig Taborn will guest on piano and synthesizer. This one’s bound to be memorable.
Ursula Oppens
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 W. 67th St.; Upper West Side
Saturday, Feb. 3 at 3pm; $30, students $10
kaufmanmusiccenter.org
“With crystalline lucidity, warm sensitivity and utter authority,” Zachary Woolfe wrote in a terrific New York Times profile of pianist Ursula Oppens, “she has guided generations of listeners through the seductive complexities of Wuorinen and Elliott Carter, Anthony Davis and Conlon Nancarrow, Frederic Rzewski and Joan Tower, and on and on.” Indeed, and here, in an affectionate tribute titled “Ursula & Friends,” her protégés and admirers will play works by some of those same composers, while Oppens herself plays Tobias Picker and Michael Steven Brown, the latter with fellow pianist Jerome Lowenthal.
4
“After Scott Johnson”
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn
Sunday, Feb. 4 at 8pm; free admission, RSVP requested
roulette.org
Family, friends, and associates of the innovative guitarist and composer Scott Johnson, who died of pneumonia last March after battling lung cancer, come together to remember him. This free event will include remarks from those who knew Johnson best, personal photographs, videos of Johnson talking and performing, and the live premiere of his last completed work, Map, by singer Daisy Press and the Terra String Quartet. If you can’t attend, the program will be streamed live free of charge, and archived for on-demand viewing.
6
New York New Music Ensemble
Milton Resnick/Pat Passlof Foundation
87 Eldridge St., Lower East Side
Tuesday, February 6 at 7pm; $20, seniors and students $10
nynme.org
A program titled “Clarity/Opacity” includes Elliott Carter’s Triple Duo, Jonathan Bailey Holland’s The Clarity of Cold Air, and James Diaz’s Never was the way.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.
I've performed with Kate Maroney and Enrico Lagasca in various places around the US. Pretty cool to read about the great work they are doing with Artefact Ensemble - I only wish I could have heard the performance. Judging from your description, it was amazing.
Never heard of Greinke, now I see he's had a 40-year career...got work to do! Thanks also for the reminder on the Scott Johnson concert. I can't get out that night but will tune in to the live stream - see you in the chat, perhaps!