THREE AMERICAN COMPOSERS

PLAYBACK PLAY.
THREE AMERICAN COMPOSERS
6-12.09.2011

Robert Ashley / Morton Feldman / Alvin Lucier
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Frank Denyer, piano / Ergo Phizmiz, everything / Hilary Jeffery, trombone / Alessandro Bosetti, voice, electronics / Maciej Cieślak, guitar, voice, electronics / Edyta Fil, flutes / Michał Górczyński, clarinet / DJ Lenar, turntables / Paweł Nowicki, glockenspiel / Mikołaj Pałosz, cello / Julia Szproch, voice / Julia Ziętek, violin

Zachęta Art Gallery / Instytut Awangardy / Chłodna 25 / Powiększenie / Nowy Wspaniały Świat

There is a domination in every triangle, they say. Two allies dominate the third. In the Ashley / Feldman / Lucier trinagle there is as many rotating alliances of the two against the other as you wish. Number one, let's say: involvement with the voice. Two: graphic scores. Then: composing dying sounds rather than the notes. And so it goes, endlessly, because there is an infinite number of experimental techniques in the works and lives of this triangle.

Despite its selectivity Playback Play is by now the most comprehensive presentation of the works by the three american composers in Poland (perhaps). But also – not really. Their works are sometimes almost impossible to present. Fine, Feldman is very precise but Lucier's pieces as they survive are close to being hypothetical. They need to be checked out rather than presented in front of the audience. And Ashley? Where are his early operas? The librettos are incomplete and if you are lucky enough to know them – you see they are not precisely the same as the content of the very few and incomplete recordings. What they seem to be altogether is perhaps a grand theory of disappearing. The disappearance of the reverberating sounds in Feldman. The disappearance of speech in noise – Lucier. The disappearance of the recordings and the scores of the Ashley early operas. This is the most we can have. But at least let's have it as an airy way to approach the agony of contemporary music which – it seems – dies out just like their sounds and pieces. Playback Play is an arch from the performances of the pieces to pure phantasies on the ones which are not there anymore. Or to put the same thing in other words: a week long session of musicians who agreed to broaden the compositions of the three american composers with their own experiences and iterests.

06.09.2011, TUE (free entry)
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Nowy Wspaniały Świat, 20.00,
--- Electronic transformations of speech
Alessandro Bosetti + Maciej Cieślak, Hilary Jeffery, DJ Lenar
- Alvin Lucier, Duke of York
- Alvin Lucier, The Only Talking Machine of that Kind in the World
- Alessandro Bosetti, It is an Island

07.09.2011, WED (free entry BUT obligatory reservation: michal.libera@gmail.com)
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Instytut Awangardy, 20.00:
--- Trombone + pure waves
Hilary Jeffery solo
- Alvin Lucier, Wind Shadows
- Hilary Jeffery, Tromboscillator

08.09.2011, THU (free entry)
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Zachęta, 19.00:
--- Radio broadcast [Morton Feldman]

Zachęta, 20.00:
--- Early Feldman
Frank Denyer + Edyta Fil, Paweł Nowicki, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Ziętek
- Morton Feldman, Only
- Morton Feldman, Projection 1
- Morton Feldman, Durations 2
- Morotn Feldman, Projection 4
- Morton Feldman, Extensions 3
- Morton Feldman, Durations 1
- Morton Feldman, Why Patterns?

09.09.2011, FRI (20 zł)
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Powiększenie, 20.00
--- Free noise & songs & Lucier's “Bird and Person Dyining”
Alessandro Bosetti, Maciej Cieślak, Hilary Jeffery, DJ Lenar, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Szproch

10.09.2011, SAT (20 zł)
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Chłodna 25, 19.00:
--- Lecture [Robert Ashley]

Chłodna 25, 20.00:
--- Opera, Operas, Operandi
Alessandro Bossetti, Ergo Phizmiz + Maciej Cieślak, DJ Lenar, Julia Szproch, Julia Ziętek
- Alvin Lucier, Sacred Fox
- Robert Ashley, That Morning Thing / Wolfman Motorcity Revue (incl. Woflman, Automatic Writing, Purposeful Lady Slow Afternoon etc.)
- Alvin Lucier, Opera with Objects

11.09.2011, SUN (free entry)
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Chłodna 25, 13.00:
--- Ergo Phizmiz solo piano

Zachęta, 19.00:
--- Radio broadcast [Alvin Lucier]

Zachęta, 20.00:
--- Resonanses
Hilary Jeffery + Frank Denyer, DJ Lenar, Mikołaj Pałosz, Julia Szproch
- Alvin Lucier, Music for Cello with One or More Amplified Vases
- Alvin Lucier, Still Lives
- Alvin Lucier, Letters
- Robert Ashley, In Memoriam... Esteban Gomez

12.09.2011, MON (free entry)
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Zachęta, 20.00
--- Late Feldman
Frank Denyer solo
- Morton Feldman, Triadic Memories

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The project has been co-financed by the Culture Bureau of Warsaw