Press for Broken Music
curated and introduced by Astria Suparak
for The Knitting Factory, NYC

 

> Program Notes
> Film Stills and Photos
> Tour Dates

THE SEATTLE STRANGER:
This selection of experimental shorts lives up to its title right from the get-go with RECORD PLAYERS, which simply depicts a bunch of records being scratched, bent, wobbled, and smashed. Then SONIC YOUTH destroys a piano in PIANO PIECE #3. Other standouts in this program include the elegantly transmuted video work VIOLIN POWER, in which the vibrations of the violin's strings twist across the screen like a humidity graph or a sine wave. Then there is I-BEAM, a fascinating documentary of a mad performance in some Euro warehouse, in which the musicians play dry ice, aluminum plates, steel beams, and liquid nitrogen...

On the whole, [the program] is strong of theme, and a must for visual music fanatics. -Jamie Hook, Film Editor




THE CHICAGO READER:
New York film curator Astria Suparak assembled this wonderful program of videos on experimental music in which a variety of artists put familiar instruments and objects to unusual uses, showing that the seen world is alive with sonic possibilities.

In CHRISTIAN MARCLAY's RECORD PLAYERS vinyl records are scratched, rubbed together, broken-everything but played on a turntable-and the forest of sounds beautifully matches the dense images of bodies and discs. The crazed intensity of MARCLAY's live performances is also captured in GHOST (I Don't Live for Today), for which he strums a phonograph as if it were a guitar. In KICK THAT HABIT, by the Swiss duo VOICE CRACK, musical images like a bow being applied to a very long string are paired with nonmusical ones like a train or a ski lift, encouraging us to hear everyday sounds as music too. SONIC YOUTH performs a composition by George Maciunas in PIANO PIECE #13 (For Nam June Paik), nailing down the keys of a piano and creating an unusual mix of sounds. In an excerpt from STEINA VASULKA's VIOLIN POWER, simple violin tones seem to generate wavy alterations in the visuals, heightening our awareness of the vibrations. Some of the excerpts from BARRY SCHWARTZ's videos and performances seem too brief, but there are still magical moments, such as dry ice causing a metal disk to resonate. It's a pretty noisy program, but true to the ideas of John Cage, noise is redeemed as music. Chicago sound artist Kean Holtkamp will spin experimental music before the screening, and Suparak will attend. -Fred Camper, "Critic's Choice"




PITTSBURGH CITY PAPER:
"The music is sparse and intriguing, while the camerawork and editing are supremely artful." -Bill O'Driscoll

AUDIENCE RESPONSES:

(Los Angeles, California)
Your show was amazing and your energy contagious. The kids are still ranting about the films.

+
(Houston, Texas)
I saw your Broken Music show at the Aurora theater in Houston. It was beautiful. I fell in love with some of the peices.
... I'd be interested in any information you might have about the artists and live performances or new peices. I'm in Boston now. I was hoping I might see more of your shows. (You live in NYC, right?) But I noticed on your site that most of your upcoming shows are elsewhere. All the same, I'll try to catch one when I can. Thank you and keep up the beautiful work.

+
I wish I had some talent to bend in your direction, but my appretiation'll have to do for now.