[Georgekrz]

here is the press release:

Lee Ranaldo w/ Leah Singer this sat. at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn : http://www.issueprojectroom.org/index.html

Saturday, February 10
anthony ptak + alex waterman
lee ranaldo + leah singer

first set

ANTHONY PTAK, theremin + ALEX WATERMAN, cello

Anthony Jay Ptak is an artist and composer who studied under Tony Conrad, Paul Sharits, Lydia Kavina, and Herbert Brun, and had technical consultations with Robert Moog. He performed at the First International Theremin Festival, and has been a guest theremin artist at the historic Experimental Music Studios at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign since 2000, where he was appointed visiting researcher in 2001. He has given presentations on the theremin and electro-acoustics at Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS), School of the Art Institute, Chicago Cultural Center, St. Louis Art Museum, Krannert Art Museum, FFMUP Princeton University, and Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. He is a member of the New York Theremin Society. http://axoxnxs.com

Alex Waterman is a founding member of the Plus Minus Ensemble, based in Brussels and London, specializing in avant-garde and experimental music. Alex has worked with musicians such as Richard Barrett, Keith Rowe, Axel Dorner, Tristan Honsinger, Ned Rothenberg, Gerry Hemingway, Steve Heather, Cor Fuhler, Gert Jan Prins, Andy Moor, Achim Kaufmann, Michael Moore, Chris Mann, Brian Ferneyhough and Michael Finissy as well as members of the dutch punk band "the Ex" . He has performed as guest musician with numerous ensembles, including Trio Event Berlin, Champs d´Action-Antwerp, and Q-O2-Brussels. Waterman has also curated music in Musiclab at Les Bains::Connective in Brussels and guest curated for the Kraakgeluiden series in the OT301 in Amsterdam. He has toured the Bach Suites for solo cello over the last two years, and been pursuing a more active solo career in the avant-garde classical world. Alex has a number of groups in Holland and Belgium and is an indispensable collaborator in many projects in Europe and the US. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

second set

LEE RANALDO + LEAH SINGER

Lee Ranaldo / Leah Singer known for their film/electric gtr/spoken word collaboration DRIFT, will present a new work in progress, incorporating audio and visuals.

Lee is a member of the group Sonic Youth. Through January '07 he has visual work in the show "Old News" at CNEAI, outside Paris. Text of Light, his "other group" with Alan Licht, Christian Marclay, Tim Barnes and others, have just released the 3xCD "Metal Box" on UK label Dirter Productions.

Since the early 1990’s Leah Singer has performed worldwide with her film work. Using modified 16mm film projectors in a live setting she manipulates the films speed, direction and rhythm creating improvisational performances. DRIFT, an ongoing live film/music/spoken word collaboration with Lee Ranaldo has recently been released as a single channel work on DVD by Plexifilm. She is currently contributing to Old News, a project at CNEAI in Paris and is working on a new edition of copy, her all graphic newspaper series.

8:00 p.m.; $10

MY REVIEW:
I got there late around 8:45, just as they were letting people up into the performance space, the space itself is in that round building on the top floor if you look on that picture on their web site, you walk up that iron steps that are outside the building. Luckily I got a seat right in the front row, center basically the best seat in the house.
Up first the cello and theramin duo, which was really incredible because the woman who runs this series after the show told us that this was the first time they played together. Especially the amplified cello was great. and seeing someone working the theramin from that close up was a treat (literally maybe 10 feet away). the set lasted about 1 hour.

there was a short break and Lee and Leah set up their equipment, Lee had his red Strat set up on a table in front of the projection screen. then the lights were dimmed and music started, Lee I guess was setting off triggers and tape loops on his rig behind us and next to the projector(couldnt really see), you know the sound- piano chords, guitar white noise, in a word ambiant atmosphere music.

The images projected were just magic, there were also short clips looked like recorded on cheap digital video, like the stuff I shoot on my Canon camera on video setting, which gave it a surreal feel, among them was footage of Yeah Yeah Yeahs from I think first night at McCarren Pool shot from stage left, also footage from Flaming Lips concert, the blue baloons up in the air, and the confetti cannons, at one point you could see the Japanese girls directly in front, Leah must have been standing right in back of them.
I think there was an image of Anna Nicole Smith projected, if that was her(not sure), alternating negative/positive image which achieved a kind of skull effect on the image as well as strobe light effect.
At some points Lee would come to the front of the room and play the guitar on his knees, then he would go back to his computer rig. Another great image- the flock of birds over the trees in flames of a sunset. But really there were too many to mention, every shot was beautiful and this was accentuated when combined with the music, the feeling of nostalgia, of passing time, open space, beauty and decay.

Unfortunately from what I saw this show was not recorded, even if the sound recording surfaces in the future I think the only way to do it justice would be in the audio/visual format of a movie/video. I hope this happens, Lee if youre reading this- DO IT!

The show lasted about an hour and played to a fairly full room that is to say about a 100 people.

I should add Lee's book Road Movies was on sale downstairs with an extra cd of ambient music included, plus the books were signed by him and Leah. Unfortunately the Text of light "Metal Box" was not available, and neither was the DVD.

[Tokolosh]

Thanks for that. Interesting read. Looks like Leah showed new or at least different video/16mm film material compared to the show in Belgium.

[Moshe]

Thanks for the recent reviews.

[sonicl]

Thanks for another great review georgekrz.

You New Yorkers are just such lucky lucky bastards...