Some big anniversaries for underground music this Fall/Winter! The first for an exceptional organization and curatorial venture, that of Brooklyn's Issue Project Room celebrating their Ten Years Alive on the Infinite Plane with 24 performances throughout the Fall. Spanning everything from Syrian psych/soul jams by Omar Souleyman, to minimalist/maximmalist composer Charlemagne Palestine, to folky/drone experiments by Richard Youngs, to field recordist and sound-ecologist Toshiya Tsunoda, to American minimalist/Deep Listening composer Pauline Oliveros, to legendary jazz bassist Henry Grimes, to Australian guitar/noise maestro Oren Ambarchi, to modern jazz headman Ken Vandermark to Japanese Fluxus noise adventurer Yasunao Tone, to Dream Syndicate founder and groundbreaking avant-composer and filmmaker Tony Conrad, to minimalist concrete/tape composers Aki Onda and William Basinski, to minimalist electronic composer Marina Rosenfeld and many, many. many more. It's a stunning lineup, drawing from the past decade of their brilliant curatorial vision. Let's not forget, this is the organization that brought us this past year's highlight, the rarity that was their overview of the Japanese Underground "Voices & Echoes" and that's only a small part of their decade of visionary programming covered in Steve Smith's "A Survivor Celebrates It's Spunk and Spirit" for the New York Times.
Photo credit: Yamchild
The second anniversary bash being for Chicago's Kranky label, the visionaries that first brought stateside releases of everything from Low, to Labradford, to Godspeed! You Black Emperor, celebrate their 20th Anniversary this December in their home city. Between now and then there's a handful of Kranky artist releases to look forward to, most notably the one-man Canadian electronic/guitar hurricane, Tim Hecker and his newest, "Virgins" and this Fall's release of Liz Harris' Grouper new project with the proprietor of Australia's Room40 label, Lawrence English as "Slow Walkers". The festival featuring showcases with almost every single damn artist on their roster, it's going to be a big one, especially if you missed the last rare performance of Stars of the Lid on their last tour back in 2008. The first night's showcase at Empty Bottle presents Robert A.A. Lowe's Lichens along with Implodes and a as-yet announced headliner, the following two nights at Constellation being bigger affairs, with Grouper, Benoit Pioulard, Christopher Bissonnette and Justin Walker. Followed by the third showcase of Tim Hecker, Pan American, Keith Fullerton Whitman and Ken Kamden. with the final night's performance of Stars of the Lid with the Wordless Music Orchestra and Scott Morgan's Loscil project in the prime setting of Lincoln Hall. Photo credit: Greg Cristman
