(le) poisson rouge

Called "astonishing and entrancing" by Billboard, "brilliant" by the New York Times, So Percussion is one of the most innovative percussion quartets working today. Coming together at Yale's graduate program, So Percussion is devoted to the conceptual dreamscapes of Reich, Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, and others. Called "a must-hear" by Billboard, their self-titled debut featured Lang's "the so-called laws of nature." So also performed Steve Reich's Drumming to much acclaim during a sold out concert at Miller Theater in 2007. The group has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and The Knitting Factory in New York, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, and Montreal’s Le National, to name a few.

Destroying walls between art-rock, avant-squonk, and mathed-out prog, Gutbucket's through-composed charts enter a place of pure sound. The decade-old New York quartet is not only equally comfortable playing in front of 900 sweatily pogo-ing teenage skate-punks, a crowd of cosmic indie-psych freaks, or on an anarchist German art collective houseboat, but most importantly, their music fits right in. Called “stomprovisors” by the Village Voice, the band has spent the past 10 years injecting a shot of glorious spazmitude into the minimalist cool of the New York downtown scene.

The group attacks their music with the ferocity usually reserved for punk, and the humorous abstraction of art-rock, despite having earned their jazz bona fides. Though the band might seem rooted in the genre exploding of New York’s downtown (their 2001 debut, InsomniacsDream, was released on the Knitting Factory house imprint), their shift to louder sounds began with their controversially titled Dry Humping the American Dream (released in 2003 in Europe on the legendary Enja label and domestically in 2004 on Bang on a Can's acclaimed Cantaloupe label).

NEWSPEAK is an eight-piece amplified ensemble working under the direction of composer David T. Little and clarinetist Eileen Mack. Named after the though-limiting language in George Orwell’s 1984, Newspeak explores the grey area where art and politics mix. Through their programming, performances, and commissions, they seek to reconsider, redefine, and ultimately reclaim the notion of socially engaged music and its place in contemporary society. Embedding elements of a rock band into a classical new music ensemble, Newspeak confronts the boundaries between the classical and the rock traditions.

Newspeak is utterly committed to the music of living composers; to commissioning, work-shopping, developing and performing new works, and to encouraging composers to find their own voice in engaging with musical and social issues. Since 2004, they have commissioned and premiered more than thirty works, each engaging differently with the problem of the political in music, and primarily from American composers. They have proudly shared bills with such diverse groups as The Fiery Furnaces, Anti-Social Music, Pit Er Pat, Electric Kompany, STATS, Time of Orchids, The Motion Sick, Massey, NOW Ensemble, So Percussion, ACME, and Corey Dargel. They are currently preparing to record their first studio album for New Amsterdam Records.

Hailed as “a deft young group gaining attention” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) and "a smart young chamber group that straddles a line between contemporary classical music and indie rock," (John Schaefer, WNYC), NOW Ensemble is a collection of performers and composers dedicated to making new chamber music for the 21st century. With a unique instrumentation of flute (Alex Sopp/Andrew Rehrig), clarinet (Sara Budde), electric guitar (Mark Dancigers), double bass (Logan Coale), and piano (Michael Mizrahi), NOW Ensemble brings a fresh sound and a new perspective to the classical tradition, infused with a blend of musical influences that reflects the diverse backgrounds and listening experiences of their members. NOW has premiered over 50 works, including those by composer-members Patrick Burke, Mark Dancigers, and Judd Greenstein, along with many more by a cross-section of the top young voices in contemporary composition, such as Ryan Brown, David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, and dozens more. NOW Ensemble has performed at a wide variety of venues, such as the Bang on a Can Marathon, the Festival Internacional de Chihuahua, Pittsburgh's Music on the Edge, the Carlsbad Music Festival, Sarasota's New Music New College, Wordless Music, and Look & Listen; in New York, they can regularly be heard at diverse venues such as Le Poisson Rouge, Joe's Pub, Galapagos Art Space and the Chelsea Art Museum, as well as on WNYC radio. Their first album, NOW, was released in 2008 to rave reviews around the country, including on AllMusic.com (five stars): "a first-class debut...more of this is demanded, not requested." Newsweek's Seth Colter Walls wrote, "NOW... imports a catchy inflection to classical forms... Striking a balance between the old and the new has rarely sounded this good.”Their self-titled debut album is available now through New Amsterdam Records.

Listen: NOW, "Folk Music"


Listen: NOW, "How About Now"