Curated by Joel Harrison
Beauty and Noise is devoted to players who inhabit electronic frontiers, creating sonic rapture, sometimes absent of notes. Listeners will be immersed in wild, mysterious textures rarely imagined. Some artists will play solo, others will have accompaniment, some of the music will be composed, some improvised. Participants are David Torn, Dither Guitar Duo, Elliot Sharp, Anthony Pirog, Ben Monder, and Patrick Higgins. Of particular note will be a rare pairing of Sharp and Torn, both of whom are long time innovators in this vein. Expect collaborations.
Featured artists:
Mike Baggetta: with drummer Billy Mintz and bassist Jerome Harris. Baggetta is known for seamlessly and organically incorporating live sampling in his music. Ben Ratliff of the New York Times says “…that he’s trying to do something personal with collective improvisation without ever getting in the way of beauty.”
Dither Guitar Duo: Two members of the acclaimed electric guitar quartet, Dither, Gyan Riley and Taylor Levine will perform newly composed work for this occasion.
Ben Monder: An ECM artist equally at home in ethereal sonic structures, solo guitar viruosity, and jazz standards, Ben Monder has performed with iconic drummer Paul Motian, the singer Theo Bleckmann, and on the late David Bowie’s final album Blackstar He'll perform with drummer Nasheet Waits.
Anthony Pirog: A relative newcomer, Pirog has quickly become one of the curator's favorite players. The Washington D.C. native evinces a combination of atmospheric experimentalism, tuneful beauty, and raw Telecaster blues sounds.
Elliot Sharp: A central figure in experimental guitar music for forty years, he has worked with a dizzying assortment of people, including Hubert Sumlin, Sonny Sharrock, Kronos Quartet, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
David Torn: Singular ECM soloist, film composer, texturalist, producer; Torn counts collaborations with David Bowie, Tim Berne, Laurie Anderson, and Jeff Beck among his musical adventures.
