COVID-19 vaccination required for in-person attendance.
Carnegie Hill Concerts presents:
JESSIE COX, LAURA COCKS, AND STRING NOISE SOUNDS
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Set 1
Jessie Cox, Drumset
Laura Cocks, Contrabass Flute/Bass Flute
Jessie Cox will be joined by Laura Cocks to present a series of new approaches to creating space sound with a temporal twisting and remaking rooted in practices of musical space travel. Laura will premiere a new work by Jessie for both the contrabass and the bass flute inspired by their collaboration on Laura's new Record "Field Anatomies." The works explore the principle of the holographic theory as a new way of conceiving musical space, and as such also musical space traveling. A theory springing from Black holes it asks about what happens when we stand at the horizon of blackness where singularity and multiplicity cease to be and alter-destinies are found within the entanglements that move and make us.
Excerpts from Jessie Cox's "When You're a Star" (2021)
New work for Contrabass Flute and Bass Flute (2022)
Excerpts from a new work for Sun Ra Arkestra, Laura Cocks, and more (2022)
Set 2
String Noise Sounds
Improvisation with violin duo String Noise explores another dimension of sound reinforced by pianist, Sam Yulsman, drummer Jessie Cox + guests.
Jessie Cox, Drumset
Conrad and Pauline Kim Harris, Violins
Laura Cocks, Contrabass Flute / Bass Flute
Joy Guidry, Bassoon
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Free Admission
One of the world’s most brazenly experimental composers, Swiss artist Jessie Cox makes music about the universe - and our future in it. Through avant-garde classical, experimental jazz, and sound art, he has devised his own strand of musical science fiction, one that asks where we go next. For the last decade, his music has been marked by its freeness; his embrace of otherness has led to a body of work described by the LA Times as ‘some of the most experimental music, not just of the day, but the season’. Cox’s music goes forward. When he describes it, he compares it to time travel and space exploration, likening the role of a composer to that of a rocket ship traversing undiscovered galaxies. He is influenced by a vast array of artists who have used their music to imagine futures, and takes Afrofuturism as a core inspiration, asking questions about existence, and the ways we make spaces habitable. Known for its disquieting tone and unexpected structural changes, his music steps into the unknown, and has been referred to by the New Yorker as an example of ‘dynamic pointillism’, a nebulous and ever-expanding sound world that includes ‘breathy instrumental noises, mournfully wailing glissandi, and climactic stampedes of frantic figuration’.
Laura Cocks is a New York based flutist who works in a wide array of creative environments as a performer and promoter of contemporary music. Laura is the flutist and executive director of TAK ensemble, and a member of the Nouveau Classical Project and the Association of Dominican Classical Artists. She has performed across the Americas and Europe as a soloist and chamber musician in ensembles such as The London Sinfonietta, International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and Ensemble Dal Niente. They can be heard with TAK, International Contemporary Ensemble, Talea, Wet Ink Ensemble, and others on labels such as Carrier Records, ECM, Centaur Records, New Focus Recordings, Sound American, Denovali Records, Orange Mountain Music, Chambray Records, Amplify, TAK editions, Double Whammy Whammy, Winspear, Supertrain, and Gold Bolus with upcoming records coming out TAK editions, Sideband Records, Tripticks Tapes, and Carrier Records
Radical self-love, compassion, laughter, and the drive to amplify Black artmakers and noisemakers comprise the core of NYC-based bassoonist and composer Joy Guidry’s work. Their performances have been hailed by The San Diego Tribune as “lyrical and haunting…hair-raising and unsettling.” A versatile improviser and a composer of experimental, daring new works that embody a deep love of storytelling, Joy’s own music channels their inner child, in honor of their ancestors and predecessors. In every aspect of their practice, Joy seeks to support, hire, and promote Black artists.
Joy holds a bachelor’s degree in Bassoon Performance from the Peabody Conservatory and a Graduate Performance Diploma from the Mannes School of Music. They have performed with the Dance Centre Kenya Ballet Orchestra, International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, and have been a featured soloist in Yvette Jackson’s opera Fear is their Alibi that premiered at the 2021 PROTOTYPE festival. They have been commissioned by The National Sawdust, Long Beach Opera, JACK Quartet, and the I&I Foundation, and they have attended and been featured by prestigious festivals including the Spoleto Festival USA and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Guidry is a finalist for the 2021 Berlin Prize for Young Artists taking place in Berlin, Germany in 2022.
String Noise, New York’s most daring violin duo, is composed of violinists Conrad Harris and Pauline Kim Harris. Recognized for their distinct blend of disparate genres, from arrangements of songs by punk legends to conceptual minimalist treatises by Alvin Lucier, they have expanded their repertoire with over 50 new works since their debut at Ostrava New Music Days in 2011. Nearly a decade later, they continue to break down the boundaries of traditional expectations and inspire innovative compositions, displaying formidable virtuosity, integrating multimedia art, electronics, improvisation, video projections, opera and dance.
Premieres by String Noise include works by George Lewis, Christian Wolff, Michael Byron, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, John King, Phill Niblock, Caleb Burhans, Catherine Lamb, David Lang, Petr Kotik, Du Yun, Annie Gosfield, Bernhard Lang, John Zorn, Greg Saunier, Alex Mincek, Tyondai Braxton, James Ilgenfritz, Richard Carrick and others.
String Noise has recorded for Northern Spy Records, Dymaxion Groove, Black Truffle Records, Cold Blue Records, New Focus Recordings, Infrequent Seams and Nouveau Electric Records and has been featured on WNYC, WKCR, WFMU and BBC Radio.