The NYC Liminal Series turns the spotlight on NYC's improvised/experimental music community. Although the series is by no means a complete or thorough document, attention is placed on key figures who have helped shape the scene and its music as an ever evolving open discourse. The extraordinarily diverse backgrounds and interests of the musicians, paired with an incessant drive for research/experimentation/discovery, undermines traditional efforts of codification. Recognition of this quality ultimately lead to the structuring of this series by a most material parameter: instrument.
The instrument itself is a type of body, a limit with its own unique characteristics. By challenging and surpassing conventional methods of interaction and representation, the notion of instrument serves as a platform for reinventing and reimagining identity, a medium for a new musical language.
released September 4, 2020
Credits:
Three Segments of a Vespoidea by Trevor Dunn is dedicated to Alexandra Pappas
THANK YOU: Trevor, Brandon, Luke, Richard
THANK YOU: Jessica Hallock of NYC Noise who has helped directly to shape, organize and guide this compilation. Her website
nyc-noise.com is an invaluable resource for this community.
All music recorded and produced by the performers April/May 2020
Additional mixing by Brian Chase on tracks by Lopez and Hoffman
Mastered by Brian Chase
BRANDON LOPEZ is a New York-based composer and bassist working at the fringes of jazz, free improvisation, noise and new music. His music has been praised as “brutal” (Chicago Reader) and “relentless” (The New York Times). From the New York Philharmonic's David Geffen Hall to the DIY basements of Brooklyn, Lopez has worked beside many luminaries of jazz, classical, poetry, and experimental music, including Fred Moten, John Zorn, Okkyung Lee, Ingrid Laubrock, Tony Malaby, Tyshawn Sorey, Bill Nace, Chris Potter, Edwin Torres, Tom Rainey, Cecilia Lopez, Sun Ra Arkestra, Susan Alcorn, Mette Rasmussen, and many others.
www.brandonlopez.nyc
LUKE STEWART is a DC/NYC-based musician and organizer of important musical presentations, and has a strong presence in the national and international Improvised Music community. He performed in a myriad of collaborations and performances in venues such as the Kitchen, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Pioneer Works, Roulette, and Issue Project Room. His regular ensembles include Irreversible Entanglements, Heroes are Gang Leaders, and Ancestral Duo, Six Six featuring guitarist Anthony Pirog, and experimental rock duo Blacks’ Myths. As a scholar/performer, he has performed and lectured at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Medgar Evers College, George Mason University, Wayne State University, University of Montana, New Mexico State University, and the University of South Carolina.
thelukestewart.com
Bassist and composer TREVOR DUNN is a founding member of the avant-rock band Mr. Bungle and ensemble member of Tomahawk, Fantômas, Melvins, among many more. He has been a key component of countless projects by legendary composer/saxophonist John Zorn including Electric Masada, Moonchild, Nova Express as well as many other groups performing Zorn’s music. As an active sideman, Dunn performs regularly with pioneering figures of contemporary avant-jazz such as Kris Davis, Brian Marsella and Dan Weiss. He can be heard on over 150 recordings, ranging from pop to classical, including several as a leader and of his own compositions.
www.trevordunn.net
RICHARD HOFFMAN played bass with legendary Brooklyn post-No Wave band Sighings as well as Silk Purse (with Mark Morgan) and Man Forever (with Kid Millions of Oneida). He works in various experimental music and interdisciplinary art settings ranging from rock and improv to sound design for film and dance.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sxl6GLPvSs