Carolee Schneemann Fuses (1967)
Kajsa Magnarsson Strap-On and Electric Guitar (2015)
Kajsa Magnarsson Testet-Vinklar (2013) (UK premiere)
Neo Hülcker / Stellan Veloce EAR ACTION (2017) (UK premiere)
Claudia Molitor 10 mouth installations (2011)
Maya Verlaak / Andy Ingamells Tape Piece (2012)
John Lely Slow Movement for Strings (2005)
Tom Nixon Fur Lease, Digestive Music (from 4 Modern Truisms) (1974)
Jürg Frey Second String Quartet (1998-2000) (London premiere)
James Tenney Saxony (1978)
Pan Daijing Live set
Performers:
Apartment House (Frey, Lely, Nixon, Tenney):
Ashot Sarkissjan (violin), Ruth Ehrlich (violin), Bridget Carey (viola), Anton Lukoszevieze (cello)
An assembly (Molitor, Hülcker / Veloce, Verlaak / Ingamells)
Kajsa Magnarsson
Pan Daijing
A turn to the sensual, the haptic, the personal has animated a whole range of music and art in recent decades. Over three nights we examine this phenomenon from three different angles. Tonight, we see the close affinity between the transgressive feminist avant-garde of Carolee Schneemann and Kajsa Magnarsson and the Wandelweiser set and its allies, both of whose investigation of humanity's most intimate rituals has led to some of the most intensely private, alluringly sensual statements in recent decades.
We open with Schneemann's short film Fuses, whose coloured, cracked 16mm footage, looking like it's on the verge of combusting, offers a ravishing portrait of her sexual relationship with partner James Tenney. Alongside this, Swedish artist Magnarsson will present two recent compositions, Strap-On and Electric Guitar (2015) and Testet-Vinklar (2013), both of which challenge socio-sexual norms to achieve the most delicate sonic results.
Next to this Apartment House will present a classic work by the Wandelweiser composer Jürg Frey, his influential Second String Quartet, that hovers on the threshold of sounding, delicate little pieces by Tom Nixon and John Lely, as well as a radiant string quartet by Tenney.
Running alongside the main concert programme, touch and taste will be investigated in the work of Neo Hülcker, Stellan Veloce and Claudia Molitor. Hülcker / Veloce's EAR ACTION is performed one-on-one, one performer playing on the ear defenders of one audience member, harnessing the effects of the ASMR phenomenon to create personalised sound worlds. In Molitor's 10 mouth installations, meanwhile, the composer feeds us and asks each of us to listen while we eat.
To cap the night, intimacy is taken to its logical conclusion in a set from Berlin-based electronic producer Pan Daijing, who fuses raw electronic noise with an almost erotic embrace of the visceral and physical.