(SOLD OUT) Courtyard Concert – Omar Souleyman + CSC Funk Band
SOLD OUT
Concert will happen rain or shine!
Doors Open @ 5PM
CSC Funk Band @ 5:45 PM
Omar Souleyman @ 7:00 PM
Omar Souleyman
Omar Souleyman is a Syrian musical legend. Since 1994, he and his musicians have emerged as a staple of folk-pop throughout Syria, but until now they have remained little known outside of the country. To date, they have issued more than five-hundred studio and live- recorded cassette albums which are easily spotted in the shops of any Syrian city.
Born in rural Northeastern Syria, he began his musical career in 1994 with a small group of local collaborators that remain with him today. The myriad musical traditions of the region are evident in their music. Here, classical Arabic mawal-style vocalization gives way to high-octane Syrian Dabke (the regional folkloric dance and party music), Iraqi Choubi and a host of Arabic, Kurdish and Turkish styles, among others. This amalgamation is truly the sound of Syria. The music often has an overdriven sound consisting of phase-shifted Arabic keyboard solos and frantic rhythms. At breakneck speeds, these shrill Syrian electronics play out like forbidden morse-code, but the moods swing from coarse and urgent to dirgy and contemplative in the rugged anthems that comprise Souleyman’s repertoire. Oud, reeds, baglama saz, accompanying vocals and percussion fill out the sound from track to track. Mahmoud Harbi is a long-time collaborator and the man responsible for much of the poetry sung by Souleyman. Together, they commonly perform the Ataba, a traditional form of folk poetry used in Dabke. On stage, Harbi chain smokes cigarettes while standing shoulder to shoulder with Souleyman, periodically leaning over to whisper the material into his ear. Acting as a conduit, Souleyman struts into the audience with urgency, vocalizing the prose in song before returning for the next verse. Souleyman’s first hit in Syria was “Jani” (1996) which gained cassette-kiosk infamy and brought him recognition throughout the country. Over the years, his popularity has risen steadily and the group tirelessly performs concerts throughout Syria and has accepted invitations to perform abroad in Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Lebanon. Omar Souleyman is a man of hospitality and striking integrity who describes his style as his own and prides himself on not being an imitator or a sellout.
The CSC Funk Band is Minimalist Funk. Repetition experiments. Improvisation exercises. Family fun. All star band killing it featuring Colin L (usaisamonster), Matt Mottel (talibam), Matt Clarke (Ostinato), Jimmy Thomson (Gwar), Jesse Lent (Monte Vista), Jonny Matteo(La Fundacion), Dave Kadden (Invisible Circle), Wes Buckley (Dick Heaven), a horn section. bongos. solos. psychadelic. myspace.com/cscfunkband
Climax Golden Twins with Sublime Frequencies Film Screening
MY FRIEND RAIN
Sublime Frequencies, 2007.
(36 minutes)
Filmed on various trips through Southeast Asia by Robert Millis and Alan Bishop from 2002 to 2007, My Friend Rain is an impressionistic collage of musical segments and tropical ambiance. Decay and rebirth through the endless Asian monsoon cycle. Locations include: Myanmar (Burma), Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Indonesia.
INDIA AT 78rpm
Excerpt from a work in progress, 2009
(19 minutes)
An excerpt from a project about 78rpm records and the intersection of folk and classical musical traditions in India. Mostly filmed in 2008 in the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, including processions, street musicians and an interview with a slightly nutty Indian 78 collector.
PHI TA KHON: GHOSTS OF ISAN
Sublime Frequencies, 2006
(47 minutes)
Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan documents a traditional Buddhist “ghost festival” held yearly in Thailand’s Isan province that features beautiful handmade masks, outrageous wooden phalluses, ceremony, ritual, dancing, and endless live Thai mo lam music. The film has almost no narration (some titles set the scene and provide a little background), the idea being to create a sense of trance and to throw the viewer into the middle of the celebrations to just enjoy the colors and sounds. Music is what led me to explore this festival and sound is one of its key elements: there were live bands, bells, loudspeakers and boom boxes co-mingling all over town, creating an amazing soundscape. The live bands progressed from traditional acoustic ensembles to overlapping electrified bands with hybrid Western instrumentation and back again. Phi Ta Khon appears at once to be deviant and holy, pagan and Buddhist, Thai and Lao; it is full of incongruent characters and situations. But the Thai are master assimilators: everything falls into place and works together for the participants, coming back to Buddhist merit-making for future lives and for a good harvest and monsoon season, while living in the moment with family and friends. This is a 45 minute edit of Phi Ta Khon: Ghosts of Isan. The DVD is 75 minutes but in reality there is no way to accurately present the full 3 day festival in all its ridiculous, drunken glory.
Intermission ambiance provided by DJ Victrola Favorites, playing scratchy old and mysterious music from the early days of recording, as well as field recordings and music from Asia and beyond.
Climax Golden Twins is a Seattle, WA based experimental collage outfit originally consisting of Rob Millis and Jeffery Taylor, then picking up Scott Colburn in 1996. The group’s earliest material was recorded in 1993 but wasn’t released until their 1996 album Imperial Household Orchestra. In 1994 they started Fire Breathing Turtle to distribute their work along with audio exotica, especially their ongoing “Victrola Favorites,” complations of rare 78s from around the world. With numerous tapes, CDRs, mini-CDs, singles, side and solo projects, audiophile records and other aural collectables, being a CGT fan is no simple, or inexpensive, task.
Early CGT albums Climax Golden Hiss (1995) and Imperial Houshold Orchestra (1996) offer a glimpse into their unique world of lo-fi collage — organic, acoustic instruments mix with found sounds, electronics, and clips of sampled exotica. Their fascination with bygone days of phonography begins here, and their quirky sense of humor is already present as well. Locations (1998) focuses on voice and found sound. Dream Cut Short In The Mysterious Clouds (Anomalous, 2000), is a studio album that returns to their earlier formula with random noise-punk interludes, dreamy scapes and acoustics mixed with field recordings.
Also in 2000 was the album known as “TheRock Album” (Fire Breathing Turtle), a critically acclaimed tongue and cheek foray into the rock mindset, with a nod to prog rock and the math rockers who loved it.
Session 9 arrived in 2001 and is one of CGT’s many music for film projects, a weird, haunted mix of non-objective soundscaping. Lovely (Anomalous, 2002) reworked older material. Highly Bred and Sweetly Tempered appeared in 2004 and contains a collection of samples from eerie 78s, found speech, excellent Godspeed You Black Emperor style apocalyptic post-rock and shimmery guitar tracks. Member Rob Millis put out Leaf Music Drunks Distant Drums – Recordings from Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar also in 2004. Scott Colburn owns and engineers at Seattle’s Gravelvoice Studios and Jeffery Taylor owns and runs Seattle’s Wall of Sound record store. The band shares a special kinship with one of the city’s most famous cult bands — The Sun City Girls and have worked since their inception to support the American experimental music underground.
On January 25, ISSUE Project Room will inaugurate its new space at 110 Livingston with Gaudeamus Muziekweek, a four-day festival celebrating groundbreaking and challenging new music by emerging composers from around the world. Working in partnership ...
ISSUE is starting off the New Year with a change of scenery. That's right, Issue Project Room is moving out of our space at the Old American Can Factory and into 110 Livingston in Downtown Brooklyn. We've had a great run at the Can Factory,...