Isolee, Henry Grimes, William Basinski, Daniel Higgs September 23, 2005

(chi-tech.org)

Friday 23 September 2005

empty bottle + meiotic + the wire present:

ISOLEE + WILLIAM BASINSKI @ empty bottle

adventures in modern music featuring:

ISOLEE (playhouse - germany)
WILLIAM BASINSKI (2062/raster noton)
HENRY GRIMES (ayler/esp disc)
DANIEL HIGGS (northern liberties)

if i were to pick 5 tracks in the past 10 years that transcended boundaries in dance music, isolee's 'beau mot plage' would be in contention for the top spot. the fact that chicago's house music scene adopted this track, remixed it, and played it until the grooves wore thin is testament to its unique standing among the more recent generation of dance tracks. isolee has moved onward and upward, abstracting his sound, dabbling in rock music, taking in meandering melodies, and jacking out some acid along the way. this is a highly anticipated set!

as part of the empty bottle's 'adventures in modern music' series, this show features artists in disparate genres. WILLIAM BASINSKI has done some interesting work conceptually with his 'disintegration loops' series, wherein he takes tapes loops that had been recorded in the 1980s and plays them until they literally disintegrate. it's beautifully haunting, though not for the short attention span. i liken it to mike ink's 'gas' series, but with sounds that gradually fall apart.

empty bottle
1035 n western
21+
$15

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(emptybottle.com)

FRI23 (9:00pm; $15, $60 limited event pass)
The Empty Bottle, Meiotic & The Wire present 'Adventures in Modern Music - A Five Day Celebration of Outsider Sounds' featuring:

Isolée (Germany) (Playhouse) // Henry Grimes (AylerESP Disk) // William Basinski (2062Raster NortonSpekkThree Poplars) // Daniel Higgs (Northern Liberties) (related:Lungfish, The Pupils)

The third day of the Adventures in Modern Music festival features bright light German tech house producer ISOLEÉ, making his Chicago performance debut. The recording moniker of producer RAJKO MÜLLER, ISOLEÉ had a breakout hit with sublime dancefloor burner 'Beau Mot Plague' in the late nineties, and he's since been associated with a collective of experimental, minimalist electronic labels based in Germany - Klang Elektronik, Kompact, Perlon and Playhouse, among them. His latest effort, We Are Monsters, could very well be his masterpiece, as it is an album so rich with technical craftsmanship that it might just define an era in electronic music. Celebrated free bop bassist HENRY GRIMES will also perform, making a rare solo appearance. GRIMES, a legendary figure in jazz in the sixties, was thought dead for the better part of the three decades, only to resurface alive and well several years ago. He has been extremely active since, as a new generation of fans and musicians have championed and embraced his return. GRIMES has recently issued an album with his trio, a live outing from the Kerava Jazz Festival, released earlier this year by Ayler Records. Avant garde composer WILLIAM BASINSKI rarely performs live, so his inclusion in the festival program here is really quite special. A classically trained musician, BASINSKI experimented with compositions for piano and tape in the early eighties, having since focused primarily on an exploratory aesthetic involving drones and loops. His most notable works, the four volume collection The Disintegration Loops, brought BASINSKI wide recognition and many consider the series his crowning achievement thus far. Complimenting an evening of rare solo outings, revered underground figure and LUNGFISH lyricist DANIEL HIGGS will open. His first ever public solo performance, HIGGS will be offering material from recently released longplayer Magic Alphabet, an album he composed for jaw harp. He's promising a special surprise of some sort, one that he "hopes he can pull off."