The streets of Los Angeles played host last year to an audacious experiment in mobile opera called ‘Hopscotch.’ The recording will be released on January 13, and a concert will take place on Friday, January 20 (7:30 pm) at the University of Southern California’s Newman Recital Hall.
Sound
Nico, Warhol Muse, from the Dark Side of the Street
At one time billed as the Moon Goddess and Andy Warhol It-Girl, singer Nico’s dark, avant-garde music and deep, hypnotic voice were first heard in the Velvet Underground. She continued to work sporadically as a solo artist after leaving the Velvets, though a longtime heroin addiction and methadone dependency sidetracked her career. Check out the documentary on her life, Nico:Icon.
Once a Classical Giant, Then Obscure, Felix Draeseke Rediscovered
Stephen Vessels continues his series on rare examples of underappreciated classical music composers from around the world. Felix Draeseke of Germany, once dubbed a “giant” by Franz Liszt, fell into obscurity until only recently.
Fela Kuti, Revolutionary Insurrectionist, Talismanic Afrobeat Pioneer
Fela Kuti, Nigerian music legend, political insurrectionist and provocateur against the corporate and missionary sell-out of African wisdom and religion, ending up in jail and tortured…and loved by the African people. Here, Jamaican-born, Africa-based writer Lindsay Barrett puts us on Fela’s life path, his wild and unstructured Afrobeat sound, the commune, the wives, and the push against the Nigerian military dictatorship.
Speaking in Sonic Tongues – dublab’s DJ Nanny Cantaloupe
dublab innovates music, arts and culture with it’s freeform internet radio broadcasts in an age where access to mind-bending creation is both limited and expanded. Premiere sonic explorer, Mitchell Brown <
Vasif Adigezalov’s Mad Mugham Laboratory of Classical Music
Stephen Vessels continues his series on rare examples of underappreciated classical music composers from around the world. This stop, Azerbaijan’s Vasif Adigezalov, best known for incorporating traditional modal mugham music into his works.
Appropriating the Media Barrage with Negativland
Sound, video, and fury presented on the passing of Richard Lyons, also known as Pastor Dick, co-founder of culture-jamming avant garde music collective Negativland, the third member to die in the last year.