This is my perfect music festival; situated in my hometown across multiple venues over three days, featuring an eclectic mix of some of contemporary music’s most interesting composers and performers, this year’s Long Play Festival was beautifully curated and well-organized, and it introduced me to some phenomenal new music while showcasing some of the best modern classical and avant-garde of the past 50 years. The range and diversity of the concerts was vast and every one that I saw was unique and fascinating!
Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective performing spoken word with field recordings, ambient sounds, cello and percussion to a background of beautiful mixed and filtered video
Bang on a Can All Stars exquisitely unraveling dreamy Ryuichi Sakamoto soundtracks
Oberlin Conservatory energetically splattering Alex Paxton’s ultra-maximalism
Ensemble Klang, accompanied by narration from Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and Alan Watts lectures, reducing music to its base essentials and establishing beautiful harmonic atmosphere from repeated notes and phrases.
Queens College Yowana Sari Gamelan Ensemble and Tajulon Percussion producing piercing and ethereal transcendence with hammers and metal bars
Steve Reich String Quartets precisely executed by the Mivos Quartet, playing along with pre-recorded quartets and spoken words hauntingly evoking World War 2 and 9/11.
Jeff Mills’ Tomorrow Comes The Harvest featuring Detroit Techno with improvised flute and piano
Matmos live sampling of balloons inflating, metal scraping and vinyl smashing, tweaking and editing recordings into electronic sound collages
William Parker harkening to ancient roots with kora, xalam and diddley-bow, and their cousins violin and piano, with opera and spoken word creating a timeless pastiche
Kuniko Kato mesmerizing and entrancing with a solo performance of Reich Drumming
Sam Prekop and John McEntire piloting an synthetic organism of constantly morphing drum machines, oscillators, waveforms and patterns
The Jazz Passengers honoring and memorializing their lost member with uplifting and soulful articulation
Michael Gordon’s Rushes pulsing and stirring the atmosphere with a bassoon septet
Bang on a Can sublimely unfurling Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians with entrancing transcendence
Deerhoof perfectly closing the festival with joyfully raucous power and blissfully chaotic turbulence
The performances were all so different and unique with the main commonality being each artists’ originality and distinctness. My perception of music’s envelope was vastly expanded over the weekend and every single concert inspired me; the possibilities of sonic expression are boundless and I listened past horizons that had previously shrouded my consciousness. Although I have always been passionate about music, I somehow love it even more now; the art of vibrating sound waves and is deep and mysterious, infinitely interesting and propulsively stimulating, connecting us with our universe in this eternal moment.