ARIADNE + Invisible Anatomy + Late Sea

National Sawdust fights constantly to be on the cutting edge of artistic innovation. So we created Summer Labs: our way of giving to both our patrons and the artistic community. We selected ten incredible artists—both solo acts and groups—from a pool of over 100 applicants to create, workshop, and showcase a masterpiece they couldn’t make happen anywhere else. National Sawdust supplies our stage as workshop space in addition to financial and marketing support, all culminating in a final performance. This is the third of four showcases.

Observance_004 is a multi-sensory, improvisatory, multimedia iteration of the upcoming A/V album by ARIADNE. Inspired by the writings of surrealist poet Aase Berg, and the ecstatic visions of Christian female mystics Hildegard of Bingen and Teresa of Ávila, Observance_004 explores the intersection of mysticism in evocative and visceral visions, dream symbolism, and the failure of digital systems through a synthesis of music performance, digital/interactive art, poetry and dramatic experience. The A/V performance contrasts soprano voice and medieval and renaissance polyphonic textures with experimental electronic, harsh noise and industrial music gestures, further punctuated by a monolithic LED display panel utilizing custom built software, real-time 3D animation, and machine learning.

INVISIBLE ANATOMY (IA) is a composer-performer ensemble that explores the human body as the most fundamental aspect of music creation and performance. Formed in 2014 by six graduates of the Yale School of Music, IA creates and develops shows from the ground up, writing and performing all new compositions. The group harnesses elements from classical, jazz, experimental rock, performance art and theater, combining virtuosic physicality and dramatic visual presentation with an omnivorous stylistic palate in their work.

IA’s inaugural show BODY PARTS dismembers, manipulates, and reanimates bodies in performance – creating a chattering chorus of woodblock teeth and screaming eyes on TV screens. Their second show, DISSECTIONS, features six interconnected pieces that probe the destruction, transformation, and intimacy inherent in peeling away the surface. Derived from a collaboratively generated text over composition workshops, these works trace a line from ornate to bare, taking the scalpel to instruments, gestures, and language. After the group’s 2015 debut concerts in New York City, they were invited to China for three shows, including a featured solo concert at the Beijing Modern Music Festival.

IA’s second season opened with an intimate house concert of BODY PARTS hosted by David Lang, followed by the world premiere of DISSECTIONS at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, later featured in a full-length profile in the Village Voice. The group performed DISSECTIONS at Pomona College and The Blue Whale in Los Angeles in February 2016, followed by appearances on Heartbeat Opera’s Collaboret Series; at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn; at the Yale School of Music in New Haven, CT; and at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest in Manhattan. The group was the first runner-up in the 2016 SAVVY Chamber Competition at the University of South Carolina School of Music, and recorded their debut studio album in June.

On Halloween 2016, IA produced FUNHOUSE, an immersive experience of art installations and performances in a prewar Victorian Harlem brownstone, featuring collaborators who are recent graduates of the Yale Schools of Drama, Art, Architecture, and Music. In February 2017, IA debuted TRANSFIGURE at Roulette Intermedium. Completing a triptych of collaboratively written, evening-length musical compositions that integrate lighting, video, as well as choreography, TRANSFIGURE sparks intangible, tectonic, subcutaneous changes. Other season activities include a gala performance hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, as well as an appearance on the Detroit Institute of Art’s Friday Night Live series in March. Upcoming engagements include a double bill with composer-performer ensemble Grant Wallace Band at Littlefield in Brooklyn, and a National Sawdust Summer Labs Residency in June.

IA’s members (cellist Ian Gottlieb, guitarist Brendon Randall-Myers, percussionist Ben Wallace, pianists Paul Kerekes and Daniel Schlosberg, and vocalist Fay Wang) have been awarded honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, American Composers’ Forum, and the China National Arts Fund. IA is fiscally sponsored by Bang on a Can, and is the recipient of a 2017 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant.

Izzy Gliksberg is a NYC based, Jerusalem born composer. He has written numerous scores for film, TV and dance. Izzy holds a masters degree in classical composition from the Manhattan School of music. He is the winner of many international prizes including the Gertrud-Kraus Composition Competition, the Cahna Yidor Avni Composition Competition, the Nathan C. Davis Prize in Composition, and the Kevin Spacey Foundation Artist of Choice award.

About Late Sea:

Late Sea is a NY based avant-rock band led by composer and multi-instrumentalist Izzy Gliksberg

The group is known for their dark ambient grooves which carry Izzy’s enigmatic Leonard Cohen like lyrics. Much of Late Sea’s work is dedicated to combining music and visuals. They do this with performances alongside classic / cult films such as Edward Scissorhands, Lost Highway and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Late Sea were the first and only music act that received the prestigious Kevin Spacey Artist of Choice Award for their visual EP The Writers Trilogy. The EP features videos from Emmy nominated director Andrey Alistratov and Producer Hazuki Aikawa.

For this performance of The Writers Trilogy performence , Izzy will be joined by internationally acclaimed trumpet player Sam Nester, singer/songwriter Kalen Lister and drummer Graham Doby. The group has performed all around the East Coast in venues such as House of Yes, Drom, The Spectrum, Apple Studios, Exapno, The Living Room, Pete’s Candy Store, Silvana, MSM international webcast amongst others.