Performing
Naama Tsabar, Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 5)
Ragnar Kjartansson, Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy
Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
July 2021
A collaborative endurance work that tested not only my physical limits (4 consecutive 8-hour days of playing the same songs on a loop), but mental and emotional limits as well. To say that the piece was controversial is an understatement.
“At once a celebration of pop music and a charged environment of critique, Romantic Songs of the Patriarchy created a space where contradictions—between individual and group, oppression and liberation, rhythm and chaos—existed together within a community of collaboration and mutual support.” - The Guggenheim
Kino Saito, Verplanck NY
May 2022
I enjoyed another fruitful collaboration with Naama Tsabar in May of 2022, reprising the MOCD project on a new set of “breaks”. Composing and arranging a new original musical work over the course of a weeklong residency at Kino Saito in collaboration with Larkin Grimm, Maya Perry, Sarah Strauss and Naama was a thrilling challenge and as always, was tremendously satisfying.
Big Bliss
In early 2022 I joined the post-punk band Big Bliss on bass guitar.
Big Bliss is the Brooklyn-based brainchild of brothers Cory and Tim Race, and friend/collaborator Rose Blanshei. Formed in late 2015, the trio melds harmonic post punk grooves with art rock sensibilities all propped up on the pillars and hooks of pop structure. Their sound is at once melancholic, tense, noisy, and ultimately uplifting, laced with lyricism that ruminates on anxiety, grief, addiction, recovery, devotion, and heartache. Framing these themes is the social ennui unique to generations brought up in our technologically ravaged and increasingly fragile world.
They are currently in production on their sophomore album, produced by Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts, Liars, The Drums), which captures the band channeling their love for early R.E.M., New Order, and C86 in addition to the twilight of classic post punk acts like the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen. However, the album decidedly looks ahead; its themes document a fight for sobriety, moving through the loss of the brothers’ father, coping with collective and generational trauma, and finally seeking out the emotional/spiritual tools needed for us all to rebuild in our current moment in time.
Night 16 of 24 of the Broken Hearted Tour
Lenfest Center for the Arts, Columbia University
January 2020
In collaboration with sound artist/drummer Rosana Caban and Jeanann Dara, we established a goal: to activate and reanimate traditional relationships between audience and performers by pushing the invisible boundaries of the codes of spectatorship, while at the same time criticizing presentational normalities of a performative commodity itself, which in this case is a rock band.
FIELDED
Brooklyn, NY
2019
For the better part of 2019, I had the privilege of providing live guitar and some backing vocals for the visionary FIELDED, interpreting and supporting the work of an enigmatic and profoundly talented songwriter and producer in the lead-up to the release of 2020’s Demisexual Lovelace.
Melodies of Certain Damage (Opus 1, 2, and 4) with Naama Tsabar
Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY 2019
Faena Art, Buenos Aires, AR 2018
Soluna Festival, Dallas, TX 2018
It has always been with great pleasure that I have worked with Naama Tsabar. In these works, Naama and a group of musicians including myself develop a new musical work on the “breaks” through an intensive improvisational process over the course of a 1-2 week residency. We then present our work to the public over a series of days. The process is intense, and ultimately incredibly fulfilling to collaborate in this manner
The work, expressed upon Naama’s sculpture, was composed in collaboration with
Rosana Cabán, Taja Cheek, Frederique Gnaman, Naama Tsabar and Sarah Strauss. At Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY, 2019
Gabriela Areal, Florencia Curci, Violeta García, Luciana Rizzo, Natalia Spiner, Sarah Strauss, Naama Tsabar and Carola Zelaschi. At Faena Art Center Buenos Aires, 2018.
With Taja Cheek, Jeanann Dara, Sarah Strauss, and Naama Tsabar. At Soluna Festival, Dallas, TX, 2018.
Naama Barricades
Arone Dronechoir at LPR and Merkin Hall
In collaboration with Matt Evans
C’Mon Everybody, Brooklyn, NY 2018
Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY 2019
Matt Evans is a drummer and producer making acoustic and electronic music about the poetic interconnections between landscapes: internal, external, fictional, and virtual. He is a powerhouse and a sweetheart and it is always a pleasure collaborating with him.
Squat Thrust Down Beats
Naama, Transboundary
Naama Composition 20
Strangers
The Hum Series
Poets House
BOMB Pop Up
On The Floor with The Dance Cartel
With a residency at Liberty Hall at the Ace Hotel in downtown Manhattan, choreographer Ani Taj Neimann created a dynamic, immersive dance experience with her company The Dance Cartel. I was lucky enough to make a cameo with a live musical performance, including collaborative sound-building with the dance crew (think beating hands on walls to create a beat). The experience was thrilling and incredibly informative as my first foray into interdisciplinary collaboration.
PRIMA Music Videos
Sleep PAralysis Video
