Us/De
From Silver Apples to a Sky of Cloudless Sulphur by Morton Subotnick, Lillevan & Alec Empire
Subotnick revisits Silver Apples followed by musical elements from Sidewinder, Until Spring, Cloudless Sulphur, and Crowds and Power (his recent work for the Lincoln Center Festival). The performance will unfold with in a series of solos and duets; at times, Subotnick will play then turn it over to Alec Empire who will follow with his own performance of the performance; at other times they will play together. Lillevan will be creating visual imagery throughout.
Morton Subotnick is one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems. The work which brought Subotnick celebrity was Silver Apples of the moon [1966-7], was commissioned by Nonesuch Records, marking the first time an original large-scale composition had been created specifically for the disc medium – a conscious acknowledgment that the home stereo system constituted a present-day form of chamber music. It has become a modern classic and was recently entered into the National Register of Recorded Works at the Library of Congress. Only 300 recordings throughout the entire history of recorded music have been chosen.
He is also pioneering works to offer musical creative tools to young children. He is the author of a series of CD-RoMs for children, a children’s website [www.creatingmusic.com] and developing a program for classroom and after school programs that will soon become available internationally.
Lillevan is an animation, video and media artist.
He is perhaps best known as founding member of the visual / music group Rechenzentrum (1997-2008).Lillevan has performed and collaborated with many artists from a wide array of genres, from opera to installation, from minimal electronic experimentalism to dance and classical music; performed and exhibited all over the globe, and at all the major media festivals.
Alec Empire is often described as a radical, an innovator, and an artist who is never satisfied with the limits that define genres. He is many things to many people.
An award winning producer and composer who has politicized electronic dance music with his group Atari Teenage Riot since the 90s, created modern protest music for the internet age and the soundtrack to countless anti-Nazi rallies & riots all over the world from Brazil to Japan. The global hacker community continues to be inspired and keeps Empire close.
His album ‘Burn Berlin Burn’ sold so many copies in the US that it went gold, while at the same time authorities in Germany blacklisted the album describing it as a ‘potential threat to society.’
Alec is a multi-faceted artist who has triggered interest from many other artists. He has collaborated with Bjork. Alec Empire composed 5 albums for the Mille Plateaux label, which was inspired by the thinking of Gilles Deleuze, and applied post-modernist deconstruction methods to Jazz, Dub and Musique Concrete.
Empire´s recent works include composing films scores for German-Palestinian director Tarek Ehlail’s “Volt,” a dystopian sci-fi in which a police officer murders a refugee, and Austrian director Paul Poet’s “My Talk With Florence,” an interview film with Florence Burnier-Bauer who was the key witness in the Otto Muehl trial which uncovered sexual abuse and rape within Muehl’s commune.
Morton Subotnick’s album “Silver Apples Of The Moon” inspired Empire when he was still in his teens, growing up in Berlin, which was divided by The Berlin Wall at the time.
This could well be one of the most exciting collaborations in electronic music in years.”
