Friday, October 24th
ZACH ROWDEN PLAYS ADAM BUFFINGTON
STIRNIR KJARTANSSON
doors 19:30 / show 20:00
2500kr / 2000kr for students / pay what u can
https://blink.blikk.tech/33728e93-8cac-4553-bb2b-37055b04bb57
// is an hour long performance for solo performer & double bass. Commissioned by Zach Rowden, II explores the experiential effects of glacial physical movement, in combination with quiet, unsettled sounds and prolonged silences. Cast in the shadows of Beckett, Artaud and Kagel, II occupies its own space, generating a decaying and dejected environment through the subservient relationship between servant and master.
Composed in Reykjavik in autumn 2016, II was first performed at Mengi on 5 August 2017, during a 5 day tour of Reykjavik with Zach Rowden. 9 years later, II is back home for one last outing.
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ZACH ROWDEN
Zach Rowden is a musician based in New Haven, Connecticut. His work is focused in the areas of drone, repetitive structures and noise. Collaborators and projects include - Tongue Depressor, Windscour, Red Yellow Blue Green Black, Rear Window, John McCowen, Leila Bordreuil, Aki Onda, Paul Flaherty and Iancu Dumitrescu (Hyperion Ensemble).
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ADAM BUFFINGTON
Adam Buffington is a sound artist and musicologist traversing the boundaries between practitioner and scholar. Specializing in contemporary art and music in Iceland, as well as Fluxus and later 20th-century developments, his research focuses on issues concerning interdisciplinarity, transnationalism, historiography and aesthetics. His research has been published in Myndlist á Íslandi, Current Musicology and Artzine.is, and has been presented at the American Musicological Society, Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study, Dark Music Days Festival, Iceland University of the Arts and the Hartt School of Music.
Alongside visual artist Tumi Magnússon, Buffington is the co-founder of Mumbling Eye, an independent record label for the publication of rare and unreleased Icelandic sound art. Mumbling Eye's releases have been featured in I Care If You Listen, Medium, Bridge and Scandinavian Studies, and have been broadcasted by Resonance FM (London, UK), Montez Press Radio (New York City, USA), RÚV (Reykjavik, Iceland) and Helsinki Open Waves (Helsinki, Finland), amongst others.
Buffington earned a Ph.D. in Historical Musicology from The Ohio State University in 2020, and is based in Reykjavik, Iceland.
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STIRNIR KJARTANSSON
Stirnir Kjartansson is a guitarist, songwriter, composer, etc. He is usually associated with the scene surrounding the post-dreifing art collective and he has been in countless bands over the years and has played and worked with a diverse range of artists.
In recent years, Stirnir has investigated the acoustic phenomena that may appear in loud and resonant musical situations in the form of big bands consisting of many amplified electric guitars.
In his musical creation, Stirnir places great emphasis on the synchronization and balance of sound through the use of resonance, diversity, and the subjective nature of our senses.