Arthur Russell in the Park, July 12th, Bklyn

BRIC/Celebrate Brooklyn x Anthology Books pres. 'Travels Over Feeling; Celebrating Arthur Russell' (curated by Dada Strain), featuring François K, Wordless Music Orchestra + Love Injection

BklynSounds Live Music PSA! "Travels Over Feeling: Celebrating Arthur Russell" is an evening of music produced by BRIC/Celebrate Brooklyn and Anthology Books, and curated by Dada Strain. It will take place on Friday, July 12th at Celebrate Brooklyn, the Lena Horne Bandshell in Bklyn's Prospect Park. Doors are at 6p and music will begin around 6:30p. The program is FREE and will feature three acts playing the music of Arthur Russell.

There will be an opening DJ set of the Arthur-verse by Love Injection (Barbie Bertisch & Paul Raffaele); followed by the Wordless Music Orchestra, conducted by Bill Ruyle, performing Russell's 1983 orchestral masterpiece "Tower of Meaning" (New York symphonic premiere); and then legendary New York DJ François K, a remix producer who worked on some of Arthur's greatest dance tracks, will take us home with a DJ set of classic New York disco-not-disco, featuring many of Russell's great rhythmic fanasias. RSVPs are encouraged, and based on initial response, the bandshell will reach capacity. (All info can be found HERE.)

The show doubles as a release party and American launch for a book whose name it shares: "Travels Over Feeling — Arthur Russell, A Life" by the Welsh historian and writer Richard King, is the second Arthur Russell biography, the first to be based on the materials from the Arthur Russell archive at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Arthur is a Downtown New York hero who passed away in 1992 due to AIDS complications, whose music crossed many musical borders, from contemporary classical minimalism, to folk-pop songwriting, to electronic and disco music. Because of this Arthur has numerous audiences, and individual programs of Arthur's music rarely have something for each of those audiences. It was always a dream of mine to help produce an event where all the creative multitudes Arthur contained were on full display, where classical music aficionados and indie-pop snops and the dancers could all share in the sounds.

Deep thanks to Saidah Blount and Ronen Givony, and all the performing artists for helping bring this idea to fruition. (For more on Arthur Russell, I recommend the 2008 documentary, Wild Combination. For more on Arthur's "Tower of Meaning," here's a great little 2017 oral history from The Quietus.)

If you’re in New York, please consider attending, and please invite friends! Thank you for reading, listening, following and supporting.