Bklyn Sounds 3/20/2025—3/25/2025
This week's events include أحمد [Ahmed] / Val-Inc / Toribio's BDAy / Elena Colombi x 2 / Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith: 'Defiant Life' / a 'Hearing Things' party / Soundstream / and much more
THIS WEEK’S SHOWS:
Hearing Things is a website full of excellent writing about music, launched by a few of the smarties (some of whom are good old friends and colleagues) cast off by Condé Nasty’s Pitchfork purge of 2024. They’re throwing a party tonight featuring the electronic Afro-pop of the mighty Lollise, and DJ sets by the ageless Edan and one of those writing smarties, Andy Kush.(Thurs 3/20, 7p @ Trans-Pecos, Ridgewood - $12-$20)
Elena Colombi (they/them) is a Lonodn-based DJ/musicker whose sound, as practiced on their almost-decade-long monthly NTS Radio, embraces sonic exploration beyond genre, finding direction in the context. This weekend you can hear Colombi in two separate ones. On Thursday, they join Dominika Mazurová for a deep listening session at Present Sounds. (Thurs 3/20, 7p @ L&SD, Greenpoint - $20-$30/RSVP required) Then on Sunday night, Colombia joins the crew Honey Trap crew, Amelia Holt and Second Contact, for an industrialized global-synthesis excursion that will also feature one of my current Bklyn faves, Sepehr. (Sun 3/23, 10p @ Bossa Nova Civic Club, Bushwick - Free before 11p/$10)
Before Adios Ghost disappeared during the pandemic, the Bklyn quartet had established itself as a global-psyche-pop curiosity. (Think: less artsy Animal Collective.) But since slowly shaking off the post-lockdown cobwebs, it has been releasing very vibey, synth-oriented indie-dance excursions, produced by original LCD man Phil Mossman. With Pets + Blums. (Thurs 3/20, 8p @ Alphavile, Bushwick - $13)
Over the next few weeks, the art magazine Triple Canopy, in association with Ryan C. Clarke, a “tonal geologist” who edits the Dweller blog, presents a series of “conversations, listening sessions, and performances devoted to minor histories and radical resonances of Black electronic music.” Tonight’s session is at the friendly neighborhood techno club, features that club’s one-time doyenne, Dweller founder Frankie Decaiza Hutchinson, and sets by the mighty Sweater On Polo and KYRUH. (Thurs 3/20, 8p @ Bossa Nova Civic Club, Bushwick - Free before 11p/$10)
Set for release on Friday, Defiant Life is the new duo work of pianist/keyboardist Vijay Iyer and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, a pair of generational talents who are also regular collaborators. Vijay & Wadada played a bit of it at the Winter Jazzfest, and the spacious music moved towards ambient meditation and ungrounded freedom, with Smith’s horn floating on Iyer’s Rhodes and electronic textures. Defiant Life is as close to ambient jazz as the pair have gotten, and it sounded sublime. Tonight, they perform the album. RSVPs closed but registration is still open. Not sure how it works at MOMA. Highest Recommendation! (Fri 3/21, 6p @ MOMA, Midtown - FREE with registration and museum entry)
BDAy Party celebration for one of the hardest working DJs/musickers in NYC — and he’s got a great guest. Birthday boy Cesar Toribio is on the decks in the main room, with Baltimore’s house music don Karizma jumping in-out of the mix. Toribio’s Montreal friends FERIAS + Guthrie & Alina holding it down in the Bad Room. Gonna be fun! (Fri 3/21, 10p @ Good Room, Greenpoint - $20)
Or you can join the mighty Kiernan Laveaux for her first all-night-long set at Nowadays. I have only caught the Pittsburgh transplant on a couple of occasions, but the breadth of the music that emanates from her decks gives me both classic Detroit vibes, **and** “somebody’s making new shit” energy. Or putting it together in a new way. (Fri 3/21, 10p @ Nowadays, Ridgewood - $10-$30)
Uncensored New York calls itself an “art movement against censorship” and, in conjunction with Ki Smith Gallery, they’ve organized Club Della Morte, a multimedia extravaganza. Atop the bill is a program by legendary downtown team of Kit Fitzgerald (video) & Peter Gordon (music, says he’s playing synths and saxophones) augmented by the cellist Blake Leyh (the music supervisor of The Wire). Photographer/multi-media artist Cristiano Grim will perform with noise-metal percussion deity, Greg Fox. Plus Nico Walker + Death Dance Music. (Sat 3/22, 7p @ Pianos, Manhattan - $TK)
Robert Auki Aubrey Lowe’s cultivated career trajectory — from unknown prog-minded post-hardcore indie-rock band guy, to a composer celebrated for his horror-film scores and art-installation soundscapes — betray how warm and comforting his music mostly is. His synths and drum machines have the blues of techno, without the overdrive. Lowe’s at the Armory’s Veterans Room premiering a new work, “The Unbearable Comedy of a Caterwaul in 4 Parts,” which is said to “blend analog synthesizers with organic vocal expression to create auditory passageways with trancelike suspensions.” (Sat 3/22, 7p & 9p @ Artists Studio, Park Avenue Armory, Uptown - $45+fees)
Leave it to the Center for Psychic Technology to gather a great Saturday night bill that fulfills all of Dada Strain’s principles, all killer no filler. Val-Inc is the mighty rhythm conjurer Val Jeanty in her solo garb. JWords is the beat-making ½ of H31R but also one of the best local techno producers in NYC/NJ. Saturn Lavender pushes her machines on lo-fi overdrive, and at times comes up with immeasurable (accidental?) beauty. Samantha Sea Sea is a performance artist performing with guitarist improviser Lulu West. Highest Recommendation! (Sat 3/22, 8p @ Inter-Comm, Ridgewood - $10-$30 NOTAFLOF)
A random Berliner’s all-too-rare NYC appearance. Since around Y2K, Soundstream (aka Frank Timm) has been making delicious, glittering disco-house 12”s that betrayed Berlin’s audacious club-pop side without ever succumbing to bubblegum digitalia, while being embraced by the local techno-crats. Appearances outside Berghain have been events to the insidery bunch that knew, but even these have subsided it seems. There was a great LP last year, but so under-the-radar. Is it even the real Soundstream or some Tik Tok-powered shill? I am mad intrigued. Also: the hip industrialized sequencers of Perel headline, and Kanyeki is also on a solid bill. (Sat 3/22, 10p @ H0L0, Ridgewood - Free-$27)
A massive bill of DIY composers and improvisers, experimentalists and samizdat technologists, all with Asian roots, performing in various configurations. Instigated by Berlin-based vocalist/cellist Audrey Chen being in NYC for a few days, who will be in a duo with Leo Chang, and then in what promises to be an incredible trio with the mighty Che Chen and Lesley Mok. The duo of Alex Zhang Hungtai (aka Dirty Beaches) and Qiujiang Levi Lu opens. (Sun 3/23, 7p @ Cassette, Ridgewood - $18)
Drummer Mark Guiliana built his reputation as a great player who transcended the niche of “contemporary jazz great” into the rare air of progressive pop-rock perfection, a musicians’ musician. But for my taste, Guiliana is at his best when he’s completely on his own: the highly electronic, deeply composed, soundtrack-like albums he’s dropped occasionally. 2022’s Sound of Listening was one and last year’s Mark is another. If there were remixes, he’d be regarded as a deep-house dance-floor deity. As is, he’s doing a rare solo gig - and I, for one, can’t wait! Highest Recommendation! (Sun 3/23, 8p @ Le Poisson Rouge, Manhattan - $30-$$$)
READING & TALK: Francis Gooding is a British (pretty sure) art/film/music writer who is alongside Gwen Ansell, one of the great chroniclers of South Africa’s incredible “jazz” culture in global media. Gooding is currently writing Thunder in their Hearts: South African Jazz in Britain (due in 2027), and he’s coming to the indispensable Colloquium of Unpopular Culture to discuss the people, the time and the research into, what is for me, some of the greatest music of the 20th century. (Tues 3/25, 6:15p @ NYU Bobst Library, Manhattan - FREE with RSVP)
The mighty punk-dub-improvising screamers of Nu Jazz are in the midst of a monthly at Nublu, joined at each gig by a flurry of like-minded sonic adventurers. On Tuesday, Jason Lindner, an auxiliary Nujazzer, will fly his spaceship into the heart of the noise alongside the core quintet. While the opening acts are a who’s-who of wonderful current #BklynSounds: HxH (Chris Williams and Lester St. Louis), Two Girls NYC (Kate Slauter and Paula Zodiac Sex) + guitarist Key Hutch. Highest Recommendation! (Tues 3/25, 7p @ Nublu, Manhattan - $22)
أحمد [Ahmed] is a magnificent pan-European quartet—veteran Londoners, pianist Pat Thomas and alto saxophonist Seymour Wright, plus Berlin-based bassist Joel Grip and Parisian drummer Antoni Gerbal—that, since 2017, has occasionally united to celebrate the music of composer, bassist and oud player Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1927-1993). But don’t call it a tribute band. Abdul-Malik’s work with the likes of Monk, Coltrane, Art Blakey and Randy Weston, pushed jazz’s sound towards the global experience; and this quartet’s salute to the Bklyn-born player embraces this thrust. Each performance is unique, one-time-only musical throwdowns, often recorded into magnificent documents, to be cherished but remain unrepeated. This is the group’s overdue NYC debut! Highest Recommendation! (Tues 3/25, 8p @ Roulette, Downtown Bklyn - $25adv/$30)
MORE RECOMMENDED EVENTS:
Phil Manzanera (Thurs 3/20, 7p @ Cutting Room, Manhattan - $30+minimum) - Roxy Music guitarist is at a small downtown club.
Dave Harrington’s Pranksters East (Thurs 3/20, 7p @ Sultan Room, Bushwick - $23) - the experimental guitar player turned musically belligerent Deadhead has a crazy quilt of great NYC musicians (Steven Bernstein, Yuka Honda, Mauro Refsco, Stuart Bogie) involved in this super-jam.
Theo Croker (Thurs 3/20 - Sun 3/23, 7p & 9p @ Smoke, Uptown - $25-$$$) - a jazz trumpet player healthily exploring electronics, while still remaining in the tradition.
Alcove (Fri 3/21, 8p @ L&SD, Greenpoint - FREE-$30) - “23rd century folk revivalists,” Alfredo Colón (EWI/saxophone) and Hank Mason (electronics) exploring melody and abstraction. Two sets.
Jkriv (Fri 3/21, 10p @ Earthly Delights, Ridgewood - $12) - Razor-N-Tape’s Big Kahuna has a new EP out, and is celebrating with Borbon, Miss Gypsy and Sebastian.
Nuance with Sparklmami + Ben Hixon + SUCIA! + ranee (Fri 3/21, 8p @ Jupiter Disco, Bushwick - $15) - wonderful bill of half-out-of-town DJs (footworker ranee and globalist Sparklmami are from Chicago) in a fantastic local space, all participants involved in left-of-center musical practices.
Akupercu (Fri 3/21, 8p @ Terraza 7, Queens - $20 + Mon 3/24, 9p @ Barbes, Park Slope - $15suggested) - two performances by Daniela Serna, Colombian drummer turned abstract lo-fi dembow-pop producer.
Mantra Percussion performs Michael Gordon (Sat 3/22, Noon-4p on the hour @ Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Crown Heights - $TK) - a day of live performances of Bang on a Can composer’s “loved.”, dedicated to those lost to COVID-19
Soul Summit (Sat 3/22, 3p @ Knockdown Center, Maspeth - FREE with RSVP) - beloved Fort Greene Park free house party, in Maspeth for the day.
Maruja (Sat 3/22, 8p @ Market Hotel, Broadway & Myrtle - $25) - new prog-metal-psyche-noise quartet from Manchester, splits the difference between Godspeed! You Black Emperor and Uniform’s dubs!
Nicky Siano (Sat 3/22, 9p @ El Dorado Disco Bumper Cars, Coney Island - $30) - one of New York’s great original disco DJs celebrates his 70th birthday celebration with a trademark “Night at The Gallery” party, on a Richard Long soundsystem. If you’ve never been…
FILMS: LOL: Celebrating the Life and Music of Lol Coxhill (Sun 3/23, 2:30p @ NYU Bobst Library, Manhattan - FREE with RSVP) - Colloquium of Unpopular Culture is showing a trio of rarely seen films, memorializing a British saxophonist who played with everyone from Motown acts to Crass, while influencing Joni Mitchell and Derek Jarman
Crosslegged (Sun 3/23, 8p @ Sisters, Fulton Street - $TK) - massively talented singer-songwriter Keba Robinson hasn’t played in a minute, says she’s “returning from my lair.”
Mike Monford & Innovative Energy (Mon 3/24, 7p @ Nublu, Manhattan - $22) - great veteran Detroit tenor saxophonist, and recent NYC transplant, doing a downtown headline show with hot band (Kenyatta Beasley, Joe Dyson, Barry Stephenson, Elise Ngbo).
Rebekah Heller: Music for Bassoon (Tues 3/25, 6p @ Miller Theatre, Columbia University, Uptown - FREE) - the great bassoonist is performing a trio of commissions (including a world premiere of a Fay Victor piece), but also a version of Julius Eastman’s “The Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc.”
Very cool. Thanks! Loved Kiernan Laveaux´s session