MAKE SOME NOISE

A 12-hour workout for your ears

Comments (0) By Richard Gehr Tuesday, Jun 22 2010

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Mecca for new-music mavens since 1987, the Bang on a Can Marathon returns with two dozen performances guaranteed to benignly recalibrate your sonic continuum at a price anyone can afford: free. This year's reliably eclectic edition begins with buzz-worthy big-band composer John Hollenbeck's Perseverance and concludes 12 virtually uninterrupted hours later with Shelter, a collaborative work by BOAC co-founders Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe. In between, you can renew your acquaintance with veteran experimentalists such as composer Iannis Xenakis and guitar improviser Fred Frith; stretch your horizons with Kyrgyzstan folk music, drummer Lukas Ligeti's Burkina Faso electronics, and Evan Ziporyn's gamelan-inspired Tire Fire; and hear genres dissolve before your very ears via new works by Black Rock Coalition guitarist Vernon Reid and M-Base saxophonist Steve Coleman. And if the local premiere of Fausto Romitelli's Professor Bad Trip doesn't bang your can, there's always Triston Perich's one-bit electronics.
Sun., June 27, noon, 2010