Unsound Festival New York Night One: The un-Unsound Experience
After much anticipation, the Unsound Festival New York kick-started Thursday at Lincoln Center with audio-visual performances by Berlin’s VJ innovator Lillevan with Finnish experimental producer Vladislav Delay followed by Germany’s Sebastian Meissner alongside the Kwartludium quartet, performing as Solid State Transmitters. Arriving fashionably late for the opening was apparently not the right move because the line was already way out the door before the event had even started. Who knew that techno at Lincoln Center would be such a draw? Some people had arrived hours before the event started but that was out of the question for those less patient among us.
On our fearless Leader’s recommendation, team halcyon snuck to the back entrance with hope that the security guards would be wooed by our name-dropping but, alas, we were still turned away and told the venue had reached full capacity. Apparently Lincoln Center takes their legal capacity seriously – who knew? That was slightly disappointing but at least halcyon Leader had the clout to make it inside and report back some good news… the after party was right around the corner! So while our sole representative on the inside scratched his chin in admiration of the gurgling machine made blips and sonic textures of Vladislav Delay and layered organic film clips of Lillevan, we went ourt for dinner and few… beverages. Delay’s performance, we hear, was followed by polite applause, a few stray woots from the less cultured vultures and a short intermission where talking was again permitted (the rules of art performances being unfamiliar to the crowd packed mostly with Brooklyn kids.)
The second set, being a deconstruction of punk classics from the STT catalog performed on a laptop, piano, violin, woodwinds and percussison, was a slightly more lively affair than the first. The musicians, we’ll call them an avant-garde post classical quartet, played with their instruments more than they played on them. Shortly after the closing act team halcyon reunited and infiltrated the after party at the Empire Hotel that, until last night, was another virgin place to NY’s underground techno crowd. The old couples lounging at the bar were quickly ousted with the techno invasion and unfamiliar background music (it’s not everyday you hear Carl Craig dropped at posh spots on the upper West side). The place seemed abuzz with good energy from the small, yet lively festival crowd filtering in. Even though some missed the opening it was still worth it to stick around for the 2 for 1 (yet seriously overpriced) drink special for Unsound attendees. Those cosmos were deadly.
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For Further Listening: Unsound Festival New York
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Unsound Festival New York is taking place at various venues throughout the city from february 4th-14th, 2010. For complete event and ticketing information visit www.unsound.pl
The Free Download:
halcyon presents Unsound Festival New York Compilation
is available for a limited time exclusively at
www.halcyondigi.com/unsound
