Category: Noise

  • Sermon of Sound: An Evening with Laraaji + Saapato

    Sermon of Sound: An Evening with Laraaji + Saapato
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    It’s Saturday night, and the pews are full at the Ridgewood Presbyterian Church in Queens, redubbed the Stone Circle Theater. The pulpit consists of two tables covered in electronic knobs, keypads, and percussion instruments. Projected behind the pulpit, a screensaver traces a river’s path through an autumn forest canyon, inadvertently making the life-size Jesus figure Read more

  • Cairns: Soundwalking with the Dead

    Cairns: Soundwalking with the Dead
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    The Green-Wood Cemetery is not just a traditional home for the dead, but a vibrant living space to connect with nature and culture. Local musician Gelsey Bell offers visitors a guided immersion in Brooklyn’s oldest and largest necropolis through her soundwalk Cairns, available for download on Bandcamp.  Beneath light, angelic singing, I was ushered into Read more

  • Raven Chacon, Che Chen, C. Spencer Yeh @ The Stone, NYC, 11/9/2024

    Raven Chacon, Che Chen, C. Spencer Yeh @ The Stone, NYC, 11/9/2024
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    Noise is generally defined as unwanted sound. So why is there a genre called noise music? Who wants to hear the unwanted? Maybe noise isn’t unwanted but undefinable. A conventional song might express some viewpoint or emotion through verses and a chorus. Usually one melody–either a voice singing or rapping or an instrument soloing–soars over Read more