ACME plays All Tomorrow’s Parties, Ecstatic Music Fest, Stanford Lively Arts, more
This March, ACME joins a star-studded line-up at All Tomorrow’s Parties, the legendary music festival in the UK. This year’s festival was curated by indie music icon Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, who ACME shared bills with earlier this season.
The festival follows two other high profile appearances by ACME. On March 1, they’ll be at New York’s Ecstatic Music Fest alongside Mariam Wallentin of the Pitchfork-praised Wildbirds & Peacedrums performing a new song cycle by Swedish composer Mikael Karlsson. And on March 4 they’ll be at Stanford Lively Arts with Lionheart vocal ensemble, performing music by two American composers - Phil Kline and Ingram Marshall, including a World Premiere by Marshall. Later that month, ACME will again play the music of Phil Kline, this time with Theo Bleckmann at The Flynn Center for the Performing Arts on March 23.
In May, ACME visits The Kitchen for a two-night run celebrating the release of William Brittelle’s Loving the Chambered Nautilus on New Amsterdam Records on May 11 & 12. Then on May 14, they’ll appear at the acclaimed Look & Listen Festival at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery.
Upcoming dates for ACME:
3.01.12 Ecstatic Music Fest with Mariam Wallentin & Mikael Karlsson
3.04.12 Stanford Lively Arts with Lionheart
3.09.12 All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Jeff Mangum
3.10.12 All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Jeff Mangum
3.11.12 All Tomorrow’s Parties curated by Jeff Mangum
3.23.12 Flynn Center for the Performing Arts with Phil Kline & Theo Bleckmann
5.11.12 The Kitchen with William Brittelle & Mick Barr
5.12.12 The Kitchen with William Brittelle & Mick Barr
5.14.12 Look & Listen Festival
ACME in NY Times, North American Tour with A Winged Victory for the Sullen
ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) just gave a special concert at Joe’s Pub co-presented by Manhattan New Music Project and Sequenza21 showcasing new compositions by composers from around the world. Steve Smith for the New York Times writes:
More than 200 composers from around the world applied to have works performed by ACME, and nine were picked by a small jury. Two judges, Christian Carey and Hayes Biggs, also provided pieces for the program. The composers selected came from as far afield as California and England. […] the concert offered a personable panoply of individual styles. […] another echo of the Internet’s power to span unbridgeable distances and inspire connections previously unimagined. [New York Times]
Next, ACME is on the road with A Winged Victory for the Sullen (Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie, Dustin O’Halloran) for a North American tour from October 29 through November 15, 2011. The group is performing music from A Winged Victory for the Sullen’s self-titled debut album, which was released on Erased Tapes/Kranky to great critical acclaim on September 14, 2011.
Listen to some of what they’ll be playing below:
North American Tour Dates: ACME with A Winged Victory for the Sullen
October 29: St. Mary’s Hamilton Village (Philadelphia, PA)
October 30: West Park Presbyterian Church (New York, NY)
October 31: Casa Del Popolo (Montreal, QC)
November 1: The Drake Hotel (Toronto, ON)
November 2: Carnegie Museum of Art (Pittsburgh, PA)
November 3: Southgate House (Newport, KY)
November 5: Off Broadway (St. Louis, MO)
November 6: Lincoln Hall (Chicago, IL)
November 7: The Cedar Cultural Center (Minneapolis, MN)
November 10: The Triple Door (Seattle, WA)
November 12: The Holocene (Portland, OR)
November 14: The Independent (San Francisco, CA)
November 15: The Satellite (Los Angeles, CA)
For more information on ACME, visit bernsarts.com.
On In Love’s Craig Wedren Stuns Viewers with Groundbreaking 360-Degree Music Video
Critics and bloggers have been abuzz over On In Love singer and librettist Craig Wedren’s mesmerizing panoramic music video for his new single “Are We”. The former Shudder To Think frontman is taking time from film and TV scoring (School of Rock, United States of Tara, Wet Hot American Summer) to complete a new album entitled Wand. Watch the video at craigwedren.com.
“Wedren’s project engages the audience throughout the length of the piece. […] Do take your time exploring each scene to fully absorb the oomph.” [NPR All Songs Considered]
“While you won’t get the iPhone augmented reality feel the Black Eyed Peas were going for, you will get an experience that’s about a million times more fluid and interesting. […] This one takes the cake for one-upping all the multi-billion dollar bands.” [Backbeat]
Of course, Wedren is no stranger to innovation. On In Love, his collaboration with ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble) and composer Jefferson Friedman, sees Wedren and Friedman exploring archetypal song themes and using a powerful, hybrid compositional style that combines popular song forms with the detail and complexity of chamber music writing. Recently presented as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival in New York, On In Love reflects the deeply forward-thinking sensibility of its collaborators, offering music that is as exhilarating as it is fulfilling.
For more info, video and audio, check out On In Love on bernsarts.com.
On In Love: “reconnecting classical and pop music”
When Classical TV asked composer and writer George Grella to survey the landscape of contemporary music, he brought up Jefferson Friedman’s On In Love, a riveting new project written for post-punk rock vocalist Craig Wedren of Shudder To Think fame and the indie chamber group ACME.
“Friedman […] deliberately brings together the two strands of his musical life, progressive rock and classical, into music that is rock for a chamber ensemble. The musicians and instrumentation allow him to write in the type of polyrhythmic and polyphonic detail that is inappropriate for a rock band, and he does so inside recognizable verse-chorus-verse song structures, conveyed via Wedren’s powerful, extroverted tenor and with the sweetening of amplification and audio processing of the instruments. The result has touches of Led Zeppelin, and is often more rock than Radiohead […]. The songs are a doorway reconnecting classical and pop music across a slender divide, an easy way for rock and classical audiences to enjoy each other’s company and music.” [George Grella for Classical TV]
On In Love will be part of the Ecstatic Music Festival at Merkin Hall in New York on January 22, 2011.
For more information, video and audio, check out On In Love on Bernsarts.com.
Members of ACME appear on Arcade Fire’s latest release
ACME is also featured in two new additions to the Bernstein Artists roster: On In Love, a new work by Jefferson Friedman with Shudder To Think vocalist Craig Wedren, and Psalm Book, by composer Ingram Marshall which also features Lionheart vocal ensemble.
