Artists Space

Abasement #66

Concert
October 9, 2023, 7pm

Performances by Fred Frith & gabby fluke-mogul, The Ghost, A. Helicopter and Dr. Evilletown Duo, Tom and Henry Thayer. DJ Sandy Lane. Visuals by Scott Kiernan.

Magazine cutouts and printed images overlay a colorful background with red, white, blue and yellow pieces collaged together. A cutout of an eye is placed in the center, and to the right of it is text that reads "ABASEMENT 66." Along the bottom right is a cutout of yellow paper has handwritten text in red ink, listing the performers and date of the performance.
Flyer by Joe Frivaldi. [Magazine cutouts and printed images overlay a colorful background with red, white, blue and yellow pieces collaged together. A cutout of an eye is placed in the center, and to the right of it is text that reads "ABASEMENT 66." Along the bottom right is a cutout of yellow paper has handwritten text in red ink, listing the performers and date of the performance.]

Abasement is a monthly music series featuring four performances, a guest DJ, and a projectionist. Beginning in 2015 at Max Fish bar in New York's Lower East Side, the evening brings together artists and bands working in free improvisation, jazz, noise, minimalism, and experimental composition. When Max Fish permanently closed due to Covid, one of the few experimental music venues in Manhattan temporarily ceased to exist. Artists Space is pleased to continue hosting Abasement this fall.

Color image of a performance space illuminated by red light. In the center, two figures standing next to each other are playing the violin. Behind them is a white projector screen and a speaker.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performance space illuminated by red light. In the center, two figures standing next to each other are playing the violin. Behind them is a white projector screen and a speaker.]
Color image of a performance space illuminated by red light. In the center, two standing figures play the violin. On the left, audience members look towards the performers. On the right, a stage filled with music equipment, such as speakers, cables and microphones. In the background, a table filled with electronic equipment, and a man looking at a computer monitor.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performance space illuminated by red light. In the center, two standing figures play the violin. On the left, audience members look towards the performers. On the right, a stage filled with music equipment, such as speakers, cables and microphones. In the background, a table filled with electronic equipment, and a man looking at a computer monitor.]
Close-up color image of a figure with a violin bow on their left hand. A thin, long piece of wood hangs from the ceiling, and the figure is using the bow to play it like a intrument string. The bow and the wood make a cross, which falls exactly in front of the face of a second figure. Also a performer, they are holding a white object in their hands. In the background, audience members. The space is illuminated by red light.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Close-up color image of a figure with a violin bow on their left hand. A thin, long piece of wood hangs from the ceiling, and the figure is using the bow to play it like a intrument string. The bow and the wood make a cross, which falls exactly in front of the face of a second figure. Also a performer, they are holding a white object in their hands. In the background, audience members. The space is illuminated by red light.]
Color image of two figures facing each other, performing. The figure on the left holds a ramrod on his left hand, and is sitting on a chair. In front of the figure, there is a table with unusual instruments made of wood. The second figure is on the right. They are holding a microphone. In the background, audience members face the performers. The room is illuminated by red light.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of two figures facing each other, performing. The figure on the left holds a ramrod on his left hand, and is sitting on a chair. In front of the figure, there is a table with unusual instruments made of wood. The second figure is on the right. They are holding a microphone. In the background, audience members face the performers. The room is illuminated by red light.]
A color image of two figures performing. The figure on the left plays the saxophone. There is a standing microphone in front of them. The figure on the right, has their eyes closed, and is playing the guitar. Blue and red light is projected onto them.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [A color image of two figures performing. The figure on the left plays the saxophone. There is a standing microphone in front of them. The figure on the right, has their eyes closed, and is playing the guitar. Blue and red light is projected onto them.]
A color image of two figures performing on a stage. Various electronic equipment, such as speakers, cables, an monitors surround the performers. One of the figures is playing the saxophone. The other one is playing the guitar and has their eyes closed. An image of the figure playing the saxophone is projected onto the back wall. In the background, a row of audience members sit looking towards the performers.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [A color image of two figures performing on a stage. Various electronic equipment, such as speakers, cables, an monitors surround the performers. One of the figures is playing the saxophone. The other one is playing the guitar and has their eyes closed. An image of the figure playing the saxophone is projected onto the back wall. In the background, a row of audience members sit looking towards the performers.]
A color image of two figures before a table filled with electronic equipment such as cables, cameras, and monitors. The figure on the left is sitting down, and the figure on the right is standing up. They are both looking at something outside of the frame. Their faces are illuminated by red light.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [A color image of two figures before a table filled with electronic equipment such as cables, cameras, and monitors. The figure on the left is sitting down, and the figure on the right is standing up. They are both looking at something outside of the frame. Their faces are illuminated by red light.]
A black and white image of three figures performing on stage. The figure on the left plays the saxophone, a clarinet is on the floor, right in front of them. The figure in the center plays the drums, and the one on the right, the double bass. Three microphones are scattered across the stage.
A close-up color image of two figures performing. One plays the drums, and the second figure plays the double bass. To their right, a large black speaker, and a microphone. Images are projected onto the back wall. The room is illuminated with red and blue light.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [A close-up color image of two figures performing. One plays the drums, and the second figure plays the double bass. To their right, a large black speaker, and a microphone. Images are projected onto the back wall. The room is illuminated with red and blue light.]
A black and white image of three figures. All three of them attentively look to the right of the image, towards the same direction. The figure in the center, holds a ladder, which has a projector taped to the top, with their right hand.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [A black and white image of three figures. All three of them attentively look to the right of the image, towards the same direction. The figure in the center, holds a ladder, which has a projector taped to the top, with their right hand.]
Color image of a performance space illuminnated with blue and red light. On the left, a figure on a stage plays the double bass, there is a large black speaker to their right. Abstract images are projected onto the wall. Below the projections, audience members sit on chairs.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Color image of a performance space illuminnated with blue and red light. On the left, a figure on a stage plays the double bass, there is a large black speaker to their right. Abstract images are projected onto the wall. Below the projections, audience members sit on chairs.]
Black and white image of an audience watching a performance. Some are sitting on chairs, and others stand.
Abasement #66. Performance documentation, October 9, 2023, Artists Space. Photo: Joshua Wildman. [Black and white image of an audience watching a performance. Some are sitting on chairs, and others stand.]

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser Fred Frith has been making noise of one kind or another for almost fifty years, starting with the iconic rock collective Henry Cow, which he co-founded with Tim Hodgkinson in 1968. Frith is best known as a pioneering electric guitarist and improviser, song-writer, and composer for film, dance, and theater. Through bands like Art Bears, Massacre, Skeleton Crew, Keep the Dog, the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, and Cosa Brava, he has stayed close to his roots in rock and folk music while branching out in many other directions. His compositions have been performed by ensembles ranging from Arditti Quartet and the Ensemble Modern to Concerto Köln and Galax Quartet, from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to ROVA and Arte Sax Quartets, from rock bands Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Ground Zero to the Glasgow Improvisers’ Orchestra. The recipient of Italy’s Demetrio Stratos Prize for his life’s work in experimental music and an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in his home county of Yorkshire, Frith is Professor Emeritus at the legendary epicenter of American experimental music, Mills College, in Oakland, California. For ten years until his retirement in 2020 he co-directed the improvisation master’s program at the Musik Akademie in Basel, Switzerland and is visiting faculty at the Universidad Austral in Valdivia, Chile, where he helped to develop the curriculum for the new Escuela de Artes Musicales y Sonores. Frith is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel’s much-loved Step Across the Border, cited by Cahiers du Cinéma as one of the 20th century’s hundred most influential films.

gabby fluke-mogul is a New York based violinist, improviser, composer, educator, organizer, & doula. fluke-mogul weaves within the threads of avant & free jazz with deep roots in improvised & experimental music. Their playing has been described as “embodied, visceral, & virtuosic" & "the most striking sound in improvised music in years..." gabby is humbled to have collaborated with Nava Dunkelman, Joanna Mattrey, Ava Mendoza, Charles Burnham, Fred Frith, Luke Stewart, Zeena Parkins, Tcheser Holmes, Mara Rosenbloom, William Parker, & Pauline Oliveros among many other musicians, poets, dancers, & visual artists. fluke-mogul is a Roulette 2023 Jerome Artist in Residence. “The way they construct sound with their violin is ageless. They are sounds built from the ancient geology beneath us; from shards of broken cosmic glass; from hidden corners within their heart and mind…fluke-mogul plays the moment to its fullest amplitude” (Brad Rose, Foxy Digitalis).

The Ghost is a leatherdaddy free jazz trio led by Michael Foster fusing composition and extensive improvisation to make a uniquely paranoid and homoerotic vision of jazz. The Ghost is Michael Foster (saxophones / compositions), John Moran (bass), and Joey Sullivan (drums). Their newest record 'Vanished Pleasures,' was released on Relative Pitch Records earlier this year.

For Abasement #66, New Jersey-based multi-media artist Tom Thayer collaborates with his fourteen-year-old son, Henry Thayer. Drawing on Art Brut, children's art, and experimental education, Thayer's surreal works have a crude, naive spirit. He activates his paintings and sculptures with animation and music in improvised performances he calls Scenographic Plays. Thayer has exhibited and performed since the early 90s at venues including The Living Theater, Issue Project Room, SculptureCenter, The Kitchen, the 2012 Whitney Biennial, and MoMA.

A. Helicopter and Dr. Evilletown Duo are primarily a saxophone and guitar-based collaboration, using improvisation and listening to create sonic conversations. Against a backdrop of 20 years of friendship, they only recently began collaborating. Their work has most notably appeared on the critically acclaimed Distant Duos Project by Mary Staubitz and Russ Waterhouse.

New York war zone denizen Sandy Lane bringing the hinterland exploration sound to your mind town.

Scott Kiernan is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in New York City. Through his video, photo and installation works, electronically synthesized and photographic elements interact to address their own materiality and means of distribution. He is co-director of live televisual performance project E.S.P. TV and director of Various/Artists Records.

Abasement has been curated by Joseph Frivaldi and Robert Mayson since 2015.