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Concert Tue Nov 16 2010
ICE Prism
The International Contemporary Ensemble, or ICE, is no stranger to the Transmission show-roll. I covered their performance of five pieces by Iannis Xenakis last year, and the group have played many more times in our fair city in the meantime. A wide-ranging group of musicians with a split residency in New York and Chicago, ICE has spent much of 2010 on this side of the Appalachians, performing their avant-garde classical performances in such venues at the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Uncommon Ground. This Friday, they bring their newest performance to The Velvet Lounge (67 E. Cermak), Fred Anderson's long-running sanctuary for the open-eared, showcasing the work of up-and-coming composer Mario Diaz de León. The program, titled Prism Path, features five of the composer's works, two of them premiering here in Chicago.
De León's working methods and influences indicate a deep respect for the Romanian "Spectral" school of composition (including composer Iancu Dumitrescu, a man whose poster, I must confess, is hanging in my bedroom with a heart drawn around his face in lipstick). In the Spectral style, instruments are played with a radical disregard for their intended sound, often mated with electronic processing to create swarms of metallic buzzing and ghostly overtones. De León also cites " a wide range of electronic music, free improvisation, underground metal and American noise bands like Metalux and Sejayno" as influences. His debut album will be released on John Zorn's Tzadik label, and ICE are featured musicians on that album.
Go check out the ICE's podcast, titled ICECast, for an audio introduction, or see the Vimeo clip below.
The performance starts at 9:30. Admission cost is $10, with proceeds going to the Velvet Lounge in memory of Fred Anderson.
Roulette TV: MARIO DIAZ DE LEON from Roulette Intermedium on Vimeo.
