JG Thirlwell + Ensemble at Bang On A Can Long Play Festival

JG Thirlwell + Ensemble will be performing as part of the Bang On A Can Long Play Festival on May 1 2022 at Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn. The Festival runs from April 29-May 1 2022 and will feature 60 concerts over three days at  in eight different venues in Downtown Brooklyn. There will be performances by Attaca Quartet, Ashley Bathgate, Balún, Joan La Barbara, Kelly Moran, Matmos, Sun Ra Arkestra, Tristan Perich, Dither & Lee Ranaldo and many more, and works by Anthony Braxton, Arvo Pärt, John Luther Adams, Terry Riley, David Lang, Eliane Radigue, Galina Ustvolskaya, Robert Ashley, Ornette Coleman, Brian Eno, Julia Wolfe and more.

JG Thirlwell + Ensemble play  chamber versions of some Foetus repertoire and will be premiering two new arrangements for the show. With Evan Allen on piano and accordion, Leah Asher on violin and viola, Rebecca El-Saleh on harp, Simon Hanes on acoustic guitar and bass guitar, Pete Moffett on percussion and JG Thirlwell on vocals.

Tickets are available here, and you can receive a 50% discount on tickets by using the code JGTENSEMBLE

JG Thirlwell on new Matmos album

JG Thirlwell has contributed to the new Matmos triple album, The Consuming Flame: Open Exercises in Group Form, which will be released on August 21 on Thrill Jockey. The album also features contributions by Oneohtrix Point Never, Mouse on Mars, clipping, Yo La Tengo, Max Tundra, Matthew Herbert, Jennifer Walshe, David Grubbs and many more. 99 musicians were asked to contribute something at 99bpm, and the results were expanded and folded into this sprawling album.

JGT Remixes COH

eMEGO197cvr-350JG Thirlwell has remixed a track for COH which will appear on the album “To Beat Or Not To Beat”. Along with new material, the album also features remixes by John Parish, Matmos, Ryuchi Sakamoto and Drew McDowall. “To Beat Or Not To Beat” is an companion album to “To Beat”, which was released by Mego in May 2014. COH (pronounced “Son”) is the nom-de-musique of Russian-born Ivan Pavlov.

“To Beat Or Not To Beat” will be released by Mego Records on vinyl only November 24, 2014.

JG Thirlwell and Sarah Lipstate Live in NYC

.The newly formed duo of JG Thirlwell and Sarah Lipstate which debuted  at The Stone in NYC in April 2014, will return to NYC for a pair of shows in October. They will play at Joe’s Pub in Manhattan October 2 , and at Saint Vitus in Greenpoint, Brooklyn on  October 4. The latter show is a benefit  for the David Lynch Foundation , which provides transcendental meditation training to those in need. Soft Pink Truth , the side project of Drew Daniel of Matmos, and JGT fave Dominique Leone are also on the Saint Vitus bill.

In this project, Thirlwell plays synthesizers and electronics and Lipstate (aka Noveller) plays guitar through a multitude of effects. Tickets for the Joe’s Pub show are available now. Photo by Robert Kenney.

JGT guests with Marc Almond at Antony's Meltdown

JG Thirlwell will be special guest in a one-off performance by Marc Almond with a 2012 incarnation of his former group the Mambas, when they perform the classic album Torment and Toreros in its entirety for the Meltdown Festival. This year’s festival is curated by Antony Hegarty of Antony and The Johnsons, who was heavily impacted by Almond’s record. JG wrote and played all the instruments on the song “A Million Manias” which appears on that album, and will perform it live with Marc. In addition JG plays on the track “Beat Out That Rhythm On A Drum”.  Antony has said of Almond, ‘Marc laid out a trail of subcultural breadcrumbs and aesthetic tenets that, more than any other single influence, formed the artist that I would become. Ten years before I would hear Nina Simone make a similar affirmation, I read Marc saying that he didn’t care if he hit the notes, for it was only the feeling that mattered.’

The concert takes place on August 9, 2012 at the Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Center in London. Tickets are available here. Also appearing at this year’s Meltdown are Diamanda Galas, Elizabeth Fraser, William Basinski, Lou Reed, Matmos, Planningtorock, Selda, Joan As Police Woman, Marina Abramovic, Cyclobe and many more.

JG Thirlwell four channel sound installation at Latitude Festival

JG Thirlwell’s four channel sound installation piece “Krzysztl” (pronounced “crystal”) will be in a 4 channel sound gallery in the contemporary art arena at the Latitude Festival, UK. The festival runs from July 15-18 and Thirlwell’s piece, previously featured at the Enter exhibition at Tou Scene in Norway, will play on July 17. On the same day they will be playing sound pieces by Kim Gordon, Carsten Nicolai and Matmos. During the festival, the sound art tent will also host pieces by Oren Ambrachi, Pauline Oliveros, Camille Norment, Charlemagne Palestine, Stephen O’Malley and more . The sound tent is curated by Ben Borthwick , Anne Hilde Neset and Louise Gray .
Located in Suffolk, England, the Latitude festival features music, theater, opera, literature, poetry and more, and will feature performances by Belle and Sebastian, Grizzly Bear, Crystal Castles, Tom Jones and many more.

Kronos perform JG Thirlwell at Carnegie Hall

Kronos Quartet will be performing a newly commissioned piece by JG Thirlwell at Zankel Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 12. Entitled Eremikophobia, which means fear of deserts and sand, the multi-movement eighteen minute piece will open the evening. The evening’s program also features toy piano virtuoso Margaret Leng Tan and Portuguese instrument builder Victor Gama. To conclude, Kronos will be joined by Matmos in a tribute to Terry Riley.

Read further, buy tickets and see a clip of David Harrington of Kronos Quartet talking about the evening here. Additionally, you can read Thirlwell’s notes about his composition . There are currently no plans to record Eremikophobia, so don’t miss it!

Update 03/14/2010: JGT thanks everyone who came out to the Kronos Quartet concert at Carnegie Hall last Friday for the premiere of “Eremikophobia”, and discusses his composition.