Low Frequencies, Unsound New York Takes Three Nights at Lincoln Center

Alice Tully Hall was built for string quartets. Next Wednesday it gets a man who makes records as Actress, a Japanese sound artist who sculpts breath, and a racing simulator chair.

That is the opening night of Unsound New York, the American edition of the avant-garde music festival from Kraków. It runs three nights at Lincoln Center, October 21 to 23, with almost everything billed as a U.S. premiere or a Lincoln Center debut. The Quietus reported the dates in August, when the festival announced its first wave of artists. It is not the festival's first visit. Resident Advisor described last year's run, split between Pioneer Works in Red Hook and Lincoln Center, as the fourth annual Unsound New York.

The New York nights follow the flagship festival in Poland earlier this month. A London edition is planned for November.

Wednesday at Tully Hall

The first night is three sets in one room. According to Lincoln Center's event page, it opens with FUJI|||||||||||TA, the Japanese sound artist, and the composer-performer Ka Baird. They give the North American premiere of an Unsound commission called *Where Does Fire End?* Lincoln Center describes it as breath, pressure and resonance shaped into tactile sound, with the voice treated as physical material.

Then comes Actress, whom Lincoln Center bills as an electronic music pioneer, with the U.S. premiere of *Radical Frame*. It is a new audio-visual show that reworks his old and new music, built around his upcoming album of the same name. The visuals are by the Polish artist Filip Popik, and the lighting is by Shaun Murphy.

The night closes with *Mustang Speedrun*, a multimedia theater piece by the virtual performance studio Team Rolfes. Lincoln Center lists VR puppetry, motion capture, live actors and musicians, camerawork edited in the moment and a motorized racing simulator chair. The performers had not yet been announced when this story was reported.

Alice Tully Hall was built for string quartets.

It is choose-what-you-pay and all ages, which makes it one of the cheaper ways to see a hall with this much wood paneling.

Thursday in the Atrium

The second night moves to the David Rubenstein Atrium on Broadway, and it is free. Lincoln Center pairs two American artists with two Polish ones.

The ambient composer claire rousay spent a week in 2024 in a village in the Polish countryside writing with Martyna Basta, a composer and musician from Kraków. The result is *hotel room*, an album and a live show that Lincoln Center calls a rough travelogue of fragments, autotuned vocals and dense atmospheres. Thursday is its U.S. debut, with projections by the German artist Theresa Baumgartner.

After that, Keith Rankin, who records as Giant Claw and runs the label Orange Milk Records, joins the Warsaw composer Julek Ploski for *CONTROL FREAK*. It is a new audio-visual piece made during an Unsound commission and residency in Warsaw.

The Atrium does not sell tickets. Entry is first come, first served, with a Fast Track reservation that opens at noon on the Monday before.

Friday at Geffen Hall

The festival ends in the Wu Tsai Theater at David Geffen Hall. Księżyc opens. The Polish band mixes minimalism with Slavic folk, and its self-titled 1996 debut has a cult following in Europe. For the record's 30th anniversary the band plays a set built around it called *The Eternal Circle*.

Then the pianist and singer Hania Rani makes her Geffen Hall debut. Rani won the European Film Award for best composer for her score to Joachim Trier's *Sentimental Value*. She brings *Non-Fiction*, a piano concerto in four movements, played with the 45-piece Sinfonia Varsovia from Warsaw. Drummer Valentina Magaletti and saxophonist Jack Wyllie sit in.

Lincoln Center says the concerto draws in part on Josima Feldschuh, a young musical prodigy forced into the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II. Rani reads that short life through the lens of contemporary Ukraine and Gaza. The evening runs about an hour and 45 minutes.

What to Know Before You Go

Wednesday, October 21, at 7:30 p.m. is at Alice Tully Hall, 1941 Broadway at West 65th Street. Thursday, October 22, at 7:30 p.m. is free in the David Rubenstein Atrium, 1887 Broadway. Friday, October 23, at 7:30 p.m. is in the Wu Tsai Theater at David Geffen Hall. Wednesday and Friday are choose-what-you-pay, and if they sell out, Lincoln Center forms a day-of line at the box office. All three nights are all ages.

BAM's Next Wave is running a different kind of experiment across the river the same week. See our story on A Deity of Nothing at BAM Fisher.

Three nights, two countries, one racing chair. The chamber hall will not sound like itself for a while.