Pierre Schaeffer gets all the posthumous attention, but what if I told you that there was another founder of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales who helped to pioneer musique concrète and blow listener minds beyond the stratosphere of Earth II somehow?
Luc Ferrari had an extensive career in experimental music dating back to at least his time at the Conservatoire de Versailles (1946); and up until his passing in 2005, the French artist of Italian heritage worked consistently in a variety of mediums and became arguably one of the first unsung purveyors of drone and ambient music. Cult followings tend to become Kool-Aid-free if you give them enough time, so let’s consider it par for the course that a London event called Stereo Spasms took place at Cafe Oto this past February. An array of modern musical descendants gave Ferrari his deserved props!
Now, simultaneous with the release of a book that pledges to document the extent of Ferrari’s oeuvre, an abbreviated version of Stereo Spasms is scheduled to take place November 18 and 19 at the Pioneer Works venue in Brooklyn. The program includes the following musicians performing various Ferrari pieces: Tania Caroline Chen, David Grubbs, Eli Keszler, Jon Leidecker, Thurston Moore, Matana Roberts, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Jim O’Rourke, Brunhild Ferrari (Luc’s widow), and Christopher McIntyre.
Buy tickets and see more details here. Jim O’Rourke’s gonna be the only one not physically present, but I’m sure his remote rendition of the seamless Ephèmére will be worth it still. Stream the original below if you’re curious, plus a field recording piece of note.
More about: Brunhild Ferrari, Christopher McIntyre, David Grubbs, Eli Keszler, Jim O'Rourke, Jon Leidecker, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Luc Ferrari, Matana Roberts, Tania Caroline Chen, Thurston Moore
