“I’ll sell out anytime anybody wants me to” Glenn Branca once mused, “[but] there are no buyers.” This accords with Branca’s perennial position on that fringe between the edgier end of art music and the artsier end of rock.
An admirer of Young, Glass, and Reich, and a mentor to members of Sonic Youth, Helmet, and the Swans, Branca helped pollinate the downtown New York scene in the 1980s and ’90s and infused experimental rock with minimalist ideas.
httpv://https://youtu.be/wERU4NiAtlE
While he earned his reputation with a series of high-volume, microtonal works for multiple electric guitars, his oeuvre also includes works for traditional orchestral forces. In the face of Branca’s eclectic output and rather ambiguous aesthetic, the label “crossover” is at once convenient and clumsy.
Glenn Branca was born in Harrisburg, Pa. in 1948. Starting in 1966 he lived in both Boston and London until 1976 when he moved to NYC where he still lives.
httpv://https://youtu.be/gDBsyra0FIA
In the last 38 years his work as a composer has included music for experimental rock bands, large ensemble instrumentals for electric guitars, 15 symphonies for both electric instrumentation and acoustic orchestras.
Not to forget chamber ensemble pieces for a wide variety of instrumentation (both electric and acoustic), an opera, a ballet, choral works and music for film, dance, theater and installation art. His ensemble has done hundreds of performances all over the world.
httpv://https://youtu.be/r8B4N6diu5Q
Schneider TM is a multidimensional music project from Dirk Dresselhaus, named after his nickname Schneider. Since the late 80’s he is active in different musical fields. From 1989 until 1997 he played and sang in indie-noiserock- and pop-bands like Locust Fudge or Hip Young Things before he became more active in electronic music around 1997 with his project Schneider TM, which is responsible for a couple of experimental electro-freak-pop albums and indie-hits like Reality Check, Frogtoise, Pacman / Shopping Cart or a coverversion of a song by The Smiths called The Light 3000.
Since quite a while he frequently plays improv concerts on varying instruments like guitar, electronics, balafon or using field recordings, sometimes solo and other times together with Jochen Arbeit (of Einstürzende Neubauten, ex-Die Haut), Damo Suzuki (ex-Can), the japanese dancer Tomoko Nakasato or video artists like Lillevan, pani K and Takehito Koganezawa.
Glenn Branca Ensemble + Schneider TM
Sunday, 12th October 2014 | 20:00 CET
Volksbühne | Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz | 10178 Berlin/Mitte
glennbranca.com | schneidertm.net | volksbuehne-berlin.de
