[Peace] anti-war, anti-racism concert this Friday

[enslin at prairienet.org]

The Nonsense Company, the experimental, musico-theatrical side of the
Prince Myshkins (with actor/ukelelist Ryan Higgins) are kicking off an
extended Mid- South- North-West tour
this Friday, March 23, 8pm in the School for Designing a Society space in
the basement of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center. Suggested
donation of $5-20.

They are offering recent hard-as-hell anti-war, anti-racism compositions
of music that are generous in how much they give the ear, heart, mind,
eye, breath and mouth to do--players and listeners.
--Mark Enslin

This is the Nonsense Company's description of the program:

Rick Burkhardt, "Great Hymn of Thanksgiving" (2003)*
for three speaking percussionists
Around a dinner table, suppertime talk is replaced by fragments of news
reports from the war in Iraq, distorted Arab folk tales, scraps from the
Army prayer manual, the poetry of Rae Armantrout, and a recurring State of
Emergency pointing everywhere and leading nowhere.  The sounds of the
table itself struggle to bring this "conversation" into a confrontation
with material reality.

Steven Kazuo Takasugi, "Strange Autumn" (2004)
for actor, percussionist, tape, and projected sound
A bilingual poem by Wieland Hoban is delivered in fragments while a
percussionist entices a variety of sounds from a pair of amplified books,
accompanied by a tape of electronically manipulated sounds.   Space and
meaning become fantastical as the piece presents impossible acoustic
landscapes, such as a sandstorm of flies.

Rick Burkhardt, "Song Without Words" (2007)* #
for accordion, harmonica, prepared guitar and ukelele

Robert Phillips, "Mapuana Ma Kekahi" ("Scent of the Other") (2007)* #
for three speaker/musicians, lap steel guitar, ukelele, turntable and
percussion
Oozing music maps the distance between private ritual--murmuring to
oneself to feel the vibration of the voice--and the soothing call of
distant isles, packaged in the smooth skin of a colonial pop song bent out
of shape, almost beyond recognition. Cultural meanings proliferate in a
strange sonic environment, and the question of who or what is "other" only
becomes more difficult to answer.

* -- composed for the Nonsense Company
# -- world premiere