TWO IDENTICAL SHOWINGS at 7:30 and 9:30 ••• (Installation only available 6-8, see below)
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It’s High Zero’s DIFFUSION FESTIVAL, the festival of music made out of sounds.
Just to remind you, DIFFUSION is our festival concerned with multi-channel electro-acoustic music, both brand new and historical.
Some of these sound pieces are made with just microphones, some of them are made with only electronic instruments, much of it is made with a combination of both. Some of them are played on 4 speakers, some on 6 speakers and some on 8 speakers!
Listening, in this medium is different from “normal” music, I like to think of it as the difference, on a hot day, between standing in front of an air conditioner, and soaking in a cool lake. Seats are taken, the lights are dimmed, and the sound commences, there is nothing to see, everything is seen with the ears.
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There are two pieces particular to this night. The installation described below…
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On this Saturday the 8th we present an installation by Kieun Song and Hamish Robb.
It has as it’s musical component 2 hours of sine wave music that doesn’t sound like sine wave music. It “runs” from 6pm to 8pm before DIFFUSION on Saturday evening. Please come anytime between 6 and 8. Here is their more specific invitation to you:
燒紙_ how to navigate:
We never have the time to deal with loss. From 6 to 8 pm this Saturday, I am borrowing the red room for that time. The room is open for all to stay as long as necessary. The walls of the room will be emitting sound that maps the time and space allotted for you to use. You are free to explore the music by moving around the room. In the middle of the room, there is a chair and a desk where you can sit and write a letter to your departed. There is a timer you can use to track your minutes inside. The recommended window is around 20 minutes, but you may leave before or exceed that window.
After you’ve finished writing, you can choose to send the letter by depositing it underneath one of the candlelit paper envelops scattered around the installation area. The letters received will be exhibited anonymously and burned at the final reiteration of the project. Take your time.
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AND we are very pleased to have as part of the program a live diffusion of a piece by Christine Groult entitled “Etincelles”. The diffusion will be done live by Sam Pluta of the Peabody Institute.
Étincelles (2005) 15’ à Marie-Claude Defores
“Sparks”
This piece is a concert version of a commission from the Curie Institute to inaugurate “A Garden for Life, a Daffodil for Curie” a weekend of generosity in favor of cancer research. The original creation took place in twelve tracks on the esplanade of the Paris Pantheon.
This music was developed from the most striking images of a century of radioactivity history: the discovery of radium, revealed by Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898; the hard work accomplished by Marie Curie, in her hangar, stirring for hours, using an iron rod, a ton of ore, to extract a gram of this precious radium; the updating of the therapeutic virtues of radioactivity; the new pages that researchers, doctors and patients continue to write, day after day.
——– Saturday November 8th 2025 ——–
Kieun Song and Hamish Robb “燒紙”
Yvette Janine Jackson “Swan”
Eric Frye “diffusion“
Ellen Arkbro “Selected Collections”
Obie Feldi and M.C. Schmidt “Kron-Tasm”
Neo Gibson and Charles Stobbs “Destiny Angel Stingray Minimus”
Christine Groult “Etincelle”
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So, the information that is SO complicated to type but is actually pretty simple:
TWO shows a night on the 7th and 8th and 12th, but Friday and Saturday are different programs.
For the early one arrive at 7:30pm, for the late arrive at 9:30,
the program is roughly an hour and a half with a brutally short break.
IF YOU ARE COMING TO THE LATE SHOW (arrive between 9:30 and 9:50, but not after!) at The Red Room, please please please be quiet as we will be still running the early show while you arrive!
The 12th is all brand new work and all from Baltimore!
The 14th is just two artists: RM Francis from Seattle and A.M. from The Birmingham Electro Acoustic Sound Theatre both playing their own work.
On the 15th A.M. will diffuse her selection of works representing a historical overview of multichannel electro acoustic music from the United Kingdom.
The first three nights are at The Red Room at Normals Books on 31st Street and
the last two nights Friday and Saturday the 14th and 15th will be at The Voxel a beautifully refitted film theater on 25th Street.
There will only be one show at the Voxel per night and you can pre-purchase tickets if you like at voxel.org
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PLEASE JOIN US FOR ALL FIVE NIGHTS! November 7th, 8th, 12th, 14th, 15th
