OneBeat Albuquerque at the Rail Yards
Thrumming Thresholds
Burque enjoys its fair share of excellent festivals, drawing world-class creators and their innovative projects to our arid doorstep on a regular basis. But OneBeat is something rare and unique. Twenty-five musicians—indie-rockers, experimental vocalists, traditional instrumentalists and more—from 17 countries stay in the US for a month, writing, performing and producing new music. Fresh from a two-week residency at mobile studios in California, they're headed to the Rail Yards (777 First Street SW) on Saturday, Nov. 1, to premiere collaborative sounds composed specifically for their Duke City appearance. The group's broad theme of Audible Visible has been geographically honed to center on Day of the Dead and all the transition and metamorphosis the holiday invokes. Besides enjoying intense auditory gratification, attendees can drink in the sights with You are the Doorway, an art installation eschewing skeletons but hewing to the theme of passage between life and death. Local installation talent Billy Joe Miller has rounded up visual, performing and video artists to devise their own takes on the subject, including Edie Tsong of Santa Fe, whose interactive exploration will allow visitors to send messages to the other world—and hear them called out across the expanse of the Yards' Blacksmith Shop on a megaphone. Arrive early (5pm) to enjoy the art accompanied by customized ambient music, and stay for the rhythms of the OneBeat musicians from 6 to 9pm. A $5 donation is suggested for this one-night consummation; check bit.ly/OneBeatRailYards for minutiae. (Lisa Barrow)
An international music event and art happening presented by 516 ARTS and Found Sound Nation.
516 ARTS is excited to team up with Found Sound Nation to co-present OneBeat Albuquerque, an international music event and art happening at the Albuquerque Rail Yards on November 1, 2014. This event is the culmination of a one-month residency tour from Saratoga, California to Albuquerque, which brings 25 musicians from 17 countries around the world (ages 19-35) to the U.S. to collaboratively compose, produce and perform original music and develop strategies for social engagement through music.
Now in its third year, OneBeat is an adventurous new model of cultural diplomacy, which is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, administered by Bang on a Can’s Found Sound Nation. Hailing from Egypt to Venezuela, this year’s fellows include DJs and traditional instrumentalists, experimenters, indie-rockers and more. To name just a few, this cohort includes: Lara Klaus, a percussionist and educator from Recife, Brazil; Metin Kilic, a singer-songwriter and composer from Istanbul, Turkey; Peni Rini, an experimental vocalist from Java, Indonesia; Abdellah Hassak, a producer and organizer from Casablanca, Morocco; Dahlak Brathwaite, a Los Angeles-based MC and educator; and 20 other innovative musicians from an incredibly wide breadth of genres and backgrounds. For information about all the fellows, visit 1beat.org/about/fellows/#2014.
OneBeat endeavors to be the nexus of a new way of thinking about how music can help collectively build healthy communities, prosperous societies and a more peaceful world. More than simply a music exchange, OneBeat is an incubator for music-based social entrepreneurship – a think tank for some of the world’s most promising artistic, technological and social innovators. The finale of their Western tour will be a unique, multimedia performance designed for the Albuquerque Rail Yards. It will include projects by local artists working with projection, technology and social engagement, co-curated by 516 ARTS, OneBeat and Albuquerque artist Billy Joe Miller.
The theme of this year's OneBeat is the Audible Invisible, finding sonic expressions for the invisible powers that control us, from gravity to electromagnetism to culture. The Rail Yards show on November 1 - wedged between Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos - will explore concepts of Spirit, one of the great invisible human universals. While the OneBeat musicians come from radically different backgrounds and religious beliefs (or lack thereof), they are all fascinated with the journey of spirit and particularly the notions of "thresholds" which spirits cross in life, death and other transformations. Interwoven with this musical performance will be art and video installations along these same themes. Featured visual artists include Augustine Romero, Michelle Montjoy, Ellen Babcock and others to be announced.
