The Fields Festival, formerly of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, had to move (for obvious reasons), and now they are in Belgrade.
I’ll be playing G3 there in June, this is an early announcement. I’ll update it soon with a link to their website.
Also in June, we’ll be mounting G3 at Art Basel 2023. We’ll be performing the piece with Robert Longo’s film, Pictures for Music, and Robert and I will be playing amoung the guitarists. We will be doing this within a huge outdoor Messeplatz installation by Latifa Echakhch. I’ll be posting more details on this and who the other players will be in the coming weeks.
In addition to G3, I have a new solo that I recently performed at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in the context of a No Wave show curated by Nicolas Ballet last February. I also did the solo concert in a more intimate setting at the Chair de Poule bar in Paris. Here is a short clip of the concert to give you an idea of its sound:
Rhys Chatham solo at Chair de Poule – 24 February 2023
I’m available this summer to play this solo or to mount G3. To contact me for booking write to me at rhyschathamnews@gmail.com
Le 9 février 2021 Ghédalia Tazartès nous quittait. Dans le cadre de la Semaine du Bizarre, où il avait joué en décembre 2019 son dernier concert en duo avec Rhys Chatham, quinze musiciennes et musiciens qui ont tous collaboré avec Ghédalia proposeront un Concert pour Ghédalia. Avec Rhys Chatham, Maya Dunietz & Elie Tazartes, Parrenin/Weinrich/Rollet, Quentin Rollet/Jérôme Lorichon/Cosmic Neman, Opéra Mort, Super Stoned, Low Jack, Gwen Jamois.9 décembre 2021, 19hdans le cadre de La Semaine du Bizarre #10en partenariat avec Julie Tippex & Les Instants Chavirés Théâtre Municipal Berthelot Jean-Guerrin6, rue Marcellin-Berthelot93100 – Montreuil, FR prix – 12€
On February 9, 2021 Ghédalia Tazartès left us. As part of La Semaine du Bizarre, where he played his last concert in December 2019 as a duo with Rhys Chatham, fifteen musicians who all collaborated with Ghédalia will propose a Concert for Ghédalia, with Rhys Chatham, Maya Dunietz & Elie Tazartes, Parrenin/Weinrich/Rollet, Quentin Rollet/Jérôme Lorichon/Cosmic Neman, Opéra Mort, Super Stoned, Low Jack, Gwen Jamois.
December 9, 2021, 7pm as part of La Semaine du Bizarre #10 in partnership with Julie Tippex & Les Instants Chavirés – Théâtre Municipal Berthelot – Jean-Guerrin 6, rue Marcellin-Berthelot 93100 – Montreuil, FR price 12 euros.
G3 at RISK on Saturday 11 December 2021 – Stavanger, Norway
Photo: Sue Rynski
If you find yourself in the vicinity of Stavanger, Norway, we will be mounting a performance of G3 this week on Saturday, 11 December. For further info, click below.
Here is the lineup: Electric Guitar: Rhys, Gaute Granli, Jan Christian Lauritzen, Peter Larsen, Anders Mosnes, & Kristoffer Riis. Electric Bass: Markus Hagen Drums: Thore Warland
I’ve been in the south of France since the beginning of July. Here is a photo, taken by Isabelle Forestier, from just outside my music studio in the foothills of the Pyrenees near Céret, France!
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. This is because I’ve been working on a new piece commissioned by the Issue Project Room and the French Institute Alliance Française, the performance is scheduled for next October, see below for details.
The piece has been progressing well, so I thought I would take time out come up for air and tell you about some upcoming concerts taking place in September and October:
Saturday, 7 September 2019 – The Old Hairdresser’s Pub – Glasgow, Scotland
Photo: Phil Mackie
A solo performance of Pythagorean Dream by the Paris-based New York composer on electric guitar, trumpet and bass and alto flutes from the New York, with Glasgow based Maria Rossi aka Cucina Povera in support. Glasgow The Old Hairdressers, 7 September, 8pm. £12
La Bâtie // Rhys Chatham – Pilot on Mars
10 September 2019 – Geneva, Switzerland
Turn in your spleen for some blues! Pilot on Mars, a Swiss trio featuring dancer-turned-singer Pascal Gravat, guitarist Bastien Dechaume and keyboardist Joe Baamil write songs based on poems from the Beat Generation, record them in New York with US bigwigs, and produce radically electric blues albums for our listening pleasure. To open for them, the band has invited Rhys Chatham all the way from the Big Apple. The avant-garde artist who witnessed the early beginnings of minimalist music with La Monte Young and Tony Conrad will threaten to blow up our electricity bill – we haven’t forgotten his orchestrations for 100 or 200 guitars. At La Bâtie, Chatham will conduct a temporary ensemble of local musicians composed of six guitarists, a drummer and a bass guitarist. If that doesn’t inspire you to take up guitar lessons again…
4 & 5 October – Issue Project Room – Brooklyn, USA Commissioned work: The Sun Too Close to the Earth
October 4th & 5th, ISSUE is pleased to present the world premiere of The Sun Too Close to the Earth, an expansive new work by iconoclast composer and multi-instrumentalist Rhys Chatham. Commissioned by ISSUE and presented as a part of the French Institute Alliance Française’s (FIAF) thirteenth annual Crossing the Line Festival, the piece spans Chatham’s aesthetic concerns across thirty years of composing for electric guitar ensembles, as well as the minimalist and free jazz traditions that grew out of NYC’s downtown music scene.
The ensemble features many ISSUE friends and luminaries within the Downtown NYC experimental music scene, including Jonathan Kane, Anthony Coleman, Ernie Brooks, and Karen Haglof, as well as Jaimie Branch, Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Sarah Register, Reut Regev, and Jen Baker.
On Friday 6. April, Rhys Chatham and Robert Longo perform together with seven other musicians Chathams composition “Guitar Trio” in the context of Robert’s exhibition: PROOF. Make a reservation now! The musicians playing are friends Rhys has known for years, as well as some new ones.
On electric guitars: Rhys Chatham, Robert Longo, Jeff Turek, Martin Richter, Wigand Koch, Lars Zwickies, and Robert Engelbrecht. On the electric bass: Matthais Schönebäumer, and on drums, Olve Strelow.
