ACME to Perform The Music Of Clarice Jensen And Celebrates 15th Anniversary

From January through May 2020, the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) presents three concerts celebrating the group's 15th anniversary, in a series called ACME: 15 Years, at the Tenri Cultural Institute (43A W. 13th St.) - the location of the ensemble's inaugural concert season in 2004-2005. Described as "vital," "brilliant," and "electrifying," by The New York Times, ACME is a force for new music led by Artistic Director Clarice Jensen and is dedicated to the outstanding performance of music of the 20th and 21st centuries.

For the past several years, ACME Artistic Director Clarice Jensen has been composing contrapuntal and polyphonic music which she performs solo, on her cello with various effects pedals and loopers. Her music has been described by Self-Titled as "heavily processed, incredibly powerful neo-classical pieces that seem to come straight from another astral plane;" by Boomkat as "languorously void-touching ideas, scaling and sustaining a sublime tension;" while Bandcamp describes her work as, "a kaleidoscope of pulsing movement rich in acoustic beating and charged with other psychoacoustic effects, constantly shifting in density and viscous timbre."

Jensen's striking debut album For This From That Will Be Filled was released in April 2018 on the Berlin-based label Miasmah and followed in September 2019 with the "Drone Studies" EP, a cassette release via Geographic North. Signing to FatCat's 130701 imprint (Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Hauschka, Dustin O'Halloran, etc.), her sophomore album The Experience of Repetition as Death is due for release on April 3, 2020. Jensen has also recently scored two feature films - Takeshi Fukunaga's Ainu Mosir, and Fernanda Valadez's Sin Señas Particulares (Identifying Features) which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Jensen says, "For this concert, I am arranging my own solo pieces for ACME - for mixed ensemble - exploring the timbral effects of the ensemble layered with the electronic effects I use to manipulate my cello sound. The program will also explore drones and long tones as a sonic phenomenon and emotional experience."

ACME players for this concert include Laura Lutzke and Ravenna Lipchik, violins; Isabel Hagen, viola; Clarice Jensen, cello; Chihiro Shibayama, percussion; and Grey Mcmurray, electric guitar.

About Clarice Jensen: Clarice Jensen is a composer and cellist based in Brooklyn, NYC who graduated with an MA from The Juilliard School. A versatile collaborator, Jensen has recorded and performed with a host of stellar artists including Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, Björk, Stars of the Lid, Dustin O'Halloran, Nico Muhly, Arcade Fire, Jónsi, Tyondai Braxton, Dirty Projectors, Blonde Redhead, Frightened Rabbit, Beirut, and Nick Cave. In her role as the artistic director of ACME, she has helped bring to life some of the most revered works of modern classical music, including pieces by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Gavin Bryars, and more.

As a solo artist, Jensen has developed a distinctive compositional approach, improvising and layering her cello through shifting loops and a chain of electronic effects to open out and explore a series of rich, drone-based sound fields. Pulsing, visceral and full of color, her work is deeply immersive, marked by a wonderful sense of restraint and an almost hallucinatory clarity. Meditative yet with a sculptural sharpness and rigour that sets it apart from the swathe of New Age / DIY droners, she has forged a very elegant and precise vision.

About ACME: ACME was founded in 2004 by cellist Clarice Jensen, manager and publicist Christina Jensen, and conductor Donato Cabrera, who were at the time all living in the same building in Inwood, New York. Over numerous dinners, the three hatched a plan to start an ensemble dedicated to performing only new music. Recently graduated from Juilliard and motivated by a desire to continue making music with friends, Clarice Jensen curated the first series of concerts at Tenri Cultural Institute from fall 2004 through spring 2005, asking friends and colleagues to perform together. The young ensemble would continue to perform at Tenri for several more years, while building a reputation for insightful programming and incisive performances.

Since then, over the past 15 years, ACME has risen to the highest ranks of American new music through a mix of meticulous musicianship, artistic vision, engaging collaborations, and unwavering standards in every regard. The membership of the amorphous collective includes some of the brightest young stars in the field. NPR calls them "contemporary music dynamos," and Strings reports, "ACME's absorbing playing pulsed with warm energy. . . Shared glances and inhales triggered transitions in a flow so seamless it seemed learned in a Jedi temple." ACME was honored by ASCAP during its 10th anniversary season in 2015 for the "virtuosity, passion, and commitment with which it performs and champions American composers."

The ensemble has performed at leading international venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, BAM, The Kennedy Center, Washington Performing Arts, UCLA's Royce Hall, Stanford Live, Chicago's Millennium Park, Duke Performances, The Satellite in Los Angeles, Triple Door in Seattle, Melbourne Recital Hall and Sydney Opera House in Australia, and at festivals including the Sacrum Profanum Festival in Poland, All Tomorrow's Parties in England, Auckland Arts Festival in New Zealand, Summer Nostos Festival in Greece, Boston Calling, and Big Ears in Knoxville, TN.

World premieres given by ACME include Ingram Marshall's Psalmbook, Jóhann Jóhannsson's Drone Mass (commissioned by ACME in 2015; recorded for Deutsche Grammophon in 2019), Caroline Shaw's Ritornello, Phil Kline's Out Cold, William Brittelle's Loving the Chambered Nautilus, Timo Andres' Senior and Thrive on Routine, Caleb Burhans' Jahrzeit, and many more. In 2016 at The Kitchen, ACME premiered Clarice Jensen's transcription of Julius Eastman's The Holy Presence of Joan d'Arc for ten cellos, the score of which had been lost since the premiere in 1981. Jensen transcribed a recording of the work to recreate the score. ACME's collaborators have included The Richard Alston Dance Company, Wayne McGregor's Random Dance, Gibney Dance, Satellite Ballet, Meredith Monk, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Max Richter, actress Barbara Sukowa, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, Blonde Redhead, Grizzly Bear, Low, Matmos, Micachu & The Shapes, Jeff Mangum, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Roomful of Teeth, Lionheart, and Theo Bleckmann.

In 2017, ACME released its first portrait album on Sono Luminus, featuring music by members Caroline Shaw, Timo Andres, and Caleb Burhans, plus John Luther Adams. The release was featured as Album of the Week on Q2 Music and Gramophone praised it, reporting, "The ACME players capture the aura of tranquility to hypnotic effect [in the Adams], the repeated patterns in the keyboard instruments contrasted beautifully with the lyrical strings."

ACME's discography also includes Jóhann Jóhannsson's Orphée and Max Richter's eight-hour piece, Sleep (which the ensemble regularly performs live), both on Deutsche Grammophon; Fantasias with thereminist Carolina Eyck on Butterscotch Records; Joseph Byrd: NYC 1960-63, the first commercial recording of the music of rediscovered American Fluxus composer Joseph Byrd, on New World Records; William Brittelle's electro-acoustic chamber work Loving the Chambered Nautilus, and Jefferson Friedman's On In Love with vocalist Craig Wedren, both on New Amsterdam Records.

For more information visit http://bit.ly/ACMEClariceJensen