SIDEBAND to Perform at Museum of the Moving Image, 6/15

Museum of the Moving Image will present a live performance by Sideband, the groundbreaking electronic music ensemble, on Friday, June 15, 2012, at 8:00 p.m. The concert will feature laptops as musical instruments, augmented by wireless networks, multichannel speakers, live 3-D video projections, hacked video game controllers, homemade hardware, traditional instruments, physical movement, pianist Kathy Supove, and much more.

Tickets are $12 public / $8 for Museum members (and free for Silver Screen members and above). Advance tickets are available online at movingimage.us or by calling 718 777 6800. The concert will take place in the Museum’s Video Screening Amphitheater.

The ensemble will perform eight works by Sideband members Michael Early, Lainie Fefferman, Anne Hege, Daniel Iglesia, Konrad Kaczmarek, Jascha Narveson, Jeff Snyder, and Dan Trueman. Each of the evening's composers mixes and recombines the roles of composer, programmer, instrument builder, and performer; this yields results well beyond the bounds of existing software applications or musical models, into a realm where nearly any musical idea can be realized.

"For Sideband, the moving image is simply another instrument to be played and explored—an approach that eschews traditional performance boundaries to create breathtaking, visceral multimedia experiences," said Jason Eppink, Assistant Curator of Digital Media, who organized the event for the Museum. "With works that are at once abstract and accessible, Sideband is creating a future where musical scores look like video games and any electronic device can be an instrument."

Sideband is an outgrowth of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). PLOrk was formed in 2005 by Dan Trueman and Perry Cook to be a test-lab for new approaches to electronic and ensemble music. PLOrk has performed widely throughout the U.S., won a MacArthur Foundation grant, and worked in collaboration with Zakir Hussain, the American Composers Orchestra, Laurie Anderson, Matmos & So Percussion, and many others. Sideband, formed in 2010, is currently made up of a group of long-term members whose skills range from orchestral percussion to installation art, research in machine-learning algorithms, traditional Norwegian folk music, solo performance, electroacoustic music, software design, and scored composition.