EMPAC Fall Schedule

I know, I know...I'm really late to EMPAC schedule release party, but I spent the last two weeks in the Carribean surviving Irene. So without me making any more excuses, here are some highlights from EMPAC's schedule for the fall:


Thursday, September 1st - Guy Maddin: Tales from the Gimli Hospital: Reframed

"Commissioned by Performa 11 with the National Arts Centre of Canada, this unique work in progress event pairs the acclaimed filmmaker's classic first feature film with a new live score performed by a remarkable all female Icelandic cast including musicians formerly of the band múm as well as Sigur Rós collaborators Amiina." After reading the full description (live narration by Udo Kier!!), I couldn't be more excited for this event.

Friday, September 9th - EARBRAINS: Sonic Research Underground

"Experimental music micro-cultures fly beneath the radar in nearly every US city—functioning as hidden incubators or underground sonic research labs for aesthetics and technology. The outcomes almost universally bubble up to the surface, popularized by more mainstream acts. Performances happen in tiny clubs, non-profit galleries, people's houses, bookstores, and on college campuses. This has been the fertile ground for generations from which experimental music artists and audiences have evolved."

Thursday, September 15th - Four Tet + Jon Hopkins

"A stellar double bill featuring two of Britain's hottest musicians, producers, and composers of electronic music performing their trademark energetic knob-twisting beats intertwined with live video and a unique instrumental piano set."

Friday/Saturday, September 23rd/24th - Phantom Limb: 69˚S.

"Inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton's harrowing expedition to Antarctica in 1914 and the mystique of the great arctic continent, Phantom Limb unites puppetry, dance, film, history, and photography with contemporary music to create a stunning vision of Antarctica—past, present, and future."

Friday/Saturday, October 28th/29th - Francis and the Lights: White Room

"American culture has been defined by pop music. Music IS pop, right? It’s who we are—and our pop stars must cultivate a persona, while maintaining an unquestionable sense of authenticity. It is a delicate balance of conscious mythmaking and absolute earnest humanity."

Thursday, November 17th - 12 Monkeys

"12 Monkeys, Terry Gilliam’s apocalyptic science fiction film, imagines a future ravaged by disease. In Gilliam’s dystopian vision, John Cole (played by Bruce Willis) travels back to 1990 to gather information about the man-made virus that will wipe out the majority of humanity in 1996. Inspired by Chris Marker’s La Jetée, the film’s narrative is structured by a parallel temporal loop." Okay, so 12 Monkeys isn't anything new, but fact, EMPAC's theatre beats watching a movie in your living room

Friday, December 9th - JACK Quartet

"A string quartet performance in two acts featuring three pieces from the 1960s to the present that play with conventions of music notation and performance, and a haunting 30-minute piece from the 1990s with an uncanny spectral interplay."

For the full calendar, click here.

Needless to say, it looks like I'll be spending a lot of time at EMPAC this fall. For anyone who ever complains that there is nothing different to do in the Capital District, you just haven't found EMPAC yet.