Schedule

2012 marks the 30th anniversary of Brian Eno's landmark tribute to the NASA moon landings, Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks. The New York Guitar Festival presents a rare live re-imagining of this masterpiece featuring the Brooklyn ambient ensemble Itsnotyouitsme, legendary NY guitar master Larry Campbell and special guests David Torn, Noveller, Tortoise's Jeff Parker, and Phish's Mike Gordon.

Originally commissioned as the soundtrack to Al Reinhardt's Oscar nominated documentary, For All Mankind, the music captures the wonder of space travel, evoking what Buzz Aldrin would call its "magnificent desolation". Eno and his collaborators guitarist/producer Daniel Lanois and instrumentalist brother Roger Eno, created a rich, deeply moving sonic landscape which melded cutting edge electronics and studio techniques with raw virtuosic guitar. A founder of the seminal rock band Roxy Music and known as the father of ambient music, Eno is highly influential for his work as a solo artist and producer of other artists including U2, Talking Heads, Coldplay, Devo, Depeche Mode, Laurie Anderson and Paul Simon. The album's tracks have also been used to great effect in films such as 28 Days Later, Traffic and Trainspotting, who's soundtrack has sold over four million copies. 

 The use of guitar on the record runs the gamut from the soaring minimalist harmonics of "Always Returning" to Lanois' grounded pedal steel on "Deep Blue Day", inspired by the astronaut's decision to bring music by country legends Buck Owens and Merle Haggard and others as accompaniment to their nearly half million mile trek. 

 The performance will feature scenes from the documentary feature "Man In The Right Seat", a work in progress by director Craig Teper, whose film "Vidal Sassoon The Movie", was released in 2011. Man In The Right Seat is the chronicle of Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, whose epiphany on the return flight from his moonwalk, would forever alter the course of his life and bridge the gap between scientific exploration and mystical experience. Mitchell's first hand accounts of the journey to and from the moon will punctuate this evening of grand and gentle music at the foot of the newly rising World Trade Center. 

ABOUT LARRY CAMPBELL

A multi-instrumentalist who has been a respected studio musician and sideman in performing bands since the 1970s, Larry Campbell moves freely between rock, blues, country, folk and Celtic styles, playing guitar, fiddle, mandolin, pedal steel, cittern, dobro and banjo. Today, Campbell performs most often at Levon Helm's Saturday night Midnight Rambles in Woodstock, New York, where he also functions as bandleader. He tours with the band and produced Helm’s two consecutive Grammy-winning records, 2007's Dirt Farmerand 2009's Electric Dirt.  In 2005, Campbell released his own solo CD, an acoustic guitar tour de force called Rooftops

ABOUT MIKE GORDON

Burlington, VT based Mike Gordon is co-founder and bassist of the seminal improvisational rock band Phish. Over the past decade, Mike Gordon has become an increasingly prolific solo artist, releasing Moss in 2010, following Inside In (2003) and The Green Sparrow (2008). During this same time frame, he also recorded a pair of albums - Clone (2002) and Sixty Six Steps (2005) - with acoustic guitar master Leo Kottke. 

ABOUT ITSNOTYOUTITSME

itsnotyouitsme is comprised of two prolific, highly regarded New York musicians – violinist/composer Caleb Burhans and guitarist/songwriter Grey Mcmurray – each of whom has an extensive musical output in a variety of ensembles and musical idioms. They formed itsnotyouitsme in 2003, fusing and distilling their eclectic mutual inspirations, including J.S. Bach, Brian Eno, and Pink Floyd. Since its inception, the duo has carved out a unique ambient niche at the intersection of chamber music, jazz, and post-rock musical scenes with their breathtaking, instrumental soundscapes.

Burhans and Mcmurray each perform in a wide diversity of styles. Burhans, a 2009 Leonore Annenberg Fellow in the Visual and Performing Arts, is a founding member of Alarm Will Sound, and serves as violinist/violist and occasional countertenor with ACME, Signal, Newspeak, and the Wordless Orchestra, among others. Equally busy as a composer, Burhans' oh ye of little faith... (do you know where your children are?), for Alarm Will Sound, was commissioned by Lincoln Center for the reopening of Alice Tully Hall. Grey has performed and recorded with So Percussion, Chromeo, Gil-Scott Heron, Beyondo, Arooj Aftab and Tyondai Braxton, among many others. He is also the co-leader of the New York City-based triumphant soul band, Knights On Earth.

ABOUT JEFF PARKER

I'm mainly a guitar player. I like to write music. I like to collaborate with other musicians. I live in Chicago. I think music opens doors. Some of the bands I play/have played with: Tortoise, Chicago Underground, Isotope 217º, New Horizons Ensemble, A Cushicle, SpliceCat, Moment Of Inertia, TriColor, Brian Blade Fellowship, Powerhouse Sound, Fred Anderson Quartet, Joshua Redman Elastic Band, a.o. I sometimes lead projects of my own: they usually are simply called "Jeff Parker" or "Jeff Parker _____ (trio, quartet, organ quartet, etc.) and may consist of myself performing alone or with small or large aggregates of various configurations... 

ABOUT NOVELLER

Noveller is the solo project of Brooklyn-based guitarist and filmmaker Sarah Lipstate. Handling the electric guitar as her muse, Lipstate summons a sonic palette so rich as to challenge the listener to conceive of how it’s housed in a single instrument manipulated by a solitary performer.  Her one-woman guitar soundscapes have captured the attention of NPR, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, and The Wall Street Journal.  The D.C. based ensemble, Low End String Quartet, recently commissioned Lipstate to compose a piece to debut in April 2012.  In addition to recording and performing music as Noveller, Lipstate has recently starting working with composer Nathan Larson on several feature film scores.  Lipstate has collaborated with several renowned musicians, including live improvised duo performances with Carla Bozulich, David Wm. Sims, and Lee Ranaldo.  She has previously performed as a member of Cold Cave, Parts & Labor, and One Umbrella.  Lipstate has also participated in Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Army, and Glenn Branca’s 100 guitar ensemble.

ABOUT DAVID TORN

New York-based composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, singer, writer, and self-described "texturalist/guitarist" David Torn lent his distinctive style to numerous films and documentaries and collaborations. He worked with composers Howard Shore, Carter Burwell, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, as well as appeared on recordings from k.d. lang, David Bowie, Jim Carroll, Laurie Anderson, and a host of others. His solo works include Best Laid Plans (1984), Cloud About Mercury (1986), Door X (1990), Tripping Over God (1995), What Means Solid, Traveller? (1996), Splattercell's Oah (2000), the soundtrack to the Heath Ledger thriller The Order (2003), and the ECM release Prezens (2007).