bivouac - Avant | Après

I had the good fortune of attending the Avant | Après event last weekend. It was staged by bivouac, a NYC based label specializing in avant garde electronica and noise.

The higlight of the show was Nim was from Sweden. His rig was extremely simple: a cassette walkman (with cassette), one signal processing unit and a pair of scissors. He manipulated the transport machinery of the walkman with his hands and the scissors to create a percolating set of beats. He then moved cassette tape over the heads of walkman with his fingers, essentially scratching and dropping samples. Very musical, focused and well thought out.

Download this track from Nim. No title, just this explanation:

I found two interesting pieces of metal in the faculty cellar: a piece of a ladder and an oblong surface.

The setting was also striking: ISSUE Project Room, an arts space located on about a 1/2 an acre of ground overlooking the Gowanus Canal.

See more pictures of the event on Flickr.