Hilton Als on Prince's Eyes, How Adderall Changed America, Sex with Neanderthals, New Fiction by Isle McElroy, Ordering Elements, and more.

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Florist began as the friendship project of Emily Sprague, Rick Spataro, and Jonnie Baker in Upstate, NY. The three started making weird sounds on synths and guitars together as a way to relate, and grew close. Felix Walworth joined as a drummer and collaborator when Emily moved to New York City and continued writing songs with the moniker. 

, feels like the culmination of a decade-long journey; it is their fourth full-length album, but the first deserving of a self-titled designation. “We called it 

 because this is not just my songs with a backing band,” Sprague explains. “It’s a practice. It’s a collaboration. It’s our one life. These are my best friends and the music is the way that it is because of that.” ♦

In the hours before they’ll take the stage of Pioneer Works, on a Thursday in December, the four members of Florist—multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Emily Sprague, guitarist Jonnie Baker, bassist Rick Spataro, and percussionist Felix Walworth—are sitting backstage, contemplating darkness. That weekend, the space would also host the operatic noise of Lingua Ignota and the colossal doom metal of Sunn O))). Despite the group’s comparably gentler sounds, it’s fitting to consider Florist’s cracked-open ambient-folk within the context of that extremity and intensity. “A lot of aspects to our songs are pretty or poppy or major or folky,” says Sprague. “They're pleasing to listen to. But that is paired with something that is, I think, hopefully, more complicated.”

Since 2013, and across four full-length records beaming with light and space, Florist’s songs have also borne the weight of death and grief and existence. To make their new record—a 19-track self-titled collage of songs, synthesizers, found sounds, and improvisations—the group moved into a rented house near their hometown of Catskill, New York. 

 captures their songwriting as much as their collaborative process—one they brought to the Main Hall just after we spoke.

Liz Pelly

On "Organ's Drone," from the new record, you repeat these two lines, "I think I'm alive" and "Do not say goodbye." These two sentiments, together, kind of feel like an emotional center to the record.

Emily Sprague

"Organ's Drone" is about when you start feeling your literal organs working inside your body. That awareness can become this sort of anxiety spiral into your own mortality. The song is really rooted in that feeling: 

okay, everything's still working, I can feel it working, but it could stop at any moment

. And maybe it will in the next second, and you're just like, 

. The idea of saying goodbye is something that I feel is tied too much to our earthly existence. It's a way of thinking that I like to try and move away from. I do not believe that we are really different from anything we see around us. So there's a lot of subtext. I really like simplicity in lyrics, and economy of words.

You’ve said that "Dandelion" was inspired by the spirit of Emily Dickinson. What does that mean to you?

I have no memory of that. What I do know about Emily Dickinson is that she was extremely agoraphobic, introverted, had a morbid fascination with life, and had a hard experience in her time period. "Dandelion" is definitely the most suffering-embodied song on the record. It's supposed to maintain a breaking point all throughout, past a point of no return. But there’s also a sense of calmness to it. When I read Emily Dickinson, she's surprisingly calm.

Are there any other literary influences for you on this record?

Anne Carson is and will always be one of my favorite poets. I like people who write very plainly and are confusing and able to hold a lot of complexity in an almost minimalistic kind of way.

Were there any works in mediums other than music that impacted any of you this year?

Felix Walworth

I've been playing this video game called Disco Elysium. It's set in an earth-like place where there's a conflict between a union and a logistics company. And you are an alcoholic detective who has lost his short- and long-term memory and is supposed to solve a murder. And you are learning about communism through learning about yourself.

That weirdly segues well into a question I wanted to ask about the making of the most recent record.

That was also learning about communism by learning about ourselves.

, was made by Emily solo, whereas this new record seems very much a celebration of collaboration and interconnectedness. Florist seems like a group who has really thought about what it means to be a group. What do you feel like you have learned as artists in the negotiation between isolation and collaboration?

Jonnie Baker

Just deepening the amount that I trust people. It feels very hard to come by. I feel grateful to have anyone that I trust in this sort of way.

The relationships that the four of us have are well past family. They're borderline romantic partnership level. I think it's rooted in this trust and respect for each other. At least for me, I don't have this kind of relationship ever, with anybody. I barely have any friends. It's so valuable. I can't even explain it. It's this super glue. It's gorilla glue. The most extreme expensive kind of gorilla glue, where you're like, do I really need it to be that much more extra strongly bonded? It's actually inescapable in a way. Sometimes I feel trapped, but that's also part of it. I think you have to feel that to then come back to that point of being like, this is what I choose for my life. I want this.

Throughout the pandemic I've been thinking a lot about isolation versus collectivism, and just what the day-to-day of being a musician has looked like over the past few years. At the beginning, I was thinking, 

oh, I'm on unemployment, I have all this time, I'm going to write all of these songs, maybe I'll even play some of these live stream shows

. At that time, we had just recorded the new record in 2019, and it was this amazing experience of writing and coming up with ideas together. It was incredibly collaborative and very fulfilling. And in isolation, the pleasure of it was suddenly taken away. I was like,

 I started to realize that one of the things that draws me to art, or maybe 

 thing, is connecting with people—being able to sit down with a bunch of people and lose sight of where an idea came from, because you can't pinpoint the center of it, and you're no longer responsible for the origin of the thing. You're just responsible for the continuing volley. That's so different from staring at a blank page, with no one, and you're the only one who has to care.

You have all been kind of pushing yourselves creatively in different directions the past few years. I’m especially thinking about you, Emily, and the 

. Do you think that has seeped into Florist? This newest record is so textural, and there are songs, but there are also parts that aren’t songs. I was wondering if your relationship with the concept of a song has changed.

When I started making music on modular synths and electronic instruments, it definitely unlocked my brain in a way. I realized, music doesn't need to follow some kind of formula. It doesn't even have to be in tune. It really just is an expression.

My exploration of instrumental music helped deconstruct song structure for me in a way that I really love. I think on 

 it's really present. It's definitely in this record too. I don't really believe in form. If it feels right, then that's what the song should be; it doesn't necessarily have to have a standard arc. But in talking about our new record, I've noticed that comparison comes up a lot, between my solo instrumental music and the instrumental music on the new record. And I have been wanting to say, for the record, that I made none of those instrumentals myself. It's mainly Jonnie and Rick. I think instrumental music and experimental music and synth music have always been an aspect of our sounds and our ways of playing. One of the first things we ever did together, when we were first hanging out, was eating a bunch of mushrooms and  playing a Moog synthesizer.

When I started making music on modular synths and electronic instruments, it definitely unlocked my brain in a way. I realized, music doesn't need to follow some kind of formula. It doesn't even have to be in tune. It really just is an expression. And that, for me, was informed by years of dancing around that idea with our arrangements in Florist. When we get together playing music for fun, it's very much like that. When we were recording this record, I think we just really felt like, why not include that? Why would we hold this stuff back or keep it in the hard drives?

Rick Sparato

It's definitely something we've always done. One of the instrumentals on the first EP is the three of us playing one harmonium together, with six hands. And then it's, like, filtered and destroyed.  For the new record, we would be working on a song during the day. And then we would just be making dinner, hanging out at night. Maybe someone would be working on stuff by themselves, but we would start improvising and recording, making sure the tape wasn't on top of something we needed. So there's all these cuts, where it's just like one thing on the tape to the next thing to the next thing, and it's just whatever is on there. We would even listen back and sometimes be like, what is that? When did that happen? That’s what it sounds like: just documenting the moods and flow of being together.

I was thinking about this Pauline Oliveros quote, where she talks about how improvised music is a good model for community building, and how people who listen together learn and expand together. When you listen to this album, you really hear the sound of a group of people making music together.

There's the specificity of the group, which is something that's very special about working together. I love that there can be a Florist record that Emily makes completely by herself, and then there can be one that we make incredibly collaboratively. This is a somewhat modular system that we have. Sometimes someone can't make it. Sometimes two members break up with each other and can't play in the same band for a while. But there's never anyone else. I've been thinking about that in the context of this sort of general band structure in the indie world that I see these days. There's this sort of anonymity to the players... I think it also has to do with marketing and the industry and what the industry is pushing around songwriters specifically. It just feels special to be a group of people who are Florist.

The economics of the music world are squeezing artists to think of themselves more as individualistic content creators. It does feel like there's more of a need to fight for the sort of sacred space of group collaboration even when it’s hard.

We couldn't dispose of each other if we tried to. And we have tried.

It's very reassuring to me that it's not always pleasant. And I think that has to be part of this. We're not just having a great time—we are sometimes—but it's not like we have this bond, and everything is great. It's a whole fucking mess. To be a person. But it's special to me because it's hard to find someone who will do that with you. And so to have found three people seems like unbelievable odds.

I'm a really, really introverted person. I love being alone. I like doing things by myself. But I really have no interest in being on this journey solo, if that were ever on the table. It's not even something I've ever thought about. Like the idea of even being here today, and there being 400 people that bought tickets, is just awful to me. I am truly, totally just disgusted by that. I love making music. I believe in music. Music is the accessible art that everyone in the world gets to have. But [needing to have an] alternate-ego-personality-whatever [version] of myself is outside of my comfort zone. You know, having my picture on the internet. I really hate that stuff. And I couldn't do it if we weren't doing this together. The support system really makes this bearable. Because I believe in sharing our music, and I really want to do that. Art should be accessible, and the project makes that possible in a way.

Also, thanks so much to everybody who bought tickets.

Do you regularly think about the big picture with music, like what it means to make music in the world? Or why music is the thing you're doing?

I think about it all the time. It's the only way that I feel like I can truly express myself. It feels like a language. I struggle so much to communicate verbally, or even to just have conversations with people. It's always been really hard. Nothing has ever come close to the way that music has let me explain or express myself.

And then also, what I said just before: art just needs to be a part of life. It is a part of life. It shouldn't really cost money. It shouldn't be something that some people get and some people don't. It's just like exercise or eating well or hugging your pets. It's an integral part of life that is necessary for survival. And I don't mean highbrow capital ‘A’ art. It's singing happy birthday with your family, and dancing, or making a card for somebody, or going outside and being present and thinking about the way that our world is constructed. I really do feel like music is the most beautiful, accessible version of that in everyday life. You can contribute to that. I really want to spend my energy contributing to that in a positive way that is for life, and for music as therapy, as part of our existence and brains.

An idea I heard once is to think of music not as something that you make, but as human behavior. Because if it’s something you make, then some people can make it, and some people can't. You have to learn how to make that sort of thing. But thinking of it rather as human behavior, it’s just a part of living as much as anything else is. It's laced right in there. And I think there are ways that it's structured—buying tickets to go see a show—that sort of make it seem like, oh, this is music, and then the thing we do at home is not music. I want to think of it as behavior, and I think everyone can do that if they want to.

We owe a lot to community, and starting from an alternative perspective, of doing whatever you can to be with people, and making it up as you go along. And trying to do the impossible, basically.

When I was 10, I was playing the first Animal Crossing game, which is mostly about collecting resources and paying debt and working for a raccoon man. And I was really interested in that aspect of it—paying the money that I owed to the raccoon, and doing that efficiently and diligently. But there is another part of the game where on Saturday nights, this dog would show up in town. It would sit down on a stool and play acoustic guitar in the town square. And I was playing late one Saturday evening in 2002. If you go and stand next to the dog, he'll perform for you, and the screen will change. It'll just be a black background and a spotlight on the dog as he sings a song. And I remember having this feeling that what I was doing by listening to this dog was the most important thing in the world. I can’t exactly explain it. It was a very vague feeling. It was like the presence of God or something. It was sublime. And I was like, I'm going to dedicate my life to this. In some way, maybe that's why it's music for me. Why is it music and not something else? I think it mostly has to do with contact with people. I think the event, the moment that you can share, is fleeting and life affirming and potentially galvanizing. Whether it was me as a kid going to punk shows in the city, or me as a kid watching the dog, it's this moment where you can just be switched.

We've clearly not been too concerned with paying the raccoon and more concerned with watching the dog.

This band very much came out of DIY scenes, from the very beginning in Albany, playing house shows, to moving to New York, and only really being a part of an underground. That's everything for us. It's everything that we've done, and it's everyone that we've met and shared that time and space with. We owe a lot to community, and starting from an alternative perspective, of doing whatever you can to be with people, and making it up as you go along. And trying to do the impossible, basically. ♦

Liz Pelly is a writer and editor based in New York, covering music, culture, media, streaming and the internet. She is a Contributing Editor at 

I Think I'm Alive

Florist—the ambient folk band of Emily Sprague, Rick Spataro, Jonnie Baker, and Felix Walworth—performs "43" from "Florist" (2022) and "Vacation" from their EP "Holdly" (2015).

Florist

Pioneer Live features rare and archival footage of live performances at Pioneer Works.

L’Rain is the musical project of multi-instrumentalist, composer, performer, and curator Taja Cheek. Growing up in Brooklyn, Cheek found her feet at the center of a vibrant DIY community in the first half of the 2010s, playing noise music and hosting concerts in her basement with the likes of Dreamcrusher and TV On The Radio’s Kyp Malone. Fascinated by the collisions of hi- and lo-fi technology, she teased out crunched aesthetics from the equipment that was available to her, playing with home-spun recording approaches alongside professional techniques on her self-titled 2017 debut album L’Rain, which has been described as a form of “psychic collage.” Her second album Fatigue, released in 2021, was met by much acclaim, propelling L’Rain towards a new audience while cementing Cheek’s place within the experimental and more institutional art canon. Working alongside Andrew Lappin and Ben Chapoteau-Katz, her 2023 record I Killed Your Dog over-writes themes of grief and identity to consider what it means to hurt the people you love most. At Pioneer Works on October 20, 2023, L’Rain performed "5 to 8 Hours a Day (WWwaG)" from 

At Pioneer Works on October 20, 2023, L’Rain performed "5 to 8 Hours a Day (WWwaG)" from I Killed Your Dog, as well as "Two Face" and “Find It” from her album Fatigue. 

L'Rain | Pioneer Live

In December of 2023, aja monet brought her Why My Love tour to the PW Main Hall for a night of poetry, music, and storytelling. A community organizer, surrealist blues poet, and teacher, monet moves between mediums, and considers her work to be the process rather than some point of arrival. Her endgame is liberation, and her poems, music, and art serve as scribe of that struggle. She cut her teeth within the walls of the legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, where she won the title of Grand Slam Champion in 2007 at age 19, making her the youngest Grand Slam Champion in the venue’s history. In her 2017 poetry collection, she writes, “i owe my life / to the woman / who stopped my mother / on the b56 / on her way / to the abortion clinic / and told her / you have a poet coming.” Monet’s debut album, 

, traverses the questions of Black resistance, love, and the inexhaustible quest for joy. ♦

A community organizer, surrealist blues poet, and teacher, aja monet moves between mediums, and considers her work to be the process rather than some point of arrival. Her endgame is liberation, and her poems, music, and art serve as scribe of that struggle.

aja monet | Pioneer Live

OM is a three-piece experimental doom metal band hailing from San Francisco, California. Formed in 2003 by the rhythm section of Sleep, the group features Al Cisneros, Chris Hakius, and Tyler Trotter. Incorporating musical structures similar to Tibetan, Byzantine, and Ethiopian chanting, the band draws from a host of other influences such as psychedelic rock, Middle Eastern folk, dub, reggae, post-rock, and much more. Their very name derives from the Hindu concept of Om, referring to the natural vibration of the universe. ♦

Incorporating musical structures similar to Tibetan, Byzantine, and Ethiopian chanting, OM is a three-piece experimental doom metal band hailing from San Francisco, California.

OM | Pioneer Live

As NYC’s most transgressive and mysterious supergroup, Nu Jazz synthesizes a decade plus of six unique, yet naturally interconnected musical journeys. Their signature vast electronic soundscapes combine extraterrestrial vocal textures with an open, raw punk improvisation. Some members have spent years in New York City’s experimental electronic scene, while others have dedicated the bulk of their musical lives pursuing jazz. Despite disparate influences, all are bound by a profound appreciation for musical frontiers that have yet to be explored, creating a sound unbound by the limitations of genre. The artists constituting the collective Nu Jazz have performed all over New York City, the United States and the world with their respective groups such as Deli Girls, Murderpact, CGI Jesus, Beshken, WRENS, the Trap Music Orchestra, and The Beak Trio; sharing the stage with luminaries like jaimie branch, Jason Lindner, Tomoki Sanders, Leya, Poncili Creacíon, and many more. ♦

As NYC’s most transgressive and mysterious supergroup, Nu Jazz synthesizes a decade plus of six unique, yet naturally interconnected musical journeys. 

Nu Jazz | Pioneer Live

Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer who explores themes related to machine intelligence and object-oriented perception in sound. Her most recent album, 

, featured "an instrumental set of controlled abandon and rapturous minimalism," as 

 wrote, in which "the Italian synthesizer wizard" extended her use of computation and complex sequencing techniques to explore the artifacts of human perception and trigger temporal hallucinations. Barbieri investigates the polyphonic and polyrhythmic potential of sequencers to draw severe, complex geometries in time and space. At Pioneer Works on March 28, 2023, Barbieri performed her track "At Your Gamut," from her 2022 album 

Caterina Barbieri is an Italian composer who explores themes related to machine intelligence and object-oriented perception in sound.

Caterina Barbieri | Pioneer Live

The beguiling melodies of LEYA occupy a space between many worlds—mixing Medieval sensibilities with modern folk, classical, and pop. The duo is composed of harpist Marilu Donovan, who uses a unique tuning system, and vocalist/violinist Adam Markiewicz, who blends operatic singing in multiple languages with warm string tones. Their talents culminate in a sound that is instantly recognizable in its uneasy otherworldliness. Prominent collaborators of theirs include Eartheater, Brooke Candy, Actress, Liturgy, Okay Kaya, Julie Byrne, and many others. Their catalog spans two albums, a collaborative mixtape, major fashion house commissions, and much more. ♦

The beguiling melodies of LEYA occupy a space between many worlds—mixing Medieval sensibilities with modern folk, classical, and pop. The duo is comprised by harpist Marilu Donovan, who uses a unique tuning system, and vocalist/violinist Adam Markiewicz, who blends operatic singing in multiple languages with warm string tones.

LEYA | Pioneer Live

Characterized by slow tempos, heavy distortion, and environmental effects, the music and performances of SUNN O))) saturate their surroundings with monolithic soundscapes and immersive atmospheres. In December 2022, guitarists Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson, who founded the experimental metal band in Seattle in 1998, returned to the live aspect in its core, original raw form. The two performed as Shoshin (初心) Duo, captivating the audience with profound valve amplification, spectral harmonics, distortion, and volume. Witness a live experience of physical sound, fog, and glacial maximalism like no other. ♦

SUNN O)))'s Shoshin (初心) Duo

SUNN O))) | Pioneer Live

Hailing from the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band are a formidable force within capital city Ouagadougou’s underground music scene. Baba Commandant, the band’s enigmatic lead singer (Mamadou Sanou) plays the ngoni, a six-stringed instrument used by traditional hunters of the Burkina Faso region. The group’s Afrobeat style fuses modernity and heritage with a sensibility steeped in the Mandingue traditions of their ancestral legacy. Their sound is influenced by the likes of Fela Kuti, King Sunny Adé, and Malian growler Moussa Doumbia. ♦

Hailing from the city of Bobo-Dioulasso in Burkina Faso, Baba Commandant and the Mandingo Band are a formidable force within capital city Ouagadougou’s underground music scene. Baba Commandant, the band’s enigmatic lead singer (Mamadou Sanou) plays the ngoni, a six-stringed instrument used by traditional hunters of the Burkina Faso region. The group’s Afrobeat style fuses modernity and heritage with a sensibility steeped in the Mandingue traditions of their ancestral legacy. Their sound is influenced by the likes of Fela Kuti, King Sunny Adé, and Malian growler Moussa Doumbia.

Baba Commandant

Baba Commandant | Pioneer Live

The solo project of classically trained vocalist Kristin Hayter, Lingua Ignota translates to “unknown language” in Latin. Under this moniker, Hayter fearlessly addresses themes of violence, misogyny, and revenge through survivor anthems wherein her vocals range from a delicate soprano to harsh shrieking. Her recordings, including 2019's Caligula and 2021's Sinner Get Ready, are ambitious, bracing blends of opera, power electronics, avant-metal, and folk influences. Watch Hayter's mesmerizing performance of “Man Is Like A Spring Flower”—one of her last as Lingua Ignota—live at Pioneer Works. ♦

The solo project of classically trained vocalist Kristin Hayter, Lingua Ignota translates to “unknown language” in Latin. Under this moniker, Hayter fearlessly addresses themes of violence, misogyny, and revenge through survivor anthems wherein her vocals range from a delicate soprano to harsh shrieking. Her recordings, including 2019's Caligula and 2021's Sinner Get Ready, are ambitious, bracing blends of opera, power electronics, avant-metal, and folk influences. Watch Hayter's mesmerizing performance of “Man Is Like A Spring Flower”—one of her last as Lingua Ignota—live at Pioneer Works.

Lingua Ignota

Lingua Ignota | Pioneer Live

An artist who has refused to conform in music and in life, Drew McDowall’s works are sacraments to alterity. His meditative compositions are haunting and spiritual, melding intricate modular soundscapes with cut-up samples, and deconstructing sounds into their most basic shuddering structures and shapes. Growing up in the gangs of 1970s Scotland, McDowall sought aggressive self-expression in punk and found a home in Glasgow’s rich underground music community. After a stint with The Poems, a band he started with his then-wife Rose McDowall, he joined the ranks of UK avant-gardists Genesis P-Orridge, David Tibet, Peter “Sleazy” Christopherson, John Balance, and countless others who would come to define the industrial music's blossoming experimental vanguard. McDowall eventually collaborated with Psychic TV and became a full-time member of the cult outfit Coil, where his influence shaped the group's later output: exercises in magical practice and music-as-psychoactive effect. ♦

Former Psychic TV collaborator and member of the cult outfit Coil, Drew McDowall performs his haunting and meditative compositions in celebration of the exhibition BREYER P-ORRIDGE: We Are But One.

Drew McDowall

Drew McDowall | Pioneer Live

Nordra is the solo project of Brooklyn-based artist and former Pioneer Works Music Resident Monika Khot, who fronts the band Zen Mother and can be found on bass touring with Daughters. She creates her design of the future of pop using an incredibly intense mix of noise, electronic beats, her ethereal voice, and various live instruments such as a guitar and a pocket trumpet. Her sophomore album 

 is the soundtrack to a modern dance and, like her debut album, was released on the renowned Sige label by Aaron Turner (Isis / Mamiffer / Sumac) and Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer). Opening for black midi, Nordra performs "Transcendence 2" from Pylon III (2020). ♦

Former Pioneer Works Music Resident Nordra (Monika Khot) performs her vision of the future of pop—an incredibly intense mix of noise, electronic beats, her ethereal voice, and various live instruments—with "Transcendence 2" from her 2020 album "Pylon III."

Nordra

Nordra | Pioneer Live

Florist | Pioneer Live

“All it takes is a flame.” Hyd (aka Hayden Dunham) performs the kaleidoscopic “Breaking Ground” from their new LP 

, an album of dynamic, seductive, and texturally rich pop songs that signals a new dialogue of destruction and renewal. The follow-up to their critically acclaimed self-titled debut EP, released in 2021, 

 draws from a community of aurally aligned partners, including SOPHIE and A.G. Cook (co-creators of the trans-dimensional PC Music project QT), Caroline Polachek, and more. Throughout the album, Hyd explores untouched levels of vulnerability—dismantling interior structures and letting the frame fracture to spur a cyclical, sonic, visual and sensory evolution. As materials molt into new states of being, so does Hyd. ♦

“All it takes is a flame.” Hyd (aka Hayden Dunham) performs the kaleidoscopic “Breaking Ground” from their new LP CLEARING, an album of dynamic, seductive, and texturally rich pop songs that signals a new dialogue of destruction and renewal.

Hyd | Pioneer Live

black midi is the experimental rock band of Geordie Greep, Cameron Picton, and Morgan Simpson—joined here by touring members Seth Evans and Kaidi Akinnibi. One of Britain’s most exciting and challenging young groups, fans know their performances to be memorable, chaotic, and high-energy. On tour for the dynamic, hellacious, and inventive "Cavalcade," their second studio album with Rough Trade, the London-based group performed a relentlessly frenetic set in Pioneer Works’s Main Hall in October 2021, alongside DJ Python and Nordra. ♦

black midi is the experimental rock band of Geordie Greep, Cameron Picton, and Morgan Simpson—joined here by touring members Seth Evans and Kaidi Akinnibi. On tour for the dynamic, hellacious, and inventive "Cavalcade," the London-based group performed a relentlessly frenetic set in Pioneer Work’s Mail Hall in October 2021.

black midi

black midi | Pioneer Live

FUJI||||||||||TA is a sound artist based in Japan. His unique sound art and music is inspired by various natural phenomena that respond to his interest in wanting to hear unheard sounds and noises. In 2009, FUJI||||||||||TA hand-fabricated an original instrument—a pipe organ with 11 pipes and no keyboard—created through his own imagination and without any specialized knowledge. Inspired by Japanese “gagaku” music, the instrument was designed to create a landscape, rather than function solely as a musical instrument.

The element of water, using sound synthesized water tanks, has recently been added to FUJI||||||||||TA's performance repertoire. The music in this October 2022 performance at Pioneer Works consists of water sounds from multiple aquariums alongside his pipe organ and his voice. ♦

FUJI||||||||||TA is a sound artist based in Japan. His unique sound art and music is inspired by various natural phenomena that respond to his interest in wanting to hear unheard sounds and noises. Performing at Pioneer Works in October 2022, he introduced the element of water to his repertoire with sound synthesized water tanks.

FUJI||||||||||TA

FUJI||||||||||TA | Pioneer Live

In May 2021, celebrating the eleventh and tenth anniversaries of their first LP and EP—2010’s critically acclaimed 

—the Brooklyn-based indie rock band Beach Fossils performed a livestream of both albums in sequence, in their entireties, at Pioneer Works. Some songs had never before been played live. Watch “Calyr" and “Adversity," both atmospheric sun showers of guitar work, from that performance. ♦

In May 2021, celebrating the anniversaries of their first LP and EP, the Brooklyn-based indie rock band Beach Fossils performed a livestream of both albums in sequence, in their entireties, at Pioneer Works. Watch “Calyr" and “Adversity" from that performance.

Beach Fossils

Beach Fossils | Pioneer Live

Born out of the Myspace-DIY culture of the mid-aughts, Brooklyn-based noise artist Dreamcrusher has been releasing heart-stoppingly dense and beautiful soundscapes with fervor since 2003. Their self-described NIHILIST QUEER REVOLT MUSIK transcends the internet and is best experienced immediately and with open and mind and body. On July 7th, 2022, Dreamcrusher performed alongside Drew McDowall and Tval in a celebration of the life and legacy of Genesis Breyer-P-Orridge at Pioneer Works' Red Hook Labs. Experience the event in this video captured by Sean Hanley and Kristie Chua, and edited by Gabe Rubin. ♦

Born out of the Myspace-DIY culture of the mid-aughts, Dreamcrusher has been releasing heart-stoppingly dense and beautiful soundscapes with fervor since 2003. Their self-described NIHILIST QUEER REVOLT MUSIK transcends the internet and is best experienced immediately and with open and mind and body. On July 7th, 2022, Brooklyn-based noise artist Dreamcrusher performed alongside Drew McDowall and Tval in a celebration of the life and legacy of Genesis Breyer-P-Orridge at Pioneer Works' Red Hook Labs. Experience the event in this video captured by Sean Hanley and Kristie Chua, and edited by Gabe Rubin.

Dreamcrusher

Dreamcrusher | Pioneer Live | Warning - Photosensitivity/Seizures

Dreamcrusher | Pioneer Live

Ata Kak is the Ghanaian electronic/rap/highlife icon who kick-started the Awesome Tapes From Africa phenomenon. His music—an amalgam of highlife, Twi language rap, funk, hip-hop, and electronica—traverses a pop music landscape that encapsulates international modes while reflecting contemporary Ghanaian music of the period. After a long wait, he embarked on his first ever tour of the US in March 2022, including this performance with band members Pax Nindi, Akornefa Akyea, and Tim Tapsell at Market Hotel on April 1, 2022, presented by Pioneer Works. ♦


Ata Kak is the Ghanaian electronic/rap/highlife icon who kick-started the Awesome Tapes From Africa phenomenon. He embarked on his first ever tour of the US in March 2022, including this performance with band members Pax Nindi, Akornefa Akyea, and Tim Tapsell at Market Hotel on April 1, 2022, produced by Pioneer Works.

Pioneer Live: Ata Kak

Ata Kak | Pioneer Live

Tuareg Avant-rock group Les Filles de Illighadad has released a music video for their new single "Irriganan." Edited by Jennifer Atalla, the video for "Irriganan" combines live footage of the band performing at Brooklyn venue Pioneer Works with archival clips of the band at home in Niger. 

"Irriganan" appears on Les Filles de Illighadad's upcoming album At Pioneer Works, out May 28th, 2021 on Sahel Sounds in collaboration with Pioneer Works Press. 

Les Filles de Illighadad

Les Filles de Illighadad - Irriganan | Pioneer Live

Ragas Live Festival is an epic 24-hour, 24-set celebration of what The New York Times calls “the Raga Renaissance, flowering in Brooklyn.” Now in its ninth year, the immersive experience has expanded to include 70 artists from 13 cities, including the major torchbearers and creators of new genres such as Terry Riley, Toumani Diabate, Zakir Hussain, and Betsayda Machado.

The event is rooted in Indian Classical Music and its unique time cycle in which specific musical modes are performed at specific times of day. Listeners and viewers will journey from Japan to Nepal to Madagascar as the musical offerings flow between traditional presentations and cross-cultural, genre-blurring collaborations.

Krishna Bhatt | Ragas Live Festival 2020 | Pioneer Live

Abhik Mukherjee & Samarth Nagarkar | Ragas Live Festival 2020 | Pioneer Live

Roopa Mahadevan | Ragas Live Festival 2020 | Pioneer Live

Hiro Kone is the alias of Nicky Mao, a New York City-based musician and producer. Her most recent LP, Pure Expenditure, was released on Dais Records in 2018. Taking a deconstructive approach to music, she is known to draw upon a combination of modular synthesis, noise, field recordings, and her once abandoned violin training.

Little Annie Anxiety & Hiro Kone

Little Annie Anxiety & Hiro Kone | Pioneer Live

Hiro Kone and Roxy Farman present their collaboration born from a music residency at Pioneer Works.

Hiro Kone & Roxy Farman

Hiro Kone & Roxy Farman | Pioneer Live

The Resistance Revival Chorus was launched in the summer of 2017, born out of the Women’s March in D.C. and in response to the need to “bring joy to the resistance.” The collective is comprised of seventy professional singers, lifelong activists, and community-focused individuals who identify as women and non-binary. Last year they gave a stunning performance at the 37d03d Festival (People Fest) at Pioneer Works.