Lafawndah, Moritz von Oswald (Live), Kelly Moran, Latency DJs

Due to unforeseen health issues, Kelsey Lu will no longer be performing as part of this performance. The show will go on with a rare live set by Berlin-based pioneering electronic musician, percussionist and producer Moritz von Oswald and in Kelsey Lu’s absence, the brilliant Lafawndah will be presenting a live performance, accompanied by a band featuring ADR (Aaron David Ross). Additionally, world-class pianist and composer Kelly Moran joins this dynamic lineup.

Pioneer Works is excited to present Lafawndah, Moritz von Oswald (live), and Kelly Moran in our main hall on December 2, 2023 in celebration of the influential French record label Latency’s 10th anniversary.

About the Artists

Lafawndah is a musician, composer, and a producer of Egyptian & Iranian descent, born in Paris, where she lives and works. The journey to her current incarnation as a devotional pop polymath is tinged with both futurism and tradition. Lafawndah’s sound features experimental, worldly, and tameless pop music. She has released an ep with Warp and two albums, Ancestor Boy I and II with K7 and The Fifth Season with Latency and is the host of the NTS show “Devotion”. Her practice is rooted in transgenerational collaborative projects with the likes of Midori Takada, Coby Sey, Jeff Mills, Crystallmess, Laurel Halo… She is currently working on her first opera, Inanna’s Descent who is set to premiere in Paris in fall 2024.

Moritz von Oswald, legendary master of electronic experimentalism and technical exactitude, has an unassailable place in the modern history of forward-thinking music. To follow his career is to take a guided tour through some of the most important developments, places and people in the history of electronic music.

Trained as a classical percussionist, von Oswald joined avant-garde new wave band Palais Schaumburg in the early 80s. His growing interest in the possibilities of electronic music culminated in a landmark collaboration with Thomas Fehlmann in 2MB (and 3MB with Juan Atkins). By the early 90s he had gone on to found Basic Channel (with Mark Ernestus) whose releases would go on to define and epitomize various strains of electronic music.

As a central figure in the Berlin electronic music scene which coalesced around the Tresor club and label, von Oswald helped initiate and develop the famous Berlin-Detroit-Chicago axis, collaborating with pathbreaking artists in the burgeoning Techno scene across the Atlantic such as Juan Atkins, Eddie“Flashin”Fowlkes, Jeff Mills and many others.

As half of both Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound (again with Mark Ernestus) he transformed this new sound in respectively minimal and dub-inflected directions, originating traditions in electronic music that continue to this day. Von Oswald’s influence on the fledgling music scene in Berlin also had a more concrete dimension flowing from his tireless work as a mastering and cutting engineer at the legendary Dubplates & Mastering studio – contributing to acclaimed releases on imprints such as Warner, Universal, Sony and Columbia records as well as a slew of the most important works in electronic music.

Over the last decade, von Oswald has branched out into more experimental and improvisational contexts: a landmark release for Deutsche Grammophon which commissioned him and Carl Craig combine to recompose music from Ravel and Mussorgsky, a critically acclaimed collaboration with Norwegian jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer for Universal Music as well as continued recorded and live work as The Moritz von Oswald Trio which sees him conduct’ Max Loderbauer, and legendary Afro-beat pioneer Tony Allen. He has also released multiple works as well as toured extensively with Juan Atkins (the individual credited with sparking the techno music genre) as Borderland and has released further solo works. Von Oswald’s later work builds on his illustrious output from the 90s and 00s – which has now entered the canon of truly original and influential electronic music – and expands it through novel projects, collaborations and performances.

Kelly Moran is a pianist and composer from New York. Her most recent record "Ultraviolet" for prepared piano and electronics was released by Warp Records in 2018. As the main producer for her solo albums, her intricately arranged electro-acoustic compositions have been described as accomplishing "the rare feat of making the work of a single individual sound like the artistic output of a veritable creative army." As a collaborator, she has worked with a wide array of artists, including FKA Twigs, Margaret Leng-Tan, Kelsey Lu, Yves Tumor, Malibu, Oneohtrix Point Never, and The Avalanches. Moran’s next album, a set of compositions for Disklavier, is set to be released in Fall 2023.

Latency is an independent record label established in 2013 in Paris by Sidney Gérard and Souleymane Said. It explores a vast musical spectrum in dialogue with art and performance. Latency has published physical and digital editions of diverse works from artists such as Laurel Halo (USA), virtuoso percussionist Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (Iran), Australian duo HTRK, and French singer and composer Lafawndah.

Over the last decade, Latency has been a noticeable contributor to the underground scene, curating concerts and dance parties at a variety of events and venues like Villa Medici, Paris Pantheon, Berlin Atonal, Marian Goodman Gallery, and Saint-Merry Church. The label’s distinctive visual aesthetic is reflected in their collaboration with contemporary artists for cover art, including Louise Lawler, Jill Mulleady, Samia Halaby, Slavs & Tatars, and Marguerite Humeau.