Sun Ra Arkestra with Marshall Allen, Young Boy Dancing Group, Colin Self, Cel Genesis, Relaxer b2b Baby Leo

In collaboration with Dripping Festival, Pioneer Works is excited to present a concert with performances from Sun Ra Arkestra, Young Boy Dancing Group, Colin Self and Cel Genesis in the Main Hall. Immediately following the festival weekend, this program extends the Dripping experience with an incredible lineup that features some of the festival’s key performers alongside the legendary Sun Ra Arkestra.

One of the most essential and visionary avant garde ensembles of any era, the Sun Ra Arkestra has dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to liberation on every level—social, political, spiritual and musical. For this performance, bandleader and saxophonist Marshall Allen, now over 100 years old, makes his return to the Main Hall and joins the group. His playing has brought an absolutely visceral intensity and urgency to the Afrofuturist movement that Sun Ra pioneered. This is a special occasion.

All the other artists belong to overlapping lineages of liberatory expression. Performance collective Young Boy Dancing Group, artist and PW Resident Alum Colin Self, and Cel Genesis each bravely push the boundaries of their own formats into something radical and free. Dripping co-founders Baby Leo and Relaxer open the night with a welcoming DJ set.

Whether you made it to the festival or not, this is your chance to tap in, commune and have your mind blown by a night of peerless music and fully-committed expression.

About Sun Ra Arkestra

Though the iconic Sun Ra left the planet in 1993, his cosmic legacy is proudly maintained by the interstellar sounds of the Sun Ra Arkestra, which operates under the direction of alto saxophonist Marshall Allen.

With a massive, joyous songbook and the kind of well-organized chaos that sees their legendary two-hour sets move deftly between rolling grooves, sing-along chants, and atonal blast of mischievous brass, the Arkestra remain one of the most unmissable live acts today. In 2018. The 83rd Downbeat Readers Polls saw the Arkestra ranked eight in the “Big Band” category. In the last few years alone, the Arkestra has backed Solange and U2, inspired Lady Gaga to include “Rocket Number Nine” as part of her stage show, and welcomed artist like Kamasi Washington and Shabaka Hutchings to join in the fun, opening up the ears of new music audiences globally to a challenging and uniquely defined sound.

About Young Boy Dancing Group

Experimental collective Young Boy Dancing Group (YBDG) ignites communal catharsis through mercurial and modular movement. Their raw and intimate live performances draw inspiration from post-apocalyptic and DIY aesthetics, constructing a ballet of structured improvisation. Here, the body moves with the ethereal embrace of light as it becomes contorted and vulnerable. Their work evokes us to submit to chaos. Since their inception in 2014, YBDG’s work has undergone a perpetual evolution—each scene, locale, and performance injects vitality into the work, integrating the city’s diverse dance community.

About Colin Self

Colin Self composes music, performance, and environments that expand consciousness and trouble binaries as well as boundaries of perception and communication. They work with communities across disciplines and use immaterial and material means—including voices, bodies, and computers—to interface with and reimagine worlds. Self currently lives between Berlin and New York.

About Cel Genesis

Oakland-based project Cel Genesis combines an aggressive mixture of hardcore and electronic themes under the guise of a dystopic, mega-corporation with the same name. Horrifying visuals and strobe lights assault viewers between gabber kicks and pristine sound design.

About Baby Leo and Relaxer

Baby Leo and Relaxers are the co-founders of Dripping, the “boundary expanding rave” that takes place each June in Sparta NJ.

About Dripping

Now in its third year, Dripping returns to the majestic woods of Sparta, NJ for its third excursion. Between June 12th and 15th, Dripping invites audiences to join over 40 trailblazing artists for a weekend of hair-raising, explosive and joyful music spanning uncompromising club sounds, evocative concerts and playful experimentation. This edition pushes further into the fringes, celebrating a raw and vital energy that is bound by no genre or format. Learn more on their website.