Sound + Vision Live: Martin Bisi, Sound and Chaos

BC Studio consists of a cavernous stone room, a humble collection of trusty gear, an upright piano, and a 35-year-old couch. The Studio is underground (literally), and so close to the Gowanus Canal that it’s nearly underwater. It could very easily be a dungeon—but instead, it’s the source of much of the loudest, funkiest, most out-there music ever captured on tape in New York City, including work by Sonic Youth, Swans, Herbie Hancock, Lydia Lunch, Brian Eno, and John Zorn. Martin Bisi (producer, studio head, and legendary musician in his own right) must have performed some kind of dark magic down there.

In an attempt to give Bisi’s studio a more proper place in NYC music history, filmmakers Ryan Douglass and Sarah Leavitt released a documentary in 2014 entitled Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio featuring footage of bands recording in the space, interviews with many of the luminaries that have worked there, and fly-on-the-wall scenes from Bisi’s life. We are thrilled to present a screening of the film, followed by a Q&A with Bisi. Finally, Bisi will perform an ambient, soundscape set on guitar that will channel the density and orchestral layering of his productions, and will reproduce the dramatic vocals of his latest album, Ex Nihilo. Bisi will be accompanied by Ernest Anderson on guitar and electronics, and Genevieve Kammel Morris, of the mock-pop electronic project LAUDS, on viola and electronics.