Lee Ranaldo

Founding member of Sonic Youth, now in 30th year; composer/visual artist/writer etc. Recent live performances with partner Leah Singer, Contre Jour, have been large scale, multi projection quadraphonic sound+light events, with Lee performing suspended electric guitar phenomena.

Lee’s visual and sound works have been on view this year in gallery and museum shows in Bratislava, Slovakia; Auckland, New Zealand; Salt Lake City, Tampa, Brooklyn, and Manhattan.
Other recent solo recordings include Les Anges Du Peche: Thurston Moore/Jean-Marc Montera/Lee Ranaldo: guitar duets [Dysmusie, 2011]; and Afternoon Saints: The Shirley Jangle (with Christian Marclay, Gunter Muller, David Watson) [Kraak, 2009].

Sonic Youth’s most recent recordings include Simon Werner a Desparu, a film soundtrack [SYR9, 2011] and The Eternal [Matador 2009]. Lee’s latest collections of writings, How Not To Get Played On The Radio [SoundBarn, 2011], and Against Refusing [Waterrow Press, 2010], enlist internet spam as a springboard for poetry. A major collection of Lee’s writings and poetry will be published by Salt Press [U.K.] in late 2012.

Lady Noise is a free-form sound collaboration between artists Kelly Coats (flute), Helga Fassonaki (guitar), Kathleen Kim (violin), and Gabie Strong (bass), with contributions from Sandy Yang (guitar and drums). Compositions are explored between modes of structure and improvisation, creating spaces of interplay and entropy. Disrupting conventional spatial formations of live sound performance, the group freely shapes the area reserved for hearing and language to present the listening audience with the aching beauty of amplified harmonic decay.

NIGHTMARE AIR is a new sonic experience from Dave Dupuis (Film School, Beggars Banquet Records) and Swaan Miller (bassist/vocalist). Fronted equally by the two, with heavy hitter Jimmy Lucidio on the drums their sound features meticulously crafted layers of melodies and noises that weave together in a fresh and upbeat psych / alt rock force.

In contrast to her stark acoustic LP on Important Records, Swaan’s mesmerizing vocals remain gold in Nightmare Air, but now slice with smooth confidence alongside the magnetizing vocal wails of Dave, sailing together atop swirled delays, howling guitar loops, twisted keyboards, and her hypnotic fuzz bass, creating the band’s massive sound.

Nightmare Air toured much of the US on the heels of their debut EP (2010), headlined 4 nights of Toronto’s Canadian Music Week, had spins on the BBC and held Top 10 status on college and indie radio. They have been critically compared to Silversun Pickups, Sonic Youth, No Age and Mars Volta.

Nightmare Air have just completed their debut studio full-length in Los Angeles with Dave Schiffman (Mars Volta, Dead Meadow, BRMC, Nine Inch Nails,The Bronx) and Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Muse, Sonic Youth, White Stripes, etc.) Release date TBD.